HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1938-05-19, Page 7THURSDAY, MAY 19; 1938
i
1
1
1
1
1
11
11
1
i
1
•��V�rN.�tll"��Y�rBP�...r.9rl.�wi.r� 11-. �r
Duplicate
Monthtv
Statements
We can save you money on Bill ani
Charge Forms, standard sizes to f
ledgers, white or colors.
It will pay you to see our samples
Also best quality Metal Hinged Se:•
tional Post Binders and Index.
rhe Seaforth News'.
Phom. 84
•
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
THE SEABORTH NEWS
PAGE SEVEN
— with . that identification in view, in-
formed him that. 1 did not want to
know 'his name; and made it plain tha
lie might either answer my questions
or nat..
i believe that, out of scores inter
viewed; the fallowing are sufficiently
typical to .be used as a composite 'pic.
ture of that average assembly line
worker who doe's his ''vork well en-
ough to 'remain on the payroll, who
writes no subjective dissertations
about his work, and 'whose presence
makes it possible •far one company to.
be proud of figures which indicate
that, out of a personnel of nearly 90,-
000, the past year's average of daily
"quits" is elik including those who quit
because Death never takes a holiday.
Roy is 49 years, old, and has been
in the same 'company! for 218 years.
For the past ten years, his job 'has
been that of .'"putting new men
through the paces." "I've taught men
from all walks of life," he said. "'Some
of them are too high-strung to work
on the line. It's easy to spot them.
They tighten up inside like a watch
that's wound too tight and they can't
get going. Most of the time you can
correct it 'by putting them somewhere
else. Sometimes a quiet talk does the
trick. We have had cases where men
looked like they would he too ner-
vous' far the job .when they started
and then surprised us bygetting to be'
real goad, so good that they kicked
when we tried to shift them,"
.And then, unintentionally, Roy es-
tablished management's selfish inter-
est in preventing "deadly monotony."
"You see," he said, "we like to shift
men around !because that crakes 'them
more valuable. We .figure a 'man who
can 'do several operations is worth
more to us."
john, a Mohawk Indian who gradu-
ated .from Carlisle, is one of those
whom Roy said foremen like to "shift
around." Aged 11, he has been Jli8
years in the shop, about ten of them
''on the line." He was the only man I
encountered on the line who had read
the Richard article. His comment: "I
think he was out of place on the line.
If he finds his kind of work, I think
he'll admit he was out of place."
"This thing is silly," said Ben, a
minor plant official, after I had given
him the (Richard article. "If I .could
write, I could match this with as vici-
ous a 'description of a railway mail
clerk's life. Before I came here I pok-
ed letters into ;pigeonholes- for -13
hours a •day in a rolling, rocking car.
I can't conceive of any deadlier mono-
tony than that."
George, -who is 713, 'has been "in pro-
duction" at one plant for 1214 years. He
said he feels "Ike a 30 -year-old" at
the day's end and spends his leisure
"visiting around" with friends and his
two married children, "Sometimes I
go to shows nights and sometimes I
QN THE LLNE
"Some can tek(it—andsome can't,"
said the shop foreman, His .comment
referred to wank on modern industry's
assembly line, yet it was applicable to
any activity under the sun, from the
ancient job of rearing offspring to the
modern one of (flying the China Clip-
per. `"Phe trouble is that the misfits
make' the most noise," he,.added.
The .fellow's remark, I thought as I
left the factory, best summed up the
impressions I had gleaned from a
week of interviewing, automobile as-
sembly line workers, and inquiry that
I had undertaken after having read
Gene Richard's article, "On the
semb.ly Line," in The Atlantic Month-
ly. As a man who had on three occa-
sions worked on the assembly line, I
could re -live, through Richard's prose,
all the unpleasant emotions of those
period's' when I was an unhappy
square peg in a round hale.
