The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-11-19
Secretary Of War stimson's Scientific
Shop Management at ArsenaIs
Will Bring About
Combat.
TILE sWEATsHoP METHOD
Organized Labor so Brands the
Scheme and is Therefore Against
lts Being Prac-
ticed.

,W~ao111AN1ION. NOV. lo.-by MS
recent declaration in favor of sys-
TEN Of Scientific shop management"
as applied experimentally in the ar
senals of the war department, Secre-
tary Stimson has fired the opening
gun OF one of the most bitter contro-
versies in which the government was
ever involved, according to the pre-
dlctions OF many well-informed OBJ
servers of public affairs in Washing
ton.
While Secretary Stimson has not
gone so far as to state that he is
wholly satisfied with the system, nor
announced an intention to apply 1t in
full to all the army arsenals, he has
made it clear that he Is believer in
the system. Already, challenges upon
the part of labor organizations, and
promises of spirited combat have
been made public in answer to the war
department.
The system has been tried out in
the arsenals at Watertown, Mass.
Secretary Stimson himself makes the
careful reservation that the scheme is
still wholly in the experimental stage.
The War Department intends, howev-
er, to continue experiments, on a
more extensive scale than heretofore,
unless interfered with by congression-
al action.
According to it's supporters, the
system benefits both employer and
employee. By the elimination OF waste
of material, waste In management,
and superfluous movements on the
part OF workmen engaged in any CIV
en- process, the amount of product in
given time is increased. The work
! men. under the system, share in the
| benefits of this increased production,
| by receiving premium for increased
output. Thus, cost Of production is
reduced, wages increased, through in
1 crease in product-all accomplished,
say the advocates OF the system,
without the expenditure of any more
energy upon the part of the workmen.
4 Organized labor on the other hand,
maintains that the system is really
konly a sweatshop method disguised
under the name of scientific manage
ment Labor unionists charge that
4 though wages may be increased, that
Fit is the intention of the government
once the output is swelled, to reduce
the rate of payment.
Secretary Stimson feels rather
keenly this stand taken by most la
Dor leaders, though convinced that
they are misguided and under mis-
apprehension regarding the real pur
poses and workings of the system
The whole question of union labor
workmen's welfare, ETC., has been
studied by the secretary. Before his
entrance into the cabinet, he was as
ISOLATED with commission in New
York which made many inyestiga
tions in this field. Regarding the re
port of the results of experiments
made at Watertown the secretary
says:
THE Watertown arsenal has been
used practically as an experiment sta
ton, with the view of trying out the
theories of scientific management be
fore applying them generally. The
results thus far are highly gratifying
, and full of promise. There has beer
an undoubted increase in the effcien
cy of manufacture at the shop and q
material reduction in the cost o,
manufacture, but at the same time
and to my mind of even more impor
lance, these results have been OBJ
tanned without in anywise endanger
ing the interests of the working men
either by decreasing their pay or re
: curing unpleasant exertion or"speed
, ing up On the contrary. any in