Arizona republican., 1919-04-06
SCIENTIFIC FIRING"
 NOW BEING DONE WITH DISCRIMINATE

"A party of young ladies was being shown over an industrial plant by the genial Irish foreman, and one admir- ingly asked:
 And do you have charge of all or this, to do with it as you please, to hire and discharge men as you wish?'
 Sure" replied the foreman, and to prove the truth of his statement, he called:
 Jimmie. come here. You're fired"
 This is typical of the old method of firing"
 During the period of the war when labor was scarce, the business of the employment manager in industry was hiring men and carefully placing them where they were best fitted to work. The careful selection of em- ployees, had developed to consid- erable extent before the war, and was becoming a recognized. science.
 In the last few months, however, the cancellation of copper contracts, the accumulation of large stocks, the necessary curtailment of production because the copper could not be sold, and the lack of any immediate pros poets of the copper market opening, have led to universal reduction of forces, and the problem that the in dustry now confronts is that of fir ing" rather than hiring. The prob lem has been aggravated by the can cellation of contracts in many war industries, with the consequent turn ing loose of hundreds of thousands of ,%f ,y,lr ment, and the return of the soldiers and sailors.
 The problem has now become one of firing with the least hardship and the least injustice, and yet caring flor the returning soldiers, sailors and marines who have been in the service of Uncle Sam for nearly two years, and who have offered the supreme sacrifices.
 The Copper Queen company at Bis bee found it necessary, along with all of the other copper companies of the country, to reduce materially its force In making this reduction employees were classified with respect to de- pendents, length of service and citizen ship. The question of individual eff ficiency or workmanship did not en- ter into this classification.
 Copper produced to sell at 25 cents a pound has been selling at under 15 cents, and very little copper is being sold at all. Practically every copper producer in the country has enormous stocks on hand, and without a doubt 1t would be profitable in the sense of taking no loss for many of them to close down entirely. It has been i'm possible to reduce wages to the basis of the price of copper, for such re- auction would bring the wage scale below the cost of living. It would ob- Viously cause hardships to stop the work altogether and throw out of en- ployment large number of employees who have worked Loyalty for the com pany for a considerable time, and it would disturb the labor situation greatly by increasing the number of unemployed.
 It therefore became necessary to re- duce the output to as low a point as possible and still maintain reasonable costs, and yet retain in the employ of the company men who have put in years. of faithful service. In many cases 1t has not been possible to place these men in actual operating work, and they have been put on develop ment, as development work has not been eliminated, in spite of the fact that it could be done cheaper at a later date, and that some of the Phelps Dodge properties have development work so far ahead of actual mine op- erations that they could afford to stop such work for a considerable period As one of the features of its em- ployees' representation, the Copper Queen maintains welfare committee composed of nine men, elected an- | nually by the employees, who repre- sent various divisions of the plant and mine. For days this committee met with the superintendent, the foreman, | the employment manager and the ser | vice record clerk and studied individ-
 ually the record of every man as tc 1 his continuity of service, his depend ents, citizenship and reliability. Witt the records of every man before them 1 the result was a careful classification | of all employees.
 Class 1 consists of all old employee:
 who have been in the service of tht company over two years, who havt | dependents, and who are citizens O. l the United States. This class alsC
 covers old employees of the company
 who are nearing the time when they would be eligible for pension, with
 out citizenship being taken into ac
 count, for it was considered that thei | pension had no relation to theil citizenship, and that it would be an in. 1 justice to classify otherwise men who's,
 long service had entitled them to tn, privilege of retiring shortly with ar income.
 Class consists of soldiers, sailor
 and marines whether they have beeI
 in the employ of the company fo one month or period of years. Thi
 clasifciation, along with the rule tha
 all honorably discharged service mel
 who worked for the company before
 the war should be given employment