Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-15

| OF the nLLeSL-tne race DeIWeeu Lno
quick and the dead''-but it is the un-
conscious rhythm" which one gath
ers from surroundings. Some farm.
ers have caught the secret and sup
| piled their dairies with brisk music.
which unconsciously sets the pace for
| the mixers.
Workmen who were of mature age
before coming to America have had
| trouble getting the step with Ameri-
can rhythm, but young immigrants
soon get the pace.
Great has been the increase of speed
in production since the World War
in some cases amounting to more
than so per cent. This cannot be at
tributed to war influences, for they
were OF contrary tendency. through
the 'cost-plus" system, which put a
premium on Sinking. Managers
have discovered the profitableness of
using better appliances to take the
place of old-time crude labor; they
cannot afford to give poor tools to
highly paid workmen.
An illustration of this is cited in
the case of an oil company in Louis
lana The wells were some three
quarters OF a mile from the loading
dock and 1t had been the practice to
use 100 men to haul on trucks the
cans of oil that distance; then at the
docks the cans were unloaded onto
an elevator, which deposited them on
the decks Of the vessels, whence they
must be trucked to the various parts
of the ship for storage.
Now the entire haul is made on a
conveyer belt, which automatically
delivers the cargo onto the various
decks. -Four men do what had re-
quired 100.
In the Monthly Labor Review July,
1920, published by the Department of
Labor. is an article containing this
summary:
I'VE are at the present time expert
encing what is perhaps the most
remarkable advance in productive
efficiency in the history of the modern
industrial system. In the automobile
Industry, the output per man in 1926
was three times as great as it was in
1914, an almost incredible increase i'm
productivity In an industry which had
attained, even before 1914, a high
state of efficiency.
Taking the output per man in 1914
as the base OF 100, we find that the
output in 1925 was for the iron and
steel industry nearly $50, and for the
boot and shoe industry III; while on
a 1917 base 100), the output per man
In 1875 In the paper and pulp industry
was 1874. And these figures, surpris-
ing as they are, cover only about a
decade"
Much is said Of the trend Of farmers
to cities. Farm production does not
require the number OF workers that IL
formerly needed. In 1900, one man
could harvest with his sickle one acre
of grain a day. In 1881, with q cradle,
he cut 215 acres; In 1910, with a
reaper, 6 acres, but 1t took five men
following the reaper TO bind and stack
the grain. In 1880. with a self.binder.
one man cut and bound 20 acres a
day; in 1929, a tractor dragging two
binders and manned with three men
cut and bound 40 acres a day, and
now, on large prairie farms, a comb
nation machine cuts, binds, threshes
and sacks 40 acres a day.
In 1874, Cyrus Mccormick boosted
that he could make so of his reapers
Invented in 1880 in one year. They
were pounded out by the Drawn or
blacksmiths. Now the international
Harvester Co. makes two better
machines every minute. Could agri
culture experience that evolution with.
out itself evoluting? Even so old an
industry as flour milling now pro
duces 40 per cent more flour per day
than it could in 1914.
X u \
In 1912. it required 1850 hours in
the Ford factory to make one fiivver;
in 1914, that was reduced to GIT hours
in 1920, to 396 hours; now 1t Is only
IT'S hours. All assembling OF a Ford
machine Is done as the machine
travels along a conveyer Each man
along that route has his one stunt to
do, and IL he fails to do It In due
rhythm before the conveyer carries
the assembling car along, that car is
automatically dumped or the conveyer
and all subsequent work on 1t must
be done by hand. There is the secret
of American efficiency-not by the }
individual workman alone, but by the
system. Those workmen receive the
highest wages, in proportion to their
skill, that are paid in the world, yet
their product costs less than can be
otherwise produced. It is estimated
that a similar car produced by hand
would cost several thousands OF dol
lars--10 times the present cost.
Copyright. lsa7. by Psui " corinAl