But, as a newspaper reporter discip-
lined to deal with facts and schooled
to mistrust the purely subjective ap-
proach, I knew that the "'real story"
in this, as in any story, is less likely
to 'be m the easy reporting of one
man's view than in the more bother-
some method of matching many views
and presenting them as Objectively
and impartially as is humanly possi-
ble.
It had long seemed to me that the
truth about the so-called "evils of the
assemlbly line" was a story only parti-
ally reported ibocause the reporting
hadbeen mainly done by persons who,
possessing sufficient imagination and
sensitivity to enable them to write
well, were 'bound by their 'posession of
those qualities to be unhappy in any
repetitive and routine activity.
Ih snaking my investigation, I ob-
tained permission to interview men on
the assembly line. Of 'the foremen I
requested only that they point out
men with reasonably long service rec-
ords and allow me to take them from
their posts :long enough to answer a
few .questions.
In each instance I informed the
worker of my punpose, 'told him to
hide his badge if he feared to tark
What could be more complete than a combina-
tion offer that gives you a choke of your favourite
magazines— Sends you your local newspaper—
and gives yourself and family enjoyment and
entertainment throughout the whole year — Why
not take advantage of this remarkable offer that
means a real saving in money to you?
This Offer Fully Guaranteed—
All Renewals Will Be Extended
MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY
Please clip list of Magazines after checking Publications
desired. Fill out coupon carefully.
Gentlemen: I enclose $ Please send me the
three magazines checked with a year's subscription to your
newspaper.
NAME
STREET OR ER
TOWN AND PROVINCE .:
3. x
SAVE MONEY + MAUL TODAY
. t.L. �.-si'Un11. NEWS
SELECT ANY THREE OF
THESE MAGAZINES
❑ Maclean's (24 Issues) 1 yr.
❑ Chatelaine 1 yr.
❑ National Home Monthly 1 yr.
❑ Canadian Magazine • 1 yr.
0 Rod and Gun - - - 1 yr.
0 Pictorial Revillw Combined
With Delineator - - 1 yr.
American Boy - - - 8 mo.
❑ Can. Horticulture and
Home Magazine - - 1 yr.
Parents' Magazine - 6 mo.
❑ Silver Screen - - - - 1 yr.
❑ Open Road for Boys -16 mo.
❑ American Fruit Grower 1 yr.
TOGETHER WITH
THIS NEWSPAPER
ALL
FOR
THIS
Low
PRAT is
ssK'1'kl
Form 400
ONTARIO.
just: sit •around and talk and drink
beer. I done all kinds of jabs on this
here line," he said with a boastful
note. ' ""T never seen one yet that would
drive a man nutty unless he was nutty
to begin with. Of course I can see how
a man would hate monotonous work.
I don't like it myself I did it once. I
worked for the express 'company. It
was monotonous and mighty heavy
work, 1'11 take this any day."
Stan was next. He is 45, has spent
35 years on the assembly Cines in one
plant, "Its all one • to me where S
work," he said, "as long as it's on the
tine."
Asked if he felt exhausted at the
end of the day, he grinned and shook
his' head. He owns his home, drives
his own car to 'work. That drive "clear
across town through traffic,' he said,
"is harder than work here." Stan also
has a garden, "And right now," he'
added, pride lighting up his features,
"I'm building an addition 'on My
house myself," That work, he said, is
done evenings and on his two days •of
leisure each week.
Fred, who is 511' and ihas been on the
assem'b'ly line for 1215 years, provided
another clue as •to why same men feel
that this work is not deadly nsonaton-
aus. "How ran it be," he asked,
"when the operations are 'being 'chang-
ed all she time?"
To illustrate, Fred explained that
his present job—the assembly of the
transmission cover—required 30 min-
utes for one man handling 14 'tools
five years ago. "We began to figure
how to do it easier," he said, "and by
changing operations we got it organ-
ized so that three men .do it now in
ten minutes with the '114 tools distri-
buted among us three. We're still try-
ing to ntaire the job easier, so'how can
it get monotonous if it's changing all
the dine?"
