HD 
 
Industrial Fatigue 
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO 
 
 Maximum Output 
 
 By 
 
 HENRY J. SPOONER, CJE. 
 
 FOREWORDS 
 By 
 
 Sir ROBERT HADFIELD, F.R.S., 
 
 AND 
 
 Mr. J. R. CLYNES, M.P. 
 
 Price 6d. net. 
 
 Published by Co-partnership Publishers Ltd., 
 6, Bloomsbury Square, London, W.C. 1. 
 
Reprinted by the 
 
 Labour Co-partnership Association 
 
 from "Co-partnership," 
 
 December, 1916-~May, 1917. 
 
 " CO-PARTNERSHIP' 
 
 A Journal of Go -partnership 
 in Industry and Housing. 
 
 Monthly Id. Annual Subscription 
 
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INDUSTRIAL FATIGUE 
 
 IN ITS RELATION TO - 
 
 MAXIMUM OUTPUT 
 
 By 
 
 HENRY J. SPOONER, C.E. 
 
 M.I.MECH.E., M.lNST.A.E., A.M.lNST.C.E., F.G.S., HoN.M.J.lNST.E., 
 
 F.R.MET.S., M.AMER.SOC. FOR PROMOTION OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION, 
 
 MEMBRE DE LE SOCIETE ASTRONOMIQUE DE FRANCE, ETC., ETC. 
 
 DIRECTOR OF THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, REGENT STREET, 
 
 LONDON, LECTURER ON POWER PLANT DESIGN, AND 
 
 INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY, ETC. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "MOTORS AND MOTORING," "MACHINE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND 
 DRAWING," "NOTES ON AND DRAWINGS OF A 4-CYLiNDER PETROL ENGINE," 
 
 " NOTES ON THE STEAM ENGINE," "MACHINE DRAWING AND DESIGN 
 
 FOR BEGINNERS," "ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRICAL DRAWING," 
 
 " INDUSTRIAL DRAWING AND GEOMETRY," "ENGINEERING 
 
 WORKSHOP DRAWING," ETC., ETC. 
 
 With Forewords by 
 
 Sir ROBERT A. HADFIELD,F.R.S.,D.Met.,D.Sc. 
 
 (Chairman of Messrs. Hadfields, Ltd.) - 
 AND 
 
 Mr. J. R. CLYNES, M.P. 
 
 (District Secretary of the National Union of General Workers 
 and Member of the Government Reconstruction Committee 
 and of the Health of Munition Workers' Committee). 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 By 
 
 SIR ROBERT A. HADFIELD. 
 
 I HAVE much pleasure in writing a few words with 
 regard to Professor Spooner's able contribution on 
 " Industrial Fatigue in its Relation to Maximum 
 Output." The articles deal with a wide range of 
 problems that are of importance in relation to pro- 
 duction, industrial efficiency, and the well-being of the 
 workers. 
 
 As to the advantage of restricting the number of 
 working hours and abolishing Sunday work, my own 
 firm; Messrs. Hadfields Limited, Sheffield, have for the 
 past twenty-three years adopted a 48 working hours' 
 week and have found it a decided advantage. Indeed, 
 we could not for a moment think of going back to the 
 old working hours. As an ounce of practice is worth 
 much theory, the above statement, I trust, will carry 
 conviction with it. 
 
 Further, I may explain that during the early part 
 of the War, owing to great pressure of work, our indus- 
 trial establishment, employing some 15,000 hands, 
 never shut down except for a few days ; that is, except- 
 ing one or two holidays, we ran clean through for 
 eighteen months without a stop from Monday morning 
 until Sunday night : but it did not pay. For the last 
 few months, and with the permission of the. Ministry 
 of Munitions, we have knocked off Sunday work, the 
 result being that our output has been equally as great. 
 I think this is a remarkable proof of the inadvisability 
 of employing non-stop and overtime methods. 
 
 B 
 
 383788 
 
I notice on page '37 reference is made to the work of 
 Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, the American Investigator 
 and Engineer. I knew the late Mr. Taylor, and a most 
 able man he was. But I am bound to say that I do 
 not believe in all that the American System of " Scientific 
 Management " apparently stands for, as it strikes me 
 that a feature of it is that it tends to make the workman 
 into a machine when after all he is a human being. It 
 is true that Taylor's system of Scientific Management 
 has made considerable headway in the United States, 
 but apparently it has recently received a check, as I 
 read only a few days ago in " Iron Age/' the leading 
 American Iron and Steel publication : 
 
 " In spite of the extraordinary showing made by 
 the reports to the Ordnance Bureau of the demoralis- 
 ing effect of abolishing scientific shop management 
 in the arsenals, the House Committee has again 
 included in the Army Bill the prohibition of time 
 studies and premium or bonus payments. In view 
 of the action taken by the Senate, which accepted 
 this prohibition as a feature of the Fortifications 
 Bill, it may be assumed that all the National Defence 
 Bills, as finally enacted, will forbid the use of scientific 
 shop management systems." 
 
 It is true this paragraph talks about the demoralising 
 effect of abolishing Scientific Shop Management. On 
 the other hand legislative abolition such as mentioned 
 can hardly have taken place, so it seems to me, without 
 the efforts made having practically failed to give general 
 satisfaction. Whilst I believe in the argument of a proper 
 day's work for a proper day's pay, and in the adoption 
 of improved methods that eliminate unnecessary fatigue, 
 I am strongly opposed to any attempts being made in 
 the direction of driving the workers. 
 
 I regret great pressure upon my time prevents a 
 longer contribution, but would again state how much 
 I have been interested in considering the very instruc- 
 tive articles contributed by Professor Spooner. 
 
 ROBERT A. HADFIELD. 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 By 
 MR. J. R. CLYNES, M.P. 
 
 THESE articles are the work of a trained hand. They 
 are the product of a skilled and sympathetic observer. 
 They are a practical contribution to the solution of 
 problems which may never be solved to everyone's 
 satisfaction, but which must be better handled after 
 the War than before it. 
 
 To the conclusions of Professor Spooner, I would 
 state three outstanding impressions which have remained 
 in the minds of workmen. When changes have been 
 proposed to secure increased output, workmen have 
 felt certain that such changes would mean reduced wage 
 rates, and their certainty rested upon experience. 
 They were confident that the more they produced the 
 sooner they would be unemployed, and they found 
 results in some occupations to support this view. They 
 had a natural objection to being made the mere instru- 
 ments for certain unknown material ends which would 
 give greater gain to others than they themselves derived. 
 
 It will be difficult to diminish, not to say dispel, 
 these natural impressions which a few generations of 
 industrial experience have engendered. It will not do 
 to try and reduce the conditions of fatigue in order 
 that workmen should be able to produce more. That 
 will be one of the results, but to set it up as an object 
 would be fatal for the main purpose, and would arouse 
 even greater discontent than conditions of fatigue may 
 now provide. 
 
The workman does not look with favour upon methods 
 designed scientifically to speed him up in order that, 
 without making him either a more skilled workman 
 or a more contented human being, he should be a more 
 effective producer of marketable goods. The human 
 machine works to limitations not applying to other 
 machinery. Other machinery should be regulated by 
 the limits of human capacity : instead of men being 
 driven more and more to a point beyond their normal 
 physical powers. 
 
 Experience in the early months of the war of extensive 
 munition production showed that long hours, excessive 
 overtime, and laborious week-end work, were not a con- 
 tribution to increased output, and had the harmful result 
 of causing excessive illness and in many cases, serious 
 and wasteful breakdown of health. In not a few of the 
 cases of industrial disturbances and stoppages, a con- 
 tributory cause to men ceasing work has been a state 
 of physical exhaustion and inevitable indifference to 
 whatever might happen. 
 
 Increased production is all important, but it should 
 be secured with two other conditions. One is that 
 fair share of the increased rewards should go to the 
 producer : and the other is that the producer himself 
 must be regarded as a man first, and a workman after- 
 wards. Both as human being and wealth producer he 
 would be all the better for treatment in the spirit of 
 the suggestions and proposals of Professor Spooner. 
 
 J. R. CLYNES. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE articles republished in the following pages were 
 written in November, 1916, in response to an invitation 
 from the Editor of Co-partnership to give my views on 
 the subject of " Industrial Fatigue " for publication 
 in his journal. In thinking over the matter it appeared 
 to me that, at this vital juncture, I could profitably 
 attempt a discussion of fatigue problems from the 
 standpoint of production. As a diligent student of 
 psychology and of the science of industrial engineering 
 I have for years lost no opportunity of increasing my 
 knowledge of the working of the human machine, and 
 have endeavoured to profit by the investigations of 
 others. Wherever such investigations have been 
 referred to in these pages I believe I have acknowledged 
 my indebtedness. The researches which have been 
 carried out since 1914 have considerably increased our 
 knowledge of an important and fascinating subject; 
 for we must agree with Pope, that " the proper study 
 of mankind is man." We must not forget that the 
 child is father of the man. So we should begin with 
 the child, and in training him in all the stages to 
 become a contented, happy, capable and useful citizen, 
 see that in becoming efficient he does not suffer from 
 unnecessary fatigue. Every educationist knows how 
 much patience it requires to recall vagrant inattention 
 and to stimulate sluggish indifference. And we shall 
 never attain a high degree of educational and industrial 
 efficiency until we give more study to the psychology 
 of attention. If attention be deep and long-continued it 
 is very fatiguing, and not a little of the absence of order 
 in class work of all kinds is due to that last physical 
 condition exacted by attention which physiologists 
 have called dynamogeny,* that is, " the power which 
 
 *Dictionaire ency eloped, des Sciences Medicates. 
 
certain parts of the nervous system possess of suddenly 
 evoking an augmentation of activity, through a purely 
 dynamic influence/' Dr. Montessori and Sir Baden 
 Powell understand the psychology of children and 
 young people and the importance of incentive. Hence 
 their phenomenal success in harnessing the activities 
 of children in the cause of education and good 
 citizenship. 
 
 Forewords have most kindly been written by Sir- 
 Robert A. Hadfield, a great and humane Captain of 
 Industry, and by Mr. J. R. Clynes, a patriotic and 
 statesmanlike representative of Labour. I greatly 
 appreciate these, and they will, I am sure, be read with 
 interest. Although these sympathetic and critical 
 introductions will speak for themselves, I feel that a 
 remark or two touching them may be permitted. It 
 is a happy omen for the future that when improved 
 methods of production are discussed the first to fear 
 that they may tend to overstrain the workers are, not 
 the workers themselves, but some of the most respected 
 representatives of Capital. Thus from the expressed 
 opinions of such ideal employers as Sir Robert Hadfield 
 and Sir William Lever, these pioneers of improved 
 working conditions of Labour might conceivably refrain 
 from the adoption of a system that has great poten- 
 tialities if it appeared to them to possibly embody 
 methods that are inimical to the well-being of the 
 workers. But in at least one development of improved 
 methods there is often some misapprehension. For 
 instance, by suitable camera work most manipulative 
 operations can be simplified and improved, in such a 
 way as to reduce fatigue at the same time. As a single 
 example, there is presumably one right way of mani- 
 pulating the ordinary chipping hammer, but many 
 wrong and fatiguing ways, but who has ever heard of 
 anyone trying to find out the least fatiguing way of 
 handling this simple tool ? We must pay more atten- 
 tion to animal mechanics, if we are to humanise the 
 exhausting operations of our workers ; and those who 
 may doubt the wisdom of employing motion studies to 
 
relieve the worker and increase his output would do 
 well to read a convincing letter from Mr. Frank 
 Gilbreth, the great industrial efficiency engineer, which 
 appeared in The Engineer of the 4th May, 1917. 
 
 On April 2oth, Mr. Michael Longridge delivered his 
 presidential address before the Institution of Mechanical 
 Engineers. The retiring President, in introducing him, 
 referred to him as the greatest master in the country 
 of the pathology of steam machinery. The address was 
 so fine and so convincing, and touched upon so many 
 points that are of living interest to employers and 
 employed in connection with our subject that I cannot 
 refrain from quoting him, particularly as his great 
 ^authority so strongly fortifies many of the views I have 
 endeavoured to establish. Dealing with Workshop 
 Organisation, he said : 
 
 " Except in a few cases, workshop organisation here has 
 not received the attention given it in America and Germany. 
 There are still shops without definite planning of the progress 
 of the work, without adequate equipment of jigs and gauges, 
 and without standard shapes of tools or a tool-room : where 
 men drift about in search of tools and tackle, or wait in idle- 
 ness for drawings or materials ; where machinery is obsolete 
 and light so bad that good work could not be done if the 
 machinery were up-to-date. Such shops must go. They 
 cannot compete in price or quality of work with those in which 
 what is known as " scientific management/' or anything 
 approaching it, prevails ; where the progress of every job is 
 planned to the last detail before it is sent into the works ; 
 where machinery is so arranged that each piece passes through 
 the whole series of operations to be performed on its pre- 
 determined order and without pause, and is immediately 
 succeeded by another piece to undergo the same cycle of 
 operations ; where labourers and tackle for fixing the work 
 are ready the moment they are wanted ; where drawings, 
 gauges and tools properly ground to standard shapes come 
 with the work ; where cleanliness, light and comfort reign, 
 and where endeavour is made to get the workman to regard 
 his work more as a problem to be solved than a task to be got 
 through." 
 
