These notes are not concerned with the essential rightness or otherwise of this or any other system of wage payment, or of the wages system itself, or of the Capitalist System. These are matters altogether outside the subject. These notes are only written because the writer considers the Reward System, when properly carried out, to be the best of several existing methods of payment for work done; and as this particular method will be adopted more and more, and as it undoubtedly leads to greater production and is to the direct and immediate advantage of the worker, those concerned with the welfare of the worker ought to consider the system in all its bearings, and not hurriedly condemn it because it is new, because it is American, and because it increases the productivity of the worker. If there is any practical scheme that can be immediately adopted and will appeal as strongly to both worker and employer, by all means let us have it and abolish existing methods of wage payment altogether.
PART II
AN APPLICATION OF THE
PRINCIPLES TO A PARTICULAR
CASE
CHAPTER IV
WORK AND REWARD
The following is a description of one particular method of the time study and reward payment following out the principles described in Part I. This particular case is one which has been introduced into two engineering factories in England.
It must be understood that the methods described are not necessarily those which apply in all factories. Only the basic principles have been described in Part I., and only one particular method of application is described in Part II. Almost every shop will have its special details, its individuality, and different trades will differ widely in the carrying out of the principles. Manufacturing machinery, laying bricks, sewing shirts, shaving, etc., cannot all be brought under one exact scheme. But all must have time study and reward payment in proportion to efficiency as a foundation on which to build a superstructure of sound economical business management with satisfactory labour conditions.
There will be an occasional repetition of points dwelt upon in Part I., but this is in order that the detailed description will be complete in itself.