ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OP THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY 



OF SCIENCE. 



Deli\'ered Thxjbsday, April 3, 1919. 



Auditorium. Natural Science Building. 



THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN INDUSTRY. 



FRANK T. CARLTON. 



Industry may be studied from the technical or non-human side or from 

 the human side. Industrial experts have devoted much attention to the study 

 of materials and machines, but unfortunately until quite recently only a mini- 

 mum amount of attention has been directed to investigation of the most impor- 

 tant factor in production, — men and women. In the vv^ords of another, "man is 

 on the way to master inanimate things, but hitherto the failure has been in 

 treating human beings too much like things." Wage workers have been 

 treated as machines, as hands, as "factory fodder." Without exaggeration, 

 it may be asserted that one of the most important, if not the greatest, economic 

 problems of today is that of releasing effectively and efficiently, the productive 

 energy of human beings and of groups of human beings. Few individuals 

 work up to their possibilities and rarely are groups of individuals properly and 

 harmoniously coordinated for the most effective results. Factories are filled 

 with wage workers, but what is needed is an eflicient and eager working force. 

 There is too much latent talent and energy in the mass of breadwinners which 

 rarely is utilized in productive industry. Our participation in the World War 

 partially revealed America's "tremendous industrial capacity." 



The goal of progress in the industrial sphere is twofold: — (1) Increased 

 production at diminishing expense, and (2) increasing satisfaction on the part 

 of workers in their work. Work as well as leisure should offer opportunities 

 for self-expression and enjoyment on the part of the rank and file of workers. 

 The United States sorely needs more training for the sort of efficiency which 

 is not merely predatory, for the fine and rare variety which makes for indus- 

 trial harmony and social well-being. We should have more careful considera- 

 tion of desirable modifications in thei old and accepted forms of control in 

 industry. It is the purpose of this paper briefly to discuss two steps which it 

 is urged should be taken in order to raise the level of efficiency in American 

 Industry and to insure industrial peace. (1) Greater emphasis should be 

 placed upon the development of individuality in industry. (2) Industrial 

 autocracy should be replaced by some form of industrial democracy or consti- 

 tutionalism. It is held also that the first cannot be taken without the second. 



21st Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept, 1919. 



