Book: Industrial Progress and Human Economics

J >> James Hartness >> Industrial Progress and Human Economics



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND HUMAN ECONOMICS



By James Hartness


1921


Extra Copies On Request

Address all communications relative to industries to Commissioner
of Industries, Montpelier, Vermont.

This book is published by private funds

_Fellow Citizen_:

Vermont's natural resources have been set forth in State
publications, not adequately, but nevertheless, in well
prepared publications.

Supplementing such publications this book deals with our human
resources, showing the way by which our greatest resource--human
energy--can be most effectively employed. It uses the welfare of
man as the yardstick of measure rather than treating the subjects
under the head of natural resources.

At the present time the productive power of a day's work varies
greatly throughout the country. It reaches its highest point where
the most efficient implements and machines are used; where there
is a high degree of special ability acquired by each executive and
workman, such as has been attained in our highly specialized
manufacturing industries, many of which may be found in our
neighboring states. The upbuilding of such organizations is only
in its infancy. There is now a natural drift away from congested
cities to adjacent states where plants and homes may be spread out
over larger areas.

The personal side of this to each man is the supreme need of a
better understanding of human economics; that is, he must know the
best way to use his own energies, and since he must work in
cooperation with others he should also know what constitutes the
most effective and successful organization. As a skilled worker,
as a scientist in some branch of the work, as an executive in
charge of some department, as a manager, investor or banker, he
must keenly sense the conditions on which progress is made.

This book is written for the progressive young man as well as all
those directly or indirectly interested in industrial development.
It is at once a text book and a reference book, for, as a workman
or executive advances he will find need of information on many of
the points herein set forth.

If the book has no immediate interest to you, please pass it along
to another.

Faithfully yours,

[Signature: James Hartness]

_Governor_.



FOREWORD.

The purpose of this book is to indicate the natural way to
increase our industrial development. To accomplish this there is
set forth an outline of an industrial policy. This policy relates
to procedure and methods for starting and managing industrial
plants.

It conforms to our economic conditions and offers the safest and
easiest course.

While it is written to create more desirable industrial
establishments within the state and to increase the vitality of
the existing plants, it is distinctly a guide for the individual,
for it facilitates the progress of the man as well as that of the
state.

It is a practical policy that stimulates and energizes the
industrial spirit and at the same time, directs our energies along
the easiest road of progress in personal and state development.

It sets forth certain fundamental principles that apply broadly to
all activities, but specifically to manufacturing and the means
and methods that must be employed to win in the industrial
conquest.

To the investor it provides the best measure by which he can
estimate the economic soundness and prospects of an enterprise. It
gives confidence in right projects, making money available for
things that are right, and reducing the hazard of investments by
eliminating the badly or indifferently managed organizations and
those founded on unsound policies.

To the men in an organization it is also of great value, for by it
they can estimate their own prospects for progress. They risk not
only their earning power but their chances for personal
development. Their chances in acquisition of high degree of
ability and in advance from position to position also depends upon
the policy of management and success of the enterprise. The loss
of opportunity of any of these men really transcends the loss of
money, for it involves the loss of personal development and all
that that means.

It is obvious too that the management of each organization will be
of a more successful type when the entire personnel grasps the
essentials of industrial development.

When these essentials are understood and recognized as standards
of measure there will be less conflict between the investors and
the managers. Then it will be possible for managers and all others
to use all of their energies wholly for progressive work rather
than using a large part of their time and energy explaining each
move to the investors.

Managers need the support and confidence of the investors. Every
day requires a firm adherence to a definite policy. Nothing less
than the firmest determination will hold an organization to a true
course. With a division of opinion, the natural drift is away from
the standards on which modern success depends. Not only is it
necessary to have these principles understood by investors, but
also by all whose opinions will in any way affect the spirit of
the men in the organization.

The whole scheme, as it is set forth, is true to the fundamentals
of human economics, for it provides ways by which the energies of
mind and body are used most effectively. It brings a progressive
growth and creates in each the greatest productive capacity. So
that, as individuals and as a state, we will produce the greatest
value for a given amount of labor.

It is the only way by which we can compete with other states and
countries. It is the natural and inevitable way for Vermonters to
travel.



CONQUEST OF PEACE.

Before the war Vermont and the nation were approaching a serious
economic crises. The war has accentuated the gravity of the
situation, but has also demonstrated certain human characteristics
that can be enlisted to correct our course. We found during the
war that we were ready to take heroic action whenever an occasion
demanded it--that there was a solidarity of purpose of our people.
This characteristic must now be invoked. We must meet the
conditions that confront us by unity of public opinion and team
work.

