134 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1919. 



"While Europe has been fighting, we have been de- 

 veloping our rubber manufacturing industries. Our 

 producers have easy access to the rubber plantations of 

 the East and they have increased their products despite 

 the British export duties." 



GERMAN SYNTHETIC ASPHALT. 



ANNOUNCEMENT has been made that Dr. Zimmer, 

 the director of the A. G. Johannes Jeserich, at 

 Charlottenburg, Germany, has worked out a process 

 patented in all the principal countries for the 

 production of synthetic asphalt which will render 

 Germany independent of foreign sources of this material. 

 .\ new company known as the Gesellschaft Synthetischer 

 Asphalt m. b. h., has been organized to exploit the 

 invention and a factory is being erected at Velten near 

 Berlin, but unsettled conditions in Germany render it 

 uncertain when production will begin. The new inven- 

 tion may mean mineral rubber and open the field for a 

 variety of plastics. 



INDUSTRIAL TRAINING AND APPRENTICESHIP. 



THE I'di.icv OF liiK War Dei'.\rt.me.vt in urging man- 

 ufacturers, as a help toward relieving industrial 

 unrest and reducing the high cost of living, to undertake 

 industrial training for their workers while at the same 

 time paying them a living wage during their period of 

 apprenticeship, has much to commend it. Increased pro- 

 duction is the greatest need of the day. That it means 

 lower prices is axiomatic, and that it must come through 

 greater individual efficiency is self-evident. 



It is estimated that some 6,000,000 workers are re- 

 quired in American factories to do what 4,500,000 could 

 do if well trained. This means that the average worker 

 is only 75 per cent efficient. By intensive government 

 training, thousands of unskilled men in many trades were 

 turned into skilled workers in a short time during the 

 war, and the same method will produce similar results 

 under corporate management. 



Industrial training is the logical way to improve the 

 situation, and manufacturers are the proper persons to 

 undertake it. This imposes a heavy initial expense on 

 the part of employers, but leading firms in the metal, 

 shoe and numerous other trades that have tried the ex- 

 periment agree that it is a profitable investment. Usu- 

 ally the workers more than pay for themselves while 

 learning. In the rubber industry the plan has given ex- 

 cellent results, especially in training women engaged in 

 footwear, drug sundry, mechanical and sporting goods 

 factories, and may well be m.ore generally extended to 

 work done by men. 



Employers everywhere respond eagerly to a sound plan 

 of industrial training because it gives them an oppor- 

 tunity for advancement in position, earning power and 

 living conditions. Manufacturers begin to realize that 

 it increases plant productivity in both quantity and 



quality through greater efficiency rather than expendi- 

 ture ; that it produces leaders to take charge of work 

 requiring skill and intelligence, and makes for content- 

 ment among operating forces. They see that raising the 

 level of skill and education of their workers is building 

 the greatest future bulwark of American industry. 



FADS IN INDUSTRY. 



IT IS A CERTAIN SIGN OF PROGRESS that managers of in- 

 dustrial plants from time to time have tried out 

 various systems for the purpose of increasing their out- 

 put and improving the standard of both the workmen and 

 managers. Perhaps some of them when subjected to 

 close scrutiny might have been termed fads, but others ■ 

 have been productive of real good and there is reason 

 for the belief that eventually a summary of these experi- 

 ments will result in the adoption of a proved standardized 

 system. 



First came the epidemic of cost keeping. When this 

 was at its height any reasonably intelligent clerk with a 

 good address could get the job of installing a cost sys- 

 tem. It lasted until managers of plants realized they 

 were spending more time in ascertaining the costs of their 

 work than in improving their production methods. Some 

 of these systems survived, but many big plants in the 

 country are managing to worry along without them. 



Then came the efficiency slogan, which still prevails 

 to some extent. Efficiency was heard from everywhere, 

 and so-called efficiency experts went from factory to fac- 

 tory taking notes and promulgating theories. The key- 

 note of the theories was : "If we could only make the 

 workman efficient all would be well." It cannot be said 

 that efficiency has been the cure-all, for despite the good 

 it has undoubtedly done in some cases, industrial con- 

 ditions in many parts of this country are deplorable. The 

 Germans particularly devoted their energies to develop- 

 ing their workmen along lines of efficiency, being greatly 

 assisted by the government which exercised strict con- 

 trol over many essential industries. It must be admitted 

 that the Germans, previous to the war, had made con- 

 siderable progress along these lines which was reflected 

 by the standardized products of their factories. 



Just now the owners and directors of plants are direct- 

 ing their attention to the improvement of the efficiency of 

 those in control, for without efficient management it is 

 shown that efficiency of workmen is relatively useless 

 even if it is possible to get it. H. L. Gantt, a consulting 

 management engineer of New York, in a recent address 

 touched on the crux of this matter when he declared : 

 "Our most serious trouble is incompetency in high places. 

 ■•\s long as that remains uncorrected, no amount of effici- 

 ency in the workmen will avail very much. Can we find 

 a measure, or even a correct indication, of that efficiency? 

 I think we can. but we shall have to revise our methods 

 of cost accounting, for those at present in vogue are not 

 designed for that purpose." 



