Shop Management | Page 5

require, providing there is enough of it to occupy a man
throughout a considerable part of the year, should be done by a trained
laborer and not by a mechanic. A man with only the intelligence of an
average laborer can be taught to do the most difficult and delicate work
if it is repeated enough times; and his lower mental caliber renders him
more fit than the mechanic to stand the monotony of repetition. It
would seem to be the duty of employers, therefore, both in their own
interest and in that of their employees, to see that each workman is
given as far as possible the highest class of work for which his brains
and physique fit him. A man, however, whose mental caliber and
education do not fit him to become a good mechanic (and that grade of
man is the one referred to as belonging to the "laboring class"), when
he is trained to do some few especial jobs, which were formerly done
by mechanics, should not expect to be paid the wages of a mechanic.
He should get more than the average laborer, but less than a mechanic;
thus insuring high wages to the workman, and low labor cost to the
employer, and in this way making it most apparent to both that their
interests are mutual.
To summarize, then, what the aim in each establishment should be:
(a) That each workman should be given as far as possible the highest
grade of work for which his ability and physique fit him.
(b) That each workman should be called upon to turn out the maximum

amount of work which a first-rate man of his class can do and thrive.
(c) That each workman, when he works at the best pace of a first-class
man, should be paid from 30 per cent to 100 per cent according to the
nature of the work which he does, beyond the average of his class.
And this means high wages and a low labor cost. These conditions not
only serve the best interests of the employer, but they tend to raise each
workman to the highest level which he is fitted to attain by making him
use his best faculties, forcing him to become and remain ambitious and
energetic, and giving him sufficient pay to live better than in the past.
Under these conditions the writer has seen many first-class men
developed who otherwise would have remained second or third class all
of their lives.
Is not the presence or absence of these conditions the best indication
that any system of management is either well or badly applied? And in
considering the relative merits of different types of management, is not
that system the best which will establish these conditions with the
greatest certainty, precision, and speed?
In comparing the management of manufacturing and engineering
companies by this standard, it is surprising to see how far they fall short.
Few of those which are best organized have attained even
approximately the maximum output of first-class men.
Many of them are paying much higher prices per piece than are
required to secure the maximum product while owing to a bad system,
lack of exact knowledge of the time required to do work, and mutual
suspicion and misunderstanding between employers and men, the
output per man is so small that the men receive little if any more than
average wages, both sides being evidently the losers thereby. The chief
causes which produce this loss to both parties are: First (and by far the
most important), the profound ignorance of employers and their
foremen as to the time in which various kinds of work should be done,
and this ignorance is shared largely by the workmen. Second: The
indifference of the employers and their ignorance as to the proper
system of management to adopt and the method of applying it, and
further their indifference as to the individual character, worth, and
welfare of their men. On the part of the men the greatest obstacle to the
attainment of this standard is the slow pace which they adopt, or the
loafing or "soldiering,'" marking time, as it is called.

This loafing or soldiering proceeds from two causes. First, from the
natural instinct and tendency of men to take it easy, which may be
called natural soldiering. Second, from more intricate second thought
and reasoning caused by their relations with other men, which may be
called systematic soldiering. There is no question that the tendency of
the average man (in all walks of life) is toward working at a slow, easy
gait, and that it is only after a good deal of thought and observation on
his part or as a result of example, conscience, or external pressure that
he takes a more rapid pace.
There