The conditions that confront us do not involve the possibility of
immediate invasion of our country by a hostile nation, but they
carry a burdensome penalty if we fail to take the right action.
Happily we are not required to risk our lives or even work harder,
but we must recognize the plain facts that we are not sharing in
the general economic progress of our neighboring states.

In war the nation that wins the victory imposes a burden of tax on
the conquered nation. In the conquest of peace the victorious
nations also impose a burden on the losers. This burden is just as
real as the burden imposed by war, for in both cases the losers
are paying tribute to the winners. This applies to states, to
communities, to families and to men. The situation calls for
prompt attention and concerted action by the people of our state
and country.

In the conquest of peace success comes to those people who produce
the greatest value with a given expenditure of energy, or, in
other words, to the people who at the end of a day's, a year's or
a life's work can measure their return in the largest value.
Dollars constitute our measures of value for they are our medium
of exchange of our products of labor. If, to accomplish the same
result, the man with inferior implements must work harder than the
man with the best implements, it is very easy to see who has to
pay tribute to the other in the market where values are compared
and payment made for values.

Owing to the advance that has been made both in invention of
implements and methods and in the organization of workers, there
is now a marked difference in the value of the product of a day's
work. A study of this situation shows the supreme need of action
that will direct our energies as individuals and as a state in a
way that will bring the largest value for a day's work.

We must choose with care our work, our equipment and our methods
of combining our efforts. There must be team work within each
industrial plant and each plant must be in tune with the whole
competing world.

As a people we have not lagged behind, in fact we have been
leaders in many important branches, but our enterprise has known
no state boundaries, and many of our men and women have gone to
other states. Hence, while as a people we have been leaders, as a
state we have been lagging behind the more active industrial
states.

Vermont is very close to the most highly developed industrial
center on the face of this globe. These centers, through
coordination, invention and choice of work, have been able to
produce greater values per man per day. Men with the spirit of
industry and a practical knowledge gained by experience in these
highly developed centers go out from such centers and build up
other industrial centers wherever the best opportunity appears.
The nearest places to these centers are the most natural fields in
which to start new organizations. But when no cooperating spirit
is found near at hand, these carriers of industry go till they
find better places. Many have traveled past Vermont because we
were busy in other lines and our money was being sent to other
states for investment. Many of our own men left the town of
Windsor during the last sixty years, and from this one town there
has been built a number of important industries in other states
notably in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

It is not necessary to assume that the industrial spirit has
spread under the guidance of man or just by chance as these men of
practical knowledge and enterprise have drifted. It may be that
the successful new centers were merely a few of thousands of
attempts in other places. Our problem is to study the conditions
under which these industries thrive and then see how we can
establish these conditions.

In this way we will be acting in harmony with the natural drift or
natural law, if you prefer, and this is one of the purposes of
this book.



VERMONT FAVORABLY LOCATED.

Our nearness to these industrial states give us an advantage over
more remote states, but it is not sufficient in itself to bring
our share of industrial expansion. Nevertheless it is one of the
greatest advantages and constitutes one of the strong points on
which we base our faith in our plan for greater industrial
development.

The next element to nearness to existing plants is the spirit and
understanding of the people. Vermont has the best spirit of
industry but has not the fullest conception of industrial life and
opportunity. It is this purpose of setting forth the principles of
desirable industrial life that constitutes the next step.

When these principles are understood, we will improve the chances
for the acquisition of local industries through the coming of
others from nearby states or by the establishment of new plants by
some of our own people who are already well qualified to carry
forward such enterprise. But whether it is brought about by these
or any other means, the basic principle on which successful
industries are built must be known and must constitute the policy
of organization and management.

The principles set forth are basic. They constitute the necessary
addition of the practical knowledge of invention, management and
general business knowledge gained in existing plants.

Industrial life calls for the best that is found in brain,
enterprise and ability and should have every possible aid and
cooperation. Furthermore it should be protected from impractical
promoters, impractical managers and obstructive theorists.

It is actual work and accomplishment that counts. The workers and
those who lead and cooperate with them should not have their
combined efforts handicapped by those who have never done actual
work or who have never been performing an essential service.

Indifference and misdirection are our greatest enemies in times of
peace. These hinder our growth and if allowed to exist, will
ultimately lead to our becoming a subservient people.

We are all ready to accept these facts but may differ as to the
best ways to use our energies.

We are already making good progress in various branches of
agriculture, granite and marble work, and in various branches of
manufacturing of wood, textiles and metal, but a direct comparison
with our manufacturing states shows that we do not bring into the
state an adequate return for our labor.

