WORK AND WEALTH 
Steel Works it was found that the best effect in stimulating energy 
was got by a bonus of about 60 per cent, beyond the wages 
usually paid. ‘This increase in wages tends to make them not 
only thrifty but better men in every way; they live rather better, 
begin to save money, become more sober, and work more steadily. 
When, on the other hand, they receive much more than a 6o 
per cent increase of wages, many of them will work irregularly 
and tend to become more or less shiftless, extravagant, and dis- 
sipated. Our experiments showed, in other words, that it does 
not do for most men to get rich too fast.’?! 
Considering that it was claimed that the result of this new 
plan of work was to raise the average daily output per man from 
16 to 59 tons, and to secure an annual saving in the labour-bill 
amounting to between $75,000 and $80,000, it would have been 
interesting to follow the effects of a rapid advance of wealth 
upon the dividend-receivers who gained so disproportionate a 
share of the advantages of the new economy. 
§ 3. So far as the selection and adaptation of tools to the 
special conditions of the work are concerned, there exists no 
opposition between the business and the human economy. If a 
shoveller can shovel more material without greater exertion by 
using a particular shovel, the system which ensures his using this 
shovel is beneficial to everybody, assuming that he gets some 
share of the value of the increased output. When we turn from 
a simple tool to more elaborate machinery, it becomes evident 
that quantitative testing is capable of achieving enormous 
technical economies. Mr. Taylor describes the gains in the out- 
put of metal-cutting machines made by means of such economies. 
‘Its pulling power at the various speeds, its feeding capacity, and 
its proper speeds were determined by means of the slide-rules, 
and changes were then made in the countershaft and driving 
pulleys so as to run it to its proper speed. Tools, made of high- 
speed steel and of the proper shapes, were properly dressed, 
treated and ground. A large special slide-rule was then made, 
by means of which the exact speeds and feeds were indicated at 
which each kind of work could be done in the shortest possible 
time in this particular lathe. After preparing in this way se 
1 The Principles of Scientific Management, p. 74. 
200