 Mr. Clynes, as a Parliamentary representative of 
 Labour and as District Secretary of the National Union 
 of General Workers, is exceptionally well qualified to 
 voice the views and feelings of our workers, and his 
 
IO 
 
 able, restrained, convincing and human remarks on 
 the attitude of Labour in relation to some of the 
 problems discussed in these pages will surely be read 
 with sympathetic interest. Indeed, they tempt me to 
 again refer to Mr. Longridge's Address, in which he 
 suggests that employers also should consider how far 
 limitation of output and objections to piece-work, two 
 of the most serious causes of difference with the 
 Unions, are due to their own short-sighted policy in 
 cutting Piece-work Rates. He said : 
 
 "The case has been very plainly put by Mr. Barnes, M.P. 
 ' The system/ he says, ' has been a failure because, in the 
 stress of competition, piece-work earnings have tended . to 
 slide downwards to what previously had been a time-work 
 wage.' Indeed, it would almost seem to have been an article 
 of economic religion that a workman's earnings should be 
 limited by precedent. And thus we go on in a vicious circle, 
 the master unable to increase wages because the workman will 
 not give the necessary output, the workman limiting the 
 output because the master does not raise the pay." 
 
 The attainment and maintenance of peace between 
 master and man is of such paramount importance to 
 the State and the Empire that I cannot apologise for 
 quoting in conclusion Mr. Longridge's eloquent perora- 
 tion, which reached a lofty plane of fervid patriotism 
 and was received by a representative and influential 
 meeting with the greatest enthusiasm. He said : 
 
 " You cannot drive 2,000,000 trade unionists, but you can 
 \ educate and persuade them. ' In a national crisis men should 
 think more of what they could give than what they were 
 likely to get,' said a great Labour leader to the Manchester 
 Trade Union Congress only three months ago. Can we not 
 act upon his words the time is ripe ? We stand to-day upon 
 a peak of circumstance uplifted by the war, our eyesight 
 cleared by common peril, our sympathies unsealed by common 
 pain. Behind us are the dark days of the past, before us on 
 the far horizon is the new industrial world. Can we not turn 
 our backs upon the night and march in faith, in -hope, in 
 charity, towards the dawn the dawn of a new day when 
 England shall be Merrie England in the noblest sense, wherein 
 employer and employed shall live in peace and work together 
 for the glory of their native land ? " 
 
 HENRY J. SPOONER. 
 May I4th, 1917. 
 
II 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SUB -HEADINGS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Output not necessarily proportional to the hours worked 13 
 
 Official Investigations Relating to Fatigue . . . . 15 
 
 Overtime and Sunday Work . . . . . . 1 7 
 
 Psychology and Fatigue . . . . . . . . 1 8 
 
 Wide Range of Factors in Physiological Investigations . . 18 
 
 Definition and Causation of Fatigue . . . . 19 
 
 Man-power, or the Labouring Power of a First-class Man 21 
 
 Relation of Work done and Internal Work of the Human 
 
 Machine . . . . . . . . . . ' 2 
 
 Rest from Fatiguing Labour. Weber's and Taylor's 
 
 Laws . . . . . . . . . . 22 
 
 The most Efficient Length of Working Day . . . . 23 
 
 Experiments on Shortening the Hours of Labour 
 
 (Balancing) . . . . . . . . . . 24 
 
 Two Shifts versus Three Shifts . . . . . . 25 
 
 The Five Hours Spell . . . . ' . , . . 26 
 
 Effect of Interest or Incentive on Output . . . . 26 
 
 Unnecessary Fatigue in its Relation to Output . . 27 
 
 Trifling Matters may Cause Fatigue . . . . 29 
 
 High Cost of Materials due to Wasteful Methods . . 29 
 
 The Science of Shovelling . , . . . . . . , 30 
 
 The Efficiency Engineer and the Economy of Scrapping 30 
 
 Dilution and Sub-division of Labour . . . . 31 
 
 Reclassification of Trades . . . . . . . . 32 
 
 Typical Scheme of Reclassification . . . . v . . 32 
 
 Management, Traditional and Scientific . . . . 3 . 
 
 Restriction of Output . . . . . . . . 35 
 
 Remedy for Restriction . . . . . . . . 35 
 
 Scientific Methods in Management . . . . . . 36 
 
 A Secret of Germany's Remarkable Industrial Progress 37 
 
 Marvels of Waste Prevention. Increased Output by 
 
 Less Work . . . . . . . . . . 38 
 
12 
 
 Page. 
 
 A Motion Study . . . . . . . . . . 39 
 
 Hope for Disabled Soldiers . . . . . . 40 
 
 The Two Methods of Attacking the Problem of Disable- 
 ment . . . . . . . . . . 40 
 
 Use of Time Studies in Increasing Output . . . . 42 
 
 Iron Plate Punching Timed . . . . . . 42 
 
 Speeding Up Machine Tools . . . . . . 43 
 
 The Importance of Efficient Welfare Work . . . . 44 
 
 The Housing Question . . . . . . . . 45 
 
 Welfare Supervision . . . . . . . . 46 
 
 The Duties of Welfare Supervision . . . . . . 46 
 
 Desirable Additions to the Above . . . . . . 47 
 
 Economic Loss due to the Mobility of Labour . . 50 
 
 Labour Turnover . . . . . . . . . . 50 
 
 Employment Departments . . . . . . . . 5 T 
 
 Inefficient Labour . . . . . . . . . . 52 
 
 Hasty Discharges of Workmen . . . . . . 52 
 
 The Labour Turnover Problem . . . . . . 53 
 
 Scientific (or Methodical) Management . . . . 54 
 
 Elements of Scientific Management . . . . . . 54 
 
 After the War Problems . . . . . . . . 5 ; 
 
 Unlimited Industrial Expansion . . . . . . 56 
 
 Urgent Problems Awaiting Solution . . . . 57 
 
 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . 57 
 
Industrial Fatigue in its Relation 
 to Maximum Output. 
 
 By Professor SPOONER, C.E., M.I.Mech.E., F.G.S. 
 
 The question as to what number of hours a week an 
 employee should work to enable him to produce the 
 largest output without injurious fatigue, is a pressing 
 one of paramount national importance ; the problem 
 is one that is more easily enunciated than solved, as 
 its solution in any given case depends upon a fairly 
 wide range of factors, in addition to the personal 
 element. Now, if the problem involves difficulties in 
 the case of an individual, it becomes complex in the 
 case of a body of men engaged on the same class of work, 
 and still more complicated in a works where a large 
 range of operations and processes widely differing in 
 character is carried out, as we shall see hereafter. 
 
 The question at issue has been growing in importance 
 since the outbreak of war, and it has brought to the 
 front the extremely important subject of industrial 
 fatigue, indeed, the war has caused us to give more 
 attention to fatigue during the past two years than it 
 received from us during the preceding half century. 
 
 Output not necessarily proportional to 
 the Hours Worked. 
 
 The urgent call for shells and still more shells, 
 indeed, for munitions of all kinds, led to workers being 
 called upon to labour very long hours, and in a large 
 proportion of cases seven days a week, but, after a 
 time it was found that the output was far from being 
 proportional to the number of hours per week worked , 
 particularly when the hours were much above the 
 normal, and that in a fairly large proportion of cases 
 there was an abnormal amount of time lost through 
 
14 
 
 illness and other causes. A state of things that cer- 
 tainly might have been foreseen, having regard to the 
 conditions under which a great deal of the work was 
 done, especially in old-fashioned factories, large numbers 
 of which exist in our manufacturing centres, in the 
 London area in particular, works that have been 
 gradually extended in many cases by the addition of 
 adjacent premises or houses ; and there are also a 
 great many works that have been rapidly improvised 
 or converted to enable them to be utilised for the pro- 
 duction of munition work ; the invariable characteristics 
 of such shops are abnormal noise, bad lighting, and 
 inefficient ventilation and heating ; in fact, practically 
 most of the causes of unnecessary fatigue, or fatigue 
 that is not directly due to work done ; and in some cases 
 the conditions under which work is done are even still 
 more injurious to health. A case in point might be 
 cited that is typical of far too many in this country ; 
 the writer on visiting an important old factory in 
 London that was engaged on munitions, was made 
 very sad by seeing a poor anaemic looking fellow working 
 at an emery buff in a cellar-like place, in which the 
 lighting was bad, and in which no provision was made 
 for the withdrawal of the deadly emery and brass dust 
 thrown off from the wheel ; indeed, there was prac- 
 tically no circulation of air. Now, this was not a case 
 of a grasping unfeeling employer conducting his busi- 
 ness with an utter disregard for the well-being of his 
 employees, as the manager, an intelligent and able 
 man (earning 1,500 a year) is thought well of by the 
 workers : it is rather a case of ignorance in such matters 
 and want of imagination, and it was only necessary to 
 call his attention to the danger to receive a promise 
 that it would be attended to. It might well be asked 
 what were our Factory Inspectors doing to allow work 
 to be done under such unhygienic and fatiguing con- 
 ditions ? The answer of course is that they are doing 
 all that is humanly possible, but the ground to be 
 covered is so enormous that if we had ten times their 
 number it is doubtful whether there would be enough 
 
of them to periodically inspect all our workshops and 
 factories that now need attention and advice ; valuable 
 advice that is freely given to employers and workers 
 by these devoted servants of the Home Office. Indeed, 
 the State is well served by their paternal efforts to 
 conserve the health, safety and life of our industrial- 
 workers ; but, strangely enough, the workers them- 
 selves do not always follow the good advice given them 
 by the rules of their shops and by the Inspectors in 
 matters relating to fatigue and health, particularly 
 when poisonous vapours or gases and harmful dust are 
 concerned. Nor apparently do they appeal to the 
 Inspector when the Factory Acts have not been com- 
 plied with by their employers. 
 
 Fortunately, during the past decade or two many 
 such unsatisfactory works as we have referred to above 
 have been transplanted to the outskirts of the London 
 area in increasing numbers with the greatest advantage 
 to all concerned ; indeed, some of the worst cases the 
 writer can remember are now, after the works have 
 been removed to country districts, perfect models of 
 what industrial works should be for the welfare of the 
 workers, and from nearly all points of view ; as in their 
 lofty, clean, well-lighted, efficiently heated and ven- 
 tilated shops an atmosphere exists that is inimical to 
 unnecessary fatigue. 
 
 But the elimination of unnecessary fatigue in indus- 
 trial operations involves many other important matters 
 that must be considered, and we may now give some 
 attention to fatigue from the standpoints of the 
 physiologist and the psychologist. 
 
 Official Investigations Relating to Fatigue. 
 
 The Committee of the British Association appointed 
 to investigate fatigue from the economic standpoint 
 presented its first interim report in September, 1915, 
 and its second interim report in September, 1916, 
 whilst in the middle of September, 1915, the Minister 
 of Munitions appointed a Committee " to consider and 
 advise in questions of industrial fatigue, hours of labour 
 
 D 
 
i6 
 
 and other matters affecting the physical health and 
 physical efficiency of workers in munition factories and 
 workshops/' The Committee published its first 
 Memorandum, entitled, " Sunday Labour/' in Novem- 
 ber, 1915, and since then the following Memoranda 
 have been published by the " Health of Munition 
 Workers' Committee " from time to time : " Welfare 
 Supervision " (Cd. 8151 ; price id.), " Industrial 
 Canteens/' " Employment of Women " (Cd. 8185 ; 
 price ijd.-), " Hours of Work" (Cd. 8186 ; price ijd.)> 
 " Industrial Fatigue and its Causes " (Cd. 8213 ; price 
 ijd.), " Special Industrial Diseases " (Cd. 8214 ; price 
 id.), " Ventilation and Lighting of Munition Factories 
 and Workshops " (Cd. 8215 ; price i-|-d.), and " Sick- 
 ness and Injury " (Cd. 8216 ; price ijd.). 
 
 In August, 1915, the first interim report on an 
 " Investigation of Industrial Fatigue by Physiological 
 Methods," by Prof. A. F. Stanley Kent, the distinguished 
 Head of the Department of Physiology, University of 
 Bristol, was published by the Home Office as a blue 
 book, followed in September of this year by the second 
 interim report (Cd. 8335 ; price is. 6d.), a book of 
 some 80 pages of most important matter. 
 
 At first sight it might appear that a good deal of 
 overlapping in the investigations dealt with in these 
 different papers would occur, but this has apparently 
 been avoided, as we are told in the British Association 
 report that the investigators have been conversant 
 with one another's work. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to explain that these publica- 
 tions represent a very large amount of painstaking 
 research, carried out by men of great distinction, and 
 they should be studied by all interested in the urgent 
 national problem of getting the maximum output from 
 our workers' efforts without injury to their health due 
 to accumulated fatigue. 
 
 This being the primary object of the Ministry of 
 Munitions' investigations, it is to be regretted that the 
 terms of reference were not drafted on broader lines, 
 so as to include the consideration of any departures from 
 
*7 
 
 ordinary workshop methods, practice and processes that 
 the science of management has proved to be profitable 
 
 in fVip rHr^rtinn rvf rmtrnit 
 
 LJ.1C O^/lCJUV^^ V^J. 111CLJ.J. 0.^^111 tlU 
 
 in the direction of output 
 
 Overtime and Sunday Work. 
 
