INDUSTRIAL LABOUR 393 



view to eliminating all that is unnecessary. The speed, the selec- 

 tion of tools, the length and distribution of rest and meal times 

 during the day have also an important bearing on the results 

 obtained. 



If there be a " science " of labour, there is also an " art " of 

 working, an art which, properly studied, can confer rich economic 

 benefits. It is to this that Taylor has so insistently directed the 

 attention of the industrial world, both employers and employed. 

 But human labour can never reach its maximum unless the worker 

 is assured of a corresponding maximum of well-being. Let us 

 confine our attention to the technical side of this new study. We 

 have, in effect, to find the laws by which the maximum economical 

 output of work can be obtained from the movements of the 

 human motor and its mechanism. We know, from experience, 

 that rapid movements tend towards the desired result, since 

 by becoming automatic they gain in speed and accuracy. But in 

 such cases bad habits of working may be the cause of superfluous 

 movements. All such must be eliminated, and only those re- 

 tained which conduce to efficiency. As Gilbreth f 1 ) says, the 

 new science of management demands that trades be taught in 

 accordance with standardised movements laid down by a central 

 authority. Or, as Taylor cogently remarks, we see the forests 

 disappear, the energy of rivers running to waste, the land de- 

 stroyed by erosion of the sea, and the approaching exhaustion of 

 our supplies of coal and iron. But the daily waste of human 

 energy by unskilfulness, bad management, and incapacity (which 

 the late Mr. Roosevelt considered to be a real loss of national 

 output) is less tangible and less easily observed or understood. 

 Wastage of material can be easily observed, but it is indeed diffi- 

 cult adequately to understand and appreciate the waste of energy 

 due to human incapacity and unskilfulness. ( 2 ) 



On the average one-third of the available energy of man is 

 wasted. In other words, methodical organization could increase 

 the industrial output in the same proportion. Such increased 

 output from the manual worker would permit a corresponding 

 increase in his wages, and form a powerful inducement towards 

 the maintenance of industrial peace. 



The analysis of motions, their classification, in accordance 

 with their utility, the determination of the suitable speeds for 

 such motions and of the best methods in which they can be com- 

 bined require very special treatment as a department of kine- 

 matics. By graphic and chronophotographic methods we can find 

 the path of any moving body and the laws connecting space, 

 time, speed and acceleration. By these methods we can resolve 



f 1 ) F. Gilbreth, Motion Study, p. 98. 



( 2 ) F. Taylor, Scientific Organisation of Workshops, loc. cit., p. 27. 



