Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 37 in most shops this system is not more generally applicable. The writer quotes as follows from his paper on “A Piece Rate System,” read in 1895, before The Ameri- can Society of Mechanical Engineers: “Cooperation, or profit sharing, has entered the mind of every student of the subject as one of the possible and most attractive solutions of the prob- lem; and there have been certain instances, both in England and France, of at least a partial success of cooperative experiments. “So far as I know, however, these trials have been made either in small towns, remote from the manu- facturing centers, or in industries which in many respects are not subject to ordinary manufacturing conditions. “Cooperative experiments have failed, and, I think, are generally destined to fail, for several rea- sons, the first and most important of which is, that no form of cooperation has yet been devised in which each individual is allowed free scope for his personal ambition. Personal ambition always has been and will remain a more powerful incentive to exertion than a desire for the general welfare. The few mis- placed drones, who do the loafing and share equally in the profits with the rest, under cooperation are sure to drag the better men down toward their level. “The second and almost equally strong reason for failure lies in the remoteness of the reward. The average workman (I don’t say all men) cannot look forward to a profit which is six months or a year away. The nice time which they are sure to have