The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-03

"The democratic ideal in which we
have been brought up breaks at every
point with the German system. We
believe that unless men are allowed to
find for themselves the thing which
they can do best. that unless they
are free to follow their inner call, the
best that they have to give to the
world will be sacrificed. Instead of
forcing a training on the man, we in
vite him to experiment. Above all.
we feel that not only the good of the
man but the good of society demands
that his initiative and spontaneity be
preserved.
.If the suppression of the individu-
al and his natural bent is inherent in
the science of efficiency, then for this
country it is doomed. In spite of all
our bungIing, there is no conviction
stronger than that the most precious
thing there Is in man is his native
talent. Is the science Of efficiency, as
developed in our industrial life, hos
tile to the spirit of democracy and to
this Inner need of men to work out
their natural bent? Does the Taylor
system make no allowance for this
human need? To argue the negative
is utterly to misunderstood. the mean
ing of this new science. Mr.. Taylor
hiself loved to call it a science of
making men and when properly ap-
piled, that is exactly what it is. One
has only to look at in operation to
realize what new opportunities there
are for the human being in industry
through its application.
Zone of the most terrible features
of our present day Industrial life is
the amount of unskil1ed mental work
that is thrown upon men and women.
The Taylor system boldly asserts that
there should be no such thing as I'M
skilled work in the world. 1t says
| that every task that is necessary
should be studied and the best way OF
doing it found and taught Great bod
| les of men and women have had t heir
work dignified in this country and
have consequently been themselves
! elevated by the application of scien-
tific management to work which
hitherto has been despised.
I; Zone tremendous human advance
(which comes through this system lis
that it opens the blind alleys of in
dustry, showing men how they car
constantly work into more respon
| sible and useful positions. 1t is 6
system which increases the amount
lof head work in industry and de-
| creases the amount of purely manua
1 work. 80 ys
wherever scientific management
is intelligently applied, one of ths
tasks which it sets for itself is tn
| encouragement of individual talent
Every device is employed to encour
age workers of all grades to exercis
their ingenuity by suggestions and b.
fexperiments. Scores of valuable i'm
i provements are being contributed an
nually to our industrial life toda.
Through the encouragement that thi
! new system of management is givint
TO individuals to let themselves loos
i in their work to see what they cal
do in the way of Improving things
Il THE deep seated fear that the sci
Z ence of efficiency is inherently Il
conflict with democracy is not JUST
fled by the intelligent application o
q the Taylor system. On the contrary
this science has come as a sympath
d etic handmade of democracy, show
ing her how she can help men to de
vslop themselves along the line o
!, their inner call. This system at ever
point gives the lie to the old conten
!, tibn that if things are to be done wei
) iii the world there must be dictator
at every point, that men. left free t
: work out their lives necessarily pro
l,duce inferior work.
Moreover, wherever there ha
tbeen an attempt to apply the scienc
of management automatically, wher
a manager has not believed with MI
, Taylor that the best results of tn
|, system are possible only when 20
, consider first the individual man an
, his good, there has been failure. Tn
! same thing has happened that W
j have seen happening with the Ger
! man conception of military efficien
! cy; in overlooking, even denying tn
! part that the human factor plays
: the world, it, in the long run, defeat
: itself. A system of efficiency whic
, makes no allowance for ethical an
! that system be applied to an army c
to a factory. surely fails in the Ion
run