30 



I appeal to you, therefore, as leaders of Labour opinion, to examine 

 sympathetically any device for increasing production, provided it does 

 not place Labour in a worse position than before. Don't condemn 

 Scientific Management out of hand, because it does not, of itself, place 

 Labour in complete control of Industry. I have tried to show that it 

 makes an increase in Labour's share of management no more difficult 

 to achieve than do present conditions, and I believe it even makes it 

 easier. Meanwhile the rate of production of wealth will have been 

 increased by the adoption of the general ideas of study, selection, and 

 training underlying Scientific Management. 



A DELEGATE said he understood Mr. Renold to say that a certain 

 corporation paid compensation for men displaced by the introduction 

 of machinery. Could he tell them if he had any idea what sort of 

 scheme of compensation was accepted by this corporation ? 



MR. WM. JEFFS (Ten Acres and Stirchley Co-operative Society) : 

 As a workman I know what it is to work under the system, and therefore 

 can speak of it from a practical point of view. I have worked under 

 good employers, with mutual confidence between workman and master, 

 but the employers instituted Scientific Management, and things have 

 gone from bad to worse. Efficiency has gone up, but mutual confidence 

 has disappeared. The object of the system is to gain at the expense 

 of the workman ; it has the tendency to make an old man of one at 50. 

 The workman gets a few shillings extra per week, but that cannot buy 

 his life back again. After seven or eights hours' work he is physically 

 unfit for anything else. There are some good points in Scientific 

 Management ; but there must be reason, give-and-take, and confidence 

 on both sides if it is going to be a success. The system seems to hurry 

 the workman too hard. In about five hours he gets Is. lOd. extra, 

 but he saves 4s. 2d. Of course it pays to give the man Is. lOd. to get 

 4s. 2d. extra out of him. 



MR. EDGERTON (London Society of Compositors): Better manage- 

 ment is a good thing all will agree, but it should be for the benefit of 

 the workman just as much as for the employer. I agree with Mr. 

 Renold that it would not do away with a great deal of skilled labour : 

 in many cases it makes unskilled and semi-skilled labour more skilled 

 and increases the status of the worker, but I would like explained why 

 every system of Scientific Management brings the pay line down after 

 the efficiency mark has been reached, increasing the profit and reduc- 

 ing the pay. If a machine will do an extraordinary amount of work 

 employers are prepared to pay more for it, therefore, if a worker can 

 do more why not pay him more ? 



MR. G. MIDDLETON (Postal and Telegraph Clerks' Association) : 

 I would like to know if Mr. Renold accepts Mr. Cole's challenge as to 

 the degrading of labour under Scientific Management ? Mr. Renold 

 did say something on this point, but it was not clear to me. He said 

 that very often the proportion of skilled workers was increased, but 

 his illustration was confined to a particular department in his own 



