The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-12
To Pay People
 For Energy They
 Consume Working
French Scientist Comes Forward with New Meth cd of Determining Con- pensatiOn.

cd of Determining Com
 pensatiOn.
 Many means of settling disputes betweeen employer and employe as to | hours of labor and pay have been sug- | gested, but now science comes for 1 ward with what is heralded as an in-
 fallible means of discovering the cost | to the laborer of his work. Hence,
 1t ss d, the proper remuneration of | the WO:,er is simple matter of | arithmetic.
 This latest substitute for arbitration
 is put forward by pr. A. Irnbert, a
 French scientist. who, in a paper read before a scientific body in Paris, pro- poses to apply laboratory methods to ] the solution of the labor problem. It | is to physiology that he turns to find the proper ratio between work and wages.
 No matter how the laborer is paid, whether on an hourly, daily, weekly, or other basis, or for piecework, says
 the scientist, the amount he is paid | Is arrived 1t by the employers con-
 sideration of four things: The
 amount of value of work done, or of
 goods manufactured, the amount of
 energy required in the doing of the | work, the amount of time to do the | work and the amount of knowledge I l tor should be eliminated from consid- | eration, he says, because it's results | will be covered by the others. A shorter working day, may or may | not be to the interest of the employer however much advantage it would be l to the worker. The value of goods | made or of work done is, he says, the | exclusive interest of the employer, in | the last analysis, while the amount of energy or time expended, in the same way, is the sole interest of the em- ploye. In brief, the arguments of
 the workman for more pay or less work are based on physiology, while those of the employer are based on l economies As these two viewpoints have nothing inr common, it follows, Dr. Imbert says, that it is difficult 60 | reach an agreement. It is not strange, he adds, that there should be so many labor troubles, but that there are not more.
 This phase of the question, says Dr. Imbert, is best shown in arriving at the solution of the question of pay for overtime. Inasmuch as the work CT loses energy as the day advances, the employer will receive a diminish ing value from his labor in each sue ceeding hour; least of all in hours af- ter the full days work is done. On the other hand the worker feels, and rightly, that he should receive great CT remuneration for work performed when he is exhausted than when he is at his best. Hence also the view of the employer that the pay of the worker should grow less hourly as the day grows. It is these totally diff fering views. which, Dr. Imbert holds, are responsible for the unreasonable (to the employer) demands of men for overtime pay, and inversely the unreasonable (to the worker) insist ence of the employer to hold down. The workers contention that his wage should be sufficient to support himself and his family, he says, is answered rightly by the employer that the cares of the family of the worker are no concern of his. The employ CTS hold that value received is the sole base of wage. schedules.
 It is here that pr. Imbert's work begins; he essays to show just what the workers energy costs him above what idleness costs. A worker. says the scientist, requires more food than man at rest, extra food, furnishing the energy necessary to do the work From the physiological point of view the proper remuneration for work should correspond to the cost of this extra food.
 Dr. Imbert studied the case of a postman who daily travelled 35 kilo- meters (about twenty-one miles) on a bicycle in level country. If the work was done on foot it would amount to 4AO,OOO kllOSram meterS 1t is said. But as distance may be covered on a bicycle with the eXpen- allure of one-third the energy of walking, the work of the postman, he says, would be 140,00O kilogram me- ters. Science long ago has shown that one caloric will do about 425 kill ogram meters of work hence the 140,- 900 kilogram meters will require 330 calories of heat Taking the efficien- cy of the human body as transform CT of food into energy at one-third, it follows that food containing three needed to do the required work.
 All this is theory, but it was proved by a more direct way. Science nas shown that the human body at rest requires daily 2,30O calories of heat. The postman in question kept a rec ord of the food he ate and this show ed that his daily consumption of food averaged 3,20O calories. Subtra cting the 990 calories theoretically neces- sary to do the work, the remainder 2,210 calories, is only 90 less than the amount named as needed for one at rest. The difference between the B. 200 and 2,300 is 90O close to the amount needed for the work. The mean of the two numbers, 945, Dr. Imbert takes as the amount of calor- ies needed.
 The cost of the postman's food, a record of which was kept also, aver aged 85 centimes a day. Multiplying this S5 centimes by 945, the number Of calcries the work required, and di- viding by 3,200, the total amount con- stunned, shows, Dr. Imbert says, that 25 centimes was the exact value of the work
 But in order to work, a man must live, and hence the employer must pay for the entire number of calories needed. Moreover, the workman needs clQthing and a place to live. For these, also, the employer must pay, but their cost is known. As to his responsibility for the workers family that, says pr. Imbert. is outside the experimental field. If celibacy is en- forced, it will mean that there will be no more workers, which will re- move the need of wages or work.
 The application of Dr. Imbert's methods already has several times furnished data to settle labor dis putes. In one instance, in the south of France, women were employed cut ting vine shoots for planting. To the shears, Dr. Imbert attached a con- trivance, he calls an ergograph, which recorded the amount of pressure re- Quired to cut the vines, by a tracing on moving tape. Thus he learned the exact amount of work done.
 One class of cutting was paid 60 centimes per thousand and the other 50 centimes. Dr. Imports records
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