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6
our themo is hotter understood and more widely
taught than the other. When we have acquired
tho most perfect and well-balanced equipment
of machinery, bought at right prices and in
stalled correctly in proper buildings, well ar
ranged, with ample, constant and economical
power cheaply transmitted; when our stock
Bhods are filled with tho right material con
veniently located, and with proper cranes and
other handling facilities; when light and heat
are wisely applied; when gas, compressed air
and electricity have done their perfect work;
when shipping facilities aro complete; when an
accurate cost-accounting system is installed, and
tho best of salesmen aro employed; then, if this
bo all, wo havo but entered on the road to effi
ciency. In a college class of one hundred, perhaps
five will ho fine students, twenty-five may bo
good students, others ordinary, some poor.
Then out of the same hundred some will have
natural skill with their hands, others will be
of the rofloctive typo without manual facility;
somo will bo imaginative, some artistic, some
musical. Those aro facts that all know. These
differences exist in any group of men, among
tho machinists or the molders, tho carpenters
or clerks. They may not be the same differ
ences, but the variation in temperament and
endowment is there. Some of these men are
moro fit for one kind of work in their own
trade than another. Some of them respond
moro quickly to suggestion, to orders, to light,
than others do. In some the hand responds to
tho brain quicker than in others. One can pa
tiently stand watching a lathe all day; another
would bo in nervous distress at so doing. The
point is that men are unlike as unlike as the
tools wo use. Efficiency requires that the man
shall be fitted to the work. One finds pleasure
at a vise or in the deft, active movements of
assembling work; another, more phelegmatic,
rojolces to run a boring mill. Each tool to its
use this wo understand. Each man to his
best use this we must learn. There are misfit
stenographers as we know to our sorrow; so
there are misfit machinists who might be drafts
men or steamfitters. You and .1 if wo will havo
efficient shops must search our force for the
work each can best do and fit him to it and if
need be, instruct him patiently in it. That
word "patiently" does a lot toward making
things efficient. It means "step by step" ono
step only at a timo but ono always following
another. Step by step will end tho longest
Journey. Stop by step will climb the steepest
hill. It was an old Roman rule "Never a step
backward." It would be a good American rule
"Always a step forward." Remember, how
ever, that while high-speed steel-cutting does
very well high-speed man-working deals with
different material.
Assume that it is the habit to make slightly
sarcastic remarks to subordinates when for any
reason they fall, and that words of praise are
forgotten when they succeed. Are tho laws of
human nature going to operate for their effi
ciency in such cases? Some havo perhaps re
sisted the idea of a shorter working day, with
sincerity, indeed, believing it to be a matter
of mere arithmetic that tho shorter day must
cost more for labor than tho longer did. But
talk some day with your family doctor and ask
him what science teaches about fatigue. Ho
will tell you that fatigue is tho result of a defi
nite poison, because the wastes in the human
body from exertion havo accumulated faster
than tho powors of nature can remove or re
place them. It is no dream, bufa commonplace
fact known to physicians, that fatigue is a form
of poison. Wo should not think that poisoned
men could do good work, and yet the fact that
men may bo weary has possibly never occurred
to us as a reason for shutting the shop down
a half-hour sooner. Yet if by a shorter day men
and women can go without exhaustion to their
homes, their work upon the morrow will bo
better.
A great cemont plant, with painful misgiv
ings, caused by arithmetic, went from the ten
pour day to the eight-hour day without chang
ing the wage. At the ond of a year they wero
glad, for they wero doing better than before
Tho same 1b true of a paper mill in New England
and of a shipyard in Scotland; another in
Massachusetts has now made the change. Men
wonder why it is so, when it is quite in accord
with tho laws of tho human body and mind that
it should bo so. Men who ar innocent of pre
cise knowledge of the human frame, havo had
strong opinions about the shorter working clay
yet this, after all, is a question of exact
knowledge of tho human machine.
