Huntsville gazette., 1883-06-02
Does Good Work PAY?


Properly considered, this question ad-
mits OF but one answer, and yet there
are advocates of Cheap work and
excuses of Sighted Jobs among our
manufacturers; men who claim that
close competition and close bargaining
are circumstances which permit, if they
do not exact, passable rather than exr
cellent work. A business run among
the shops and factories in the same line
Of production, in the same or adjacent
localities, where each shop has equal or
similar facilities, shows that no two of
them will furnish the same estimates of
the same job. Indeed, in some in
stances, the difference in the terms 5
quite surprising when it is considered
that the materials and the methods and
facilities of working them are the same.
Under these circumstances the only
possible means of lowering price is by
sighting work, sure to be detected
sooner or later, to the ini,!fy of the
makers reputation and the ultimate
loss of the cream of his business. This
is particularly true of the manufacture
of tools and machinery; in either case
poor workmanship is certain to reveal
itself. And when a tool gives out in
the using, or machine breaks down,
the user and owner does not console
himself with the consideration that he
''got it cheap" but he eXecrates the
maker as heartily as though he had
paid the highest market price; and he
goes no more to the low-priced manu-
facturer, neither does he recommend his
productions.
The manufacturer who ''puts the
work" into his tools and machinery is
building up for himself cumulative
extending reputation for excellence of
product that is far more valuable than
a reputation for low prices only In
fact, the price of piece of work is not
absolutely high nor low; it bears a rela-
ton to its cost Of production. A high
priced article may be cheaper than a
low-priced one, and should be if the
proper relation between price and value
is preserved. In fact, high prices do
not repel so many would-be customers
as first-class workmanship attracts
The truth of this could be attested by
the success Of firm whose productions
have reputation extending far beyond
cialty is the manufacture of machine
tools, and within less than twenty-five
years has grown from shop of four
employees to an establishment of more
than seven hundred hands At the be-
ginning the tools made by this company
bore a high price, and as compared with
most others in the same line of manu-
facture the prices have always been
high. Yet the fact of the building up
of a large business from insignificant
beginnings proves that the high prices
have not offset the benefits arising from
good work. And that has been the main
object for which this company have
striven from the first. No job ever went
out from this establishment ''scrimped"
in workmanship because of an error in
contracting too low '.Better lose dol
lars than reputation has been the
principle of the company. They have
always used the best materials, en-
ployed the best skill, exacted the finest
work, and aimed at producing superior
tools. For years their name has been
synonymous with the highest possible
excellence in their line, and their tools
are regarded as standards of compari-
son. Substantial prosperity has kept
pace with constant Improvements, and
it is much more the result of producing
first-class work than of shrewd business
management or fortunate contracts.
This single case, taken as an example
for illustration, is not an isolated and
peculiar one. There are producers by
manufacture in this country and others
whose name is guarantee Of excel
lence, protection to purchasers and
users, and an evidence of the prosperity
almost certain to follow earnest, honest
endeavor to do good work. Scientific
Aneracdf.