Many of our young people migrate to more remunerative kinds of
work in other states, and as already stated some of these
Vermonters have led in the creation and upbuilding of great
industrial establishments.

There are now many good chances to create new and energize our
existing industries.

Some may ask why should we consider other industries when we can
find many good opportunities in our present enterprises. The
answer is that our people drift away to other states to get into
these industries for there they have discovered that the best
chance to produce a large value for a day's work is where best
implements are used and where there is the best organization of
workers.

They have found that in some respects we are lagging behind in the
use of best methods and best implements.



OUR PROBLEM.

Without going further into the analysis of the conditions that
confront us, it is obvious that an increase in the size and number
of desirable industries is an object worthy of our attention and
efforts.

We have clearly in mind that more money flowing into the state
will improve our entire economic situation. Taxes, markets,
population, schools, opportunities for Vermonters and general
improvement in all values and interests.

The next thing to do is to get an industrial policy that will
guide us in our course as individuals, managers, engineers,
manufacturers, investors, progressive workers and as citizens. The
idea must precede action and the action must precede results. The
true idea will bring results of like character, hence the need of
the fullest knowledge on which to form the idea.

A simple outline of a desirable industry may be drawn through the
following points:

First: An ideal industry is an organization in which the energies
of mind and body are most effectively employed.

Second: Since man is something more than a physical body, his work
must be one in which he feels an interest and satisfaction.

Third: Since there are various kinds of implements to aid man in
his work, a successful organization should use the most effective
type.

Fourth: Since man is a creature of habit and functions most
effectively when he has acquired skill through experience, each
one in the workshop and office should be experienced in his
particular branch of the work.

Fifth: Since the high skill of men is attained through repetition
of operations, the management must subdivide the work into classes
in which each man can become highly proficient.

Sixth: Just as there is an individual skill and ability acquired
by the individual, so there must be a group skill built up. The
group skill is acquired by the coordination of the energies of all
the workers so that the work flows naturally and evenly from
worker to worker with the minimum hindrance. This coordination
takes place naturally through experience. It only needs common
sense supervision and a protection of the workers from the
impractical interference of faddists.



HAVE FAITH IN VERMONT.

Travelers through the west, particularly on the coast states
bring back the story of optimism that seems to be characteristic
of the enterprising people who migrated west in the early days.
This spirit of optimism is not found in all parts of our country,
and yet it is of high value. In New England for instance, in each
state there is a state pride, but perhaps not to the extent that
we find in the larger cities and in the west. Here we are more
interested in the success of our various branches of activities.

Vermonters have been notably free to go beyond state boundaries in
the acquisition of trade or profession and in practice, but
optimism, which is the parent of enterprise, has an excellent
chance for existing in our state.

The early history of industrial development shows it followed
along the avenues of transportation--seaports and lakeports and
railways. With the railways the industries spread to other states,
notably Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Now there is setting
in a readjustment and the time is ripe for Vermonters to use some
of their spirit of enterprise within the boundaries of the old
state. Goods may be shipped to the best market from the top of our
highest mountain at lower cost than it could be shipped from some
remote competitors. There is every angle favorable except the full
knowledge of the situation and the elements on which industrial
success can now be achieved.

The coming and use of machinery has been a most potent force in
determining the economic rating of city and state, and it is in
this respect that Vermont has now its great opportunity, and it is
in the field in which invention, the use of machinery, the right
methods of building up an effective group of workers that there is
the surest reward for the energy put forth by investors,
organizers and workers.

If you have grasped these facts; continue to study the elements of
the plan; fit yourself as an experienced worker or executive in
some branch of the work; see that the scheme of work is one that
can successfully compete with other producers; then put your whole
self into the work.

If you wish to get the plan into your own consciousness and
action, tell it to others.

Become a practical booster of the plan.

It fits the future.

It fits today.

Be a Booster.

It is right.

It pays.



OUR INDUSTRIAL POLICY.

We must endeavor to establish desirable industries. The most
desirable industries are those in which there is an opportunity
for development of all the workers and a chance for the greatest
number to find the best opportunity to acquire special skill and
special ability. In such industries there should be the open door
of progress so that those who are qualified for advancement can go
forward from position to position with no barrier other than their
own mental or physical limitations.

Special ability, skill and team work are only acquired by long
specialized practice. These qualities constitute the most valuable
assets on which to create a new concern.

Very elaborate systems have been designed for controlling the flow
of the work through the plant and the division of the various
activities between men and departments, but the real effective
coordination must grow out of the actual working conditions of the
workers. This natural evolution of the group's effectiveness as a
single organization is one of greatest importance. The impractical
theorist coming into an old plant will start in at once to
rearrange the order of things irrespective of both the group
habit-action and the habit-action of each man.

