New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-22

Of living. It is distinctively Ameri-
can.
Now this question of efficiency can
not be cared for hotchpotch at any
point. System should not only 60 on
in the Office and factory; it must be
taken home from there. Its ramifi-
cations are as varied as its benefits
are sometimes unexpected.
Need of Educating
The Household
There is much talk nowadays Of
higher-bought necessities and OF a
mounting cost Of living. Some aver
that it is the same living at better
price, others that it is a different
proposition altogether, being, in eff
feet, an expensive attempt to live a
little better at great deal higher
price. However that may be, there
are leaks here, too. Efforts to stop
them are frequently resented, and,
of course, they cannot be enforced.
However, it is not a problem when the
man with a dollar a day to spend for
food does so for salmon at rs cents
the pound instead of good salt cod
for II, or buys lettuce and oranges
to fill his dinner pail instead of some
excellent, solid foods with a modicum
of water-content. 1t is no problem,
but it is certainly task by way of
education on lines of common sense.
1t is a truism that European table,
even prior to the present rigors of
the war, would have been furnished
rather well on the scraps of a me-
dunn American establishment. Should
you desire more specific instance of
comparative economy, glance some
day into the bucket of the American
workman, then in that Of another
recently imported from Europe.
Economy and efficiency"-that is
what they show. Personal efficiency
is there, no less than in the field of
manners, dress and general deport-
ment; or in the way that wholesome,
clean-kept quarters react on brains
and hands. In some cases gingering-
up is needed, in others a little
smoothing, but there are few in
stances where personal efficiency will
fail to find a vacancy.
The other day | noted in a build.
ing downtown this sign: Education
counts. Don't filibuster in your pre-
pareGness for life" 1t seemed to me
that it was rather good. Such edu.
cation may take form in conservation
of health, or the reduction of litter
aey, which is steadily increasing in
the principal Eastern states. 1t is
a part of the efficiency campaign.
At the present there is evident
speeding-up industrially. II is all
very much as we would like to see it,
yet it has a dangerous side as well.
The other day / asked a manufact-
urer, who has his own large abilities
and the great war to thank for an
enormous business, whether or not
efficiency of operation had fairly kept
pace with growth in production at
his plant.
Efficiency? We haven't any time
for that. We're busy!"
Yet much business does not always
necessarily bear out that you are
manufacturing to permanent profit.
Changing many dollars is a hazard,
for some Of them are likely to be
dropped. Cost-keeping will prove or
disprove this, but in the meantime
there is time for and need of work
ing efficiency, whether a man makes
ten barrels or ten thousand railroad
cars per annum. II is the sine quc
non Of manufacture. the very essence
Of a national and industrial good
health. II is the oil on which the
industrial machinery Of the whole
nation mus. run II II 10 not finally to