The new industrial revolution and wages

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804651486

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-193069

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Lauck, William Jett http://d-nb.info/gnd/173237126

Title:: The new industrial revolution and wages

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Funk & Wagnalls

Year of publication:: 1929

Scope:: ix, 308 S.; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VIII. Acceptance and general application of the theory of productive efficiency

Collection:: Economics Books

172 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES made to concentrate into the hands of the few the advan- tages of modern production methods. Moreover, any such attempt is entirely unnecessary; there will be plenty indeed for the able and for the lucky, if production and widespread distribution are aided and fostered and encouraged in every possible way. . . . The remarkable part about all this is that high wages seem everywhere to be an advance requisite to the adoption of machinery. The increased productivity resulting from the use of machinery makes high wages possible, but paradoxi- cally enough it seems necessary to have high wages first, be- fore the men in charge of industry will consider the installa- tion of machinery. In spite of the fact that wages in our factory have more than doubled in the past fifteen years, our manufacturing costs are actually lower now than they were at the beginning of that period. High wages, forcibly thrust upon us by the war, and always opposed by those in charge of our business, have lowered our manufacturing costs, by making us apply machinery and power to tasks formerly done by hand. Some time ago, in thinking over this unexpected and un- foreseen result of wage increases, the idea occurred to me “What if our wages should again be doubled?” I have been extremely interested in this idea and have reviewed, in care- ful detail, all the manufacturing operations in our plant, and I am quite certain that if our wage rates should double in a few years’ time our costs would be lower than they are now. N. I. STONE, LABOR MANAGER, HICKEY-FREEMAN COMPANY, ROCHESTER, N, Y.1: The worker should share in the benefits resulting from the introduction of improved machinery and increased efficiency. Whether this share should take the form of higher wages, shorter hours, or a share in the general profits, or in the specific savings resulting from the improvements, is a sub- ject so large as to require separate treatment. 1 From Annols of American Academy of Political and Social Science, Sept. 1919, p. 26.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The new industrial revolution and wages

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation