THE EFFICIENCY OF LABOR 155 



called attention to by Professor John E. Commons, which tend to 

 strengthen and emphasize the labor problem generally. 1 



A moment's reflection will reveal the significance of this modern 

 movement toward greater efficiency. When we realize that according 

 to experts only from 20 to 60 per cent, efficiency has up to the present 

 time been secured in the average industrial plant we are almost stag- 

 gered when we think, not only of the effect that has been wasted in the 

 past, but of what will be possible in the future when this energy is 

 rightly directed in the actual work or production. In fact, it would 

 seem that, were one half the effort and thought we make to secure 

 efficiency in things outside of ourselves directed toward the securing 

 of greater efficiency of human units, there would evolve within a few 

 generations a race almost of supermen. So with the rise of those 

 whose business it is to secure efficiency from labor — whose specialty is 

 the gaining of cooperation, frankness and well-directed efforts through 

 a study of what has been called " shop psychology " it is wholly pos- 

 sible, if not indeed probable, that a combination with mechanical effi- 

 ciency may be affected that may well alter the entire aspect of industry, 

 and, mayhap, usher in a new stage in industrial evolution. 2 



Treatments of industrial efficiency up to the present time have, in 

 the majority of instances, been lacking for one of two reasons, either 

 they have overlooked the very human instincts of the employer or they 

 have assumed an inherent antagonism between the interests of the 

 laboring class, as typified in unionism, and efficiency systems that 

 could not be overcome. Let us examine efficiency systems from the 

 point of view of these facts. 



The apathy (or active opposition in some instances) on the part of 

 many employers to modern systems of industrial efficiency may be 

 traced to one of two causes. On the one hand, there frequently exists 

 a confusion between low individual wage cost with low total wage cost. 

 Or, on the other hand, the difficulty that has hitherto existed of meas- 

 uring with any degree of accuracy the efficiency of individual workmen 

 has undoubtedly worked against a more universal adoption of the plan. 

 Each of these facts will bear some notice beyond mere mention. 



The costs of a manufacturing concern may be roughly separated 



1 See also the writer's "Economic Basis of the Fight for the Closed Shop," 

 Journal of Political Economy, November, 1912, especially p. 952. 



2 The truth of this statement will appear when the full intent of the meas- 

 ures to develop labor efficiency are considered. The efficiency engineer has more 

 in mind than the mere invention of a new wage system — his work consists equally 

 in securing good housing, relief from monotony, a fair living wage — in a word, 

 in what may be termed social, labor legislation. The fact that he is interested 

 from the point of view of the employer does not alter the significance of his 

 work. More will be said of this later. 