 Now a careful perusal of the above mentioned papers 
 makes clear that the conclusions as to overtime and 
 Sunday work reached by the investigators through 
 their more or less quantitative experiments and obser- 
 vations agree with those that managers of industrial 
 works have long known to be more or less true. 
 
 In the main, it was not the works managers who 
 were responsible for the large amount of overtime and 
 Sunday labour the munition workers have been called 
 upon to work, as in a general way, the most experienced^ 
 managers have long known that a good healthy worker 
 is capable of working time and a half over a fairly long 
 period without a sensible decrease of production if all 
 the conditions are favourable, but they know that 
 continuous overtime inevitably leads to a marked 
 falling off in the hourly rate and in the day's production 
 .of the average worker. In fact, they know that in a 
 certain proportion of cases a substantial increase in the 
 actual total output can be secured by a reduction in 
 the working hours ; and the inquiries conducted by 
 the Ministry of Munitions, the British Association and 
 the Home Office are to a large extent in agreement 
 with the experience of managers. Indeed, we are told 
 in the Memorandum No. 5 " it is noticeable that amongst 
 those in favour of shorter hours are employers who 
 have given the most careful study to the question of 
 industrial fatigue and scientific management/' 
 
 Physiological methods have been to a wide extent 
 used by the investigators, and the science of the causa- 
 tion of fatigue has been well advanced by them, but 
 apparently there is a noticeable absence of the enuncia- 
 tion of any definite laws comparable with those of Weber 
 and of Taylor ; but, even so, the investigations carry 
 us a long way in the right direction 
 
,OA' 
 Psychology and Fatigue. 
 
 We are truly told that " in the study of fatigue, 
 account has to be taken of many things that are so 
 inexplicable at present in terms of physiology as to be 
 called psychological." Indeed, it is commonly known 
 that fatigue occurs due to anything that affects the 
 nervous system.* Thus noise, worry, flickering lights, 
 inefficient lighting, or light reflected from bright parts 
 of machinery striking the eyes, faulty heating and 
 ventilation, and an atmosphere of fussiness ; in fact, 
 anything disturbing to comfort or arresting attention 
 creates a jelling of Jatigue h\the worker, but in different 
 degrees with different workers, and in different degrees 
 with the same worker due to varying conditions of 
 health. In fact the broad factor of environment affects 
 every worker, but it affects some workers in a remark- 
 able degree. So these complicated conditions make it 
 extraordinarily difficult for physiologists to formulate 
 laws, as no sound judgment can be formed upon a 
 comparatively few isolated cases such as are dealt with 
 in the reports when in onr industries the permutations 
 of the varying factors are practically without limit. 
 This is understood, as the following paragraph from the 
 British Association report tends to show. " On the 
 whole, however, in spite of their experiments in school 
 and laboratory, the work of the psychologists is still 
 for the most part the reverse of illuminating for the 
 problems of industry." 
 
 Wide range of Factors in Physiological 
 Investigations. 
 
 The work of physiologists in studying the endurance 
 and the power of recovery from fatigue of the human 
 animal has led to much more satisfactory results, 
 although in this field investigations are complicated 
 by the fact that industrial workers are of various 
 types, ranging from the strong to the weak, from those 
 
 *Professor Stanley Kent tells us that " the seat of fatigue is 
 rather on the nervous than on the muscular side." 
 
who enjoy uniform good health to those who are often 
 ill or indisposed, and from those endowed with abnormal 
 energy to those who are lethargic with very little, and, 
 again, from those who conserve their health by paying 
 proper attention to diet, sleep and rest, to those who 
 are careless and intemperate in all things. It has long 
 been known, and the recent investigations have demon- 
 strated it, that different amounts of fatigue will be 
 produced in members of these different classes due to 
 similar activities. Also that the variations in the 
 fitness of the workers day by day affect the amount of 
 fatigue produced, and the power of recovery, as labour 
 is not, as we have seen, the sole cause of fatigue. Indeed, 
 investigations are further complicated by the very wide 
 range of work done in some factories and industries 
 under varying conditions too numerous to mention ; 
 thus we have the extremes of heat and cold in furnace 
 work on the one hand and the manufacture of ice on the 
 other, the extremes of noise and silence in the loco- 
 motive boiler shop or the coppersmiths' shop on one 
 hand and the watchmakers' assembling room on the 
 other. The extremes represented by the exposure to 
 all weathers of the agricultural worker, the soldiers and 
 sailors to the comfortable surroundings of a designer 
 or accountant working in a well appointed office. 
 \ We thus see that fatigue problems of the industrial 
 world are so complicated in most cases that complete 
 solutions are not to be looked for. 
 
 Definition and Causation of Fatigue. 
 
 At this stage we can profitably give attention to the 
 definition and causation of fatigue and we cannot do 
 better than quote from the admirable Memorandum 
 No. 7, previously referred to, which deals with the 
 matter physiologically : 
 
 " Fatigue is the sum of the results of activity which show 
 themselves in a diminished capacity for doing work. In 
 ordinary language fatigue is generally associated with familiar 
 bodily sensations, and these sensations are often taken to be 
 its measure. It is of vital importance for the proper study 
 of industrial fatigue, however, to recognise not only that 
 
20 
 
 bodily sensations are a fallacious guide to the true state of 
 fatigue which may be present, and a wholly inadequate 
 measure of it, but also that fatigue in its true meaning advances 
 progressively, and must be measurable at any stage by a 
 diminished capacity for work, before its signs appear plainly, 
 or at all, in sensation. 
 
 " In the animal body the performance of work depends on 
 the activities of parts which are best considered under three 
 groups: first, the complex nervous mechanisms of the brain 
 and spinal chord, which are concerned in the initiation and 
 distribution of impulses to action, second, the nerves, which 
 conduct the impulses to muscles ; and third, the muscles 
 themselves, which by contracting finally perform external 
 work. 
 
 " Fatigue has been separately studied in all these parts. 
 In its essential features the fatigue of all alike has been found, 
 when it occurs, to depend not upon the simple using up 
 ' exhaustion ' of the substances supplying the chemical 
 energy which is liberated during work, but upon the accumula- 
 tion within the living elements of the products of the chemical 
 changes involved. Fatigue of the animal machine, that is to 
 say, is not to be compared with the failure of fuel as in a 
 steam-engine, or with the running down of a clock weight, 
 but rather with the clogging of the wheels in some mechanism 
 by dirt." 
 
 Now, this last clear statement of a physiological fact 
 should be welcomed, as it fits well with the engineer's 
 conception of how the fatigue due to short interruptions 
 of work, lasting perhaps in each case only a few seconds, 
 or at most a few minutes, cannot be considered as the 
 equivalent of an interval of rest equal to their sum * 
 for on the contrary, instead of counteracting the fatigue 
 due to actual work, they necessarily make a further 
 contribution thereto ; this part of fatigue being analogous 
 to the idle running of an engine. 
 
 To the engineer, the human machine is a marvel of 
 ingenuity, with extraordinary powers of endurance 
 under certain conditions, equipped with wonderful 
 safety devices, not the least remarkable being the one 
 which comes into action due to fatigue ; for Professor 
 Stanley Kent tells us (second interim Report) that 
 " the appearance of fatigue is due to the action of a 
 protective mechanism, similar to the safety valve or 
 electric fuse, but, unlike these, acting when energy 
 becomes deficient/' 
 
 V 
 
21 
 
 Man -Power, or the Labouring Power 
 of a First-Glass Man. 
 
 Happily in recent years tfte use of machinery has 
 greatly reduced the amount of fatiguing labouring work 
 done by man ; but mechanical appliances have not 
 eliminated it, nor, alas, are they likely to in the years 
 to come ; thus the soldier is sometimes called on to 
 make long marches heavily laden with his rifle, pack, 
 &c., the use of mechanical excavators has not abolished 
 the heavy work of the navvy, nor the use of coal cutting 
 machines the strenuous work of the miner, and so on ; 
 this being so, it will always be a matter of interest as 
 to what represents a good day's labouring work. 
 
 Many years ago Dr. Parkes, F.R.S., noted what he 
 believed to be the hardest day's work of twelve hours ; 
 the case was that of a workman in a copper rolling-mill 
 whose ordinary day's work, which he considered ex- 
 tremely hard, was raising a weight of 124 Ibs. 16 inches, 
 6,000 times a day' equivalent to 443 tons lifted a foot, 
 or, using the language of mechanics, 443 foot -tons. 
 But occasionally this worker raised a weight of 90 Ibs. 
 to a height of 18 inches 12,000 times a day, equal to 
 773 foot-tons ; a truly remarkable performance. 
 
 From Dr. Parkes' investigations he believed that 
 500 foot-tons a day to be an extremely hard day's 
 work, which few men could continue to do, and that 
 300 foot -tons represented an average day's work for 
 such workers ; whilst 400 foot-tons would be a hard 
 day's work. These figures approximate to those given 
 by other authorities ; thus Coulomb gave in foot -tons 
 the following : for turning a winch 374, porters carrying 
 goods and returning unladen 325, porters carrying 
 wood upstairs and returning unloaded 381 ; Lamande 
 gave for pile driving 352, and Haughton gave for 
 paviors' work 352 foot-tons. 
 
 Relation between work done and Internal Work 
 of the Human Machine. 
 
 Now these quantities of work are equivalent to what 
 the engineer, in measuring the power of an engine, 
 
22 
 
 calls effective work, but part of the total energy put 
 into an engine in the form of steam, gas or oil, is con- 
 sumed in doing internal work, so in the human machine 
 (which may be regarded as an internal combustion 
 engine, for this purpose), we have internal work done 
 by the heart (that may continue to beat incessantly in 
 alternating contraction and relaxtion, throughout the 
 man's life without any accumulated fatigue) muscles 
 of respiration, digestion, &c., and this has been variously 
 estimated : the estimate for the heart alone varying 
 from 122 to 277 foot-tons, the former value is that 
 given by Haughton, who estimated the respiratory 
 movements as being equivalent to n foot -tons in 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 Dr. Parkes adopted a mean value of 260 foot-tons 
 for all the internal mechanical work, and 300 to 500 
 foot -tons as the external work of a labourer of the type 
 in question ; and this he estimated was equivalent to 
 from one-eighth to one-seventh of all the work obtain- 
 able from the food ; this, strangely enough, giving an 
 efficiency equal to that obtainable from a first-class 
 modern steam engine, boiler, &c., from the fuel, as 
 measured by the external work in each case. 
 
 Rest from Fatiguing Labour. Weber's 
 and Taylor's Laws. 
 
 In heavy manual work periods of rest should be 
 prescribed scientifically. Weber's law is that " our 
 power of detecting differences between sensations does 
 not depend on the absolute amount of difference in the 
 stimuli, but on the relative amount." And as Dr. 
 L. M. Gilbreth* explains, " the additional fatigue from- 
 handling additional weights causes fatigue to increase 
 with the weight, but not in direct proportion to the 
 extra weight handled. When the correct weight of the 
 unit to be handled has been determined, the additional 
 weight will cause fatigue in quantities greater in pro- 
 portion than the extra weight handled." " 
 
 *The Psychology of Management, by Lillian M. Gilbretl , 
 Ph.D., M.L. 
 
23 
 
 Practically all heavy labouring work consists of a 
 heavy push or pull on the man's arms, that is, the 
 man's strength is exerted by either pushing or lifting 
 something which he grasps in his hands. And Taylor's 
 law is that for each given push or pull on the man's 
 arms. it is possible for the workman to be under load 
 for only a definite percentage of the day. For example, 
 when pig iron is being handled (each pig weighing 
 92 pounds), a first-class workman can only be under 
 load 43 per cent, of the day. He must be entirely free 
 from load during 57 per cent, of the day. And as the 
 load becomes lighter, the percentage of the day under 
 which the man can remain under load increases. So 
 that, if the woffcman is handling a half-pig, weighing 
 46 pounds, he can then be under load 58 per cent, of 
 the day, and only has rest during 42 per cent. As the 
 weight grows lighter the man can remain under load 
 during a larger and larger percentage of the day, until 
 finally a load is reached which he can carry in his hands 
 all day long without being tired out. When that point 
 has been arrived at this law ceases to be useful as a 
 guide to a labourer's endurance, and some other law 
 must be found which indicates a man's capacity for 
 work. 
 
 " When a man is carrying a heavy weight in his hands 
 it tries him about as much to stand still under the load 
 as it does to walk wit hit, since his arm muscles are under 
 the same severe tension whether he is moving or not, and 
 the tissues of his arm muscles are in a process of degenera- 
 tion ; so frequent periods of rest completely free from 
 load are required in order that the blood may have a 
 chance to restore these tissues to their normal condition. 
 
 Thus science prescribes rest for overcoming fatigue 
 of the worker more accurately and economically than 
 he could possibly provide it for himself, be the work 
 heavv or light. 
 
 The most Efficient Length of Working Day. 
 
