"Schmidt, are you a high-priced man?"
"Vell, I don't know vat you mean."
"Oh yes, you do.What I want to know is whether you are a high-priced man or not.""Vell, I don't know vat you mean."
"Oh, come now, you answer my questions.what I want to find out is whether you are a high-priced man or one of these cheap fellows here.What I want to find out is whether you want to earn $1.85 a day or whether you are satisfied with $1.15, just the same as all those cheap fellows are getting.""Did I vant $1.85 a day? Vas dot a high-priced man? Vell, yes, I vas a high-priced man.""Oh, you're aggravating me.Of course you want $1.85 a day every one wants it! You know perfectly well that that has very little to do with your being a high-priced man.For goodness' sake answer my questions, and don't waste any more of my time.Now come over here.You see that pile of pig iron?""Yes."
"You see that car?"
"Yes."
"Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will load that pig iron on that car to-morrow for $1.85.Now do wake up and answer my question.Tell me whether you are a high-priced man or not.""Vell -- did I got $1.85 for loading dot pig iron on dot car to-morrow?""Yes, of course you do, and you get $1.85 for loading a pile like that every day right through the year.That is what a high-priced man does, and you know it just as well as I do.""Vell, dot's all right.I could load dot pig iron on the car to-morrow for $1.85, and I get it every day, don't I?""Certainly you do -- certainly you do."
"Vell, den, I vas a high-priced man."
"Now, hold on, hold on.You know just as well as I do that a high-priced man has to do exactly as he's told from morning till night.You have seen this man here before, haven't you?""No, I never saw him."
"Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will do exactly as this man tells you to-morrow, from morning till night.When he tells you to pick up a pig and walk, you pick it up and you walk, and when he tells you to sit down and rest, you sit down.You do that right straight through the day.And what's more, no back talk.Now a high-priced man does just what he's told to do, and no back talk.Do you understand that? When this man tells you to walk, you walk; when he tells you to sit down, you sit down, and you don't talk back at him.Now you come on to work here to-morrow morning and I'll know before night whether you are really a high-priced man or not."This seems to be rather rough talk.And indeed it would be if applied to an educated mechanic, or even an intelligent laborer.With a man of the mentally sluggish type of Schmidt it is appropriate and not unkind, since it is effective in fixing his attention on the high wages which he wants and away from what, if it were called to his attention, he probably would consider impossibly hard work.
What would Schmidt's answer be if he were talked to in a manner which is usual under the management of "initiative and incentive"? say, as follows:
"Now, Schmidt, you are a first-class pig-iron handler and know your business well.You have been handling at the rate of 12 1/2 tons per day.I have given considerable study to handling pig iron, and feel sure that you could do a much larger day's work than you have been doing.Now don't you think that if you really tried you could handle 47 tons of pig iron per day, instead of 12 1/2 tons?"What do you think Schmidt's answer would be to this?
Schmidt started to work, and all day long, and at regular intervals, was told by the man who stood over him with a watch, "Now pick up a pig and walk.Now sit down and rest.Now walk -- now rest," etc.He worked when he was told to work, and rested when he was told to rest, and at half-past five in the afternoon had his 47 1/2 tons loaded on the car.And he practically never failed to work at this pace and do the task that was set him during the three years that the writer was at Bethlehem.And throughout this time he averaged a little more than $1.85 per day, whereas before he had never received over $1.15 per day, which was the ruling rate of wages at that time in Bethlehem.That is, he received 60 per cent higher wages than were paid to other men who were not working on task work.One man after another was picked out and trained to handle pig iron at the rate of 47 1/2 tons per day until all of the pig iron was handled at this rate, and the men were receiving 60 per cent more wages than other workmen around them.
The writer has given above a brief description of three of the four elements which constitute the essence of scientific management: first, the careful selection of the workman, and, second and third, the method of first inducing and then training and helping the workman to work according to the scientific method.Nothing has as yet been said about the science of handling pig iron.The writer trusts, however, that before leaving this illustration the reader will be thoroughlyconvinced that there is a science of handling pig iron, and further that this science amounts to so much that the man who is suited to handle pig iron cannot possibly understand it, nor even work in accordance with the laws of this science, without the help of those who are over him.
The writer came into the machine-shop of the Midvale Steel Company in 1878, after having served an apprenticeship as a pattern-maker and as a machinist.This was close to the end of the long period of depression following the panic of 1873, and business was so poor that it was impossible for many mechanics to get work at their trades.For this reason he was obliged to start as a day laborer instead of working as a mechanic.Fortunately for him, soon after he came into the shop the clerk of the shop was found stealing.There was no one else available, and so, having more education than the other laborers (since he had been prepared for college) he was given the position of clerk.Shortly after this he was given work as a machinist in running one of the lathes, and, as he turned out rather more work than other machinists were doing on similar lathes, after several months was made gangboss over the lathes.
