Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

VARIABLES OF THE WORKER 35 Mode of Living Mode of living has been more or less touched upon under “health” and “habits.” It is a complex variable, difficult to analyze and difficult to control. Its effects on output are for this reason all the more far-reaching and demand scientific investigation. Nutrition This is a subject that has been investigated much more scientifically with regard to horses and mules than with regard to workmen, but cases are seen on every hand where it is more profitable to furnish the most nutritious food to the men gratis than to permit them to have the usual poor food of the padrones’ storehouse. In the build- ing of a new town in Maine it was found to be economical to spend considerable sums of money for supplying food for the men at less than cost, rather than to have them eat the food provided by the local boarding houses. The nutritive value of various foods and the amount of energy which various diets enable one to put forth have been made a study in training soldiers. There must be many data available on the subject, and the government should collect them and issue a bulletin for the use of the welfare departments of large employing organizations. The army might also serve as an example in many other ways to the student of economics. The “Tactics” are admirable “in- struction cards,” conforming to many of the laws of