April 21, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



585 



cost of an important machine was reduced 

 by such expedients from $250 to about $75. 



Table I. — Opekation of the Premium Plan. 



Table II. is taken from the books of one 

 of this establishments actually employing 

 this 'premium plan,' and shows a gain of 

 more than one half, in this particular in- 

 stance, in time of production — in produc- 

 tivity, in fact — in the works, of just 

 double wages for the workman, per piece 

 produced, and a net increase in day's wages 

 of eighteen per cent.; while the gain to the 

 company was very much greater through 

 its operation upon the interest and mainte- 

 nance accounts. 



In another actual case where the parts 

 reported upon all belonged to a single con- 

 tract, and comprised the whole contract, 

 the gains of the workmen were 29 per cent, 

 on the day's wages, 25 per cent, on the 

 piece, and the time of production of each 

 piece averaged a reduction of 63 per cent. 

 These figures are astonishing; but they 

 mark the enormous difference between the 

 productivity of a man working under the 

 old conditions of the day's-work plan, with- 

 out incentive to either good work or to 

 doing his best in continuous labor, and the 

 premium-system, which is likely to give 

 ambition, energj' and productiveness to the 

 most stolid. In this table Cases 41 to 44 are 

 records made where both parties doubted 

 the possibility of any gain at all One case 

 was made by an apprentice boy and the 

 standard was based on the work of an ex- 

 perienced workman. Another case gives 

 illustrations of successive gains with prac- 

 tice on successive pieces. All illustrate 

 large and equitably-shared gains over the 

 old sj'stem of day's wages. 



Everything depends, however, upon an 

 equitable basis of inauguration. It is bet- 



TAELE II. — RESULTS OF APPLYING THE PREMIUM PLAN * 

 RATIOS OF TOTALS. 

 tr time ^ 44 New wages per piece _ 50 



I time 100 Old wageTper piece ICJO" 



MISCELLANEOUS WORK. 



New wages per day 318 



Old wages per day 100 



RATIOS OF TOTALS WITH 46 OMITTED. 



New time ^ 76 New wages per piece S3 



Old time 100 Old wages per piece ~ lOcT 



