The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-01-15

COuIeuDI us uuHD, uTlNeu CdLIle, l these human beings have set before them just one objective: work Their life's routine is a round Of twelve hours work, span of sleep and a short time to eat Absolute l fy nothing is done to lift them from their surroundings, and to make them become proud in the posses sion of civic ideals no matter how trumpery.
 They are paid more highly than steel workers in Europe-nominally But in actual fact relatively they | are paid less. Thus in Europe the prod ucitve capacity of the steel worker bears a distinct relation to the wages paid, and his lower wages are low mainly because his produc- tive capacity is relatively low.
 As quoted above the main thing asked of the worker in this country is speed without waste, so that his productive capacity is increased out of all relative proportion to the | wages he receives. Indeed the ob- vious benefit to an employer of eff ficiency and speeding up systems would vanish immediately were the rate of wages paid to keep step with that increased output followed from such efficiency. The underlying idea of such a system being as al- ready also quoted, to get out of the worker more by paying him less. Marx lucidly explains modern ma chine production. A mans wages. generally speaking, amount to tho cost it takes to keep a person.: the cost of bare existence basically During the time of his employm ent commodity. That amount pays him his wages and leaves balance over which is profit. Allowances are made of course for wear and tear of machinery, the cost of raw material and other necessary incidentals. | Scientific efficiency men grasp this situation. The costs of raw ma terial is an item in their calculations which is stationary. The cost of the wear and tear of machinery also is particularly uniform. Two items are capable of increase, and that is the productive capacity of the worker and the wages paid him per unit of time, per unit of piece work, per unit of total output.
 , Speeding up and efficient opera. tions are the means whereby the wages relatively are decreased anl the productive capacity increased. It is exceedingly simple.
 The worker is operated upon by the "expert" much as a machinis. adjusts machine. Arm movements are studied; leg movements graphi- cally charted, the forward, back ward and upward motions in every operation are considered in detail Where is any superfiuous movement that is promptly eliminated, and the worker is reduced to a strict position of an automatic machine himself. He is handled as a me- chanism. He is treated as me- chanism, and is considered es a me- chanism which is efficient !n propor- tion to it's obedience in carrying out orders, and prompt regard of in- structions in the most mechanical manner possible. The ideal being always the achieveemnt of human labor producing machine that will think no thoughts, perform no other function absolutely. but that re- quired as a labor producing ma chine, exactly as motor drives other machinery or an engine performs the functions required of it.
 l Outside its working hours the ma chine is released from supervision to a certain extent that 1t will ac- cept sleep when sleep comes, eat when the requirements of food are imperative, and can in fact live an animal life to be ready to devote the same period of labor on the morrow as mechanism of the great industrial concern.
 In this concept of modern indus try there is no sentiment; nothing of humanity; no religion. It is barren of ideals, of ethical con- cepts, of ennobling impulses as it is completely possible.
 l Sometimes the machine makes 8