Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1927. MASS PRODUCTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 December 1927, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1927. MASS PRODUCTION.

The most striking contribution of the United States to modern industry is its development of mass production. This development is a recent thing. Not till 1920 did American industry absorb a larger number of workers than American agriculture. Now it occupies the best brains in the country. Of mass production the motor industry is the most striking example, blit it is by no means the only industry in which modern American methods can be studied. _ Even now the mass production of automobiles is being challenged by the mass production of electric power. Mass production makes for the enlargement and consolidation of industrial plants; it cheapens the purchase of raw material; it encourages labour-saving devices; it improves machinery; and it reduces the number of employees per unit of production. All this decreases the cost of production, and lowers the competitive price of the product. But where the industry; is not competitive, because or trusts and tariffs, the tendency of mass production is to lower the price to the consumer, in order to extend the market sufficiently to take off the increased production. These advantages have been recognised by the world for years, in the ease of small commodities, like screws, bolts, nuts, gas burners and electric bulbs, and, in the building trade especially, in bricks, steel sheets, window frames and doors. In such articles the process called standardisation has approved itself to the world. Mass production has, however, certain disadvantages which its protagonists sometimes forget, but which Americans are now being forced to consider. These disadvantages are not confined to the productive side of industry. _ They occur on the distribution side as. well. Productivity, mass production, entails the defects as well as the benefits that are bound up with standardisation. It. cramps one’s style. The product cannot be varied. The disadvantages of this monotony are readily admitted in certain industries, like the clothing trades. Here a constant variety, not only in make up and design, but also in size and pattern, is demanded. The reactions of these changing demands unon_ largescale production in this industry are very awkward, especially with regard to labour problems. Tt is not without significance that the great garment workers’ organisations of New York have not been embraced in the American Federation of Labour, but nrefer to stand outside, fighting their peculiar battles with their own weapons. And when - we regard the primary textile industries, like weaving, we can see that the everchanging demand for a variety of patterns makes the _ methods of mass production quite unsuitable for this industry.