John F. McMahon to Sumner Simpson on the Manufacturers' Call for Healthful Working Conditions (1947)

A one-page letter of January 10, 1947, from John F. McMahon, managing director of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation of America, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan. McMahon quoted a National Association of Manufacturers advertisement calling for "Working conditions that safeguard the health, dignity and self-respect of the individual employee" and presented the Foundation as private industry's "program of practical action" toward that end. A handwritten postscript reads: "We are pleased that the Asbestos Textile Institute has authorized the Foundation to undertake a preliminary survey of the industry."

What it shows

The survey McMahon mentioned became the Foundation's dust study of asbestos textile plants, reported in June 1947 (W. C. L. Hemeon's report). The Asbestos Textile Institute's Dust Control Committee had been gathering advice on a health program since the autumn (its minutes of September 5, 1946).

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

Letter mentions advertisement for the National Association of Manufacturers regarding four points which American employers should see their policies encourage. One of these points calls for certain working conditions. States IHF is working for advancement of employee health and improvement of working conditions.

Related documents

• New York Times, "Labor and Fiscal Policies Adopted by Manufacturers" (1946)
• John F. McMahon to Sumner Simpson with Raybestos-Manhattan's 1947 Industrial Hygiene Foundation Dues (1946)
• Asbestos Textile Institute Dust Control Committee Minutes on Dr. Vestal's Plan (1946)
• W. C. L. Hemeon, Report of Preliminary Dust Investigation for the Asbestos Textile Institute (1947)

About this copy

This is document 05658 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.