"Whenever you find a man 'on a job
he don't like," he added; the ain't the
man for the"'job. That's all thereisto
that,'
The mac called "Shorty" might well
be a whining burden to society, for
his leg; were crushed in a Michigan'
mune. He is 415, married, and the sole
support of three children, Although
locomotion is painfully laborious, he
has 'been 'five years on the motor as-
sembly line and, according to his fore-
man, "hollers like heck when the try
to get 'ham into an easier job," The
proffered easier" jobs, said Shorty,
are not easy for him, "I've learned to
make every move count," the said, "so
I never have to hurry, no natter how
fast the line moves."
Al is 32 and has spent six years on
the final assembly line"on all kinds
of jobs." He owns his own home, has
a garden, and hopes to educate his
two sons. ''I want them to get a bet-
ter education than I got," he said.
Asked if he would like them to do
this kind of work, he replied, "'They
Wright do worse. I can think of a lot
of worse jabs."
Al has a basement workshop and is
proud of she fact that he makes all his
car repairs. He reads newspapers anti
magazines—"Mostly light stuff," h,
said.
Iuquiries indicated that there is Ii:
tle variation in apparent dissatisfac-
tion in "productive" and "non-produc-
tive" jobs. The number of requests
for transfers, I found, is proportion-
ately the same among both groups
of workers. Although most productive
tasks are of the type called monoton-
ous because they involve much repeti-
tion, actually less than ten percent of
the total employes work on moving
essem'bly lines. Moreover, many non-
product'r•e tasks, such as routine cler-
ieal jobs, might be called monotonous
out are seldom the subject of heated
sontroversy, •
This was illustrated by Bert, a man
sf 513, doing rather heavy work on
he rear axle sub -assembly line. B•e-
ause he suffers from neuritis, Bert's
foreman took him off the job recent -
'y,. but allowed him to return "be
anuses' .Bert said, "I feel more at
home here."
Bert has two daughters. One of
them works in the payroll depart-
ment, `"She thinks any job must be
pretty dull," he said, "but I wouldn't
have her hind of a job as a gift. Lt
-Rust be awful monotonous to sit at a
desk all day and fiddle with a lot of
figures,"
Bert's recreation is his garden. "I
raise some pretty fancy dahlias," he
said. He was launching into a discus-
sion of dahlia culture when the fac-
tory din was 'punoeuated by one of
those concerted yells of the Men on
the line—a yell Which 'began ineuplic-
ahly with one man's Bowl and, 100601 -
:rig into a concerted otamor, faded out
as inexplicably as it started. Bert was
asked to explain.
"I don't know why they yell," he
said. "It's mosbly the young fellows.
who do it, I used to do it myself, but
I don't know why any more than I
know' why all 'the roosters start crow-
ing when one rooster lets go. Maybe
it's ,because you feel 'good,"
Near by I discovered Bill, a polite
rely -poky know aged 81, with the
kind of job that the average man pic-
tures as typical of the assembly line.
BM was 'fitting nuts on 'bolts—end-
lessly, and without profanity.
'Monotonous?" said ,Brill,. squinting
owlishly through she:lhrininaed glass
es, "Gracious, na! This is child's
play." Bill said he had 'been doing this
sort •of thing since 110113, when he
rented his farm near Yale, Mich., and
decided to "mare to town and try a
hand at factory work."
"'I'd much rather do this than
farm," he said. "Work's not so chard.
Less monotonous. 'Fewer hours. And
you get some enjoyment out of life.
Evenings and Saturdays and Sun-
days, the IMissus and 1 pile in the car
and drive around and visit the four
kids scattered over the state."
For recreation Bill reads the news-
papers and listens to the radio.
"While my hands are doing this fob,
he said, •"I can think about what I
read and what I heard." The din was
deafening near Bill, but he said he
hadn't noticed the noise.
