Document GmM3dGo7ar1V6L4VVNrJObx3q

FILE NAME: General Refractories Company (GRC) DATE: 1935 DOC#: GRC027 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Letter Excerpts - Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Exhibit No. T-229 Date: February 6, 1935 Description: Letter from R.A. Hitchins, Temporary Organization Committee, to C.K. Drinker, Enclosure 1, p. 2 "Dr. Weidlein, of Mellon Institute, in opening the meeting explained that the interest of the Institute was simply the desire to assist industry toward a realization of the problem and the development of a possible program of activity. No reporters were present at this meeting and no stenographic notes were kept. Attendance was by registration only and there were present nearly two hundred representatives of many of the important industries who are affected by the dust problem." [emphasis added] Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Exhibit No. 55 Date: January 22, 1935 Description: Letter from Vandiver Brown, Attorney for Johns-Manville, to M.F. Judd, Raybestos-Manhattan, with attached Memo by Brown re: Mellon Institute Symposium on Dust Problems, Jan. 15, 1935 "It appeared that among the problems common to all industries were the following: (2) The desirability o f making various dust diseases compensable under properly drawn workmen's compensation laws. One o f the speakers stated that "the strongest bulwark against future disaster for industry is the enactment of properly drawn occupational disease legislation". Such legislation would (a) eliminate the jury and empower a Medical Board to pass upon the existence o f the disease and the extent o f the disability;... (c) permit the correcting o f initial mistakes in the making o f awards by providing for hearings to reduce or eliminate awards if proof could be adduced that the claimant was not disabled or that the extent of his disability had been overestimated." [emphasis added] Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Exhibit No. 54 Date: February 6, 1935 Description: Letter from R.A. Hitchins, Temporary Organization Committee, to C.K. Drinker, Enclosure 4, p. 1 "If this work were to be centralized in Mellon Institute, it could be carried out as a part of our air hygiene research. The director appointed to handle the investigation would also be the head o f the institution or organization which the industries would set up. In this way, the work could be carried out in a most confidential manner as to who was supporting the research and no one would know what industries or individuals were contributing to the fund." [emphasis added] Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Exhibit No. T-229 Date: February 6, 1935 Description: Letter from R.A. Hitchins, Temporary Organization Committee, to C.K. Drinker, Enclosure 5, p. 2 "Suggested Program of Initial Activities LEGISLATIVE. 2. Study the assembled data and report and recommend (a) as to existing laws which properly protect both employer and employee and (b) as to such existing laws as do not properly protect both employer and employee; with the objective of securing the enactment of State laws, of a uniform character, which, when complied with, will fairly and properly protect the interest of industry and of those engaged in industry and of enlisting the co-operation of the Federal Government in that direction." [emphasis added] Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Exhibit No. 54 Date: February 6, 1935 Description: Letter from R.A. Hitchins, Temporary Organization Committee, to C.K. Drinker, p. 1 "The purpose of this letter is to ask if your Company or your Trade Association (as the case may be) will subscribe an amount not to exceed $500.00 for the establishment of a Coordinating Agency as the first move toward a study of the many existing phases of the industrial dust problem, together with the recommendation based on that study as to such further concerted action as may be possible and proper for all industry." [emphasis added] Reasons the Companies Formed the Industrial Hygiene Foundation Exhibit No. 54 Date: February 6, 1935 Description: Letter from R.A. Hitchins, Temporary Organization Committee, to C.K. Drinker, Enclosure 5, p. 1 "Suggested Program of Initial Activities PREVENTIVE. 2. Study the assembled data and report and recommend (a) as to present means of eliminating or minimizing those hazards and (b) as to what further should be done in that direction; with the objective of setting up authoritative and approved standards for the control of industrial dusts which, if complied with by industries, or by industrial companies, will act as a defense against personal injury suits." [emphasis added]