The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-02-05
A Remedy
For the Evil.
" V "
How the President of the
international Air Engine
Company Saw Justice
Done to His Workmen.
Observation-Disclosures


goods, the proprietor had at most q
couple of apprentices. He knew them
well, of course, and watched them
every day at their work. If one Of
them got good idea, he was at once
given credit for it. But under present
conditions such thing is not possible.
There are 1,600 men in my factory.
don't know half of them by sight. 1t is
impossible that should. If one of
these men gets good idea or makes a
valuable suggestion, how am | to know
I that he gets the proper credit or recog-
milton? Trust to my foremen and man.
ayers, you say. But you can't always
trust to foremen and managers any
more than you can always trust men
occupying other positions. But I've
found a way to make sure that the
right man gets the credit for all he
does.
"This is the way it came about: In
to every International air engine go 81
pieces which are exactly alike. They
are stamped out of sheet metal by q
punch press at the rate of so min
ute. Ever since we started making
engines these pieces have then been
turned over to the men on the filing
job, who filed three little notches in
each piece with a hand file. When we
started making our engines, these little
notches were the close working parts
of the machine and were therefore fled
by hand with great care.
"One day a man on the file job got
an idea. He knew that the pieces he
was filing were no longer the close
working parts of the machine. He
wondered why the punch press fixtures
were not changed so that the little
notches should be cut out at the same
time with the rest Of the pieces. He
didn't stop to think that perhaps if he
made such a suggestion the nine men
on the filing bench might be thrown
out of work, at least in that depart
ment. At any rate, he spoke to his
foreman about it.
What's the use,' he said, of doing
all this work by hand when it might
as well all be done at the same time
by the punch press?
'The foreman knew perfectly well
that he ought to have thought of that
same thing months before, and he was
not pleased with the suggestion. He
gave the workman little encourage
ment.
eff you'd work harder and spend
less time thinking about why we do
things the way we do, you'd get along
BETTER he said.
"At the same time he cherished the
suggestion, and he went to work and
figured out that If it was adopted the
company would save at least $4,000
a year. He even went so far as to
have few pieces stamped with the
notches in them and tried them in
an engine. Nobody knew the differ
ence, and the machine worked as well
as the rest.
at happened that we had a new
superintendent at the time. Naturally
he was anxious to make a good show
ing. The smart foreman went to him
with the suggestion he had stolen from
the workman on the filing job. He had
his figures and models all ready.
"'Here's little idea of mine the
foreman said as he laid his plan be-
fore the superintendent, which | hope
you'll appreciate. If you adopt it, and
l don't see how you can fail to adopt
it, it will save the company not less
than $1,000 year. I'll trust to you to
see that it doesn't knock me out of a
job. We use 4O5 Of these pieces every
day. At present the three little notches
on each piece are filed by hand. Nine
men dc nothing else. We can just as
well have the notches cut by the punch
press at the same time that it cuts out
the piece. Do it that way and you can
lay off nine filers for good. It'll save
the company $4,000 year anyway
at happened that the salary Of the
new superintendent was just $4,000 a
year. 1t struck him that it would be
an extremely happy hit to save the
amount of his yearly salary in single
stroke within less than two months of
the time he went to work. At the same
time he didn't like the foreman Of the
file job. That gentleman impressed
him as being tricky, which shows that
the superintendent was good judge
of human nature. Besides being a
young and a new man he didn't like
anything which might seem to indicate
that anybody could tell him anything
about the business. So he gave the
foreman little apparent attention. He
took care, however, to gather up all the
nd die
missed him with the statement that he
would look the matter over when he
got tine.
"He took time that evening to go over
the thing carefully. Next day he went
out into the shop and called down the
foreman of the filing job for allowing
his room to get so dirty. he also care
fully looked over the punch presses,
and as he was a good mechanic he had
no trouble in seeing that the suggestion
was perfectly feasible. He had tempo
rary fixture made for the punch press
and turned out a number of the pieces
all complete, which were successfully
tried in engines which were sold and
sent out in the regular way. A month
later, when it was certain that the plan
was perfectly feasible, he came to me.
BY that time, l suppose, the workman
who originally made the suggestion
had entirely forgotten it. Perhaps it
had even slipped the memory of the
foreman who tried to steal 1t in the
first place.
"Of course l was pleased with the
~ ir1fo donf RI
adopt it at once and congratulated my
self on the possession of a prize at the
head of my factory. l went around
and Dragged about it to my friends |
told them that our new superintendent
had saved his salary for year in less
than 80 days after he went to work.
Naturally l was tickled to death.
didn't know about 1t at the time, but it
appears that the first thing the new SUI
perintendent did was to fire the fore
man of the filing job. That was before
there was any idea prevalent that the
men on the job were to go too. But in
the discharge of that foreman the SUI
perintendent unknowingly laid the
foundation of his own undoing and my
enlightenment.
"a couple of weeks later, after the
new fixtures for the punch press were
completed, the nine filers, including the
man who originally made the sugges-
ton, were laid off. Then the trouble
commenced.