The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

138 THE LOCOMOTIVE. [September,
founded in San Francisco had grown up to employ a hundred men, this matter of a
foreman began to resolve itself into a problem of much difficulty.
The work made was machine tools, steam engines, hydraulic apparatus, and mill
gearing or general work, it might be called, consisting of shafts, pul.leys, special work
and repairing; so there were four separate classes of work carried on, besides the shop
departments of wood work,, pattern making, and forging. Several foremen, all of them
fairly competent men, were tried, but it was found beyond their powers to manage the
different departments. A man conversant with steam engines did not understand hy-
draulic work, and one who could manage the hydraulic department could not deal with
machine tools or steam machinery.
Finally the shop was divided up into sections under five workmen, selected from
each branch of the work because of their skill, and these men were paid extra for acting
as the heads of their departments, and being responsible. The shop machine tools were
set off to these departments, as far as possible, and such tools as could not be segre-
gated were operated first for one department and then for another, being for the time
under the charge of the foreman in that division. The men 'were all young and ambitious,
and for many years this went on without a clash, except on the first day, when
one of the workmen came into the office to find out whom he was working for. He was
informed that this could not be determined in the office, but his right to ascertain was
fully conceded, and as there might be some difficulty under our system he was advised
to go at once to some other shop where there was but one foreman. This was the first
and last case of the kind. An arrangement of this sort exists in the case of contract
work, or other systems of an analogous nature, both in this country and in Europe —
indeed.
In a very large works there is commonly a staff, as at the Union Iron Works, in San
Francisco. There is a manager over all, then a works superintendent of the fitting or
machine'department, a marine superintendent, a ship builder, a chief draftsman for the
engineering department, and other chief draftsmen for the shipbuilding department, an
electrician, and so on. The division of duties is not often the result of a concerted plan,
but follows generally as a matter of evolution in each works, because the division of
duties is very different in various kinds and branches of work. The general foreman of
former times has disappeared.
The terms discipline and responsibility have been used several times, and in these
the key to management in a large works of any kind is to be found. In a former lecture
it was attempted to show that the efficient performance of duty depended upon respon-
sibility, and the more the subject is investigated the more will this become apparent.
The same rule applies to discipline, which is sometimes a very difficult matter to deal
with in a works. I doubt if this can be made apparent by words alone, but it will
become very tangible in the future, as you will find ; because an aggregation of persons,
all striving to better their condition and improve their skill and position, are necessarily
in competition one with another. Jealousies arise, and to manage so as to maintain
harmony among a body of workmen and the staff of a works where there are no defined
rules of law to guide, sometimes surpasses human powers. This is an ethical study, and
if we should pursue it we should be led far away from the subject under discussion ; but
to make it more clear, and to gain suggestions, I will go outside of the industrial field
for some new illustrations.
About thirty years ago Doctor Holbrook established a normal school at Lebanon,
Ohio, to prepare teachers for the schools of that state, and the Doctor, being quite a
student of sociology, hit upon a happy expedient for avoiding the cares of discipline.