The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-03-25
What The Taylor System Is

What The Taylor System Is
The Taylor System is an excellent
system for all except those who are
required by the necessity of making
living to work under it. ".
The basic feature of this system is
to set pace so fast that only one
workingman out of five can keep up.
This can be shown by Mr.. Taylor
own book of instruction to employers,
in which he tells how he introduced
his system.
'The tasks were all made so sew
ere," explains Mr.. Taylor in para
graph 1875, that not more than one
out of five laborers (perhaps even a
smaller percentage than this) could
keep up" @,-
Mr.. Taylor lays great stress on his
system of scientific "persuasion." Of
this "persuasive' feature, in para
graph 293, he says: i@~
"a certain percentage of the men,
with the best of attention, will fail
in this and find that they have no
place in the general organization,
while still others-and among them
home of the best workers, who are,
however, either stupid or stubborn
can never be made to see that the new
system is as good as the old; and
these, too, must drop out.
'For the success of the system the
number of men employed on practi-
cally the same class of work should
be large enough for the workmen
quite often to have the object les
son of seeing men laid off for failing
to earn high wages and others sub
stituted in their places"
In paragraph 312 of his book of
instructions to employers, Mr.. Taylor
very frankly and cold-bloodedly says:
"All employees should bear in mind
that each shop exists first, last, and
all the time for the purpose of paying
dividends to it's owners
System Condemned by Committee OF
Congress
The Taylor System was investigat.
ed by a special committee of the pre-
ceding Democratic House of Repre-
sentatives, and that committee was
unanimous in it's condemnation of the
system. ,-"
"There is no economic necessity tc
require workmen to speed up to the
highest point to the injury of their
health," states the report in brief, etc
place workmen in this position is tc
place them in the position of beast
of burden. ---
''By the stop watch you may be able
to determine the time in which
piece of work can be done, but yor
do not thereby alone determine thu
length of time in which it ought tt
be done. The time study of the oper
atoms of any machine can be mad'
witha reasonable degree of accuracy
because all of the elements. can be ia
ken into consideration in making tn
computation. A machine is an in
animate thing-it has no life, M
brain, no sentiment, and no place il
the social order. With workman
it is different. He is a living, NOV
ing, sentient, social being; he is en-
titled to all the rights, privileges, op
portunities, and respectful considers
tion given to other men. He would
be less than a man if he did not re
sent the introduction of any system
: whiclhdeals with him in the same way
as beast of burden or an inanimat'
machine" t1'~'54 -
Two of the three members wht
signed this report are now member!
of President Wilson's Cabinet. The.
are William b. Wilson, Secretary o
Labor. and William G. Redfield, Sec
rotary of Commerce.
Gen. Grozier declares he is deter
minted to extend scientific manage
ment in the arsenals regardless O
this report. The Secretary of War
however, will not permit him to d.
so.
Gen. Crozier's pesistent and sys
tematic efforts to install the Taylo
System in the arsenals is almost Al