ETHICS OF BREAKAGES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 73, 23 September 1922, Page 20

ETHICS OF BREAKAGES

"MERELY MARY ANN/

Every manufacturer knows that there are certain workers who 1 seeni to' have been born under an unlucky star—everything they touch seems to go wrong: If they handle deflieaie machinery that piece of mechanism Is doomed to trouble: And yet these; men do their best: The "accident' 1 jtisfc happens^ and no blame seems to attach to anyone. It is just a "personal idiosycracy"^-th« sort of thing that causes a cricketer to bowl a, "leg bre&k" when lie fully intended to bowl a "googly." This psychological phase of indus* trial ineptitude has sefioitaly engaged th« attention of a British Research Society, and a aeries of experiments are being , carried out in an endeavour to ascertain the "why" and "wherefore." It was felt that, even in such a commonplace matter as the handling of dishes, the broad general principles of "careless handling" might be determined, and furnish a "least common denominator." And so careful records were made at a number of London restaurants of those employees who handle crockery. A considerable number of consistent "breakers" were transferred to other establishments ot departments where ■ their peculiar destructive facnlties were of little moment financially—in short, where cheap crockery was used. The result was that losses through breakages fell to zero. Besulte tended to show that "Merely Mary Ann" just couldn't help dropping the Sevres porcelain, but that the plebian Bristol ware held no temptations for her.

In largo catering establishments such a saving must necessarily materially swell the revenue-.' And what applies to cups and saucers naturally applies with greater force to complicated, machines. It would be interesting to know what amount of annual loss the industrial world has sustained through breakages caused by "carelessness". on the part of operatives, and how much raw material is spoiled by the "clumsiness" of those working it up into the finished articles.

But then, after all, perhaps the world is better off to-day with real human beings, with all their clumsiness and carelessness, than it would be with synthetic men and women incapable of errors. The medical faculty will , proba-bly-discover that "carelessness" is merely a sort of cerebral inertia . amenable to treatment, and that "clumsiness" can be remedied by 3 nerve tonic or violet rays.

The investigations now being; carried out. however, mnv have rm imnortant bearing on the vexeci question of how not to put round nesTR in sciuare holes, and the. finnl rennrt 'after the psychologists have finished analysing it will be awaited with interest.

Every man hopes to be remembered for his genius or his attainments; yet, alas! Solomon the Wise is remembered chiefly for his marriages; Henry VIIT., the lawmaker, for his divorces; Sir Waller KAlojch, the explorer, for his litllo act of chivalry; and AbeUvd, ths scholar, for baa love affair.