Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-04-27
BY NJ MAPEs DODGE.

H"sAouuSiuS HletnOQS or scientific manage-
ment m the business of the Link Belt COM
paHy, OF Philadelphia. He was one of the
most effective witnesses called by Louis
- brandeis, counsel for the seaboard
Shippers IN the recent rate hearings before
the Interstate Commerce COMMISSIONS
FIVE or six years ago. 1 was proud
o. the fact that I vas the mead of a
tUneeln whlch was so we'll managed
lhat we could improve our methods
even In the minutest particular.
But one rainy day l went down to
the extreme corner of our grounds and
FOUND two men In a shed breaking UP
coal with a piece of joist. A year be-
TOT, when the blacksmiths had been
much driven n their helpers did not
nave time to bring in the coal and
Dreak 1t up for them, they had asked
the poss laborer for two men to break
coal. At the end of IL months they
We're still at work and might still be
n hadn't found it out. The case. ex-
IRENE as 1T was, showed how our mag
n1f1cent management failed for we
manufacture and sell machines for
crushing coal.
After Il while Frederick w. Taylor
told me hat he was turning steel. cut
ting steel at Bethlehem at a rate which
to me was beyond credence. l went
and saw him do what he said he was
doing but l couldn't even believe the
evidence of my own eyes, 1t was so
remarkable. Mr.. Taylor's tools which
were made to work the hardest steel at
first failed on cas- iron, but after re-
peated improvements he produced some
that did wonderful work on the softer
material. Then we found that we could
sometimes do work., so far as the actual
cutting was concerned, 10 times as fast
as before. We did not turn out 10
times as much product, because a great
deal Of the time was occupied in getting
the steel or cast iron ready, and the
time of preparation also had to be
counted in. With modern guns we can
shoot 10 or 20 or 80 or 40 bullets about
as fast as we could shoot one with the
gun which in the old days took 5
minutes to load. So Mr.. Taylor did
with his steel.
1t became apparent to us that If we
were going to turn out work twice or
three times as asst as we had done
before, we must make a change in our
scale OF pay. Our rate was liked and
1t didn't make much difference whether
a man mad one or two tools a day or
n an hour. But II he were going to
make 10 in an hour and SO multiply our
output by five, 1t was apparent that we
needed some rudimentary accounting
to make our pay harmonic with the In
creased speed at which Mr.. Taylor
made us do u work.
Old Men Leave.
At first the question came up as to
whether the workmen would work at
this increased rate Of speed. We SIM
Sy had to get men who would permit
their tools to do the work at the new
rate. A few of he old men left us be-
u after seeing their lathes turn
our at a low speed for 20 or 80 or
40 years 1t proved too great a nervous
strain on them when the rate was in
creased SO greatly. 1t kept them too in
tent upon their lathe expecting a disas-
ter. tRnf the Vn11nDar mel xyora IA sci.
mated and the large majority are still
with us. The men in shops under
scientific management are we'll salts
fled. A sympathetic strike was called to
aid the trolley Car mOtOrmen and cOn-
ductors in Philadelphia in 1910 that af-
fected workme in all sorts of enter
prises. A certain factory running un-
der scientific management vas sur
rounded by four other establishments.
Three of the four lost about one-half
of their men through the sympathetic
strike and in the fourth all went out.
In the shop running under scientific
management just n man quit work.
Now this was no accident. but it is
because the very best friends that the
workmen have under scientific nan
agement are their employers. Former
ly we would tell a man we would give
him 10 cents for a certain piece of
work. Then if he reduced his time SO
that he could mak two, we would re-
QQCc Ile TdVc W D CcuCS BECAUSE we
thought the man was making too much
money. But we were getting twice as
much work for the. same money while
the men had not been getting any
more pay, whereas we ought to have
congratulated the man on what he
made and both be happy.
Better Wages.
We adopted u new rule which was
that a rate nee set must not be re-
duced unless the shape of the piece
or the tool or method by which it is
made was changed and that a man
should be paid when he did his work.
sometimes men made twice or three
times the wag they would have
worked for gladly by the day. Once
in a while, when l went among them.
a man would call out: We'll, 1 got
you going today" Howl" Il made
$18 today" Good, you might TAX
me to the theater tonight" "All right,
boss. I WILL"
All this time we were getting from
a given fioor space. from a fixed Inc
vestment in light, heat and power. in
surance. taxes, all overhead expenses
and so on two or three times the
product that had been obtained be-
fore. Only the mems wages had in
creased. everything else stood the
same. Every item in the aggregate
was steadily going down.
of the function Of machinery and the
application of his rule that every man
in the factory should do the kind of
work for which he is best fitted and
tina only. If a man is good at a
lathe, let him do that n nothing else.
Every man admits it when his atten-
ton Is called to 1t. but it is only when
T. ..-- AI-A 49, -,