The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-17
SHOW
COST OFLAB0R
PRODUCTION COST
EXPERT, GIVES STATISTICS TO
SHOW ADVANCE NETS ABOUT 81
PER CENT.

zone statistician could easily have
refuted most of the evidence of the one
hundred witnesses whose testimony led
a Cleveland jury to charge that work
men employed in building operations
are doing less than one-half pre-war
work while receiving twice the wages"
That is the comment of Dan" Patch,
statistician of the Aberthaw Construc-
ton Company.
THE first requisite of successful
dealing with the problem of labor, "
continues Mr.. Patch, lis to think fairly
concerning its larges aspects as well
as to deal fairly in day to day con-
tracts. OF the one hundred witnesses
called in the three months housing in
vestigation in Cleveland, l wonder how
many had taken the trouble to get be-
low the superficial facts and reduce
them to terms that would make them
comparable with perwar conditions.
1.-The implication of the newspaper
statement of the Cleveland findings is
really that since building workmen do
half as much and receive twice the
wage, they have increased the labor
element in building costs some 400 per
cent. This can hardly be. First, let us
examine the hour wage of different
classes of building workers in 1914 and
in 1919:
Masons. 1914, Csc: 1919, soc to s1.OO;
per cent increase, 1885, to 81.
Carpenters, 1914 55c; 1919, soc to
Soc; per cent increase, 45.5 to 545
Laborers, 1914. Csc; 1919, so to 55c;
per cent increase, 100 to 100.
According to reports of the United
States Department of Labor, wholesale
commodity prices increased during the
same period by close to 100 per cent.
No one need sto be toll dthat the neces-
stiles of daily life have increased in as
great proportion. If, therefore, we ex-
press the building workers return in
terms or means of subsistence instead
of in terms of inflated dollars, it is
pretty evident that he is receiving no
more per hour now than he was before
the war. In fact, it is doubtful that in
any case, except that of the day labor
er, he is quite so we'll off now as he
was before the war.
This, however, does not dispose of
the contention that he is doing half as
much work. But if he were doing only
half as much work as before, then the
la Dor costs of various operations if re-
duced to a fixed or uninflated dollar
should in 1919-20 be twice what they
were in 1914. Records of the Alberthaw
Company prove that this is not the
case.
The company estimates the working
efficiency of it's forces by their rela-
tive approximation to a standard cost
figure which is known throughout the
company offices as DOGGY" DOGGY"
is theoretical labor cost. which would
represent highly satisfactory accom-
plishment under normal operating con-
ditions. Since it is always adjusted to
an unchanging monetary standard, it
expresses itself really as unit of ex-
penditure per volume of production.
1t is interesting to observe the fluc-
tuationS in this unit of expenditure
during the period from 1914 through
1919. In Aberthaw operations for the
year 1914 actual labor costs of all jobs
exceeded DOGGY" by per cent; the
following year by % per cent. In 1917
the unit of expenditure had fallen be-
low that o. 1914. 1t rose again in 1918,
fell to DOGGY" again in 1919 and dur
ing the tremendous building expansion
of 1920 has shown a tendency to rise.
Just now it is approximately p per
cent above the theoretical figure of
1914, or 10 per cent above the actual
figure of that year.
This is very far from being twice the
1914 cost. Nor is this 10 per cent in
crease in cost to be attributed to gen.
it is undoubtedly due to the necessity