10 
LAND & WATER 
July 12, 1917 
percentage of the dav under whicli the man can remain under 
load increases. So that, if the workman is handhng a hall- 
pig, weighing 46 lb., he can then be under load 58 per cent, 
of the day, and only has rest during 42 per cent. As the 
weight grows ligliter the man can remain under load durmg a 
larger and larger percentage of the day, until finally a load is 
reached which he can carry in his hands all day long without 
being tired out. When that point has been arrived at this 
law ceases to be useful as a guide to the labourer's endurance, 
and some other law must be found which indicates a man s 
capacity for work." . 
The Chicago journal Factory, gives the following account ot 
an experiment in increasing speed : " Two men were assemb- 
ling a macliine ; oi^.^ was taking 37^ minutes to do the job 
the other 40 minutes to do the same job. The movements ot 
the men were so rapid that no difference could be detected 
by the most expert observer, so a special split-second clock 
with a rapidly revolving second hand was set by each of the 
men. and motion pictures were taken of them at work. The 
resulting films were throvm on a screen at a much reduced 
speed and carefully studied. Frames and tables were then 
invented to eliminate motions which took up the smallest 
fraction of a second, until finally the operator who formerly 
took Z7\ minutes to assemble his machine could do the same 
job in 8^ minutes." 
The Human Element 
The workman looks with suspicion on these develop- 
ments. They are introduced by the employer and the em- 
]iloyer is chiefly concerned to make the niost of that part of 
the workman's day which he controls. But the workman 
has to think of his life as a whole. If he makes a supreme 
effort or if he contrives to acquire such precision and exact- 
ness as to become almost a machine, he may increase his 
output enormously, but what about his health, liis mind and 
the prospect of his old age ? In the early days of the In- 
dustrial Revolution men and women were used up at a 
terrible rate, and to-day in many occupations old age sets in 
very early in life. We have only to read what an erninent 
doctor like Sir Thomas Oliver tells us in his book on Diseases 
of Occupation to see what a price the working classes pay for 
the industrial power of the nation. Why should the. work- 
man, to whom the hours he spends in the factory are only part 
of his life, lay himself out during those hours to perform sorne 
astonishing and exhausting feat whatever the cost to his 
health ? The employer pays for so many hours of work : 
he does not pay for so much health and "vigour as well ? He 
does not make himself responsible for the children who have 
to suffer if the workman overstrains himself and renders 
himself unfit for work. And what satisfaction is it to the 
workman to know that he increases his output, to know that 
no man living could have carried a heavier weight of pig-iron 
or assembled his machine a second quicker, if he is too tired 
to use or enjoy his leisure ? The workman cannot think of 
himself as a mere machine whose movements can be accelerated 
and regulated like clockwork. And he is right, even if judged 
solely by the standard of economy of labour, for many move- 
ments that are unnecessary for a particular operation may 
actually relieve fatigue because they vary the various use of 
his muscles. Moreover in resisting all this speeding up he is 
obeying an instinct which is older than his life : he is obeying 
an instinct born generations ago in this same struggle between 
a law of nature tending to the preservation of the race and a 
law of economics tending to the development of industry. 
Is the conclusion, then, that all improvements must be 
resisted by the workpeople, and that there must be a standing 
strife for all time between the spirit of experiment and 
adventure in industry and the Trade Unions tradition of self 
defence? If so it is a poor look-out for the future. Of course 
not. Industry cannot call a halt or use bows and arrows in a 
world which has invented machine guns. It is not a bad 
thing but a good thing in itself that we should learn what 
methods and arrangements economise effort, how the number 
of motions in a given process can be reduced, what load on a 
shovel is the least tiring, how generally the work that has to 
be done in the world can be simplified and made less ex- 
hausting. We have learned a great deal in the war, for all 
kinds of appliances have been devised to enable women to 
take the place of men in the munition works. Some admir- 
able work has been done by the Committee on the Health of 
Munition-workers, of which Sir George Newman is chairman, 
and their reports are a valuable addition to our knowledge of 
which full advantage must be taken not so much in the 
interests of production as in the interests of the workpeople. 
For in a properly organised industry the workpeople would 
clearly be the first to benefit by measures that make the 
nature of their work hghter. 
