Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-18
PAYS TO0vERPAY,
DETROIT DISCOVERS
Owners of Thirty-Five Large
Factories Have New Man.
agement Plan.
IDEA is WINNING WAY
IN MANY OTHER CITIES
Employe Who Gets Generous Wage
Works Harder and More In
diligently in All Cases.
Copyright, 1851
BY HERBERT COREY.

Copyright. 1851
BY HERBERT COREY.
Correspondence of The Star
DETROIT. February 1.-THE execu-
tive heads Of thirty-five manufactures
in this city meet at stated intervals
and put their cards on the table. They
compare costs. When one man is max
ing an article at too high a cost they
find out what is the matter.
"Altruism." said the man who heard
about it.
Good business" say the members Of
the club.
1t seems to be an outgrowth Of the
Detroit Discovery. That is, reduced
to the simplest terms. that it pays to
overpay an employee. He works harder
and more intefhgently. and he tries to
hold his job, and he lives under better
conditions. A dozen proofs are offered
by the manufacturers here who have
tried it. Perhaps the best proof-on
the theory that the test of the pudding
is in the eating of it's the fact that
the plan is spreading. Every little
while new manufacturer joins the
plan. Then his profits begin to rise.
That is the basis on which the Execu-
tives' Club was founded. The founder
is Alvin +. knobloch. business man
who was once a minister of the gospel.
He satisfied himself that it actually
pays to pay higher wages. At the mo-
ment it seemed impracticable to adopt
the plan in his own factory. The mar.
gin of profit was not great enough. II
the plan should not work out it would
mean trouble ahead. Knobloch looked
into conditions at home.
There is waste enough in this plant
to permit the payment Of higher wages
and a better profit, was his decision.
Eliminating the Waste.
The obvious thing to do was to elm
mate the waste. Knobloch called on
friend in the same line OF business.
He reported his doubts Of his-well.
say his paint mixer.
That's easy" said the friend. II
know just what is wrong" Where
upon he told Knobloch his error. Then
he confessed that he had a trouble all
his own. His steel parer-if there is
such a thing-was losing money for
him. Knobloch was a sharp on steel
parers than the men who ran them
daily in the shops. He told his friend
the expert on paint mixers how to
bring his steel parer up to scratch.
In6y DeSdH 10 swap CouuuShSco WIN
other men along the same line. Nat
urally, they picked their men. but
then Detroit is full of men worth pick
ing. By and by it got to be habit
for each man to keep an eye lifting
for an Improvement in method in his
own factory. When he met any one
of the others he told them about it.
From that it was but a step to organize
the Executives Club. It meets weekly
in the building of the board of COM
merce.
I'VE put our cards on the table," the
members of the club say. IF one man
has trouble he does not know how to
master one of the thirty-four others
is pretty certain to have found a clue.
If one man finds a new way OF saving
costs he tells the others. They go out
that afternoon to put 1t in operation"
The plan is spreading. The foremen
and other shop executives Of the thtr-
ty-five manufactures now interested
in the Executives Club are called into
consultation. It has become a game
worth playing with them. especially as
one feature of the Detroit Discovery
is that 1t pays to pay man what he IL
worth, and not merely what'the job is
worth. Minute records are kept by
the club. Not long ago the head OF
one of the great manufacturing indus
tries in Detroit laughed at the club.
II don't have to resort to such new
tangled ways to keep my costs down."
said he.
What a Reporter Found.
It somewhat rolled the club mem
hers They asked permission to send