THE FUTURE: WHAT EACH ONE OF US CAN DO
The Work of the Colleges.
It should be the work of the colleges to gather together what has been
done in fatigue elimination, and to put it at the disposal of all
interested. Each college should start a fatigue museum, and should
invite its graduates first, and all those in its vicinity second,
to co-operate and to send exhibits or pictures of exhibits to its
museum. The colleges are recognized as not interested in any particular
industry, as fair and impartial, and as standing for uplift in the
community. It is, therefore, their duty to act as repositories for
the data, at least until such times as the national government takes
over the leadership in the entire fatigue question, and becomes the
custodian of the data.
The colleges can help in a second way by making fatigue study a subject
in the curriculum. It is not necessary that this be a new subject. It
should rather be a new aspect in which the old subjects are presented.
Especially in the colleges of engineering and business administration
great emphasis should be laid upon fatigue study, both the theory and
the practice. It is not essential that the students be sent out into
the shops for actual practice in such study, although anything like the
half-time plan is to be commended. The student may well apply fatigue
study to his own activities. This will present an admirable field and a
splendid incentive. After such a study the fatigue problem will never
again seem remote or vague to the student. Also the student may well be
sent, or taken, on tours of inspection through neighbouring industries,
or may be allowed to co-operate in preliminary fatigue surveys. They
should learn the general principle of fatigue study, and should become
finger-wise. This preparation is identical to that for making motion
study, and, in fact, is prerequisite or first step for greatest success
in any managerial work.
But the college should not confine its activity in fatigue elimination
to the museum, and to training the student who expects to enter the
field. They should themselves become examples of successful fatigue
elimination. In this way they can do most to cut down waste, and to
train our young people to take an active part later in the waste
elimination campaign being waged in the world’s work.
The Work of the Manager.
The fatigue study and the installation which must follow it to be
done by the manager have been outlined in this book. The manager who
has put his own plant at such a stage of improvement that unnecessary
fatigue is cut out to a great extent, and that recovery from necessary
fatigue is provided for, has contributed greatly to the cause, but his
work should not end here. He should educate those with whom he comes
in contact on the subject of fatigue elimination. He should co-operate
with those in his own neighbourhood, and also with those in his own
trade towards solving the fatigue problem peculiar to the locality or
the trade.
The Home Reading Box has been successfully installed by a group
of manufacturers engaged in the same trade. This particular work
furnishes an admirable starting point, and is a great help in arousing
local interest. If even a few interested in the same trade in various
parts of the country will co-operate, it will soon be possible, through
trade journals, and through a general demand for equipment designed
from the fatigue standpoint, to revolutionize fatigue conditions in
that industry. Editors and writers of papers of all types have been
quick to see the benefits of fatigue elimination, and to offer to
co-operate in a campaign for education. Manufacturers have been equally
eager to satisfy any demands which may be made. The managers can have a
large share in making such demands, and in encouraging the support of
publications in which they are interested.
The Work of the Worker.
The worker has two chief ways in which he can help in fatigue
elimination. The first is to co-operate with the management in
installing fatigue elimination methods and devices in the particular
plant in which they are both interested. The second is to help to make
fatigue elimination fashionable. This latter duty lies with no one
but the worker himself. No new methods spread more quickly than the
“fashion of work.” There is nothing of which a well run plant is more
proud than the “way” it works, the work spirit. The whole idea must be
that it is a disgrace to have causes of unnecessary fatigue existing.
Overfatigue is a positive proof of inefficiency. There is no fear but
that the workers will recognize these duties, and will perform them
heartily and with good will, when they know that they are getting a
square deal. It is right that they should make very sure that they
are going to receive such treatment, and that fatigue study is not a
new scheme for taking advantage of them, but they must be ready to
listen to the proof and to accept it when they are convinced that it
is true. Having accepted it, and thus made sure that they are safe in
co-operating, the next step is to help actively in the good work.
The Work of the Public.
The great work of the public is to demand fatigue elimination. The
adoption of a few simple slogans, like “Buy of the seated worker,”
would help bring immediate results in fatigue elimination. Consider
what the Consumers’ League has done in securing better working
conditions. Note how the “Safety First” movement has spread through the
whole country. The “Fatigue Eliminating Movement” can spread in the
same way, if only every one will do his part to demand that the fatigue
be reduced and to help in the actual reduction.
The workers of the country have long recognized the need for fatigue
elimination; the employers are coming to a realization that they are
paying a large price for fatigue. Many employers have resolved that, so
far as their plants are concerned, needless fatigue must be eliminated.
They have resolved that the day is coming when every worker shall go
home from work happy in what he has done, with the least amount of
unnecessary fatigue, and prepared to go back in perfect condition on
the morrow. How soon this much desired time will arrive depends upon
the co-operation of the public, upon the public sentiment that can be
aroused.
There is no reader of this book who does not belong to at least two
groups that should be interested in fatigue elimination. Decide at
once, then, in which group you belong, and set to work. Be you teacher,
manager, worker, or simply a member of the great public to which we all
belong, begin to work for fatigue elimination, and begin now.
The good in your life consists of the quantity of “Happiness Minutes”
that you have created or caused. Increase your own record by
eliminating unnecessary fatigue of the workers.
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious errors in punctuation have been fixed.
Page 29: “indentical surroundings” changed to “identical surroundings”
Page 57: “of the organiaztion” changed to “of the organization”
Page 68: “old mgazines” changed to “old magazines”
Page 97: “loss in efficency” changed to “loss in efficiency”
Page 114: “FATIGUE ELIMINANATION” changed to “FATIGUE ELIMINATION”
Page 141: The caption referring to the “carrier packet shown in Fig.
31” was fixed to refer to Fig. 29.
Page 144: The paragraph for caption 31 was missing the label for A. and
had it out of order. This has been fixed.