Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

2 MOTION STUDY from whence it came, would be insignificant. Besides, there would still be a surplus of labor more than large enough to develop every water power in the country, and build and maintain enough wind engines to supply the heat, light, and power wants of mankind. There is no waste of any kind in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed, and ineffective mo- tions. When one realizes that in such a trade as brick- laying alone, the motions now adopted after careful study have already cut down the bricklayer’s work more than two-thirds, it is possible to realize the amount of energy that is wasted by the workers of this country. The census of 1900 showed 29,287,070 persons, ten years of age and over, as engaged in gainful occupations. There is no reason for not cutting down the waste motions in the vocations of the other almost half (49.7 per cent) of the population ten years of age and upward who do not engage in gainful occupations. The housekeepers, students, etc., on this list have as much need for motion saving as any one else, — though possibly the direct saving to the country would not be so great. But taking the case of the nearly thirty million workers cited above, it would be a conserva- tive estimate that would call half their motions utterly wasted. As for the various ways in which this waste might be utilized, that is a question which would be answered differ- ently by each group of people to whom it might be put. By motion study the earning capacity of the workman