The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-14
scientific SHOP
MANAGEMENT"
Concluding Article of Tavenner's
Series Upon the Taylor System.


This is the fourth and concluding of
the series of articles on the Taylor
system of scientific shop management,
prepared after an investigation of sew
eral months by Clyde H. Tavenner, our
Washington correspondent. These
articles have aroused wide discussion
and elected much commentator from
workingmen in all parts of the United
States. 1t was the first time the
s.other side' of the Taylor system had
been presented as a nation wide pro-
test. Accompanying Mr.. Tavenner's
exposure of the system, the special
committee appointed by the House of
representatives to investigate the SUBJ
ject, has just made it's report, COM
pletely verifying and substantiating
Mr.. Tavenner's description of the Tay-
lor methods.-Editor.
(By Clyde H. Tavenner.)
Washington, March 14.-If you were
a worker in a factory, would you OBJ
ject to stop watch being held over
you to ascertain how many seconds
you had wasted on a job in such nom
dividend-producing motions as brush
ing your hair out Of your eyes Or blow
ing your nose?
Would you object to a system which
means that the quickest time at which
a job can be completed bv a first-class
man is to be the standard time ait
which all men are to be compelled to
complete the same job, with a bonus
Cat least, to start with) for coming UP
to the maximum time and fine or
discharge for not coming UP to that
time?
Would you object to system which
inveigled you into running a, race with
your fellow workmen, and which race,
To- fnd sol io0 1lxy'S
bind you to keep on racing?
If you are wife or a mother of
workingman, would you object to your
husband Or SON running the risk Of a
physical breakdown under such ter
n'fic pace-setting system for few
dollars extra per year?
If you would object to these condi-
tions, you fail to approve of Frederick
w Taylors system of scientific shop
management, which, in the language
Of special committee of Congress
that has just completed an exhaustive
investigation Of the system, places
workmen Gin the position Of a beast
of burden
It should be stated in justice to Mr..
Taylor that the pictures suggested by
THE above questions paint the extremes
of the results of his system, there be-
ing many excellent features Of sys-
temization and Standardization in his
u
no one could object. But the Taylor
system in it's final analysis is based on
extremes. He covers in his propagan-
da all the ground covered by other
labor-saving scientists, and then con-
tinues still further. It is these ex-
breaking the camels back: which have
caused the workers in the Roc Island
and other arsenals to threaten a strike
rather than to work under the Taylor
system as he describes it.
The purpose of taking the time of
false motions with a stop watch is to
secure data to aid in setting pace
workman spends two hours at a given
task, and the stop watch shows that
five minutes were consumed in false
motions, that five minutes is deducte6
from the two hours and al other work
men will be called upon to perform the
same operation in one hour and fifty
five minutes. This time becomes the
standard time. Then after all the
men engaged in that class of work can
perform the task in / hour and IS min
utes, another time study is made with
the object Of reducing the standard
time still more. And so on, and on,
and on. Mr. Taylor says it is really
of work can be performed by the body
of picked men who survive three or
four years of his stimulating and elm
mating processes. Mr.. Taylor has
nothing to say Of bread-earners who
drop out in the preliminaries. The
Taylor system only concerns itself WI b
the survivors.
Labor men all over the country are
rejoicing at the report of THE Congress
sional investigating committee, which
consisted of Chairman w. B. Wilson
of Pennsylvania, who as a boy worked
in the mines; VIM. c. Redfeld of
New York, manufacturer and big
employer of labor, and J. Q. Tilson of
Connecticut, a lawyer and Spanish war
veteran. Mr.. Wilson and Mr.. Red
field are Democrats, and Mr.. Tilson is
a Republican. The report against
speeding-up processes was unanimous.
"There is no economic necessity ITO
require workmen to speed UP to the
highest point to the INJURY of their
health" says the report, ITO place
workmen in this position is to- place
them in the position Of a beast of
burden.
mo man can seriously object, and
as matter of fact no one has objected
to any system which SO standardizcs
and systemizes the work to be per-
formed that a greater amount Of pro-
duction is secured with the same ex-
penditure of labor. But efficiency
must not be had at tho cost of the
men, women ana CnllOTcu VINO ldDOT
and who should be the beneficiaries OF
the efficiency.
"Any system of shop management
which creates a hurdensome change
through standardization or systemiza-
ttion, which is too heavy for the shop
to bear, or which imposes burdensome
changes through stimulation which are
too heavy for the wOrkmen to bear,
should be discontinued.
There is need for production at the
lowest cost, but economic necessity
cannot justify requiring workmen to
speed UP to the highest point. There
is margin between the work pereo M
ed by the loafcr and the maximum task
for a man and in that margin lies a
proper days work. What constitutes
a reasonable days work can only be
determined by practical experience.
Stop watch time study should not be
made of workmen without their con-
sent.
'The proponents of the Taylor sys-
| tenn assert that the workman will
be protected against any injustice eth
er in the amount of work required of
him or the compensation for that work
by a change in the mental attitude
brought about by the Introduction of
the system. Your committee is Of the
opinion that the mere mental attitude
of the employer us too variable and
unsuhstantial a basis upon which to
rest the material welfare of the wage
worker