The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1912. AMERICAN BUSINESS METHODS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 36, 7 February 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1912. AMERICAN BUSINESS METHODS.

, ! ■■ ■ • I . 1. ; ■"‘Mr. Guide Sacerdote, an •Italiaii- ' American 1 engineer writing 1 to the “Aineijican,, ’.Machinjstj” ihgkes q rathw; 'strange- ■ complaint against American business' methods. He as serts that tlie top> position in at American manufacturing concern arc restricted to the ofiice or countinghouse;' that the engineer may become chief engineer, but no more. He is debarred from managerial positions, and salaries, a worthy office boy has a better -career before him than a worthy bixgnieoring' appfbilticer Mr. Sacerdote’s .maim point, is that one-' sided l management of this land is a: purely -American •phenomenon, that it is not found in any European country and that it has the practical result that American linns are slow to adopt mechanical innovations unless they are of a kind to appeal immediately to “the purely practically trained man.” It is, an English writer remarks, a charge that will surprise many humble-minded people who are accustomed to think of America as the land of the very latest thing. But the critic produces quite a surprising list of modern processes and materials which he says were used in Europe foxyears before they were adopted in America. The list includes producergas apparatus, autogenous welding, water-tube boilers for stationary installations, malleble iron, concrete buildings, and flame arc lamps. On the other hand, ho accuses American business managers of being easily gulled by “fake” inventions, such as a plan for burning ashes, to which some big Pittsburg concerns are stated to have given a hearing and financial support. Undoubtedly it is one of the difficulties of good management to co-ordinate the various departments of a commercial concern of any kind. Any one department is apt to be narrow in its ideas, or cocksure of its power to manage other people’s business as well as its own. Ideal management will give duo weight to every department; to trust wholly in one is a very common form of mismanagement in every country.