Changes must be most sparingly made, with the full knowledge that
anything that interferes with the habit-action of the workers is a
serious hindrance. All people concerned, whether as executives in
the industry, or as investors, must remember that in a growing
industry, individual skill as well as group skill of the whole
organization greatly improves with continued action. Under the
process of continued action the average man can make a fair
showing and with a reasonable degree of moral support will make
good, while without it the ablest man will have a hard time and
even fail if he is forced to accept changes that disturb
continuity of action.

The management must conform to the best world practice in
engineering, industrial life, individual welfare and economics. It
must have every element of organization kept in best condition.
The spirit of the group is of great importance, for the
organization goes forward on the congenial nature of each man's
profession or work. Each man's energies, both mental and physical,
must be employed constructively with the minimum disturbance. His
energies must be concentrated on his own particular work. This
concentration applies to all workers and executives. This plan is
based on the fact that, through continuity of attention and
application to a given work, man acquires a special aptitude. It
also recognizes that each man on the face of the earth, from the
tramp along the railroad to the most highly developed scientist
and executive, has a special knowledge and special ability that he
has acquired by experience.

It is needless to say that in competition with the whole world
there must be alertness every day in the guidance of details of
mechanism and business, and that it is not by the gathering
together of a group of men at the end of the year or even once a
month or once a week that business can be effectively managed; it
is a continued application to the work every day and every hour
that counts.

There should be no absentee management. The men who manage must be
in close touch with the work and the workers--not merely through
written or oral reports, but by actual observation.

Travel, study and observation of other connections and work are
necessary, but the home must be with the industrial plant and that
must be the prime interest.



LIMITATIONS OF MAN'S PROGRESS.

It is not contemplated that all men will become managers or
office men. Such positions are not of a kind that is satisfactory
to many of our ablest men. Some are happiest in work in which they
acquire great skill. They are disturbed and made uncomfortable
when required to solve mental problems. Some of the greatest
achievements have been wrought by such men, who have been highly
honored in the past and such men will have more recognition as
time goes on, for we are coming to understand the fact that we
must depend on such men for special ability in the form of skill,
whether it is in the surgery, mechanics, art or any other branch
or division of work or the professions. Such men are not talkers
and do not force themselves into spectacular positions. To say
that there is no progress for the surgeon if he cannot become
manager of the hospital, nor for the skilled worker if he cannot
become manager of the industrial plant, would not be in keeping
with facts for we know that such men have made the greatest
contribution to the world's welfare.

This plan of individual progress should not be disturbing to the
worker who has come to a standstill. It is the ideal toward which
we must work. It can never be wholly attained, but such a policy
will make a vast difference with the prospects of all workers and
in the success of industrial organizations.



PROTECT THE INDUSTRIAL SPIRIT.

Industries and the workers should be protected from incompetent
managers, investigators and impractical theorists.

Industries and the workers go forward by actual work, not on
manipulation of stocks, bonds, laws and schemes to wreck or boost
for temporary gain of some one interest.

In general it is safe to have faith in the honesty of the workers
and those who cooperate with them--at least we can start with the
assumption that honesty and square dealing are not monopolized by
other professions.

If we will remember that an industry has a vitality the same as a
man, that its life can be destroyed by an ignorant investigator
with a probe poking into every nerve and muscle, we will make
Vermont a more natural place for industrial development and
progress.

The attitude of the workers and the general public should be
cordial instead of antagonistic for every desirable industry is an
asset of great value.

In theory and law an industry belongs to the stockholders, at
least it is for the stockholders to elect the board of directors
who through practical officers manage the business; but, as a
matter of actual fact, to the man who has the best job in the
world for himself right in that organization, the life of the
organization is of greater importance than it is to any one of the
stockholders. In the same sense the existence of the industry is
of greater value to many others in the organization and in the
community than it is to the stockholders.

Hence, anything that interferes with the success of the
organization injures many people.



WHAT IS NOT AN INDUSTRY.

Perhaps it will be well to state first what does not constitute
an industry. Power, transportation facilities, fine buildings,
fine machinery and a group of skilled workmen, a complete office
staff and an elaborate system of fad management do not constitute
an industry. Such an aggregation might be likened to a cargo ship
all ready for service excepting that it lacks a captain and
navigating officer and some one to determine what kind of a cargo
to take, where to go and how to get there.

The greatest value of an industrial plant that has everything but
a work to do and a leader to determine its major policies, lies in
the skilled workers and able executives in work and office. The
buildings and machinery come next in value, but the whole thing is
worthless without the idea and the vision.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.