The need for skilled artisans and creative genius is greater under mass production than without it. The Ford Motor Com pany employs more than 15,000 skilled mechanics in the construc tion and maintenance of the machinery of production, besides other thousands engaged directly in the production of cars. It has been debated whether there is less or more skill as a conse quence of mass production.
The present writer's opinion is that there is more. Practical production men assert that mass production requires an increasing degree of mass intelligence.
The common work of the world has always been done by un skilled labour, but the common work of the world in modern times is not as common as it was formerly. In almost every field of labour more knowledge and responsibility are required.
Some Criticisms production has also been studied with reference to what has been called the monotony of repetitive work. This monotony does not exist as much in the shops as in the minds of theorists and bookish reformers. There is no form of work without its hardness; but needless hardship has no place in the modern industrial scheme. Mass production lightens work, but increases its repetitive quality. In this it is the opposite of the mediaeval ideal of craftsmanship where the artisan performed every operation, from the preparation of the material to its final form. It is doubtful, however, if the mass of mediaeval toil was as devoid of monotony as has sometimes been pictured, but it is absolutely certain that it was less satisfactory in its re sults to the worker. In well-managed modern factories the tend ency to monotony is combated by frequent changes of task.
The criticism of mass production as a means of reducing employ ment has long since been out of court. The experience of the Ford. Motor Company is that wherever the number of men has been re duced on manufacturing operations, more jobs have been created.
Economy in cost of production makes possible lower prices which create a larger market, and this increases employment. As to the effect of mass production on wages and shop relations, there is little need to speak. It is perhaps the mostly widely understood fact about mass production that it has resulted in higher wages than any other method of industry. The reason is at hand. The methods of mass production enable the worker to earn more and thus to have more. Moreover, the methods of mass production have thrown so much responsibility on the craftsmanship of man agement, that the old method of financial adjustment by reduc tion of wages has been abandoned by scientific manufacturers. A business that must finance by drafts out of the wage envelopes of its employees is not scientifically based. It is the problem of man agement so to organize production that it will pay the public, the workmen and the concern itself. Management that fails in any of these is poor management. Disturbed labour conditions, poor wages, uncertain profits indicate lapses in management. The craftsmanship of management absorbs the energies of many thou sands of men who, without mass production methods, would have no creative opportunity. Here the modern method broadens instead of narrows individual opportunity.
(5) As to the effects of mass production on society, the increas ing supply of human needs and the development of new standards of living are the elements to be estimated. The enlargement of leisure, the increase of human contacts, the extension of indi vidual range, are all the result of mass production. (H. Fo.) See H. Ford, My Life and Work (1924), and and Tomorrow (1926) E. G. Filene, The Way Out (1924) ; and Articles in the American Economic Review.