418 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August 1, 1911. 



Incentive, therefore, to greater production per workman, 

 should find its satisfactor>- development and illustration in the 

 individual. A productive workman should have to wait for no 

 material or convenience that can in reason be supplied. With 

 everything to hand and in constant supply, it is possible for him 

 to make every movement count, and demonstrate the beauty, 

 desirability, and wonderful effectiveness of the piece-work 

 method. 



If factory conditions have been corrected where study re- 

 vealed the necessity, and after close analysis of men and meth- 

 ods, equitable piece-work rates established, there is no reason 

 why relations between employer and employed should not con- 

 tinue indetinitely on a basis of mutual confidence and mutual 

 advantage. 



Every manufacturer is. of course, aware of at least one weak 

 spot in piece-work method of paying for labor, so far as his end 

 of the proposition is concerned. Whether the factory output is 

 five thousand articles of a given sort per day, or five times as 

 many, he pays for his labor the same rate for each. It would 

 seem as though a manufacturer should be able to profit in pro- 

 portion to the capacity of his factory. To reach its maximum. 

 he has, possibly, been able to give employment to twice as many 

 workmen as in previous seasons. Logically, this piece-work 

 system, to be equitable, should show a greater gain to the manu- 

 facturer from the production of twenty thousand articles per 

 day than from ten thousand. Let us examine the ''bonus" 

 method of paying for labor, and see if it offers a solution for 

 this difficulty : 



Working with a bonus arrangement, the factory employee 

 finds his regular rate per hour secured to him, plus whatever 

 he can produce over and above a certain quantity of output 

 from his hands that has been agreed upon as constituting a 

 normal day's labor. For example : He is a tire builder, rated at 

 $3.00 per day, and for this wage it is understood that he will 

 produce ten tires. This number he can make working faith- 

 fully and intelligently. If, however, by putting a little more 

 brains into the work; by improving his method of handling 

 tools or materials, he can produce fifteen tires, he secures an 

 addition to his regular wages of $3.00, a bonus of, let us say, 

 IS cents per tire, making a wage for the day of $3.75. The 

 gain for the factory is seen in the reduced labor cost : the fifteen 

 tires costing 25 cents each instead of 30 cents each for ten. 

 It is, of course, true that a flat rate of 25 cents per tire could 

 possibly have been secured in a straight piece-work proposition, 

 or any other rate that a factory was able to establish. It is 

 apparent, however, that to carry on successfully the piece-work 

 method of payment, a factory requires to be thoroughly well 

 organized. Under this system a workman is presupposed to 

 make proper wages, and the factory is obligated to supply the 

 means. If the supply is continuous, and the resulting finished 

 goods satisfactory, all is well. But delays in process, owing to 

 shortages in material, or breakages, curtail the daily earnings 

 which a piece-worker may make, with consequent and consistent 

 dissatisfaction. 



As a rule, in making a piece-work rate, care is used to make 

 it so low that only by extra and continuous exertion can a 

 workman make a satisfactory wage. This, as a rule, is not an 

 insurance for quality. Then, too, capacity varies with the 

 workman, and the rate that pays one man properly, pays another 

 inadequately. These conditions do not arise imdcr the boiuis 

 system. 



We are prone to lose sight of the fact that a workman's time 

 has a value in itself for him. This the factory may purchase 

 at an established rate, and assume the responsibility of getting 

 value received. This acknowledgment of a man's value has 

 an ethical side not found in piece-work propositions. Giving a 

 workman a wage rating, makes him a component part of the 

 factory, to which, as the years of his employment continue. 



he becomes attached. The piece-worker, on the other hand, has 

 no interest in the factorv outside of the particular work in which 

 he is engaged. 



We have, however, in the first of this article, intimated th.it 

 wages was the money a workman earned. Singularly enough, 

 opinions might differ as to what sum constituted a man's earn- 

 ings for a day's work of a specific kind. Standards differ. 

 Labor has not been standardized. The production of a workman 

 for a day's wages in one mill, would not meet the exacting 

 requirements in another. It is, therefore, more complex than 

 appears on the surface. The effort that, a decade ago, would 

 have been accepted as constituting a day's labor, will not an- 

 swer in these high-pressure times. The modern superintendent 

 is not an 'easy boss." 



Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, in his book on ''Scientific Manage- 

 ment," lays special emphasis on the necessity for standardizing 

 men. Men are picked for certain work, trained to become ex- 

 perts, and then, it is needless to add. driven to secure the highest 

 possible production. 



Such a trained man would be paid on the basis of his pro- 

 ductive capacity, either by straight "piece work," or some plan 

 whereby his scheduled rate per hour would be increased by a 

 "bonus." 



Of these two methods, "piece-work," or "bonus" payments 

 for labor, which should be adopted, is therefore, largely a 

 matter of choice. The size of the factory, nature of business, 

 location, quality and quantity of workmen, should all be con- 

 sidered. For a small factory employing under 500 men, doubtless 

 some form of bonus would be found to work satisfactorily, for 

 in many situations it is necessary that a factory force should 

 be mobile ; with men trained to the work of different depart- 

 ments. 



In the larger factories, however, where there is much speciali- 

 zation, and it is possible to employ large numbers of men at 

 one sort of work, "piece-work" payment will achieve most val- 

 uable results. In such a factory there is little shifting of work- 

 men from one department to another. Each man becomes an 

 expert, and the larger numbers engaged in each line of produc- 

 tion, permit of inspection, and records of individual work being 

 reduced to a matter of acumen and mathematics. 



UNITED STATES RE-EXPORTS OF CRUDE RUBBER. 



A MOXG the features of recent United States rubber statistics 

 ^ ^ is a fact not generally known, that this country is acquiring 

 growing importance, not only as an importer of rubber, but also 

 as a re-exporter of that article. This statement is illustrated by 

 the following table showing the results of the last four fiscal 

 years : 



LTnited St.\tes. Re-Exports of Crude Indi.\ Rubber. 



Pounds. Value. 



1908 4,110,667 $2,994,208 



1909 3,791.971 2,964,496 



1910 6,492,947 7,629.380 



1911 (Estimated) 6.200,000 6,000.000 



The distribution of the re-exports for the first three years was 

 as follows : 



Canada. L^nited Kingdom. Other Countries. 

 Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. Pounds. Value. 



1908 ... 2,755,662 $2,061,497 691,044 $500,023 663,961 $432,688 



1909 . . . 2,638,685 2,076,299 586,193 468,405 567,093 418,792 



1910 ...3,382,153 3,376,506 2,169,370 3,291,394 941,424 961,480 



Mrs. Miner jilans to make her home in Granby and carry on 

 the charitable benevolent work in that community that she and 

 her late husband were so much interested in. 



