Shop Management

36 SHOP MANAGEMENT the reason for this being that the contractor, under the spur of financial necessity, makes personally so close a study of the quickest time in which the work can be done that soldiering on the part of his men becomes difficult and the best of them teach laborers or lower-priced helpers to do the work formerly done by mechanics. The objections to the contract system are that the machine tools used by the contractor are apt to de- teriorate rapidly, his chief interest being to get a large output, whether the tools are properly cared for or not, and that through the ignorance and inex- perience of the contractor in handling men, his employés are frequently unjustly treated. These disadvantages are, however, more than counterbalanced by the comparative absence of soldiering on the part of the men. The greatest objection to this system is the soldiering which the contractor himself does in many cases, so as to secure a good price for his next contract. It is not at all unusual for a contractor to restrict the output of his own men and to refuse to adopt improvements in machines, appliances, or methods while in the midst of a contract, knowing that his next contract price will be lowered in direct pro- portion to the profits which he has made and the improvements introduced. Under the contract system, however, the relations between employers and men are much more agreeable and normal than under piece work, and it is to be regretted that owing to the nature of the work done