The Harvester World: Volume 4, number 3, March 1913

              The Harvester World

31

material, less what the material was worth for scrap. This brought about a change. The men gradually began to look at the practical side of it. At the start they were simply trying to see how much they could do, regardless of quality; but after they found that they were the losers if the work was spoiled, they were careful then to see that the work was done in proper shape. We went on from year to year with the gradual growth and improvement of machinery and equipment, but the majority of the savings that were made were not made altogether with machinery that you could go in the market and buy.    It
every little while we get a serious one, and when we have a serious accident it brings up the ratio very rapidly. Every superintendent should study up on im¬ proved methods. Our works' burden is as much as the actual labor in many cases, whereas it could and should be reduced in many ways. Why does it come high? What can we do to reduce that burden.
There are a number of ways in which it can be done. If we can cut out enough of the small extra expenses, the sum total will perhaps be larger than we think, but it is certain that we have to do something.    When we  look
at the cost of our machines
E
was machinery that had been carefully studied out by men who were espe¬ cially adapted to study out ways and means of reducing hand labor and thus get out product for less money and with less men than by the old method.
Then we came along to the time when we went entirely to steel machines. That meant quite a change in our machinery. It made it .necessary for us to in¬ vent maciiinery that we could not buy on the market. We had good designers, that could de¬ sign special machinery, special tools, etc., to do the work. And so it has gone on until today it is harder to reduce labor costs by new devices and methods than at the start. That, today, is one of the most serious things we have to contend with. I think every superintend¬ ent will agree that we can¬ not do it by reducing wages. Wages are prac¬ tically fixed; they are gradually increasing rath¬ er than decreasing. We must do it by other agen¬ cies. We have-to do it by imjiroved methods. The prices of materials have their ups and downs; just now they are up, and the cost of labor is up. We   have  reduced  our
working hours per week to fifty-five, which naturally adds to the costs. We are doing a good many things that increase overhead costs, such as welfare work, sanitary improvements, etc., in which we are.all inter¬ ested and which are right and proper and the thing to do and we hope to continue leading in them.
We are also doing a great deal in safeguarding. In that particular line I think we not only get our money back but save life and limbs. Every time we put a guard on a machine it means that we get back the cost of installation many times over in the prevention of accidents.    Many of them, of course, are trifling,   but
D
B
On the top B. A, Kennedy — taken in the eighties — and Robert H.
Dixon, first Superintendent of Deerings.   On the bottom B, A.
Kennedy—taken fourteen years ago — and J. H. Pitkin
the Veteran Husker and Shredder Authority.
today, the prices they sell for, what it costs to sell them, and the small mar gin of profit that is left for us when we get through it is surprising.
Now, the question is: What can each and every man sitting around this table tonight do to reduce thecost at his plant? Any¬ thing they can do, or think they can do, will be re¬ ceived with a great deal of pleasure at the main office—any suggestion of any kind. I think we should seriously think of tiiat until each one has brought upsomethingthat is going to help reduce our cost. As I said before, however, the principal thing is in metliods and ways of doing the work. If anyone thinks we can¬ not save anything today on manufacturing, over and above what we are doing now, as regards some particular phase of it or some particular piece of work that he is making, perhaps all he has to do is to sit down and study that piece a while and he will undoubtedly discover that he is not doing it as cheaply as he could. If he studies it carefully, he will find some way in which he can cut off a little bit of labor; and if we all work together, we can soon help to reduce the cost without affecting the quality.
I realize it is a hard proposition, but it is a proposi tion we have to meet. It is a manufacturing depart¬ ment's proposition and superintendent's proposition; and of course the superintendents should have and do have men who will put their shoulder to the wheel, and help in every respect they can.
When I think of the various things the International Harvester Company does for its employes it causes me to look back to the days when I first started in the shop, and think how little we had except hammering, from morning till night.    We had none of the machines that