Suppose some group of manufacturers, resist-
The Commoner.
ing the eight-hour day, had employed a commis
sion of physicians to advise thereon, and these
had reported that the ten-hour day was better
for men, that tho longer work was helpful to
their bodies, and that a thorough study of tho
human frame showed that tho greater exertion
meant stronger men, and that fatigue was noth
ing of moment. Then the resistance of tho
manufacturers would havo somo scientific basis.
But suppose, on the other -hand, tho fact to bo
that fatigue Is a cumulative thing, that it is
not always worked off, if it bo excessive, in one
night's rest, but that as a matter of fact it is
a shortener of life and has the same definite
action towards reducing the span of life that
a planer has in finishing a casting. These are
or aro not facts, and they are the controlling
facts, If they are facts at all. I suspect that our
own ignorance of the laws of fatigue has held
back our efficiency and that overtime has some
times meant a temporary profit at a permanent
loss.
Look for a moment at your human mechan
isms with no more or no less careful thought
than a shop superintendent gives to machine
tools. This man here has eyes: delicate organs;
under certain conditions they work well, under
others they do not; continuous strain on them
produces nervous trouble which affects the
whole man adversely. Can you expect him if so
affected to work efficiently in your shop? Yet
are wo as particular about eye-strain as about
the conditions of the standard gauges in our
tool room? The man has lungs they need
air. You would not run an air compressor
without a fit supply for it you would hardly
permit foul gases to enter it. How about these
lungs? You do not want grit and dust to get
at polished surfaces of fine machines. Dust
carries germs of disease, and these germs taken
through the lungs endanger a man's health,
and hence his producing power. Is dust allowed
so to gather that many feet stir it up to be
breathed over and over, or if not, is it so swept
up during working hours that while this fool
process goes on men are forced to breathe it
whether they will or no? Ill health is a foe to
efficiency as truly as intoxication. We are very
particular often about the latter.
Financial success is no necessary evidence of
efficiency, as the cases cited testify. It may
como from circumstances that permit high sell
ing prices, such as patent or trademark protec
tion, and these high prices and the consequent
profits may hide wasteful methods. There is
a large concern paying unusual dividends in
whose works a recent examination showed con
ditions that would cripple a house less favor
ably placed.
The truth is that a casual glance into two
factories might seem to show both alike,
whereas one was efficient and the other not; foi?
the difference, in its essence, lies not so much
in the outward appearance as in the Inward life
Closer study would discover that in the efficient
shop there were few wastes of time, effort or
material; that the stops between operations
JTflw Ut; that n 0ne was Poking for toota
and fixtures or wondering either what- to do
next or how to do it. There would be definite
standards of working and a constant effort to
reach them There would be a spring and "go"
nor lT s J?0111 that was neither haste
nor hustle The foremen would be leading and
helping neither pushing nor driving. The work
would be exact but it would not be allowed to
be exacting. Waste of men would be asTtern y
forbidden as waste of any other power tip
efficient shop comes to be manned by picked
.through a natural process of Lection
a ike fucmMvTUr0 a Producvity and a peace
alike lucrative to master and workmen ri
beneficial to tneir families andThT' cSm-
Some days ago I read a statement in which
a few millions of tho capital stock of an induL
try were said to bo for "good-will"-; I
a1 reSTalue'1 in " ""
a real value. But whose good-will? Yon anv
the good-will of the people who buy. But t&
people who buy are outside tho shop-perS
far away They can not affect the efficiency Sf
the plant, but in that plant arA-lw ,,, y
600 or 1,000 men who no only Effect ttS
efficiency, but do. How about their good-wm
Has it ever been heard that the good-win of
the operatives in a factory had a tanShu i,
ness value? I wish to spak soborlana with
care in saying that tho idea forces itiEJf i
and more upon my mind ttaa Sentim
the workers within has nearly, if not nT f
much valuo as tho good-will of , Q ito' as
without, because if the good-will insldothUyH0rs
. is active there, tho efficiency Sft f8u $g
VOLUME 13, NUMBER 20
tho good-will outsido is almost a mm,. .
