"WMW "
6
"-rrvro
w
w
K
" '
fc
If
r
should bo more. It should aid tho workmen,
for out of the greater profit made from the
larger output a larger and more permanent
wage could be paid, and it should help the con
sumer, for the larger output more cheaply made
by workmen earning a higher wage and by fac
tories earning a greater profit can be sold to
him at a lower cost.
I have spoken frankly, gentlemen, on this
particular line because I have received a cir
cular issued under the auspices of your own
association from which I take these words, re
ferring to the reduction in the tariff on tho
goods in which you are interested as producers:
"This means workmen thrown out of jobs. It
means that wages must go down in order to
compete. H may mean longer hours than 48
hours a week." You have been yourselves, you
see, as frank as I, and your statement was made
first. If in the final result the words I have
quoted are put 'into effect by you in a substan
tial degree, it may become the duty of the de
partment of commerce to inquire into your
business methods. If such should be the case,
tho spirit in which the work will be undertaken
will be a kindly and considerate one. The
truth will be sought and sought thoroughly,
but it will be sought only with the wish to help
and not at all with a purpose of injury. It may
bo well to tell you candidly as a brother busi
ness man some of the things for which wo
should look if wo had to ask you for informa
tion. It would be necessary to learn not only
what is done but what ought to bo done, for
we should think it more important to point to
better methods than to find fault with bad ones.
Nor would our representatives be told to accept
even tho best processes as final ones. There is
always something better farther on. Wo should
probably not accept as conclusive the statement
of the amount of wages paid as compared with
tho total cost of the goods or the total selling
price. The question would be asked whether
this relation need exist just as it is or no, and
whether there are portions of the output on
which the relation should hold good. It would
bo remembered that the existence of a condition
does not necessarily justify that condition. We
should have to examine into all the classes of
labor and into the various operations to see
whether and how far any of them are capable
of improvement, or whether and how far any
of them were in any one particular plant on a
better basis than in another. The spirit of tho
inquiry would be, "The public is entitled to
efficiency." If, for example, it were stated that
a given assortment of foreign goods cost, let
us say, $100, and of American goods, let us
say, $150, that would not bo final. It would be
necessary to inquire not only as to whether
that were true but whether it wero not also
true that with care and skill and time it might
cease to bo true in whole or, part or need not
everywhere be true either in whole or part.
Nor would statements based upon averages be
accepted as final. We should want to know
the best and the worst, for averages may be
misleading. In one industry, for example, some
concerns run on as low a ratio of labor cost to
total cost as 22 per cent, while the average in
the industry is over 40 per cent. Tho public
is entitled to the best. My business judgment
would not approve, nor do I believe public
opinion would permit, taxing tho people to sus
tain industries less efficient than the best tho
industry knew. It might bo necessary to dis
cuss with people furnishing materials and ap
paratus as to whether they found objection to
the use of tho best equipment and the most
economical materials (not meaning by "econo
mical" the lowest in price), and certainly the
sciences of chemistry and of mechanics, as well
as that of accountancy, would all come into
play. There need be no friction about this If
the industry is on a scientific basis, what could
better advertise it than to have the facts made
plain by impartial inquiry? If there has de
veloped an accurate science of cost, if correct
standards exist if the best is everywhere sought
If tho human factor receives a just recognition
and reward, If all these ate so then with what
glory would the trade bo visited when these
things are made clear. If they are not so, then
who needs to learn the facts more than those
whose interest is so deeply concerned? You
should therefore look upon these suggestions as
conveying nothing in tho least in the nature
of a threat, but rather as tendering disinterested
assistance.
Possibly by this time you have reached the
conclusion that while the ideas to which you
have listened so courteously might have some
value in the HneB of business with which tho
speaker is familiar, yet they can not apply
The Commoner.
with any force to your own work. One will say
that what is true of a forge shop or machine
works will not apply to lithography. You will
pardon me for repeating in another form some
thing already said, namely, that it has been
my experience that the statement that wages
must be reduced or piecework rates cut down
to get costs down has often been tho mark of
inefficiency. Tho best and most profitablo estab
lishments commonly do not so proceed. There
fore, I took the trouble to look a little into such
sources as were easily available respecting your
industry. Be it understood no personal or un
kindly criticism is meant, nor are the state
ments my own. I read you first from the Na
tional Lithographer for April, 1912, pago 28,
under the title of "Tho Cost System's Mission,"
with a subtitle, "Consideration of the Subject
by tho Editor of tho Printer Journalist, Adapted
to Lithographers." He says:
"Properly understood and applied, the cost
system is intended to show the ways to cut down
cost and to secure efficiency. The great trouble
has been that lithographers have gone along in
blissful ignorance, without knowing what were
tho costs, where were the leaks or the waste,
or why the cost. Lithographing has
been sick for lack of system, business methods,
proper knowledge and application of knowledge,
and without adequate sustenance. There has
been no thorough management, or the use of
proper efficiency and up-to-date appliances."
The whole article, which I have photographed,
is of similar tenor and should cause reflection
to tho thoughtful.
Six months later the National Lithographer,
in October, 1912, page 27, published, under the
head "Lithographic Costs," this statement:
"A western litho concern wrote to the central
office of the national association recently as
follows:
" 'The other day we were requested to make
a quotation on 1,000 twenty-four sheet posters
in four colors, lithographed on a double sheet
42 by 56, and after submitting our figures for
this work we were informed that the game
poster, or rather a poster of similar design, was
furnished for $875. We figured the work to
cost $1,340, and at that we thought our price
entirely too low, taking into consideration the
risk of matching and loss of time.