It is here that we come to the crux of the question. As 
industry is organised at present, it is the employer's interest 
rather than the workman's interest that prompts and directs 
these economies. So lon§ as that interest is the deciding 
factor, two fallacies are liable to vitiate all these improve- 
ments and to turn them to bad rather than to good account. 
Two Fallacies 
The first fallacy' is tlie fallacy which thinks only of the 
workman as an economic unit, so much labour power at the 
disposal of the employer, disregarding all other aspects 
of his life. Tlie second is the fallacy of thinking that the 
best judge of a boot is not the wearer whom it pinches, but 
the maker who sees it on somebody else's foot and admires 
it as a happy fit. An illustration will make the point clear. 
It was always assumed by the old economists that the intro- 
duction and develo])ment of machinery made men's work 
easier. They entirely overlooked the nervous strain of work- 
ing with machinery which such authorities as Sir Thomas 
Oliver regard as an element of capital importance in the con- 
ditions affecting health and vitality. Sir Thomas warns us 
that the speeding up of machinery in the factory and the 
workshops is causing an alarming strain on the nervous system. 
The workman knew what that strain was well enough, but 
it never entered the imagination of the emploj'ers or 
economists. It was seriously argued by one of the economists 
who defended child labour, that the mill cliild only worked 
fifteen seconds out of every minute, and that therefore his 
hours which were nominally twelve were, in fact, only three. 
So long as all this side of industrial life, which is called 
scientific management, is controlled and regulated only by 
the employer, it is bound to be a danger. It is a good thing 
to arrange adjustable scaffolds and shelves whereby a brick- 
layer is saved a great deal of unnecessary bending and stooping, 
but if that arrangement is introduced merely to increase the 
speed at which he can pick up his bricks, the foreman thinks 
only of this speed, and the bricklayer is, in point of fact, 
pressed all the harder in con.sequence. But the new Councils 
which are to take over the management of the affairs of our 
industry provide just the body that can use the resources of 
science and experiment without abusing them. The worker 
is interested, as a worker, in the success and efficiency of his 
work, because it is human nature to find a satisfaction in 
doing a job well. He is interested in another sense, because 
to do anything consciously less well than one could do it is 
, destructive of a man's self-respect. He is interested again in 
doing his job reasonably quickly and having more time for 
his leisure. Above all, he knows better than the employer 
where and how the pressure of speeding up is felt. Doctors 
tell us that a man's impressions of strain, though based on no 
scientific knowledge, arc an invaluable guide in diagnosis. 
The new Councils and the new Workshop Committees will 
then, it is to be hoped, explore all this department of industrial 
life with care, making the business of industrial production . 
easier and simpler where this is possible and protecting 
the workman against the dangers, while securing to him the 
advantages, of new methods and devices. 
It will not be enough, of course, to see that the workman 
is the gainer and not the loser in respect of health and physique 
from such improvements. It is necessary also to see that he 
is not the loser in an economic sense. Here we come to one 
of the most important of the tasks of the new Councils, for 
it will be their duty to provide the workman with some form 
of security of tenure. • This does not mean that Smith is to 
have a guarantee that for the rest of time he will be employed 
on precisely the same job and that a method cannot be changed, 
until he is dead. It means that Smith will not find himself 
on the doorstep because some improvement has been made, 
and that Industry will accept a riew responsibility for the 
workpeople employed in it. The Councils will fail in an 
elementary duty if they do not devise some satisfactory 
means, in the language of the Whitley Report, of ensuring to 
the workpeople the greatest possible security of earnings and 
employrnent, without undue restriction upon change of 
occupation or employer. We hear a great deal about the 
necessity of increasing outputs after the war. The true 
rriethod is to open up a new source of power and energy by 
giving new freedom and responsibility to the workpeople. 
The Fre.sh Air Fund, founded twenty^six years ago by Sir 
Arthur Pearson, has again begun its yearly good work, and the 
promoters hope it will not be necessary to disappoint the poor 
children who long for a day in the counirry in this year of sorrow 
and anxiety. Fifteen pence gives a poor child a dav in the 
country ; fifteen shillings pays for a fortnight at sea or in the 
country ; and /13 defrays the cost of a complete party of two 
hundred children for the day with the necessary attendants. 
All the expenses of management are borne by the promoters. 
Subscriptions should be sent to the Honorary Secretary, Mr. 
Ernest Kessell, 226,. Great Portland Street, W.i. 