course. matter ot
We all know that team-work win in v
,11; that a lot of stars nLivw L ba!-
own record, will ho beaten by piayer; n, ,hl3
individual nlHll -whn mill f ' ;rs .oi less
individual skill who null tnrofh. VJ: .
mercial and industrial life we are slow to
this lesson. In a great corporation, the nnril
ing department held up certain work bP,
the specifications did not please them, and J?!!
crippled a part of the selling force, in a i
case, personal politics abound within tho m
poration, and disappointed ambition acta m J
clog on progress. In still a third case ner
sonal antagonism keeps the heads of two dT
partments so hostile that they do not sneak tn
one another for hong months. Some men cult!
vate what they seem to think the "dignity thi!
doth hedge a king." One such did not wish
his clerks to recognize him on the street These
things are expensive luxuries. So is it costly
also to have discord between shop and office to
think the men in the works of different clay
whose sole privilege it is to follow office orders
for the least pay at which their services can be
had. A factory will never he efficient wherein
a large part of the workmen are looking for
another job, whether because of pay or condi
tions or tools or management.
For efficiency at its best is a mutual thing
We can not if we will impose it from above by
arbitrary orders upon unwilling men, and to be
real, efficiency must take in all the facts not
leave a part of them out. Doubtless there are
men who would be amused to be told that the
laws of psychology had business value. It was
once arranged in a large store that the selling
force, who had the habit of saying to each
buyer "Where shall wo send this," should
change their phrase and say instead "Will you
take this with you?" The result of this was a
great reduction in the number of packages to
be delivered, and a direct economy in the cost
of the delivery department. Anyone familiar
with the facts of suggstion will know that this
is normal.
Somtimes rules are made that are very
costly. In a French factory any outlay for tools
or fixtures over $25 was considered as a per
manent addition to plant, and required the ap
proval of the directors, who met four times
yearly. The superintendent could not appear
before them; he could only recommend in writ
ing, and his suggestions were often ignored.
Therefore it was that on an American boring
mill made in this French plant, but one tool
was used for an operation, instead of many, and
that the product was less than one-tenth of what
it is in this country on similar work..
On the other hand, when sound rules are
made we ourselves should keep them. I went
with a gentleman I will call Jones, since that
was not -his name, into the restaurant of his
large establishment. Wishing to treat me to
an ice-cream soda he said to a saleswoman:
"Please get me two soda checks." She said
with a pleasant smile and a blush: "You'll
have to get those yourself, Mr. Jones." Hesi
tating a moment, he laughed, then rose and
got them. When he had reseated himself he
asked for the floor manager, to whom he said
"That's a good girl you havo there. Keep your
eye on her, for she will grow. She just had the
courage to make me keep my own rule." Then
ho spoke to the girl when she served the soda,
and thanked her for reminding him, said she
did just right and that if she kept on that way
she would do very well indeed. And in my
presence he commended her very strongly for
her obedience to rules even when ho himself
asked her to break them. He was an employer
not cursed with tho fatal disease called "big
head" but rather blessed with a broad mind.
I sometimes think that arithmetic is a curse
to manufacturers hiding from our eyes valu
able things. One will say with great emphasis
that two and two make four, which is true as
far as it goes, though it does not go far; for
when to two men in your shop you add two
more, you do not necessarily double the worK
you get. You may moro than double it you
may only add one-half to it; for arithmetic
leaves quality out. Not only so, but it leaves
out motive-power; and in dealing with men n
is the motive-power and quality that is impor
tant. What matters it if the brain is keen ana
the hands skilled, if the spirit be unwilling-Motive-power
is lacking. Or suppose that ior
some just discontent this motive-power is new .
back, who suffers? Assume that the common
but ignorant habit of cutting piece-work raw
prevails, and the men "soldier," who toeB
moro you or they? I call the' cutting of piece
work rates ignorant because it leaves out y
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