Judging from these figures we are inclined to
think that there exists a vast difference of
opinion as to the true costs of manufacture.
We fully realize that a plant equipped
for making a specialty of any particular class
of work can do it cheaper. However, taking
this into consideration, there surely can not be
a difference of 50 per cent in cost.' "
The balance of this article is also interesting.
Nor was this an exceptional case, for the fol
lowing month, viz, November, 1912, page 42,
the National Lithographer shows the following,
under the head of "Cost Estimations:"
"Eleven plants recently contributed to a cost
symposium, and tho deductions therefrom may
prove interesting. It is naturally to be sup
posed that tho cost of no two plants will be
alike. At the same time, the wide divergency
of figures is a curious thing to contemplate,
and it forces the truth home that every plant
should have as perfect a cost sjstem as pos
sible and that the absence of such a system in
any plant is an injury to the plant itself, and
is an injury to the trade at large, because of the
unintelligent competition which it permits.
"The last column of the figures given below
does not represent the average between the
high and low item, it represents tho average
of the eleven items ranging from high to low
both inclusive.
Total average cost per operation hour, eleven
plants:
Department High Low Cost
Scotching $2.11 $1.13 $1.52
Engraving . . 2.10 96 1 ?i
er 2M H HI
Stone presses 3.40 l.U 2.24
Offse presses 3.53 1.61 2.58
Finishing, men's work 1.39 71 01
Finishing, girl's hand work.. .68 47 51
Bronzing machine 2.03 .82 i'aa
Another quotation may bo mado from the
National Lithographer for May, 1912, pago 53:
'If there is a menace to tho future of lithogl
raphy, it lies in tho kind of workmen that are
be ng turned out, especially in tho transfer and
printing departments. Tho old and thorough
method of taking the future lithographer In
Tnf ,teachlne Him th0 real fundamentals
of the business has been largely lost ' sigh? o'f
In all too many cases the young man has bem
VOLUME 13, NUMBER 23
. given his machine and practically torn u
ahead, and if he has been observant nl J 80
.may have learned the mechanical mLlh m
it is yet with hardly any knoXdwW?
principles. The result is that if aU con,ihieal
are normal he may get along fairly v 1 I,?8
awhile, but if anything goes wrong he ft
at sea, and the consequence is often much in
by spoilage, to say nothing of the loss of tC"
This whole article, headed "Shop mS
ment, No. 5," is worth careful reading '1 wm.n
emphasize this phrase: "By efficiency !
meant competent workmen alone, but com
tency from the highest authority to the one in
humblest capacity." ue in
On pages 541 and 542 of the Inland Printer
for January, 1913, appears the statement
"The only answer that seems reasonable
(to certain criticisms that had been made) is
that Europe is getting the benefit now of its
long-established art and technical schools and
we show the lack of them." '
The speaker will join you in any effort to de
velop vocational schools, for these would mean
higher efficiency, and would respectfully sug.
gest that the cutting of wages and tho lengthen
ing of hours is a strange substitute for lack of
technical education.
Again, on page 41 of the National Litho
grapher for February,.1912, in -an anicle on the
subject of "How Humidity Affects Paper," are
these words:
"An ever present trouble in the badly kept
lithographic shop is the variation which occurs
in the paper when rapid changes are taking
place in atmospheric conditions. Even the very
best schemed departments meet with the same
difficulty, although nothing like so often as the
ill-considered department."
Here is a matter where there is a broad field
for our unexcelled American ingenuity and in
ventive genius. The whole thoughtful article
which follows has no doubt received your care
ful attention. Let me add that you have at
your disposal in this connection the effective
assistance of the bureau of standards of the
department of commerce, which would be well
pleased to serve your industry.
Finally, another field for inquiry and action
in your work is suggested by words on page 36
of the National Lithographer for May, 1912.
Under the heading, "Three Efficiency Items,"
which are, respectively, lighting, guards for
machines, and oiling machines, the writer says.
"A dimly lighted lithographic shop is poor
economy, what you save in light you will lose
many times over in loss of production. Don't
expect your employees to show any speed if
they can not. see clearly what they are doing."
The statements that have just been read are
not my own; they come from your own craft,
and they seem to arise from existing conditions,
else it is strange they should be said at all.
The community may think them a strange offset
against the other statement that "wages must
go down in order to compete," for these also
are your own words. Candidly, gentlemen, I
do not for a moment believe public opinion
would sustain a reduction of wages if and while
such conditions exist to any considerable extent
in the industry. Nor do I think public opinion
would approve a cutting of wages while costs
are so kept that estimates vary by one-half, or
when in 11 factories the variation in the cost
from the lowest to the highest is from 50 to
300 per cent. This, to be frank, seems a gooa
deal like the "rule of the thumb."
Finally, gentlemen, pardon me if I have been
too candid. I have regarded it as the truest
courtesy, as that which will be most helpi"1 w
you. If aught has been said in what may have
seemed an unkindly spirit, I trust it may do
both forgiven and forgotten.
As a last word, it is important that we, as
business men, should know that business
opinion and public opinion are two different
things. If they are in accord, it is well for bus -ness.
If they are not in accord, it Is ill for busi
ness, for business depends for its peace an"
prosperity upon the sustaining power of pu"J
opinion. In the relations of which I have tneu
with courtesy and candor to allude briefly. l
purpose of the department of commerce " ":
as in all these relations it ought to be, to Mint
the power of public opinion to the support 01
legitimate business, and business owes it to u
self and to the nation to drink in the spirit 01
growth. .
In hard case Is he that "stands pat," or"
world will go by him and leave him standing
Blessed is he that moves with the movement "
progressive' thought, for to him shall come w
reward of living.