New-York tribune., 1918-03-18
Hands to War
usr Has Given the Whip Hand to Labor and Production
Especially in Ships, Nations Vital Need,
Is Suffering
By Theodore M. Knappen

on the dead level basis of corapcnsa-
The difficulty lies in the fact that
'he submarine has incornorated into it
RAPID production programme, as ar os-
sentlal part, rlan Of obtain:n~ labor
efhclency BY anproximateiy paging for
results. Il does not employ men in
classes. but in units. and il pay tfom
rs units. Thus the company retains
control over production. The keen and
eager worker IS rewarded With superior
wages.
The company contends. and no doubt
rightly, that if it surrenders this sys-
tenn 1t Will, by the same token, surren-
der the power to drive production. In
other words, it wil have to give up the
attempt to build ships with extraordi-
nary speed in order to meet an ex-
traordinary emergency and fall back to
the rate of production that will be de-
termined by men with no incentive to
exert themselves and with the assur
ancc that q minimum amount Of work
VIII retain high rate Of pay. Expert
crce in almost every shipyard in the
country proves that under the prevail
ing conditions higher fiat rates OF
wages are accompanied by decreased
production. AS wages go uD according
to this caste system the volume OF pro-
ductlon goes down.
In normal times shipyards turn out
twenty five tons year per man. Now,
when the need of ships for the saliva
ton of the country and of the world is
desperate beyond expression the rate
Of production is down to about ff
teen tons per man.
To overcome the general prevalence
of this system is out of the question,
but the Submarine Boat Company is
contending strenuously to prevent it
from entering where it has never been.
By the use of its own system it has
succeeded marvellously and exception
ally. 1t knows that if it is forced to
surrender the last hope Of high rate
Of production viii be gone.
1t must not be forgotten that It IS
not the Submarine Boat Company but
the country that is really affected. AS
the company is merely an agent for
the Emergency Fleet Corporation it
loses nothing by its scale of wages
The wages are paid out of the United
States Treasury-out Of taxes, out of
the taxpayer The company is eager to
build ships expeditiously, and it has
human tendency to do as little as pos
sible. To retain this precious thing
it is not permitted to argue the merits
of its method as such. That argument
is ruled out at the start by the power
of organized labor.
The company seeks to save the sys-
tenn for its own practice by setting up
the theory that it is not shipbuildng
plant. but merely an assembling plant
and that its methods are so widely dif-
ferent from those of neighboring ship
yards. both in mechanical processes
and labor personnel and methods, that
the Adjustment Board can consistent
ly hold that it is in a class by itself,
and therefore entitled to be excepted
from the caste and castiron wage
schedule. But labor is ineXorable.
Therefore. I venture to predict that
the dispute, to which, by the way, the
Submarine Boats employees are in no
most contented lot Of workers in Amer
ica to-day. will be settled by giving
the labor leaders their way