FACTORY SANITATION AND EFFICIENCY. 1 



By C.-E. A. Winslow. 2 



It may fairly be maintained that in most industries the largest 

 element invested is what may be called life capital. For example, 

 in the cotton industry in 1905 there was invested a capital of $613,- 

 000,000, while the pay roll amounted to $96,000,000 a year. Capi- 

 talized at 5 -per cent, this pay roll would correspond to an investment 

 of $1,920,000,000 in the form of the hands and brains of the workers. 

 The calculation is perhaps a fanciful one, but it illustrates the fun- 

 damental fact that the human element in industry is of large practi- 

 cal importance. Particularly in regions like New England, where 

 there is no wealth of natural resources, prosperity depends on a skilled 

 and intelligent operative class. Such a class Massachusetts has had 

 in the past and the present interest in industrial education testifies 

 to the conviction that the efficiency of the operative must be im- 

 proved to the highest possible degree. 



Once the operative is trained and at work it is generally assumed 

 that the results obtained will depend only on Ins intrinsic qualities 

 of intelligence and skill. The effect of the environment upon him is 

 commonly ignored; but its practical importance is very great. In 

 industries where it has been shown that the machine winch makes a 

 given fabric requires certain conditions of temperature and moisture 

 for its successful operation these conditions are maintained with 

 exemplary care. In every factory, however, there is another type 

 of machine, the living machine, which is extraordinarily responsive 

 to slight changes in the conditions which surround it. These con- 

 ditions, in this relation, we habitually neglect. 



I am not dealing now with the sociological and humanitarian aspects 

 of the case. I am quite frankly and coldly, for the moment, treating 

 the operative as a factor in production whose efficiency should be 

 raised to the highest pitch, for his own sake, for that of his employer 

 and for the welfare of the community at large. 



The intimate relation between the conditions winch surround the 

 living machine and its efficiency is matter of common experience with 



i Reprinted by permission from Technology and Efficiency. Proceedings of the Congress of Technology 

 at Boston Apr. 10, 1911. pp. 442-44S. Copyright 1911, by McGraw-Hill Book Co. 



2 Associate professor of biology, College of the City of New York, and curator of public health, American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York City. 



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