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rean War. In the domestic oil industry, a general increase of 7.4 percent
in salaries was followed soon after by an increase of 4.9 percent. Until
this time, increases in American salaries in Arabia had depended upon
surveys of domestic salaries once every two years. I proposed, and the
management accepted, that we adopt the same general increases imme-
diately, thus maintaining parity. This had never been done before.
In the January 1 reorganization, positions of General Superin-
tendant, Industrial Relations were created in the three districts. All of
the new appointees came out of the headquarters. I felt overlooked, but
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on the creation of a point-rating job evaluation plan for the Saudi Ri-
yal payroll jobs. Harry Walker was the leader and Harry was a genius
as a psychologist. We had the task of evaluating all of the jobs from
the Saudi payroll. At that time, Aramco operations were conducted by
three geographic districts. Harry proposed that the actual evaluation
be done by bringing the three superintendants of each function to Dhah-
ran, one group at a time. They then evaluated their own Saudi Riyal jobs
with Harrys guidance. The result was a wave of satisfaction with the
new job evaluations.
On April 16, 1952, Jean felt that the time had come to add to
our family. We took her in a taxi to the Aramco hospital, about three
blocks away. A little after noon she produced a tiny baby girl, Victoria
Kathleen, and we were all delighted. In her previous pregnancies, Jean
had spent a week in bed in the hospital after the birth. Medical science
had subsequently decided that how our pioneer grandmothers had been
treated was superior. A few hours after the birth, Jean wanted to shower.
She found that she was directed to walk down the hall to a shower room.
She later told us that she was amazed at such a request and she walked
down the hall ready to lean against the wall. She showered, and walked
back without touching the wall. She found that she could do it and re-
covered her strength faster than after any previous birth.
We were greatly pleased with the opportunity to move to a new
house. Some of the management people who had been displaced were
leaving and some of the better houses were reserved for management
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