 The vexed question of what on the whole is the most 
 efficient length of the working day has for years been 
 
24 
 
 discussed, but it now demands serious attention. It 
 is often suggested that it is to the interest of the em- 
 ployer that the working day should be as long as possible, 
 and to the interest of the employee that it should as be 
 short as possible, of course, provided always that the 
 wages do not alter ; but, it cannot be denied that whilst 
 too short a working day injures the employer, too long 
 a one injures the employee : the problem is in all cases 
 to find the golden mean that is equally advantageous 
 to both parties. 
 
 Now, there cannot be a doubt that the best length 
 of working day varies in different trades, and in the 
 same trade under different conditions and circum- 
 stances ; thus workers engaged on light work or purely 
 mechanical work in well ventilated and efficiently 
 lighted shops can, for example, work longer hours with 
 less fatigue than smelters or furnace men, who labour 
 in a sweltering and vitiated atmosphere. Further, an 
 industry carried on in a town may require a shorter day 
 than a like industry located in the country ; but it is 
 generally possible to determine scientifically by fatigue 
 studies what length of working day is on the whole most 
 advantageous to both parties in the circumstances ; 
 best for the workers because it allows them to recuperate 
 their strength day by day, and best also for the em- 
 ployer because he profits by the employees' increased 
 capacity for work. It is true that shorter hours mean 
 some loss to the employer due to the machinery running 
 a shorter number of hours ; on the other hand, there is 
 a saving effected in the expenditure on motive power. 
 
 Experiments on Shortening the Hours of 
 Labour (Balancing). 
 
 Many interesting experiments have been made from 
 time to time on the economic effect of shortening the 
 length of the working day, and attention may be called 
 to the one made in the Ziess optical works of Jena in 
 the early part of the year 1900 ; and described by 
 Dr. Auerbach : 
 
" The employees of the works were asked whether they 
 thought themselves capable of, and were willing to do, as 
 much work in eight hours as they had heretofore done in nine. 
 Six-sevenths of the replies were in the affirmative, and as a 
 consequence the working day was reduced, at first tentatively, 
 for a year to eight hours. The result was satisfactory in the 
 highest degree. An accurate comparison of the work done 
 before and after the change could, for various reasons, be 
 made only in the cases of 233 pieceworkers. It was, however, 
 found that in this instance the output so far from having 
 diminished, had actually increased by 4 per cent. ; notwith- 
 standing that the conditions of work vary very considerably, 
 the above result was found to be applicable to workers of all 
 ages, and, with perhaps a single exception, to every depart- 
 ment. At the same time the efficiency of the machinery was 
 considerably increased. Still more interesting than the results 
 of this statistical investigation were those of a psychological 
 enquiry, which was carried out secretly, and which supplied 
 evidence, the value of which was all the greater because the 
 results in question, objectively considered were in opposition 
 to the subjective feelings of the people concerned, and could 
 not therefore have been influenced thereby. The workmen, 
 when asked, invariably declared that in order to avoid loss 
 they had worked very hard at first, after the introduction of 
 the eight hours day, but they had been unable to keep up the 
 pressure, and had fallen back into the old routine. They 
 therefore wished to return to the nine hours day, as otherwise 
 their position would be very unfavourably affected. The 
 records, however, showed that whilst it was undoubtedly 
 true that the workers had laboured for the first few days 
 under abnormally high pressure and had then slowed down, 
 they had, notwithstanding, ultimately accommodated them- 
 selves not as they imagined, to their former hourly, but to 
 the former daily output, doing in fact a little in excess of this. 
 This showed that work under increased pressure, so long as 
 the pressure is not so great as to lead to an increase in the 
 daily output, does not produce over exertion." 
 
 The above is an excellent illustration of that adjust- 
 ment of application to the length of the working day, 
 and the maintenance of equilibrium between the develop- 
 ment and expenditure of energy which is so often 
 unconsciously made, and is referred to by writers on 
 fatigue as balancing. 
 
 Two Shifts versus Three Shifts. 
 
 When for some good reason it becomes necessary to 
 run a factory continuously, as is now done in many 
 munition works, the vexed question of two shifts of 
 
26 
 
 I 
 
 12 hours each versus three shifts of 8 hours each has 
 to receive serious attention. Of course, in cases where 
 it is necessary for a works to produce its maximum 
 output, and the workers are available in sufficient 
 number, the three shift arrangement would be adopted 
 with the best results ; but in other cases, in which the 
 maximum output per worker is aimed at, the decision 
 as to which arrangement should be adopted would 
 largely depend upon the character of the work done ; 
 thus where output is controlled mainly by machines 
 the twelve hours shift would probably be the best, as 
 such work can generally be performed sufficiently well 
 by tired men, but, as Professor Stanley Kent has found 
 in his researches, " skilled work calling for judgment 
 and discretion demands freshness and vigour " and 
 for such work the highest efficiency would probably be 
 reached in most cases by the adoption of the three shifts 
 of 8 hours. Indee'd, a manufacturing company in 
 America, which keeps its factory going night and day 
 found on changing from two shifts of 12 hours to three 
 shifts of 8 hours each that the efficiency of the men 
 gradually increased ; and the days lost per man by 
 illness fell from 7^ to 5| per year. 
 
 The Five Hours Spell. 
 
 In some factories working from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 
 there is only one break of an hour for a meal from 
 12 to i p.m. This disposition of the hours, although 
 legal, cannot be an economic one, as towards the end 
 of each spell the fatigue must be pronounced ; indeed, 
 there is growing evidence that to secure the highest 
 efficiency we must pay far more attention to suitable 
 rest periods, and reduce the hours of continuous labour. 
 
 Effect of Interest or Incentive on Output. 
 
 It is generally known that some kind of interest or 
 incentive will increase the capacity for work of the 
 ordinary worker ; it may be a bonus, or a share in the 
 profits as a co-partner, that quite naturally spurs the 
 worker to almost unconsciously increase his output ; 
 
27 
 
 or the incentive might be so great that an astonishing 
 amount of extra work will be done without any 
 injurious fatigue being noticeable. 
 
 The writer had under observation some years ago a 
 remarkable case of this kind ; a six o'clock man finishing 
 his day's work as an erector at 5 o'clock, after having 
 tea worked at a foot-lathe at home in a most strenuous 
 way for some four or five hours each evening, and this 
 he did for some months on end, without apparently 
 suffering from fatigue, as the sign of fatigue is diminished 
 output, and there was no evidence of that ; but in this 
 case there was a very strong and worthy incentive to 
 earn the extra money. 
 
 The psychology of such cases is referred to in the 
 following paragraph from Memorandum No. 7 :* 
 " Interest may improve the working capacity even for 
 a uniform monotonous activity, and the interest may 
 spring from emotional states, or, as some think, from 
 states of anticipatory pleasure before meal time and 
 rest (' end-spurt '), or again, from a sense of patriotism 
 eager to forward the munition output." This view is 
 supported by Professor Kent, who remarks that 
 " psychical influences affect output ; the output on 
 Saturday, in spite of great fatigue, is often high, owing 
 to anticipation of the week-end rest." 
 
 Unnecessary Fatigue in its Relation to Output. 
 
 The call for the suspension of trade union restrictions, 
 to enable women to replace in our factories men engaged 
 in the fighting forces, also the call for the fullest scope 
 to be given to the principle of dilution of labour, have 
 been met by the workers and their representatives in 
 a most praiseworthy and patriotic spirit ; and now 
 that the vexed and important questions of the most 
 efficient working hours and the amount of overtime 
 permissible are more or less settled for the time being, 
 the question arises, is there any aspect of the general 
 
 ""Industrial Fatigue and its Causes, by the Health of 
 Munition Workers Committee of the Ministry of Munitions 
 (Cd. 8213, Price i|d.). 
 
28 
 
 subject of fatigue in its relation to production that has 
 not received adequate attention. The answer can only 
 be in the affirmative ; as apparently certain forms of 
 waste, which in their broad comprehensive scope are 
 among the most important factors in economic production , 
 have not been considered by the authorities, although 
 they have received some attention here and there. 
 
 Now unnecessary fatigue is largely due to waste 
 motions, waste energy and waste time. Endless 
 examples could be given, but let us consider a typical 
 case, such as a worker engaged in assembling a small 
 machine or any complete thing consisting of a number 
 of separate parts. The traditional procedure is to 
 surround the worker with a collection of the separate 
 parts ; some may be in boxes lying about the bench 
 others on the floor, the latter necessitating a bending 
 action on the part of the worker each time a piece is 
 required. Now in shops where science and method 
 rule, all the component parts would be carefully arranged 
 on well thought out frames and tables, placed in such 
 positions in relation to the 'worker that he could reach 
 each piece as it was required in proper sequence with 
 the minimum amount of motion of any part of his body, 
 therefore, with the minimum amount of fatigue and 
 loss in time. A case in point is explained more in 
 detail hereafter, in which an operator who formerly 
 took 37! minutes to assemble a machine could do the 
 same job in 8^ minutes with less fatigue, after his 
 movements and the operations had been organised. 
 
 Another striking example of quite unnecessary 
 fatigue in a different branch of industry may be cited ; 
 it occurs in fish curing operations in Scotland.* The 
 bottoms of the " Farlanes " or troughs containing the 
 fish are commonly on or near the level of the ground, 
 so that women while employed in gutting are com- 
 pelled almost continuously to bend their backs in a 
 most uncomfortable fashion, the upper portion of the 
 body forming nearly a right angle with the legs ; a 
 
 * Chief Inspector's Annual Report on Factories, &c., 1914, 
 page 64. 
 
29 
 
 back-breaking position from which they can only 
 assume a vertical position at the cost of considerable 
 pain. Who could doubt that the obvious remedy 
 would increase the output, with less fatigue ? 
 
 Trifling Matters may Cause Fatigue. 
 
 Although the subject of industrial fatigue is a most 
 comprehensive one, as we have seen, calling for careful 
 study of the available literature and of the official 
 publications previously detailed, to keep abreast of our 
 present knowledge of it ; the history of fatigue work 
 abounds in cases in which some trifling matter has been 
 found to be the cause of fatigue, and in which the 
 output has been materially increased by a slight adjust- 
 ment, replacement or re-arrangement. For instance, a 
 chair, bench or vice may be too high or too low for the 
 worker ; a chair that is used hours on end may have 
 an uncomfortable seat ; the worker's wearing apparel 
 may not be easy fitting and comfortable ; the heels of 
 the boots may be too high for a worker who has to 
 stand for hours each day ; the shop or room may be 
 draughty, or too cold, particularly at the floor level ; 
 the lighting may be inefficient, and so on. In a word, 
 it pays to do everything v/ithin reason to make a worker 
 comfortable, without the suggestion of coddling. 
 
 High Cost of Materials due to Wasteful 
 Methods. 
 
 The economic effect of the absence of* method and 
 organisation in relation to unnecessary fatiguing* labour 
 is felt in all directions where production is concerned. 
 Examples without end could be given ; the following 
 being typical of a certain class. In normal times 
 enormous quantities of building sand are used in the 
 London area, and its price is in the order of los. to 
 us. per ton, a sum greatly exceeding what it should 
 be, having regard to the value of the sand at the pits, 
 or river bank, but when the antiquated methods of 
 handling and transporting the material are examined 
 it is not astonishing. The sand is shovelled into carts 
 
30 
 
 at the pit, say at Luton, carted to the railway station 
 and shot in a heap at the yard ; in due course it is 
 shovelled into a railway truck, conveyed to the London 
 yard, and again shot in a heap, from which it is again 
 shovelled into the contractors' carts ; and well might 
 we complain of the cost of our military and other 
 building operations, and of the amount of unnecessary 
 labour when our man power is being taxed to its limits. 
 
 The Science of Shovelling. 
 
 Then, further, quite apart from the cost of transport, 
 little or no attention is given to the science of shovelling 
 sand and other materials. Many years ago Taylor, by 
 careful experiments, found that a first-class shoveller 
 could do his best day's work, day in and day out, when 
 the load on the shovel was about 21 pounds, and this 
 led him to provide shovels of different sizes for different 
 materials. He found that when a shoveller owned his 
 own shovel he would frequently go from shovelling ore, 
 with a load of about 30 pounds per shovel, to handling 
 rice coal, with a load on the same shovel of less than 
 four pounds. In the one case, he was so overloaded 
 that it was impossible for him to do a full day's work, 
 and in the other case he was so ridiculously under-- 
 loaded that it was manifestly impossible to even 
 approximate a day's work. 
 
 Of course, there are other elements which go to make 
 up the science of shovelling that cannot be dealt with 
 here. 
 
 The Efficiency Engineer and the Economy 
 of Scrapping. 
 
