Mexico weekly ledger., 1918-03-21
EFFICIENCY
METHODS IN FACTORIES
British ,workmen Regard American
Efficiency Methods as Bit Of
observation-disclosures Them
20 the Limit
AMERICANS sTANDARDIZE
Probably No Industry in the World
Standardized as American Motor
Car Manufacturing
BY George 7 Bye

The Archbishop Of York, supposedly
speaking for British labor, recently
said in the House Of Lords that the
British workman regarded American
efficiency methods in factories as a
bit of P~russianism, which they would
oppose to the limit.
This only shows that clergymen can
occasionally be wrong. British labor,
when experienced with under Ameri-
can working conditions, responded by
producing more shells or gas masks in
an 8 or 9 hour day than in the usual
10 TO IL hours, and with less fatigue.
These figures have been cited in the
House of Commons. f.
Standardization, a word which you
hear often at army headquarters in
France as well as in wine shops in
Paris and tea shops in London, went
across the Atlantic several years
ahead of our transports to make pos
sible the almost inconceivably vast
production Of munitions Of war.
Americans like to think they invented
Standardization and its application to
manufacturing, but there is a probo-
bility that the Pyramids were built
by standardizing the sizes of the
stone blocks and the tools and de-
vices by which the blocks were cut
and lifted into place.
But America should get credit for
making it a national rule to fix stand
ards for each industry and to use sci
! entific reasoning in the planning OF
factories so that more work can be
accomplished with less waste and
p, strain of effort by the worker.
There is probably no industry in the
world so completely standardized as
tAmerican motor car manufacturing
That is the only reason that American
car production has been in the million:
when other nations have made only
thousands, and a few thousands a
that. 1t is also the reason VIII!
American cars have been built as
' much cheaper cost than European
cars though labor in Europe, eve
skilled labor, is paid only a third o
fourth of the wages given to Amer.
cans.
There is work going on to standard
ize tires so that there will be only
few sizes and all British manufactul
I" ers may concentrate on these. To az
~ preciate what all this means yo
'H' should know that before the war, eac
Ae British car had the manufacturer
personal touch" Each car was sp'
cially built, and assembled with a
most loving care by a corps of I'll
:" mechanics and their indentured a
prentices. This system made exec
lent mechanics, but produced one CT
while an American factory was turi
ing out a hundred or a thousand.
The Archbishop of York may be a
prehensive of these tendencies
British industry, but an Englishmi
or Scotchman or Australian who h
been close to manufacturing W
smile and say: "No, Britain will n
be the same after the war. She h
learned much. The comfortable, c
sy-going, happy-go-lucky days a
over. Britain is going to be an ef
cient worker henceforth."
MOVE TO ST. LOUIS
The many friends of Mr.. and MI
George Harvey will regret to lea
they are moving from this city to
Louis where they will make their
ture home. Mr.. and Mrs. HarV
have many warm friends here W
Join the Ledger in wishing them MI
happiness and success in their n
home.