Industrial Progress and Human Economics - James Hartness

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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.

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      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.

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      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.

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      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.

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      In all cities we can see "dead" organizations. Many of these companies that are actually "dead" seem to have life in them because they continue to move, but in many instances the motion is only due to the momentum of a push that was given years ago.

      A "dead" organization may show signs of life in its gradual growth in size, but its real character is to be seen in the extent to which it is departing from specialization or by the continued use of antiquated methods and buildings.

      The departure from specialization is generally due to either lack of courage to discard obsolete designs or to an inclination to consider the business from the selling end only.

      It takes courage to discard an old model and it also takes courage to refuse

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