Great Documentaries's video: Westinghouse - Chapter 11 - Saturday Half Holiday

As a young man, George Westinghouse was working on a Saturday one time, and he was quoted as having said, Westinghouse Version 6 – Conformed April 22, 2008. Confidential and Proprietary Material of Inecom Entertainment Company. May not be copied or used without consent. Copyright © 2008 Inecom Entertainment Company. "If I ever own my own company, I'm going to give my workers a half-holiday on Saturday." Later in life, at the Westinghouse Air-Brake Company, he was the first major employer in the country to grant his workers a half-holiday on Saturday. This was a precedent that Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie were not at all happy that George Westinghouse had set this precedent of giving his workers a half-holiday. He always treated his workers well. We know that the homes that Westinghouse built for the Westinghouse Air-Brake people in Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, and the homes he built for the East Pittsburgh Works of Westinghouse Electric Company, those homes were rented or sold to the employees. If the employees chose to acquire the home, they could do it on a monthly deduction. And we know that George Westinghouse had those homes insured so if something happened to the worker, his family would be taken care of. His wife and children would have a home that was paid off. And that, again, is the only example that I could locate of someone, one of the great business owners of the time, doing something like that for his workers. (NARRATOR) And his workers loved him. Some of the quotes from Westinghouse Air-Brake employees give the closest look at George Westinghouse available to us today. One letter reads, "George Westinghouse stood well over six feet tall. When he raised his great right hand, palms towards you and fingers spread a little, and said in a gentle voice with a hint of a smile, 'But you don't understand,' it was quite plain to the dullest mind that the sooner he understood, the better for him. His manner was the same with princes as it was with mechanics. It hurt him to hurt the feelings of another." Westinghouse was known as having an amazing memory and it was said by company men; "Do not tell the old man anything you do not wish him to remember 10 years from now." It was written that Mr. Westinghouse was an incorrigible optimist. He experimented on a full-size scale and backed the faith that was in him to the limit. He never looked back, was never discouraged, and never had any regrets over past failures. Another said, "George Westinghouse is the embodiment of imagination and britches walking about the face of the Earth, doing things that change society just as birds sing." It was unheard of at the time for men of Westinghouse's social standing to have anything to do with the common factory worker. But the former cavalry private didn't see it that way. In 1894, the Civil War veterans group of the north, called the Grand Army of the Republic, would hold their 28th national encampment in Pittsburgh. Westinghouse Version 6 – Conformed April 22, 2008. Confidential and Proprietary Material of Inecom Entertainment Company. May not be copied or used without consent. Copyright © 2008 Inecom Entertainment Company. (REIS) George Westinghouse, upon finding that out, went to the committee and said, "Listen, I just finished two big factory buildings at my new East Pittsburgh Works of Westinghouse Electric Company, and they're completely done, but no equipment has been moved in. What I'd like you to do is bring out workers and convert one of those factory buildings to a great dining hall. I'd like it to be carpeted. I'd like a great staircase to be built and a stage to be built, all carpeted. I'd like tables with linen tablecloths and napkins. I would like to host one night during Grand Army Week," as it was called, "for the Civil War veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic." He also told them, "And by the way, you wouldn't have to use any of your committee's money. You can send me all the bills. I'd be willing to pay for that." Six thousand five hundred Civil War veterans came to that great dinner in East Pittsburgh that evening.