The above statement comes from, oddly enough, the preface to the book Hartness Flat Turret Lathe Manual published by the Jones & Lamson Machine Company in 1912. This company, or at least those responsible for writing the manuals, was aware that no matter how good the machinery, what you really need to get the job done is good people. It recognizes that, in order for those people to do a good job, they have to be treated with respect and dignity. An industrial machine manufacturer is saying that the people matter more than the equipment they are working with! Further, they say that the workers relationship with his co-workers and the work environment is equally important. This is especially obvious in an assembly line process where a slowdown at one step will slow down production for all. (Many people don't realize though how many modern processes are really a type of assembly line.  For example, when the software designers of a new system are late in delivery, the software coders will start late and therefore probably finish late as well.)  It implies that people working together have to basically get along with each other and cooperate with each other in order to get the work done and create a happy work environment with as little stress as possible (are you listening Congress?). 

    In many ways, today's workers have it much better than those of 100 years ago, but in some ways, things seem to be going backwards. The idea of the forty hour workweek has largely become a joke. Big companies like Google are praised for their progressive work environment, but the other side of that coin is there workers rarely put in a workweek of less than sixty hours. If a computer goes down or an important program stops working, the hardware or software people are often expected to work 24/7 until the problem is fixed. So what if they burn out in a few years, they can easily be replaced.  And with the current economy and high unemployment rate, very few people dare to complain about work conditions for fear of losing their jobs so it is just getting worse. 

    Perhaps someone needs to reprint and distribute copies of that old manual preface to the business people of today who think it is all about making the company and it's owners successful and not about giving the workers a good place to work with reasonable salaries.