MECHANICAL MEN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 141, 29 May 1920, Page 7

MECHANICAL MEN.

A CAR IN FQRTY MINUTES. A very lively account is given in the ‘■•Sheffield Independent” by Mr. Cecil Rofierts of the mass production methods of the Ford motor factories. The Ford plant now turns out one million cars a tear, and iwirs 350 acres at Detroit. The annual turnover is 400,000,000 dollars. There are 40,000 workmen, speaking over a hundred different languages —■‘a real League of Nations.” The wages bill is 5,000/100 dollars a month. The picture drawn of division of labour m exceisis is not very attractive. The individual mail works at his monotonous repetition job, and has little or no idea what he contributes to the finished car. A mass production'ear. in effect, is not made by men, hut by' human machines. The industrialist, cna'lenged to justify -such methods IjAni the point ot view of securing liappmess in work, can only point to the possibility that when scientific production is carried out all round, the working day can be so reduct'd as to leave the individual worker with plenty of time in which to obtain rest or recreation. I ASS PRODUCTION AND ‘‘JOY IN WORK.” The ‘‘lronmonger'’ illustrates the point bv quoting Horn an amusing address bv .Mr. H. Tipper to the American Society of Automotive Engineers. Mr. 'lipper went into the factory of the Western Electric Company and saw a white-haired man standing by a punching machine. The old icL.ow was pushing steel plates into the machine, punching them, and passing them on to another workman. Mr. Tipper asked him. “What is that plate? ' and the following conversation ensued: — “That is P.X. 111.” ‘‘You don’t get me; what do tnoy use it for?” ”1 don’t know.” “How long have you been on this job?” “Twelve years. One can imagine a mass-production worker gazing in awe at the marvellous final product and wondering whereabouts in its contraptions and gadgets his particular bit of punched meta. 1 , is imbedded.