The writer trusts that it is now clear that even in the case of the most elementary form of labor that is known, there is a science, and that when the man best suited to this class of work has been carefully selected, when the science of doing the work has been developed, and when the carefully selected man has been trained to work in accordance with this science, the results obtained must of necessity be overwhelmingly greater than those which are possible under the plan of 'initiative and incentive."
Let us, however, again turn to the case of these pig-iron handlers, and see whether, under the ordinary type of management, it would not have been possible to obtain practically the same results. The writer has put the problem before many good managers, and asked them whether, under premium work, piece work, or any of the ordinary plans of management, they would be likely even to approximate 47 tons[1] per man per day, and not a
- ↑ Many people have questioned the accuracy of the statement that
first-class workmen can load 4712 tons of pig iron from the ground on to a car in a day. For those who are skeptical, therefore, the following data relating to this work are given:
First. That our experiments indicated the existence of the following law: that a first-class laborer, suited to such work as handling pig iron, could be under load only 42 per cent. of the day and must be free from
load 58 per cent, of the day.Second. That a man in loading pig iron from piles placed on the ground
in an open field on to a car which stood on a track adjoining these piles, ought to handle (and that they did handle regularly) 4712 long tons (2240 pounds per ton) per day. That the price paid for loading this pig iron was 910 cents per ton, and that the men working at it averaged $1.85 per day, whereas, in the past, they had been paid only $1.15 per day.In addition to these facts, the following are given:
