MAUNFACTURING METHODS IN AMERICA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11498, 3 February 1903, Page 4

MAUNFACTURING METHODS IN AMERICA.

Attention* has frequently been drawn of late to tihe -wilful restriction of output as a aouroe of weakness to British industry. It is interesting to observe from the . .- vestigationa of tihe Mosely Commission that in one ifonn at least this restriction or limitation is common enough in the factories of the United State*. It consist* in working a machine at less than its full capacity, and the deception as a rule is carried out so cleverly that ih& foreman in charge of the room » unable to convict anx particular workman of idling. As .n Great Britain, the fault appears to lie sometimes with the employers themselves, eometinrea with the men. In the one case the only reward) for turning out more work is a "cutting" of the nates for piecework on the part of the short-sighted employer; in the other the men, while- evidently receiving more money than -they really earn, seek to dis-guise the faat- by fixing amongst thetnielves a maximum, beyond! which none of th*m must go. As an instance of the latter n". re, the special correspondent of "The Times" with tne Mosely Commission, cites a oase in one of the factories he visited. The potoshera, who were all trade union men, had been earning a 'maximum of four dollars a ds*y on piecework, when, a strike was declared, and their places iwere filled by non-unionist*, many of whom had never done polishing work before. At the same time, the rates were reduced 25 per cent. Yet the new men were soon earning on fhe average nine doHoru a day. "The conclusion reached by the "monageiH of the . factory, ,, adds the 'Times' correspondent, "was that the standard of wages woe stiil too high. They " therefore adjusted the rafcas on the basis "of 44 dollans a day, which meant a re"duction of 50 per cent., and ultimately "found that, while the number.of men they " employed was 30 per cent, less, they were "paying 10 per cent, more in wages and " getting an increased output of over 60 per " cent, as compared with the figures before " the strike." It is evident in this case that, tlie union men wore note earning the rotes actually paid for their -worl;. In other cases, however, employers have virtually placed a tax on industry by reducing the rates as soon as they found a man was earning more than before. This short-sighted policy, it is believed, has been responsible for much of the trouble experienced in the introduction of kbour-saving machinery. "The " most enlightened smjrfoyers in America," we are told, " try to fix a fair rate of pay "and then allow each idan to cairn what "he can without any upper limit; and "they will tell you that, from the point "of view of quality and quantity of out- " put, they would like to have their shops "full of the men who in these conditions "can earn the most money.". Apart from the restriction of output designed to prevent "cutting" ol rates, the polioy at intfficienoy does not appear to enter to any extent into the method* of the American workman. The "ca' canny". principle, for instance, under which -British workmen hare been known delilwraiely to'restrict their output to the limit of the, inefficient amongst their number, is practically unknown in America. Nor do the American union* declare that a workman is undermining hie health, because His skill and industry enable him to turn out more than die averago amount of work. The traditional British dislike to laboursaving machines, moreover, does not flourish in America, for "in the main, American " workmen understand :bhat machines are a " necessity of modern manufacture, and acu cept them as a matter of course." The American employer on. the other hand is more ready than the British to take advantage of new anechamcal inventions, and to increase or alter (bis plant to meet the growing requiremenlU of his trade. The wisdom of tin* policy of adaptaveness to changing conditions has been amply justified in the .TTOnden-fiffl expansion of American industry. But the conservative Briton seems slow to le&rn Hihe leesoa taught him on the other side of thte Atlantic.