 Countless further examples could be given if space 
 would allow ; indeed, turn in any direction we may, 
 and examine the working conditions in any industry, 
 but not necessarily every factory is a given industry, 
 we find that the output could be increased, and in some 
 cases tremendously increased, by scrapping antiquated 
 machinery and methods, and replacing them by up- 
 to-date plant, devices and methods. And this too with 
 
less fatigue, and in some cases with fewer workers. 
 Indeed, we must not close our eyes to the fact that in 
 far too many works in all our industries there is a 
 lamentable absence of enterprise, and apparently of 
 clear-sighted appreciation of the economic value of 
 modem machinery. Doubtless the difficulty experi- 
 enced in procuring capital for industrial developments 
 is the primary cause in many cases, but, be the cause 
 whatever it may, we should ever keep before our minds 
 the following reference to American enterprise made in 
 the report of the Moseley Commission : 
 
 ' The finest machine obtainable, the newest and 
 most up-to-date appliances are used ; and a manu- 
 facturer will consign the whole of his plant to the scrap 
 heap without remorse if he sees that newer and better 
 machinery can be installed which will enable him to 
 realise a larger output of work." 
 
 But even in cases where, for one reason or another, 
 modern machinery cannot be installed, the services of 
 an efficiency engineer could be utilised with very great 
 advantage in speeding up mechanical operations to 
 an extent that the best practice has proved to be most 
 efficient, and by organising improved methods of 
 working to increase the output with less fatigue. Not 
 the least potent of these would be in the direction 
 of the dilution and sub-division of labour. 
 
 Dilution and Sub -division of Labour. 
 
 Among the problems relating to economic production 
 that the war has forced upon the entire country is that 
 of the dilution of labour, and the great developments 
 that have taken place in this direction have conclu- 
 sively shown that it offers one of the largest fields for 
 economising labour. During the past decade or two 
 there has been a steady increase in the division and 
 sub-division of labour in large factories, increasing the 
 amount of work that could properly fall to semi-skilled 
 and unskilled labour ; yet in many trades the free 
 expansion of this valuable economic principle has been 
 greatly restricted by the trade unions, but owing to 
 
32 
 
 the patriotic suspension of such restrictions where the 
 manufacture of munitions is concerned we have had 
 clearly demonstrated the possibilities of further econo- 
 mies in this direction. 
 
 Reclassification of Trades. 
 
 The fact is that many of our trades badly need 
 sub-classifying and standardising, and if we are to hold 
 our own after the war this must be seriously taken in 
 hand. In fact, it will be one of the means of securing 
 for our workers a continuation of the high rates of pay 
 they are now enjoying ; indeed, if we energise, and 
 improve our methods in this and other directions, 
 there is no reason why our workers should not in the 
 time to come enjoy even higher wages and a better 
 social future, with shorter hours of labour in many 
 cases. 
 
 The nation has immensely benefited by the labours 
 of the Engineering Standards Committee during the 
 past few years. A large number of things, from bolts 
 and nuts to high-speed engines, have been standardised 
 to our very great economic advantage ; but much still 
 remains to be done, perhaps even to the extent of 
 standardising certain types of ships. 
 
 Of course some trades more easily lend themselves to 
 reclassification than others, but there can be no doubt 
 that in all cases higher wages and lower production 
 costs would be secured by a division of work into suit- 
 able classes, according to the muscle, brain, training 
 and skill required ; the standards and wages of all 
 classes would be raised, unnecessary waste would be 
 eliminated, and disputes between capital and labour 
 would tend to disappear. 
 
 Typical Scheme of Reclassification. 
 
 As an example of a well thought out scheme of 
 reclassification, the one suggested by Mr. Frank Gilbreth 
 the famous consulting management, engineer for 
 
33 
 
 
 
 brickwork, might be cited as indicating the lines along 
 
 which we should work. He recommends five classes : * 
 
 " CLASS A. Ornamental and exterior face brick and 
 
 moulded terra cotta. 
 
 CLASS B. Interior face tiers that do not show at com- 
 pletion, where strong, plumb and straight 
 work only is needed. 
 
 CLASS C. Filling tiers where only strength is needed. 
 
 CLASS D. Putting fountain trowels and brick packs on 
 
 the wall near the place, and in a manner 
 
 where the other three classes can reach 
 
 them with greatest economy of motion. 
 
 CLASS E. Pack loaders, brick cutters, and stage builders. 
 
 The pay of the A. and B. Classes should be considerably 
 
 higher than is customary for bricklayers. The pay of the 
 
 C., D. and E. Classes should be lower than is customary for 
 
 bricklayers, but much higher than the pay of labourers. This 
 
 classification will raise the pay of all five classes higher than 
 
 they could ever obtain in the classes that they would ordinarily 
 
 work in under the present system, yet the resulting cost of the 
 
 labour on brickwork would be much less, and each class would 
 
 be raised in its standing and educated for better work and 
 
 higher wages. 
 
 In the case of brickwork this new classification is a crying 
 necessity, as the cost of brickwork must be reduced to a point 
 where it can compete with concrete. Improvements in mak- 
 ing, methods of mixing, transporting, and densifying concrete 
 in the metal moulds of to-day have put the entire brickwork 
 proposition where it can be used for looks only, because for 
 strength, imperviousness, quickness of construction, lack of 
 labour troubles, and low cost, brickwork cannot compete 
 with concrete under present conditions. "f 
 
 Those who are acquainted with Mr. Gilbre,th's remark- 
 able achievements will fully admit that there is probably 
 no one better qualified to work out such a scheme, of 
 classification in the particular trade that he has dealt 
 with above, a trade in which, owing to interesting 
 circumstances, he felt called upon to devote his rare 
 gifts in developing scientifically, and in doing this he 
 proved that his methods were practically and com- 
 mercially effective ; but revolutionary as his suggestions 
 
 * " Motion Study," page 96, published by Constable & Co. Ltd. 
 
 f Of course Mr. Gilbreth is referring to the practice in the 
 U.S.A., but there is good reason to believe that they substantially 
 apply to our own country. 
 
34 
 
 
 
 must appear to most of our workers we must admit that 
 they are the natural corollary of our dilution expedients, 
 and that if we are wise we will spare no efforts in worry- 
 ing out in all our important trades scientific classifica- 
 tions, and finally, forms of standardisation, for the 
 good of all. 
 
 Management, Traditional and Scientific. 
 
 The science of management, as represented by the 
 highest productive efficiency in labour, the highest 
 degree of productivity for a given expenditure of 
 materials, labour and the mechanical appliances utilised 
 by labour ; with good dividends and high wages ; is 
 a very complicated and difficult one ; but one that 
 earns rich rewards to all concerned when tackled by 
 the right type of men in the right spirit. A healthy 
 and most promising sign of the times is the many 
 references to " scientific management " which have 
 appeared during the past year or two in our official 
 publications. Thus we find in Memorandum No. 7, 
 ' The problem of scientific industrial management, 
 dealing as it must with the human machine, is funda- 
 mentally a problem of industrial fatigue/' 
 
 Now this important truth could not have been better 
 stated, for the interests of the employers and workers 
 being identical, any well organised system of manage- 
 ment that has for its object the saving of energy, time 
 and materials ; with higher wages for the workers and 
 lower labour costs for the employers ; a system so well 
 thought out that in producing a certain article leaks 
 can be detected by suitable diagnosis so that the pro- 
 duction may be the most efficient and economical, is 
 entitled to be called scientific. 
 
 But whether the system adopted be called scientific 
 management, or scientific administration (as Sir William 
 Lever suggests we should call it) is a question that docs 
 not call for immediate decision so long as science guides 
 our activities. Unfortunately, many employers fight 
 shy of the word scientific, although they may be using 
 good up-to-date methods, and some form of " premium 
 
35 
 
 plan/' which is a fundamental of Taylor's system of 
 scientific management that has been so completely 
 elaborated in the United States, and gives such wonder- 
 ful results to all concerned where it has been intelligently 
 adopted. 
 
 Restriction of Output. 
 
 Unfortunately, one of the most serious difficulties 
 arising in the employment of labour is the reluctance 
 of the majority of employees to work to the best of 
 their ability. They feel, in the first place, that if the}' 
 work hard they may be keeping another man out of 
 a job, a widespread fallacy ; as even from the purely 
 personal view of the wage-earner this policy is short- 
 sighted, because the production of wealth is itself the 
 only means of creating employment ; for in the long 
 run a workman can only be paid out of the product of 
 his own labour, and if that product is restricted the 
 wage will be restricted also ; further, employees feel 
 that by turning out their work in a shorter space of 
 time they may be establishing a basis for a lower rate 
 of pay. 
 
 There is, it is true, some foundation for this fear, as 
 undoubtedly there are foremen and employers who 
 will take advantage of a man's exceptional efforts and 
 reduce the scale of payment. The knowledge that this 
 does happen, explains to a large extent the reluctance 
 of many workmen to work at their highest efficiency, 
 and to some extent to the adoption of the infamous 
 soldiering or ca-canny methods, now happily being to 
 a great extent abandoned for the higher standard ; 
 but the false economic and the false moral theories 
 upon which the policy of restricting output is based 
 have done in the past incalculable harm. 
 
 Remedy for Restriction. 
 
 In seeking for a satisfactory remedy for restriction 
 we must go a little further, and endeavour to find the 
 root cause. Now it does not require a profound know- 
 ledge of human nature to understand that the fear of 
 unemployment must be constantly before the minds 
 
36 
 
 of workers who are family men ; and believing, as 
 many of them do, that a fixed quantity of work is to 
 be done, they oppose speeding-up methods, and the 
 introduction of labour-saving machinery and appliances. 
 The fact that improved methods and speeding-up are 
 going to cheapen production and increase the demand, 
 thereby increasing the demand for labour, is no con- 
 solation to the worker who is likely to be thrown tem- 
 porarily out of employment, and it is this deep-rooted 
 and well founded fear on the part of the worker that 
 he may lose his job that after all is the basic cause of 
 restriction. So, if we are to permanently abolish 
 restriction it would appear that we must so organise 
 our industries that the employees who work to the 
 best of their ability may be reasonably free from such 
 anxieties. 
 
 Scientific Methods in Management. 
 
 There is, however, a third cause of inefficient labour 
 and low production which in this country has received 
 nothing like the attention it deserves ; namely, the 
 fact that the actual method of working is too often left 
 entirely to the worker himself, on the traditional " go 
 as you please " day's work plan ; and he is often so 
 poorly equipped on the technical side that he cannot 
 plan out the most efficient way of doing his own work. 
 Now in scientific management an official of the planning 
 department (called in America a route clerk) a man of 
 the foreman type with an expert knowledge of the work 
 and the machinery used to produce it ; especially 
 selected and trained to plan and analyse all work, 
 methods, &c., issues complete instructions to the 
 workers, instead of such important matters being left 
 to be decided by the skilled mechanics, who are well 
 qualified to work at their trades, but poorly trained for 
 work of a more or less clerical type. 
 
 We may consider an illustration of how this arrange- 
 ment works ; let us take the case of an engineering 
 machine-tool shop. For each piece to be machined an 
 instruction card is issued from the planning depart- 
 ment, on which there is usually a dimensioned sketch 
 
37 
 
 of the piece ; and detailed instructions of the sequence 
 of the operations, with particulars of the tool to be 
 used, depth of cut, feed, cutting speed, the time each 
 operation should take (as determined* by accurate 
 measurement or experiment), and the total time, 
 given. Thus, when an order reaches a worker every 
 detail has been provided for, he has no questions to 
 ask ; the proper tools are placed beside him, and the 
 materials themselves are conveniently near at hand, 
 so his output is proportionately increased, as all his 
 time is spent on productive labour. If a man follows 
 such instructions and accomplishes all the work laid 
 out for him as constituting his proper task for the day, 
 he is, by the task and bonus system, paid a specified 
 bonus, in addition to his day's rate, which he always 
 gets. But in no shop operating under scientific 
 management is a piece rate once set ever " cut," 
 so long as the operations remain unchanged. 
 
 It should be explained that there are many forms of 
 management formulated and in use that do not conform 
 to the laws of management as discovered by Dr. Taylor ; 
 but his management, founded upon time study, is the 
 basis for all scientific management ; that is for types 
 of management where scientific laboratory methods of 
 analysis are substituted for the traditional " rule of 
 thumb methods/' 
 
 A Secret of Germany's Remarkable Industrial 
 Progress. 
 
 It should be generally known that one of the secrets 
 of Germany's wonderful industrial progress during the 
 past quarter of a century is that in her larger works the 
 instruction card methods of increasing output have 
 been freely used. It is true that in more recent years 
 the science of management has been greatly advanced 
 in America, primarily due to the labours of Taylor, 
 Gilbreth, Gantt and others, and that day by day more 
 attention is given to it, but the Germans have been 
 clever enough to utilise the services of the best American 
 brains, although probably they would not admit it. 
 
38 
 
 Marvels of Waste Prevention. Increased 
 Output by Less Work. 
 
 The attentign now focussed upon fatigue may help 
 us to realise that no industrial opportunity offers a 
 richer return than the elimination of needless motions, 
 and transformation of ill-directed and ineffective 
 motions into efficient activity ; for in Mr. Frank 
 Gilbreth's words " the greatest saving in time, money 
 and in energy will result when the motions of every 
 individual, no matter what his work may be, have been 
 studied and standardised/' And, it may be added, 
 when the question of fatigue is so well understood that 
 every worker will get the rest required for overcoming 
 it without calling upon his reserve of strength. 
 
 To give some idea of what is possible in this direction, 
 when proper micro-motion and time-studies have been 
 made and utilised, the following marvels of waste 
 prevention and time saving due to the genius of Mr. 
 Gilbreth may be briefly quoted : 
 
 In Bricklaying, the motions have been reduced 
 from 18 to 5 and the output increased from 125 to 350 
 per hour. 
 
 In Cloth-folding, 20 to 30 motions have been 
 reduced to 10 or 12, and the output increased from 
 150 to 400 dozen, with no added labour. 
 
 Putting Paper on Shoe Polish. The time was 
 halved, with less effort. 
 
 Assembling Braiding Machines. One man assem- 
 bled 1 8 in a day, but this was increased to 66, with no 
 increase in fatigue. 
 
 Typewriting. After a motion study analysis of 
 machine and operator, the typist entered the annual 
 speed contest at New York, and defeated the Inter- 
 national Champion by writing the unheard of gross of 
 147 words per minute for the entire contest, and 137 
 words net (5 words deducted from the gross for each 
 error in spelling or spacing) per minute for the entire 
 contest, winning the ist prize. The gross exceeding 
 by 5 words per minute anything ever heard of in the 
 history of the art of typewriting. 
 
39 
 
 Thus we see what is possible when science is called 
 in to act her part, as by using the cinematograph, 
 motions quicker than the 6ye can follow may be magni- 
 fied, picked to pieces and analysed, as a microscope 
 enlarges an organism and enables us to study and 
 analyse it. 
 
 A Motion Study. 
 
 An interesting case was described more in detail a 
 year or two ago in " Factory," a Chicago journal : 
 Two men were assembling a machine ; one was taking 
 37J minutes to do the job, the other 40 minutes to do 
 the same job. The movements of the men were so 
 rapid that no difference could be detected by the most 
 expert observer, so a special split-second clock, with a 
 rapidly revolving second hand was set by each of the 
 men, and motion pictures were taken of them at work. 
 The resulting films were thrown on a screen at a much 
 reduced speed and carefully studied. Frames and 
 tables were then invented to eliminate motions which 
 took up the smallest fraction of a second, until finally 
 the operator who formerly took 37 J minutes to assemble 
 his machine could do the same job in 8 minutes. 
 
 The movements of the human machine are never so 
 accurate and methodical as those of a machine, skilfully 
 designed to perform some definite operation. The fact 
 is that although we teach children how to correctly 
 and efficiently use their knives, forks, and pens, &c., 
 we do not take anything like the same amount of 
 trouble to train the movements of our workers so that 
 they may reach their highest efficiency. This can only 
 be done in the fullest degree by adopting motion study 
 methods. To understand how far our movements fall 
 short of mechanical precision, we should examine the 
 working of textile machinery and see how by the use 
 of cams, levers, &c., all the multifarious movements are 
 made with mathematical precision, without waste 
 motions or the least loss of time. So, when the move- 
 ments of the human machine are organised by cutting 
 out all redundent motions and arranging a more efficient 
 
, 40 
 
 order of operations, the output can be greatly increased 
 with less fatigue. 
 
 Hope for Disabled Soldiers. 
 
 Fatigue work is going to do a great deal to assist our 
 splendid heroes who have been maimed to become 
 self -supporting ; indeed, much is being done already in 
 America and Canada. It is not enough to utilise all 
 the mechanical ingenuity available to invent expedients, 
 appliances, devices and machinery by means of which 
 one hand may be able to do the work ordinarily done by 
 two, a great deal has been done in this direction in our 
 own country, mainly due to the organising powers of 
 Major Robert Mitchell;* indeed, in all the warring 
 countries remarkable developments are taking place, 
 particularly in France, where the genius of our good 
 friends of the famous scientist, Dr. Jules Amar, in 
 particular is working wonders. No, we must progress 
 a good deal beyond that, and endeavour by suitable 
 studies to eliminate all the purposeless motions and 
 correct the awkward ones of the different parts of the 
 useful limb, so that its highest efficiency may be reached. 
 
 There are two methods of attacking the general 
 problem. 
 
 The Two Methods of Attacking the 
 Problem of Disablement. 
 
 Mr. Gilbreth aptly explains that there are two distinct 
 methods of attacking the problem, both valuable, the 
 two being supplementary to one another. 
 
 The European method is exemplified by the work of 
 Professor Jules Amar, who in typical papers, considers 
 the device or contrivance that the cripple is to use as the 
 fixed element, and adapts and equips each cripple so 
 that he can use the devices of his trade, or of the new 
 work that he has chosen to do. 
 
 *See a paper on What can be done to train Disabled Sailors and 
 Soldiers in Technical Institutions, read before the Association of 
 Technical Institutions, October, 1916. And a paper on The 
 Problem of the Disabled Soldiers and Sailors, read before the 
 London School of Economics, November ist, 1916. 
 
4* 
 
 The typical American attitude is, perhaps, exemplified 
 by the work done in the United States in considering 
 the cripple as the fixed element, and adapting the device 
 and method to the individual cripple who is to use it. 
 It is but natural that the first method should be used 
 in Europe, where many of the labour-saving devices in 
 use have come from America and cannot be easily 
 adapted. And it is as natural that the American 
 methods should be in use in the United States, where 
 the devices are more easily changed to suit individual 
 workers by the original makers of the machines. 
 
 The subject is beyond the scope of this article,* but 
 reference may be made to two cases that are typical 
 of what can be done ; they have both been motion 
 studied by the writer's friend Gilbreth. The first is the 
 use of a magnetic hammer, in nailing boxes, to pick up 
 the nails, arranged in suitable spaces on a board or in a 
 box, heads upwards, so that adhering to the hammer- 
 head the nails may be driven in where required, using 
 one hand only. This has been a complete success, as 
 after training it was found that a one-armed man easily 
 exceeded the normal output of a man working in the 
 ordinary way. 
 
 The second case, particulars of which have just come 
 to hand, bids fair to open up a wide field of emplo}anent 
 as typewriters for those who have lost an arm. Rolls 
 of paper and ribbon are attached to the wall, machine, 
 or a suitable support, obviating the necessity of putting 
 the separate sheets in the typewriter ;' and four copies 
 can be made at once when necessary. It is true that 
 the paper has to be torn off after each letter is written, 
 leaving a rough edge, but it is believed that the public 
 will not mind receiving letters with torn edges when 
 they know that the crippled soldier has had a chance of 
 earning a living. 
 
 *Refer to Mr. Frank Gilbreth' s paper on Motion Study for 
 the Crippled Soldier, read before the American Society of 
 Mechanical Engineers, October, 1915: also Motion Study for 
 the Crippled Soldier, American Association for the Advancement 
 of Science, 1915 : and How to put the Crippled Soldier on the Pay 
 Roll, the Economic Psychology Association, New York, Janu- 
 ary, 1917. 
 
42 
 
 Use of Time Studies in Increasing Output. 
 
 Time studies, which are complementary to motion 
 studies, are required 1 in establishing standards which 
 must be lived up to by trie worker. They also enable 
 us to measure the relative efficiency of old and new 
 methods. In making time studies the " decimal " 
 stop-watch is used, the minute or outer circle being 
 divided into a hundred parts ; a small dial registers 
 minutes, and the watch is arranged to be stopped and 
 started with the thumb of the left hand. ^ If an observa- 
 tion has been taken and the watch stopped, say at 
 1.32 minutes, it can be started again on a second 
 observation which adds to the first ; or if it is desired 
 to throw bacik the hands to zero before taking the 
 second observation, so that it only will be registered, 
 a pressure of the forefinger on the stem is necessary. 
 
 The time-study man must be skilled in the trade 
 under investigation, with sound judgment, patience 
 and an open mind ; his powers of observation must be 
 well developed and he must be exact, tactful and 
 diplomatic. He should also be well trained in silent 
 rhythmic counting, as often useful observations can 
 be taken in this way, where the production of a stop 
 watch would alarm the worker or make him nervous. 
 
 Iron Plate Punching Timed. 
 
 The art of making ordinary time studies cannot be 
 explained in a few words, but, sometimes the output 
 can be increased by a very elementary application of 
 the art. A case in point may be cited, in which the 
 study was made not primarily to demonstrate to the 
 satisfaction of the management that the time used to 
 perform a certain job could be shortened, but rather 
 to give information to the workman himself. The 
 component operations in iron plate punching were 
 timed. It was found that the workman took four times 
 as many seconds for a certain operation in the case of 
 one plate as for the same operation on a preceding 
 plate, or, say, 20 seconds, as against 5 seconds. Other 
 variations were noticed in the analysis of the job, the 
 
43 
 
 observation extending over several hours. Then the 
 minimum times were added ; this total representing 
 the time in which a plate could be punched in the 
 various places called for if the workman performed each 
 fractional operation in the best time he had made, 
 working in his accustomed way. 
 
 It was a surprise to the workman to. be told that such 
 inequalities existed in the time he took for the simple 
 operations. The proposal was made that if he finished 
 within an hour a certain indicated number of plates 
 a number which the analysis of his own motions had 
 shown he could finish, with a margin of time left he 
 , would be given a considerable advance over the rate 
 he was receiving. There was no unwillingness to make 
 the attempt, and the increased output that resulted 
 was continuously profitable bottfi to the management 
 and the man. 
 
 Time saving of this sort, resulting from a close study 
 of manual operations, is typical of a great deal that 
 could be done in an enormous number of works in which 
 no attempts have been made to organise them to be 
 run on modern lines. Such saving is not due to the 
 application of ^the spur or to the driving of an un- 
 willing worker ; it is rather the bringing out of informa- 
 tion not available before and making it serviceable to 
 the worker and t his .employer. Viewed in that light 
 and carried out with tact, such methods of checking 
 waste, increasing output and reducing fatigue, ought 
 to win their way without forcing or friction. 
 
 Speeding Up Machine Tools. 
 
 The art of cutting metals has been reduced to a 
 science by the labours of Dr. Taylor and Dr. Nicholson, 
 and with modern machine tools, specially designed for 
 using high speed cutting tools, the output has been 
 enormously increased ; but in all but the best organised 
 shops it is doubtful whether anything like the possible 
 output is reached. In most cases the services of a 
 properly qualified young efficiency engineer using suit- 
 able slide rules, of the Barth time and slide type, could 
 
44 
 
 speed up the machine tools so as to materially increase 
 production, and he would be available to report to the 
 manager upon such matters as the following : Whether 
 skilled men were engaged a large part of their time in 
 doing unskilled work ? Whether any of the machines 
 are so far out of date or repair that they should be 
 replaced by others ? Will it pay to put in automatic 
 machines for some of the work ? Should the premium 
 system of paying labour be instituted in any part of 
 the works for the part piece work and part day work 
 that may be in use ; and so on. In cases where such 
 matters as these receive proper attention, and methods 
 and machinery are improved, the output is increased 
 and the employer is able to pay high wages. 
 
 The Importance of Efficient Welfare Work. 
 
 Looking back upon the conditions under which work 
 was done in most of our factories three or four decades 
 ago, and comparing them with those which characterise 
 many of the well organised factories of to-day, we may 
 well wonder how in former times we got along as well 
 as we did. In those days it was apparently not realised 
 that the efficiency of the worker, and his value as a 
 producer very much depended \ipon his being able to 
 work under comfortable, healthy and self-respecting 
 conditions. Commencing work at six o'clock in ^the 
 morning, the worker would, as a rule, in the winter 
 enter a cold, draughty, badly lighted shop, and, strive as 
 he often did, the conditions were such that, with cold 
 hands and feet, and a general feeling of discomfort, 
 proper working efficiency was impossible. Wash rooms 
 were unthought of in those days, and the lavatory 
 accommodation often filthy, whilst a drink of pure 
 water was usually unobtainable ; indeed, strange as it 
 may appear to many, in some works, where the greatest 
 pains were taken to work the machinery at its highest 
 efficiency, the human machines, the most sensitive and 
 expensive units, were left to the care of themselves, 
 with little or no thought for their comfort and well- 
 being. But happily such ignorant shortsightedness is 
 
45 
 
 to a large extent a matter of the past, and for some 
 years the more enlightened and enterprising employers 
 have been keenly alive to the direct and indirect advan- 
 tages of doing all that is possible to arrange for good 
 working conditions inside and outside their works, in 
 order to promote the well-being of their workers generally 
 by proper welfare supervision. Indeed, such care for 
 the workers is found to pay well in the long run, and 
 not a few employers organise such activities on the 
 ground that welfare work is a vital and integral part 
 of the management of their factories, to be shared in 
 by all concerned, directors, managers, foremen and 
 workers, as well as by the welfare supervisor. There 
 is indeed much to hope for, as this salutary movement 
 is growing apace, and we should not rest until apart 
 from the question of health the provision of proper 
 conveniences and conditions for the comfort and welfare 
 of the workers is considered as a necessary part of the 
 organisation of every factory, without the slightest 
 suggestion of coddling, which every decent worker 
 resents. 
 
 Housing Question. 
 
 Capital can never expect to get the best out of Labour 
 until the vexed housing question is seriously tackled. 
 The housing conditions that exist in most of our crowded 
 industrial districts is little short of a public scandal in 
 these enlightened days ; and there is no reason to doubt 
 that not a little of the intemperance and crime, that in 
 their cumulative effects are so damaging to our pro- 
 ductive powers and the well-being of the State, are 
 directly attributable to the absence of comfortable and 
 decent surroundings in the homes of a large proportion 
 of the workers. 
 