Yes, he had seen men who screwed
nuts on bolts until they got all tight-
ened the in a knot. "But," he added,
'I've sten some of them do that and
hien get a holt on 'themselves and
level off. If a man can't get along
with his job, it's not the job's fault, I
guess: it's the man who's wrong."
Slim is ,IR He has been on the as-
sembly 'line 1218 years. His job is a
tedious gathering together of ten
wires into as metal holder. Despite his
age, .Slim can, according to his fore-
man, "assemble manifolds faster than
any twocnhen we've ever tried,"
Watching Slim is like watching a
nicely articulated machine—no waste
effort, no superfluous movement fas-
cinating rhythm. His fingers are as
nimble as Fred Astaire's feet. Ex-
tremely taciturn, his only comment
was. "I wouldn't trade jobs with any
man I ever met"—in addition to the
bare Facts that he has two sons, one
of whom graduates this June, and
that he gets his recreation working
around his home. which he owns, and
in driving and repairing his car.
Gus is has been on the line for
15 years, and Bete his recreation driv-
ing Ms car and summering in his
lake -side cottage equipped with a
greenhouse which he 'hulk himself.
His job is that of filling in wherever
When drop out of the line.
"I wouldn't say the line's a man-
killer," Inc said. "I've seen men who
didn't belong 00 the job they were
trying to hold down. and I've seen
them do a good job when they were
transferred to some other operation.
Sometimes a big 'husky man can't
take it, and a man who looks dike a
weakling makes good in the same
place. The tr'ou'ble comes when the
right job and the right man don't get
together. I think there aren't many
men who can't be fitted in some-
where,"
This belief that the tin -tit is a rar-
ity is shared by'Gus's foreman, who
said, "What management needs most
to guard against is the tough straw -
boss with a corporal's complex, The
'russiaan kind of a fellow whose auth-
hrity goes to hi. heal can raise more
•rnttble in a shop in fi.e minutes than
you can correct in a year."
And that comment is the explana-
tion of industry's basic fault, as se!
'orth by William i. 'Knudsen. whce
declares that managements Horst
problems arise from the widening o
the gulf between. itself and the men.
Management has to find mean= fo
restoring the kind of contact witit
nen that prevailed in the little traps,"
aid this transplanted pane who r.:,s,
0 management's pinnacle, via the as-
'eurbly line,
Henry (Ford, too, understands tha
pass production has its' evils. In
,ointing out how mass production
had furnished man for the first time
n history with the tools that were
capable of banishing the threat of
permanent want forever, he said:
"But nothing of real value has ever
been ;produced without pain. There
are always injustices that need cor-
recting,"
BRO'ODIN'G YOUNG CHICKS
('Experimental Fa -'n,. No e!
Among the controllable factors 'gov-
erning success in the brooding of
young chicks, the :brooder tempera-
ture is one of first importance. .Ido•
chicks are dost each year through
chilling than front any : other cans
Killing of young chicks is usual':
caused by insuff'cient heat in th'
brooder, ,but it may also result if ex-
:essive heat is supplied for a shor
period. Draughty brooding quarters
will 'also cause chilling. Digestive
'rouble, followed by diarrhoea are t1h:
•oantnon symptoms of this ailment.
There is no effective medicinal remedy
for chilling and a heavy mortality us-
ually results. Preventive measures
must be depended upon solely in
•'voiding these heavy dosses.
'For economical and ;successful
,brooding of chicks, the brooder house
must be well constructed, and should
also he insulated. Double boarded
,alis with inter -linings o'f building
paper are advisable. The ceiling, un-
'ike that of 'the standard poultry
horse, should he matched lumber to
01 H1 Illclnne$
1Lhiropractor
Office Commercial Rotel
Hours—Mon. and Thurs. after
Electro Therapist — Massage
noon and by appointment
FOOT CORR'ECT.ION
by manipulation—Sun-ray treat-
ment
Phone 227.
should he well constructed to prevent
the entry of draughts. 'Poorly con-
structed or make -shift buildings in ad-
dition " to being inefficient, are the
most expensive 'kind to heat. The im-
proved results together with the. sav-
ing in fuel makes the well construct-
ed 'brooder house a good investment,
For most farms the (fiat roofed type
of colony house, about ten feet by
twelve 'feet, is the most satisfactory
hind to build. A house of this kind
can be moved' readily and used for
brooding during the spring, and as a
Shelter in the 'field for the growing
birds during the 'summer months.
