Sumner Simpson to George R. Weber on the Startling Metropolitan Life Report on Manheim (1935)

A one-page letter of September 7, 1935, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to George R. Weber, general manager of the company's United States Asbestos Division at Manheim, Pennsylvania, after reading Dr. W. J. McConnell's report of Metropolitan Life's dust survey there. "The report is rather startling, and very unfavorable, and may in the long run, cause us considerable trouble," Simpson wrote, asking Weber to work out with his operating heads what could be done. "So far as the asbestos dust is concerned, I think we have conquered it at Charleston," he added, and the same methods could be used at Manheim for about half the cost. "I realize it is going to be expensive, but it is also going to be considerably cheaper, in the long run, to protect our employees in the proper way."

What it shows

The letter shows Raybestos-Manhattan's president reading the insurer's dust figures for himself and treating them as a problem for the company, both for its workers and for the "trouble" they could bring. He points to the new exhaust system at the North Charleston plant as the answer and frames the cost of dust control against the cost of not doing it. Weber's reply is his letter of September 9.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Points out that results of Metropolitan Life's survey at Manheim look very bad and "may in the long run cause us considerable trouble." Suggests that methods used to control asbestos dust at Charleston be examined as that system has best efficiency possible. Acknowledges cost of modifying plant but states that it is "going to be considerably cheaper, in the long run, to protect our employees in the proper way."

Related documents

• George R. Weber to Sumner Simpson on Dust Improvements at Manheim (1935)
• W. J. McConnell of Metropolitan Life to Sumner Simpson Enclosing the Manheim Dust Survey (1935)
• M. F. Judd to George R. Weber Enclosing the Metropolitan Life Survey of Manheim (1935)
• E. H. Jeffords to Sumner Simpson on Manheim's Request for Charleston's Dust Control Designs (1935)

About this copy

This is document 02547 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.