 As we have seen, discomfort in the home is a direct 
 cause of one phase of industrial fatigue, it represents to 
 a large extent the kind of fatigue which is brought to 
 the job, and the Nation can never hope to secure 
 maximum output from Labour, until the housing 
 problem is solved. It is beyond the scope of these 
 
46 
 
 articles to touch further upon the matter, the root 
 cause of many of our industrial troubles, but it may 
 be remarked, that much has been done in the right 
 direction by the centrifugal removal of not a few works 
 from central London, and from other cities and large 
 towns, to outlying districts. There the erection, near the 
 works in more or less open country, of suitable cottages 
 with gardens, enable the workers and their children 
 to live in decency with health-giving surroundings. 
 The housing problem is one of paramount importance, 
 as apart from its bearing on industrial efficiency, we 
 can never hope to greatly reduce the appalling wastage 
 of child life until it is solved. 
 
 Welfare Supervision. 
 
 As might be expected, the enormous increase in the 
 number and size of our factories and works due to war 
 requirements, and the necessity of organising a large 
 army of good and true industrial workers, has 
 prominently brought to the front the question of 
 welfare work ; and, as we have seen, the " Health of 
 Munition Workers' Committee " published in December, 
 1915, a Memorandum,* No. 2, entitled " Welfare 
 Supervision/' containing seven pages of instructive 
 matter that should be in the hands of every worker 
 and every employer. The duties of welfare supervision 
 are to some extent defined, and may be conveniently 
 quoted. 
 
 The Duties of Welfare Supervision. 
 
 We are told in the Memorandum that the duties of 
 Welfare Supervision should include the following : 
 
 1. To be in close touch with the engagement of 
 new labour, or, when desired, to engage labour. 
 
 2. To keep a register of available houses and 
 lodgings ; to inform the Management when housing 
 accommodation is inadequate ; and to render assist- 
 ance to workers seeking accommodation. 
 
 *(Cd. 8151). Price One Penny. 
 
47 
 
 3. To ascertain the means of transit used, and the 
 length of time spent in travelling ; to indicate the 
 need of increased train, tram, or motor service ; or 
 to suggest modification of factory hours to meet 
 existing means of transit. 
 
 4. To advise and assist workers in regard to 
 feeding arrangements ; to investigate the need for 
 provision of canteen facilities, or any inadequacy in 
 the provision already made ; and to supervise the 
 management of such canteens. 
 
 5. To investigate records of sickness and broken 
 time arising therefrom ; and in cases of sickness to 
 visit, where desired, the homes of the workers. 
 
 6. To investigate, and advise in cases of slow and 
 inefficient Work, or incapacity, arising from conditions 
 of health, fatigue or physical strain. 
 
 7. To consider, particularly for delicate and young 
 workers, all questions of sanitation and hygiene 
 affecting health and physical efficiency, and to 
 supervise the conditions of night work, Sunday work, 
 long hours, and overtime. 
 
 8. To advise on the means of recreation and 
 educational work. 
 
 9. To investigate complaints and assist in the 
 maintenance of proper discipline and good order. 
 
 10. To keep in touch with responsible organisations 
 having for their obejct the promotion of the welfare 
 of the worker. 
 
 Desirable Additions to the above. 
 
 In drawing up the above instructions, which were 
 not put forward as complete, doubtless the special 
 needs of munition workers were kept in view, but 
 obviously the suggestions or instructions do not go far 
 enough for more permanent industrial workers, if every 
 reasonable thing is to be done to promote their efficiency 
 and secure maximum output. . This being so, the writer 
 would like to see, in the best interests of both Capital 
 
4 8 
 
 and Labour, the following included in the recognised 
 details of welfare work : 
 
 1. To introduce new workers to their foremen, to 
 their fellow workers and surroundings. 
 
 2. To advance money or meal tickets to new 
 workers short of funds. 
 
 3. To report on inadequacy of light, heat and 
 ventilation. 
 
 4. To report on abnormal noise, dirt and noxious 
 odours and fumes. 
 
 5. To see that lockers are provided to hold overalls, 
 and a pair of dry boots. 
 
 6. To see that proper provision is made for the 
 drying of clothes. 
 
 7. To see that lubricating and cooling fluids for 
 machine tools contain a small amount of some 
 antiseptic, such as carbolic acid, say, up to about 
 i per cent., to prevent the occurrence of eczema. 
 
 8. To see that a proper supply of pure drinking 
 water is available for all workers. 
 
 9. To see that proper wash rooms, with hot water, 
 are provided, and to encourage workers to use clean 
 overalls. 
 
 10. To see that sanitary lavatories are provided 
 and that they are decently private. 
 
 11. To see that facilities for the prompt treatment 
 of all cases of sickness and injury are available, 
 particularly where dangerous machinery and poison- 
 ous substances are used. 
 
 12. To arrange for doctors and nurses to visit, when 
 desired, those kept at home by illness. 
 
 13. To provide the services of an oculist and 
 dentist to ensure workers having good sight and good 
 teeth. 
 
 14. To investigate causes of absence without leave. 
 
49 
 
 15. To arrange for annual holidays with pay for 
 all workers of nearly a year's standing, on a basis 
 of efficiency and punctuality records. 
 
 16. To sympathetically hear complaints at all 
 times ; however they may be put forward. 
 
 17. To encourage workers to improve their general 
 and technical education by reimbursing them for 
 outlay on courses of study satisfactorily completed. 
 
 18. To discover ambitions of workers particularly 
 the younger ones for future transfer and promotion. 
 
 19. To advise on matters relating to the future 
 of all workers and encourage the formation of thrift 
 and co-operative societies and pension, house building 
 and life assurance schemes. 
 
 Such comprehensive improvements for the comfort 
 and well being of workers as those outlined above will 
 make many employers gasp if they have not kept in 
 touch with the trend of welfare work, and with what 
 is being done in this direction by the most advanced 
 employers in this country and in America. Although 
 it is doubtful whether all that has been drafted above 
 represents the activities of the welfare department of 
 any one works, practically everything that is suggested 
 is a feature of welfare work in some factory or another. 
 
 Of course, anything like a full scheme of welfare work 
 is only practicable in a fairly large works, but it is 
 astonishing what can be done for the* wellbeing of the 
 workers in any factory, if all concerned are infused 
 with the right spirit of give and take. 
 
 Any good measure of welfare work costs a good deal 
 of money one way and another, and economic laws are 
 inexorable, so that if employers do much to maintain 
 and conserve the good health of their workers, and to 
 make the conditions under which they labour as com- 
 fortable as practicable, it is only fair that the ( workers 
 on their part should do a good day's work, day in, day 
 out ; this does not mean great physical exertion, but 
 continuous and reasonable effort during the working 
 
5 
 
 hours, and nothing short of this will ensure maximum 
 production upon which good general trade is 
 dependent and the payment of high wages. 
 
 Economic Loss due to the Mobility of Labour. 
 
 There comes a time when most workers aim at 
 securing permanent employment, or at least reasonable 
 security of employment, and it is only natural that 
 openings are sought where the work and surroundings 
 are agreeable and good money can be earned, with 
 perhaps prospects of promotion. Such men are usually 
 good time-keepers and reliable efficient workers, and 
 as such become valuable assets in any works. On 
 the other hand, there are workers, who for one 
 reason or another, never remain very long in any 
 works, shifting about from job to job ; perhaps 
 failing here and there to give satisfaction due to 
 want of skill, poor capacity for work or unreliability ; 
 or it may be failure to work amicably with the foreman 
 due to faults on one side or the other. Another fruitful 
 cause of such changes of employment is due to want 
 of care on the part of the foreman in engaging the men ; 
 often this is done very hurriedly : a man is wanted for 
 a certain job, and the first likely one that comes along 
 is set on, only perhaps to prove his unfitness for the 
 work after a good deal of time and perhaps material 
 has been wasted in efforts to break him m. 
 
 Labour Turnover. 
 
 Now this wastage, due to what is called Labour 
 Turnover, is very great in most works of any import- 
 ance. How great apparently no one seems to know, 
 and, strangely enough, great as it undoubtedly is, it 
 represents an economic industrial factor that does not 
 appear to have received any direct attention in this 
 country worth speaking about. Apart from the fact 
 that this loss is not a little due to want of care in select- 
 ing suitable men, it is without a doubt intimately 
 related to the welfare movement in its broadest sphere ; 
 
and it is a factor of the first degree in the general problem 
 of the economical maximum output of any works. 
 
 Fortunately, our good friends in America have taken 
 the question in hand, and a distinguished engineer, 
 Mr. Boyd Fisher, Vice-President of " The Executive 
 Club " of Detroit, Michigan, recently gave a most 
 admirable Address* on " How to Reduce Labour 
 Turnover/' Mr. Boyd Fisher's Address is a very 
 convincing one ; it forcibly arrests attention to a matter 
 of first importance to the parallel interests of Capital 
 and Labour, and accentuates an important factor in 
 the science of management. The Address should be 
 widely read, certainly by all interested in the grave 
 post-war industrial problems we shall have to face. 
 To enable us to form some idea of the cost of exchange 
 of employees, Mr. Magnus Alexander's estimate is 
 quoted, it is that "it costs nearly 15 to break in a 
 new semi-skilled operative." Of course that figure 
 refers to America, where wages are much higher than 
 in this country. But a better comparison with our 
 own conditions can be made, and we may be spurred 
 into action by noting what Mr. Boyd Fisher says about 
 the Packard Employment Department, one of the 
 oldest and best conducted in Detroit. " It has already 
 effected vast savings in cost of turnover and yet the 
 head of the Standard department, the man who, with 
 his assistants sets all standard working times in the 
 plant, estimates that new and inexperienced workmen 
 reduce the speed of production so much that a 25 per 
 cent, allowance of equipment, buildings, direction, 
 labour and supervision must be made." 
 
 Employment Departments. 
 
 Such a well authenticated case, showing the heavy 
 cost of labour turnover, should certainly start us 
 
 * Before the Philadelphia Association for the Discussion of 
 Employment Problems, on January 9th, 1917. Before the 
 Employment Managers' Association at Boston, Mass., January 
 gth, 1917, and The Employment Managers' Group, The Indus- 
 trial Management Council of the Chamber of Commerce, at 
 Rochester, New York, January nth, 1917. 
 
thinking seriously, but we may with much advantage 
 consider the opinions formed by Mr. Fisher as to how 
 we may hope to reduce the serious loss. He rightly 
 attaches great importance to the care which should be 
 taken in selecting men, and believes that every works 
 of importance should have an employment department 
 to deal with the engaging and discharging of workers, 
 rather than allow foremen to do their own hiring and 
 firing. An analysis of 57 Detroit plants made by Mr. 
 Fisher shows that, " roughly averaged, the plants 
 having an employment department hired two men to 
 every three hired by those which did not have the 
 , employment department." 
 
 Inefficient Labour. 
 
 Mr. Fisher tells us that Detroit employers recognise 
 that " turnover of labour is a special phase of the 
 problem of inefficient labour, and that the reduction of 
 turnover is only the first. step in a process of education 
 and of economic pressure to elevate the standards of 
 workmen. They aim not only to keep workmen but 
 to develop them. And they are prepared to go as far 
 as the workmen's own home-life, even, to solve their 
 problem." 
 
 So Mr. Fisher truly says, " turnover breeds in- 
 efficiency, inefficiency breeds turnover, and the only 
 way to break the vicious circle is to attack them both 
 at the same time, and, for the most part outside of 
 direct factory activities." 
 
 We have seen that a particular phase of industrial 
 fatigue is due to the way the worker spends his time 
 whilst away from his work, and it is interesting to note 
 that Mr. Fisher believes that " 80 per cent, of the 
 turnover of labour is due to causes that lie outside of 
 direct plant activities ; that is, when the workman 
 is off duty." 
 
 Hasty Discharges of Workmen. 
 
 Industrial history, it has been truly said, is not 
 particularly flattering to employers, and among many 
 
53 
 
 labour grievances, more or less reasonable, that have 
 led to trouble, workers rightly resent what might 
 appear to be arbitrary firing on the part of foremen, 
 who may be very capable men, but who are sometimes 
 lacking in tact, good temper and the art of managing 
 men. So that Mr. Fisher's suggestion that every 
 discharge should be certified to by a Committee on 
 which workmen are represented is one that deserves 
 earnest attention in works where good and fair feelings 
 prevail between employers and workmen. " Hire men 
 wisely," says Mr. Fisher, " provide them with steady 
 work at an adequate wage, and refrain from hasty 
 discharges, your turnover will be comparatively low." 
 
 The Labour Turnover Problem. 
 
 The more the labour turnover problem in all our 
 industries is looked into, the more important it will 
 probably appear, and the more serious the attention 
 it will demand on the part of employers and of the 
 State. The maximum output of a works is directly 
 dependent upon the efficiency of all the workers, and 
 such efficiency on the part of many will depend upon 
 the standard of the remedies we are wise enough to 
 provide ; that they should be remedies that would aim 
 at improving the health and fitness of workers and tend 
 to organise their brains, goes without saying, but the 
 right kind of remedies cost a good deal of money ; and 
 wise we (as represented by the State) would be if we 
 judiciously and freely invested money in this direction 
 to supplement the enterprise of employers in conserving 
 the health, the working capacity, nay, even the lives 
 of the Nation's most valuable assets. In short, the 
 remedies are intimately related to welfare work and 
 education. 
 
 The cost of any comprehensive scheme for the 
 reclamation (in the best meaning of the word) of Labour 
 and the reduction of waste in labouring power would 
 be great, and Mr. Boyd Fisher has no delusions. as to 
 the financial aspect of the problem, for he tells us that 
 
54 
 
 " the thorough-going remedies for turnover are so 
 expensive that until even the most sceptical managers 
 are convinced we shall not get far with our corrective 
 measures." 
 
 Scientific (or Methodical) Management. 
 
 The substitution of scientific management (as it is 
 understood in the U.S.) for traditional management in 
 any given works is not an easy matter, and cannot be 
 more fully dealt with here, but it may be explained that 
 there are a great many works in which by a little 
 rearrangement some of the best features we have 
 referred to could be introduced with considerable 
 economic advantage to all concerned, giving a greatly 
 increased output, with less fatigue and least waste. 
 
 Elements of Scientific Management. 
 
 Briefly, the following are the important elements of 
 the modern systems of scientific management associated 
 with the name of the late Mr. Frederick W. Taylor : 
 
 1. A careful study of the time required to do the 
 work. The Rate once set is never cut. 
 
 2. Detailing instructions to the men, telling them 
 how they are to do their work. And the preparation 
 of tools, tackle, etc., required for the work. 
 
 3. The thorough standardisation of all details 
 which affect the speed of the work and the speeding 
 up of all machine tools to their highest efficiency. 
 
 4. The payment of a premium for success, usually 
 with a minimum wage. 
 
 5. An efficient administration for dealing with all 
 matters relating to finance, accounts, statistics, 
 factory economics, purchase of materials, sale of 
 products, and new developments. 
 
 6. An efficient employment department for dealing 
 with all such matters as engaging and discharging 
 hands, complaints and suggestions of workmen, 
 
55 
 
 methods of training apprentices and improvers, 
 promotions, 'classification and records of workers, 
 and welfare work generally. 
 
 After the War Problems. 
 
 Sir William H. Lever, Bart., in an admirable address 
 on " Industrial Administration " recently given in 
 Liverpool, told his audience that " when peace comes, 
 bringing us victory over our enemies and giving us rest 
 from the clash of arms, we shall still have to enter the 
 field of struggle for commercial position amongst the 
 nations of the world. It is unthinkable that we and 
 our Allies proving victorious in this cruel war fighting 
 for right and liberty, justice and freedom, should be 
 defeated in the struggle for industrial position by our 
 present enemies and neutral nations. And yet defeat 
 is certain if our industrial organisation is founded on 
 attempted oppression of labour on the one hand, or 
 restriction of output by labour on the other hand/' 
 
 Now these words of wisdom, coming from a fine 
 patriot and a great Captain of Industry, should be 
 seriously considered by all who love their country and 
 are ready to do their bit in securing its industrial 
 supremacy. But we must all pull together, which should 
 not be a difficult matter with the new spirit that is 
 abroad in the land. Indeed, no one who has been 
 privileged to work with, to manage, or to teach the 
 artisans of this country, and who understands them 
 and their psychology, could fail to have a profound 
 respect for them. They are in the main sensible, 
 intelligent men, and many of them who have made 
 good use of their spare time are cultured and extremely 
 well educated ; indeed, the late Mr. Mundella, when 
 Vice-President of the Board of Education, said, at a 
 prize distribution, that he knew many working men 
 who would grace any gentleman's drawing room. 
 
 Of course, there are misguided fools among our workers 
 who are easily led by those who hold mistaken views 
 
56 
 
 about industrial matters and economics, but so there 
 are in all classes of society. 
 
 Everything will be changed after the war ; we are 
 passing through the cleansing fires, and the comradeship 
 in arms of all classes will make us more human, and will 
 assuredly bring with it a new spirit of unity in industrial 
 relationships. In the past we have too much neglected 
 the human element, we have not understood the true 
 meaning of the great Suvoroff's apothegm " successful 
 fighting is the correct utilisation of human nature." 
 
 Unlimited Industrial Expansion. 
 
 We have all the essentials for unlimited industrial 
 expansion, if they are only properly engineered and 
 utilised ; unexcelled human material, brain, energy, 
 skill and brawn in the world ; we have coal power, iron 
 power, organising power, shipping power, and the neces- 
 sary machinery, or means to produce or procure it, to 
 enable us to conquer and hold the open foreign markets 
 of the world ; but to do this our workers and employers 
 must be more amicably accommodating, and we must 
 produce and distribute more cheaply and manage with 
 greater skill and intelligence than other countries. 
 
 Further, if we fully utilise our engineering genius 
 and enterprise to produce suitable machinery to enable 
 us, with the assistance of the agricultural chemist, the 
 agricultural botanist and the veterinary specialist, to 
 revolutionise on intensive lines our agriculture, which 
 is still our greatest industry, there would be an enormous 
 outlet for the products of our engineering works in the 
 home market, and we could double or itreble the output 
 from the land. Further, the plant that is now 7 daily 
 producing some if million gallons of alcohol for 
 explosives could be utilised for the production of de- 
 natured alcohol for agricultural motor tractors, &c., 
 making us independent of a foreign fuel for such pur- 
 poses. All this is well within the range of practical 
 politics, and no worker need earn less than his present 
 
57 
 
 high wage if he is willing to do the best that is in 
 him under methodical and scientific conditions of 
 working. 
 
 Urgent Problems awaiting Solution. 
 
 When peace comes we shall be faced with gigantic 
 social and economic problems which will demand 
 sagacious attention, for on one hand there will be 
 millions of industrial workers gradually released from 
 military service, and on the other hand, we shall have 
 the factories, distilleries and machinery that have been 
 put down by the State for the manufacture of munitions, 
 &c., costing tens of millions of pounds, no longer needed 
 for the production of warlike articles ; and some 
 millions of workers at present engaged, at higher wages 
 than they have ever received before, in producing things 
 that will no longer be required. 
 
 Now, as it is unthinkable that the national (and con- 
 trolled) factories, distilleries, and machinery should be 
 scrapped, these problems will take a good deal of time 
 to satisfactorily solve ; and we must not have bitter 
 cause to remember the saying of Napoleon, that "it is 
 in human nature not to bother about even the most 
 pressing necessities until some absolutely urgent need 
 arises compelling action, and then it is just too late. 
 No, we must cultivate the long vision, and see to it 
 that some of our great statesmen, engineers and indus- 
 trials, who are not now fully employed on. matters of 
 national interest, are appointed to carefully examine, 
 tackle and solve these pressing problems whilst there is 
 time. /- 
 
 Conclusions: 
 
 There are forces silently and inexorably operating, 
 the trend of which is in the direction of the State taking 
 such a controlling part in the management of many of 
 our most important industries that was undreamt of 
 in pre-war times. But whatever changes may come 
 about due to the evolution of things we shall all rightly 
 be called upon to work to the best of our ability. On 
 
58 
 
 the other hand, our workers must have a square deal 
 that will yield them an adequate return for their labour 
 and proper time for rest and reasonable recreation. In 
 short, to secure maximum production, a careful examina- 
 tion of all the factors that matter leads to the conclusion 
 that we must so organise our industries that, 
 
 (a) the number of working hours, and periods of 
 rest, if an}., are so carefully adjusted in the different 
 trades that the workers' health is not impaired by 
 fatigue, and that he has proper time for rest and 
 reasonable recreation ; 
 
 (b) the workers have a suitable incentive, and are 
 not in constant fear that if they work to the best of 
 their ability they may so increase their output that 
 unemployment may ensue without reasonable notice ; 
 
 (c) every ounce of effort on the part of the workers 
 is profitably utilised during -the working hours for 
 productive purposes, without over exertion. 
 
 (d) waste of every kind shall be either eliminated 
 or reduced to the minimum. 
 
 (e) When the economic conditions are favourable 
 the most modern and efficient labour saving machinery, 
 implements, tools and devices are used at their 
 highest efficiency. 
 
 (/) That the well-being of all the workers is cared 
 for by an efficient employment department. 
 
 Whether these conditions can be best realised by a 
 great extension of the beneficial and equitable system 
 of Co-partnership, or through a more general adoption 
 of any of the systems that offer a fair incentive and 
 reward, or through some system in which there is 
 Co-partnership and bonuses, remains to be seen. 
 
 But whatever system be most favoured, let us rouse 
 our sense of responsibility and improve the output of 
 our industries, with a fuller and brighter life for our 
 workers ; that the output can be greatly improved we 
 have seen ; how greatly it is impossible to predict, but 
 there can be no reasonable doubt that our future great 
 
59 
 
 burdens will be lightly carried if science, system, 
 strenuous efforts, economy, wide sympathies, and 
 goodwill prevail. 
 
 Further, as the Empire is practically self-sustaining 
 so far as raw materials and foodstuffs are concerned, 
 let us amicably work and co-operate in a fraternal spirit 
 with our fellow citizens of the Empire in the develop- 
 ment and utilisation of these illimitable resources. If 
 we are wise enough to do this, and continue to be 
 animated by the high ideals we are fighting for, the 
 Empire can with certainty and with worthy pride look 
 forward to a future of boundless splendour. 
 
THE OBJECT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Labour Co-partnership Association. 
 
 THE object of the Association is to bring about an 
 organisation of Industry based on the principle of 
 Labour Co-partnership ; that is to say, a system in 
 which all those engaged shall share in the profits, 
 capital, control, and responsibility. With this view it 
 seeks (i) in the Co-operative Movement to aid by its 
 propaganda and advice all forms of production based 
 on the above principles ; (2) in other businesses to 
 induce employers and employed to adopt schemes of 
 profit-sharing and investment tending in the same 
 direction. 
 
 The Co-partnership of Labour with Capital is capable 
 of many modifications according to the needs of varying 
 industries, and in some one of them it is applicable to 
 almost every industry where labour is employed. In 
 its simplest form if involves : 
 
 1. That the worker should receive, in addition 
 to the standard wages of the trade, some share in 
 the final profit of the business, or the economy of 
 production. 
 
 2. That the worker should accumulate his share 
 of profit, or part thereof, in the capital of the 
 business employing him, thus gaining the ordinary 
 rights and responsibility of a shareholder. 
 
 For further Information apply to 
 The Secretary, 
 
 6, Bloomsbury Square, W.G. 
 
Selected List of Publications 
 
 DEALING WITH 
 
 Profit-Sharing and Co-partnership. 
 
 CO-PARTNERSHIP AND PROFIT-SHARING. By Aneurin 
 
 Williams, M.P., J.P. . . 1/3 net ; by post, 1/6 
 
 Co-partnership in Industry. By C. R. Fay I/- net ; by post, 1/2 
 Industrial Co-partnership. By Dr. C. Carpenter, M.I.C.E. 
 
 I/- net ; by post, 1/1 
 
 Labour Co-partnership. By H. D. Lloyd . . 2/6 ; by post 2/10 
 28 YEARS OF CO-PARTNERSHIP- AT GUISE (paper 
 
 covers 8d. post free ; (cloth covers) 1/3 post free. 
 Capital and Labour. A brief Sketch of the " Maison Leclaire " 
 
 By Miss M. H, Hart . . . . . . . . . . 3d. 
 
 Co-partnership in Practice. By Henry Vivian, J.P. . . 2d. 
 
 A Better Way. Some Facts and Suggestions as to Introducing 
 Co-partnership of Labour with Capital into Established 
 Businesses. By Aneurin Williams, M.P., J.P. . . . . 2d. 
 
 Participation as a Force in British Industry. By F. Maddison Id. 
 Association of Labour. A Means of Industrial Reform. By 
 
 J. J. Worley . . . . . . . . Id. 
 
 Labour Co-partnership and Labour Unrest. By Aneurin Williams 
 
 M.A., J.P. .. .. .. _ ..Id, 
 
 Co-partnership Organisation of Labour. E. W. Mundy, B.A. . . Id. 
 Co-operative Production from the Labour Co-partnership Stand- 
 point. By Anlos Mann . . . . . . . . Id. 
 
 Seven Speeches on Seven Schemes of Co-partnership, being report 
 
 of Annual Meeting of Association, 1914 . . . . 2d. 
 
 Profit-Sharing and Co-partnership from the Employer's Point 
 
 of View. By H. C . . 2 /- per 100 
 
 Parliamentary Informatiori on the Progress of Profit-Sharing and 
 
 Labour Co-partnership . . . . . . . . 2/- per 100 
 
 Pronouncement : Co-partnership and Labour Unrest . . 2/- per 100 
 Co-partnership After the War, a Memorandum submitted Feb., 
 1917, to the Reconstruction Committee appointed by H.M. 
 
 Government . . . . . , " t m 3d. 
 
 Annual Reports of the Association . . . . . . . , 2d. 
 
 All these can be obtained from the 
 LABOUR CO-PARTNERSHIP ASSOCIATION. 
 
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