Johns-Manville President's Bulletin No. 59 on Capital Spending (1948)

A two-page Johns-Manville President's Bulletin, No. 59, of September 16, 1948, signed by R. W. Lea, setting a revised policy on capital spending effective at once. Money could be spent to replace worn-out equipment, to cut costs, for priority research, and "to protect the safety and health of employees." Other proposals could go to the president only "if of sufficient urgency," among them correcting "sub-standard working conditions." The company's policy was to provide good working conditions, but it had "had to suspend improvements" because of inflated construction costs: "Only the most urgent needs will be considered."

What it shows

The bulletin also froze expansion of production facilities until costs came down, while asking that plans for future projects go ahead. Two months earlier the industrial hygiene committee at J-M's Canadian mines had complained that headquarters had not approved a dust-control project for the mill (minutes of July 10, 1948).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

J-M President's Bulletin No. 59 is issued on 9/16/48 and details J-M's revised policy regarding appropriations for capital expenditures, effective at once. Bulletin No. 59 states specifically that appropriations may be made for capital expenditures "to protect the safety and health of employees." The revision to the Bulletin states that, additionally, certain listed proposals for appropriations may be made to the president if they are of "sufficient urgency". One of the listed proposals is for the correction of substandard working conditions. The Bulletin states that J-M's policy in general is to provide good working conditions, but it has had to suspend improvements because of the present inflated cost of construction and equipment. As a result, only the most urgent needs will be considered. Since currently there are highly inflated costs for construction and equipment, J-M's policy is not to expand its production facilities further until these costs go down. Although this is the situation, J-M urges that plans continue to be made for projects that will be ready for consideration "when the situation is clarified."