Chapter 22. Conditions for Efficient Labor
1. Is hunger the cause of food?
2. Is there any relation between a republican form of government and the growth of manufactures.
3. What are the necessary conditions to the building of a house: (a) natural forces; (b) changes in material things; (c) human activities; (d) social conditions?
4. Is the public school system an economic factor? Where among the four preceding heads would you classify it?
5. From an economic standpoint, can we say that robbery really reduces the wealth in existence?
6. When does an industrious man stop working on his own farm, and why?
7. With a given number of workers, what may be causes of differences in the labor-supply?
8. Would men work better if they ate more?
9. What moral agencies increase the efficiency of labor?
10. Is there a strong selfish motive for men to increase their efficiency in most industries? How effective is it?
11. What effect has republican government on the efficiency of labor?
12. Why is the variety of occupations greater or less than formerly? What is influencing the change?
13. What cases have you seen where great skill came from practice?
14. What gain is it for men to work together instead of singly?
15. With increasing division of labor is there greater or less opportunity for the payment of laborers according to the piece-wage plan?
16. Discuss the following statement: Under the piece-work system the foreman looks out for the quality and the operative for the quantity of the work; under the time-wage system the foreman looks out for the quantity and the laborer for the quality of the work.
17. What remedy has the foreman for an inefficient laborer working under the time-wage system?
18. Is time- or piece-work best adapted to the following kinds of laborers: coal-miners, coopers, farm-hands, printers, engravers, shoe-factory hands, railroad brakemen, telegraph operators?