Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-15
V Capital and Labor Plan Nav Work Wonders

thOught which have led us to con-
ceive the plan with which we are now
experimenting.
In it's essentials this plan is not
new. In framing 1t we have been
guided. at least in part, by the many
excellent books which have been writ
ten on labor and Industrial problems.
1t Is only in its special application
that we have been guided by our own
problems and the results of our own
study. g.. 80 t5N
I'VE are endeavoring to achieve the
first object by paying wages for quail
ity, rather than for quantity; that is
to say, by considering quality as well
as quantity in the computation Of the
wage. -. -.
= And we have learned. that only the
workers own enthusiasm and de-
termination to do perfect work can
control this problem in any notable
degree. Inspection cannot do it. A
worker who is Interested only in
quantity production threatens quality.
What we want is the worker who is
interested in quantity (Which means
economy in overhead and who. at the
same time, is interested in quality,
which means not only economy in
overhead, but economy in material
and the profitable employment Of
equipment. :.g.a r..
80 there we have, two of the basic
things on which, we are attempting
to fix new sort of wage scale, in
which we recognize, as the minimum
that which the. workers and en-
ployers have agreed upon as reasonable
minimum. We are trying to discover
means Of increasing it above the
minimum, and we do it by considering
quantity and, at least Importantly,
quality.
Now another basic element enters
into our experiment. We are PLAN.
ming it so that all will share in 1t.
The increase Of the output of a GER
tain shop will not be divided among
individual workers: id accordance with
the records Of their Individual pro-
duction. All the additional wages
earned in that shop will be divided.
share and share alike, among all the
workers in that shop.
AT first thought it may seem that
this is an injustice because it gives
slow workers share Of that which
fast, good workers earn. We have
decided that such reasoning is not
quite sound, although on surface OBJ
servation it may seem to be. No one
piece of our work Is wholly finished
by one workman. Each piece passes
through many hands. Therefore we
cannot determine with exact and GER
tain Justice where a fault occurs. But
the workers themselves will know,
for the man who gets a faulty piece
of work from the workman whose
process precedes his instantly will
be aware Of 1t. e
HE will not tolerate it. we think,
under the quantity quality system. He
will see to it that all his predecessors
in the work do good work, for IL they
do bad work he suffers. The plan
turns over to, the men themselves
much very irksome shop control
which under the old system offered
many opportunities for injustice ON
the part Of foremen and inspectors.
We believe they will attend to it eff
ficiently for their protection and for
ours.
THAT in q nutshell, and very rough
1y told. Is the experiment which We
are trying in one Edison plant. II II
works well there land the fact that
there seem to be no flaws In it may
not mean that actually there are
none) we shall try it. elsewhere. We
have every reason to believe that the
workers will approve 1t.
(which takes me to another detail.
what could we call this plan? IL
did not seem to be quite fair to call
1t by the old, Oft abused and oft mis-
used term "profit sharing. Then what
could we name this division Of that
which amounted to a shop rather
than to an individual bonus?
ut is an accurate word in this con-
nection. The men draw certain speci-
ned wages, which are equal to or
greater than the basic or union scale.
These are wages. 1t would be impos-
sible to call them anything else. But
the extra payment Is no wage. 1t
truly Is a dividend paid on the in
vestment Of each individuals good
work in the fund Of general effort
Dividend Is q good word for II and
the workers like 1t. Dividends are
the mysterious things employers
draw-the rewards for investment Of