An Exemplary Labor Story

My recent visit to Longwood Gardens has inspired my thinking about wealthy CEOs and employment practices.  My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary there while on vacation.  My maternal grandfather worked for P. S. DuPont there his whole career during its development.  Today, Longwood Gardens is one of the world's premiere gardens and arboretums and employs 1,800 employees and volunteers.

P. S. DuPont is considered by some as the father of the modern corporation.  He became director of the DuPont family business at an early age and built it into an international corporate giant in the chemical industry.  The DuPont family's investments included General Motors stock. As majority stock owner in 1919, the family appointed him as chair of General Motors board of directors.  Not surprisingly, he became quite wealthy, an American success story.  And like the Upjohn and Gilmore families of Kalamazoo, he was a benevolent employer and philanthropist.  Developing Longwood Gardens was his life long project. 

My grandfather, after serving in WW1, began working for P. S. DuPont and helped build Longwood Gardens.  He did pretty much whatever was needed driving truck, hauling trees, working in the office.  His last project was installing a sundial.

My mother spoke lovingly of my grandfather's employment there. One of my her last remaining possessions in her last move into her  memory care room was the book, "A Man and His Garden," which

told the story of building Longwood Gardens.  My grandfather is pictured in the book a couple of times, as is my mother.  She is shown at one of the annual Christmas parties in the grand Conservatory, being greeted by Mr. and Mrs. DuPont.  All their employees and their families were guests.  Presents were given to all the children.  Mrs. DuPont kept careful records of the age appropriate gifts for the children throughout the years.  My mother and her family lived in a DuPont owned house in Kennett Square, as did many of the other employees.  She told how during the great depression in the 1930's, worker's hours were cut, but Mr. DuPont kept all his employees working.  She also told how Mr. DuPont bought General Motors stock for his employees as a retirement savings plan. My grandfather was greatly blessed by this. That stock grew in value and financially supported him for many years in a nursing home during his senior years.  My grandfather, a high school graduate, like so many others, became part of America's middle class, able to buy new cars every so often.  His in-laws, still living on the farm, were envious.

Surely, Corporate America today could take a lesson from P. S. DuPont.  CEO compensation packages today are out of balance with the shrinking salaries and benefits given to employees.  It would take an employee multiple lifetimes to earn what many CEOs receive in a year, while employee wages have remained level for decades.  This practice is greedy, unjust, and unsustainable.  Heartless corporations close plants, move production to communities paying the least to workers, and where regulations protecting the safety of workers and neighbors are non-existent.

Jesus said, "I come that you may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).   In Jesus' day, most people were poor.  Only a few were rich.  As Walter Brueggemann points out, there was no middle class then.  Jesus turned his world upside down, giving attention to the poor, the women, the imprisoned because of their economic vulnerability and debts, to the sick, and marginalized outcasts.  Jesus showed us that these received his attention. His actions brought God's rule near.  God desires a good healthy abundant life for everyone. The word economy comes from the Greek word oikonomia meaning "household."  In God's household, there is enough for everyone.


There is nothing wrong with aspiration and gaining wealth.  But it should not be on the backs of underpaid and unprotected workers.  And there are corporate leaders with a heart and with model labor relations.  Their stories need to be told and replicated.

I don't know the whole story of P. S. DuPont.  But I do know my family was blessed by his entrepreneurial vision, and his care and benevolence toward his employees.  Today, people from around the world visit Longwood Gardens, his legacy.  May his labor relations also be a model lesson for CEOs today.  It's a lesson corporate America desperately needs to relearn.  Because in there is enough for everyone to enjoy a good life.  That's God's plan.