The Principles of Scientific Management

14 THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT large extent in the building trades; and the writer asserts without fear of contradiction that this con- stitutes the greatest evil with which the work- ing-people of both England and America are now afflicted. It will be shown later in this paper that doing away with slow working and “soldiering” in all its forms and so arranging the relations between em- ployer and employé that each workman will work to his very best advantage and at his best speed, accompanied by the intimate cooperation with the management and the help (which the workman should receive) from the management, would result on the average in nearly doubling the output of each man and each machine. What other reforms, among those which are being discussed by these two nations, could do as much toward promoting prosperity, toward the diminution of poverty, and the allevia- tion of suffering? America and England have been recently agitated over such subjects as the tariff, the control of the large corporations on the one hand, and of hereditary power on the other hand, and over various more or less socialistic proposals for taxa- tion, etc. On these subjects both peoples have been profoundly stirred, and yet hardly a voice has been raised to call attention to this vastly greater and more important subject of “soldiering/’ which di- rectly and powerfully affects the wages, the prosper- ity, and the life of almost every working-man, and also quite as much the prosperity of every industrial establishment in the nation.