When used as a 'brooder,, it should be
located ''conveniently close to the
house in order ,that"the necessary at-
tention can readily be given to the
care of the young chicks, and more
particularly to the stove. 'A site should
be selected that is protected from
winds, and the house should be well
'banked to prevent ;floor draughts.
For brooding early hatched 'chicks,
the most suitable type of brooder
stove is one that 'burns coal. With a
coal -stove 'broader, the amount of
'heat supplied is sufficient to maintain
the required temperature during cold
weather. 'While hard nut -sized coal is
the most dependable fuel for brood-
ers, most of the stoves are capable of
burning either hard or soft coal. At
the experimental farm, Brandon, the
average daily cost of fuel per brooder
during the past three seasons, using
hard nut coal ata 'cost of x'20 per' ton,
was 1!5 octets.
The stove should be operated for
several days 'before the chicks are
•rlaced in the brooder. By doing this,
the house 'becomes thoroughly warm-
ed and the operator becomes accus-
tomed to regulating the stove. Most
brooder stoves' are equipped with ther-
mostats for controlling the check
draught. Itt addition to this control
mechanism, it is .advisable to suspend'
a thermometer from tate edge or the
hover so that the temperature of tI'-
floor is shown. A self -recording ther-
mometer is the best kind to us. for
this purpose. During the first ' er'•: of
brooding, tine floor temperarttre ttneler
the edge of the hover should be.about
1100 degrees IF. After he first week.
the temperature can be gradually 'n t -
ered. Chicks that have an 'adeutt•t••
supply of heat •usually arrange them.
selves in a circle at a comfortable d'
tante from 1111 stove, Chicks when
too cool are restless and noisy.
An uneven temperature is, equally
as 'harmful as an inadequate auop•y
of heat to young chicks, Every pre-
caution should be taken to prevent
the hrn sder temperature from fluctu-
ating, A well controlled brooder tem-
perature is of prime importance 1
the prevention if heavy losses 'het
the chicks are young. Brooder ten,,h-
erature is .also an important factor in
pres'en'ting the chicks from crowding.
which is frequently a forerunner e'f
unthriftin•ess and high mortality.
Bright Crop Prospects
Soil moisture conditions in 'Easter
Canada are galie favourable for springy,
operations, and the winter has heen
kind to' fail wheat, clover, paetures.
fruit trees, hushes and shrubs.
The outlook 'for crops is me •ih
'brighter than a year ago and the risk
of orop-destroying weather in summer
is much less in the east than in the
west. 'The winter of 11191316-37 was ttar.r
on winter wheat and clover in the
east. There was little snow and much
rain. Fields .were covered 'with ice.
During the past winter there has
been ample snow to 'protect the plants
which must survive the winter. In ad-
dition, spring has opened up well with
lots of .rain,
'Given a reasonable break in the.
next ,few months eastern farmers,
gardeners and fruit -growers look for-
ward to a brighter and more produc-
tive year in 39.118,
The Power of Credit—" 'his is a
wonderful suit of clothes I art
wearing:"
"It looks like an ordinary piece of
goods to nee.," '
"What I mean is, the wool was
grown ih Australia, the cloth woven
en
in New England, the thread a a s
made in Britain, the 'suit was made
in New York. and the dealer I per h
ased it from has his store in Illinois,"
'What's strange about that?"
"Why, 'it's a wonder that so many
people can make a .living_ outof
something that I've Bever paid for."
•irevent the escape of heat. The floor Want and For Sale Ads, 3 weeks, 50e