CONDITIONS FOR EFFICIENT LABOR § 1. Subjective and objective factors of efficiency. 5 2. Food and efficiency. I 3. Clothing and housing. 4. Schooling. § 5. Political security and honest government. II 6. Effect of caste upon efficiency. 7. American democracy and efficiency. § 8. Balance of advantage be tween work and leisure. I 9. Division of labor and exchange. 10. Individual and territorial division. II 11. Advantages of specialization. 12. Best adjustment of talents and occupations.
§ 1. Subjective and objective factors of efficiency. The efficiency of labor, in its broadest sense, is its ability to render services or produce things that minister to welfare. It is a resultant of many influences. In its broader sense, the phrase "efficiency of labor" implies any and every influence that makes for a larger and better supply of goods. In part it depends on the physical and mental powers of men, in part on things outside of the worker that either stimulate and strengthen him, or give him more favorable conditions in which to work. These are respectively the subjective and the objective aspects of efficiency Many of the objective condi tions count in the result only as they affect the men, benefit ing their health and strength, stimulating their ambitions, promoting education, invention, thrift, etc. It is this class of forces, acting in and through men, of which we are now to speak. We leave aside for the time one of the largest objec tive aspects of the question, that of the material equipment with which the community as a whole is furnished, relative to the population. According as this equipment is more or less abundant, as labor is employed in a fertile or a barren 184 field, with a sharp tool or a dull one, with a highly developed machine or a poor one, the product is more or We limit our attention here to the conditions of efficiency midway between the qualities and abilities of men (primarily subjective) and the natural equipment (primarily objective). Among a population of a given grade of intelligence and a given economic environment of natural resources, what causes will operate to make the laborers vary in their effi ciency? § 2. Food and efficiency. Usually workmen that are get ting good wages enjoy abundant food and creature comforts; poorly paid workers go scantily fed. The question arises: which is cause, which effect I Some maintain that all that is needed to make workmen more efficient is to feed them well.
In some cases this is probably true. The Porto Ricans en listed in the American regular army are reported to have increased at once in strength, weight, and vigor; the Filipino recruits, thanks to the American army rations, soon outgrew their uniforms. Some employers in Europe pay their work men an extra sum on condition that it is spent for meat. But if wages increase, it is by no means certain that more or better food will be bought; or, if it is, that the workmen's powers will be increased. There is a limit to the gain in efficiency by increasing food. There is some reason to believe that in America great numbers of our people, perhaps even many manual laborers, would be better off if they bought simpler and less costly food. The maximum of health and vigor may be attained with moderate outlay, and beyond that point richer food doubtless does more harm than good. Poor judg ment in the selection of food is shown in many families, and there is little appreciation of its influence on health.
At one time an experiment in feeding pigs was tried on the Cornell farm. Four groups of six pigs each were kept in four 1 Some part of this subject has been already touched in discussing wealth and its uses, and the other parts will be more fully treated in Part VI with Population, diminishing returns, and machinery.
different pens and fed four different rations. Tho alike in breed and age, the groups began at once to differ in dis position. One group squealed more ; another scratched more; another waxed fat faster. Every week they were weighed. and finally were butchered, hung up, and photographed. At that same time, at the Elmira Reformatory some experiments were being tried on some criminals of the lower class. They were given daily baths, special physical exercises, and were fed on a specially bountiful diet. Scientific philanthropy stopped there, but photographs "before and after," repro duced in the printed reports, show the great physical improve ment that resulted, and a marked change occurred likewise in disposition and intelligence. Many laboratory experiments have been made of late to test the chemical nature and the physiological effects of foods. It is becoming more fully recognized that the quality and quantity of food, and the cooking of it, have a great influence on the economic quality of the worker.