Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/754

 740 THE AMERICA* JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

related to the treatment of employes. An accurate record is kept not only of each employe, hut also of each division and each department. These are conspicuously displayed in the factory by means of "monitor boards" (Fig. 2 ),and are published each week in the A'. C. R. There are three monitor boards, one for the sales agents, one for the office division, and one for the factory. Kach department is graded as to its health, ability, quality, punctuality, dispatch. Cards of lovyer rating are pro- gressively darker in tint, so that a horizontal strip across the board, darker or lighter in color, indicates at a glance the stand- ing of one's department. This proves quite a stimulus to each individual, for a single tardiness or a misdirected shipment lowers materially the average of the department. Each week a banner is voted to the department having the highest average, this banner being displayed in the portion of the factory where the department is located. This may seem to partake somewhat of Sunday-school methods, but it is taken seriously enough at the factory. Monitor-board rating and the banner are eagerly striven for, and, almost without exception, every employe from drill-press boy to foreman has his eye upon the rating and the banner. It is a common experience to hear a machine tender, who, by mistake, has spoiled a lot of work, lament, chiefly, its adverse effect upon the monitor board of his department, his regret being intensified by the knowledge that all his fellow- workmen in the same department are affected equally by it. The value of such cooperative effort, especially in manufacturing operations where there are such possibilities of loss, is readily seen.

A more substantial prize is awarded to the departments hav- ing the highest averages. The following order, signed by the president, read at a meeting of the employes in February, 1897, explained the nature of these prizes :

Mr. G. G.: It gives me great pleasure to hand you herewith an order on our treasurer for an amount sufficient to defray the expenses of the black- smith, final inspection, indicator dipping, experimental No. I, experimental No. 2, paymaster's, and shipping departments, to Cincinnati, where they will be the guests of the company. I request that you act as chairman of the