BEATING THE BONUS BOGY U NDER this heading, in your issue
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dated August 6, Production Engineer " makes an attack on the bonus system. He describes the demand for more pay by the workmen as " blackmail." I believe he means that the whole bonus system is blackmail. I agree that the system is all wrong and that the country is suffering from a serious industrial disease.
Let us look at the beginnings of the trouble. The system, although it was in force before 1914, was
intensified during the first world war. The Government wanted iiroduction at all costs and did not care what the employer paid in wages provided the goods were turned out, and part could always be returned by way of income tax.
Now, once Lipkin a time a man did a fair day's work for (in those days) a fair day's pay. Then the employer said to him, "If you can do a bit more, I will give you a bit more pay." Shall we call this blackmail? If so, then the whole system is blackmail. It could also be described (and probably was) as an incentive, but the fact remains that if the man did as much as he could without a bonus, then fhe bonus was in the nature of a bribe to do more. (Once you give a child chocolate for a job, then you have a devil of a job to knock it off!) But the evil does not altogether lie with the workman. The employer has competition to face, and if he can get his good:. out before the other man by means of a bonus, then he is tempted to do so.
Another aspect of the bonus system is the discontent caused not only amongst those who work the bonus system, but amongst those in the same trade to whom a bonus system could not possibly be applied; I mean, of course, to those mainly in the repair shops. In any district where the bonus system is in force, there is no difficulty in recruiting labour, but in the same district there are also many repair shops, motor and others, and it is here that the bonus system hits the repair-shop employer. Geneially, some small increase over the district rate is allowed, to keep the men at all, otherwise they would all migrate to the production shops.
There is surely something wrong when men who have served their time receive £5 12s. 6d. per week, while others who were formerly unskilled and possessed no training can earn on an average flO per week? One may well ask how the repair shop keeps any men at all? The answer is that there are a lot of men to whom factory work, with its repetition, does not appeal, in spite of the high wages.
So much for the bonus system and its evils. The question is a vital one for most people for whom this journal caters. Their staffs are discontented and work suffers in consequence. Is there a remedy?
The answer lies in the institution of a sensible wages policy, carried out by a body which shall inter-relate BI4
Erie wages ot common trades and which will put bonus wages in their proper place. It would be too much to expect that the bonus system be discontinued: I am afraidthat it is with us for ever. If the unions use their tremendous power to force wages up and up, then nothing but a slump will bring them down.
Do not let that be misunderstood. We don't want a slump. We want the maximum production with a sensible wages system.
Huddersfield. T. LEvirr, M.I.R.T.E.
EARLY DAYS WITH FORDS AND RENAULTS THE article concerning the Model T Ford, published I in your issue dated August 6, took me back 25 years or more to the time when I operated a small fleet of newspaper vans on the South Coast.
When I first went there the company concerned was using pre-1914 Renaults, and the purchase of sonic Fords was a great event, because they had windscreens and electric light, whereas the Renaults had neither. Admittedly, the Fords had no side windows, and although later We had some curtains made for them, they were rarely used by the drivers as they prevented the parcels of papers being thrown out at speed with that accurate aim which characterizes the men concerned with newspapers The driver had to sit bolt -upright, and the fixed position of his seat was such that the steering wheel caught him nearly in the midriff, so that fiddling with the ignition lever and throttle was almost a gymnastic feat. This was especially so because of the need for leaning over to tickle 'the trembler coils (to which .1.1-1 V. refers). These coils were carried in a box on the dash, and although there was supposed to be a lid for it, I never remember seeing one on, with the result that at night the cab was illuminated by the continual flashing of the points. The lights of the Ford were practically useless except as high speeds, and one or two of our men preferred to fix up large acetylene lamps. A great asset, however, in newspaper work.
is the rapid acceleration plus the wonderful reverse.
It was a recognized procedure, when one wanted to stop quickly, to put the gear into reverse while applying the foot brake. No one who has not had experience of this can imagine how the Model T sat on its haunches at such a time. .
• In winter one always had to start by jacking up a Tear wheel, in the manner described by J.H.V. In the summer we sometimes had a different trouble. Both our Fords and Renaults had wood wheels, and the spokes of these were apt to shrink. In the hot summer :if 1921. in particular, it became necessary to take off the wheels at night and park them in water.
The Renaults had no ignition switch. There was, admittedly, a lever on a quadrant to reduce the flow of petrol and finally to cut it off, but this made restarting most difficult, • so stopping was usually achieved by deliberately stalling the engine. It was also necessary, last thing at night, to crawl right under the vehicle to turn off the petrol, otherwise it flooded out.
The Renaults carried Stepney wheels, but the Fords were modern enough to have detachable rims. These were all right on the road, but the fun started on the return to the garage when it became necessary to mend a puncture. Getting the rim off was not easy, and to get it back was a two-man job, one holding it down and the other hitting it with a mallet. After the rims had been off a few times it was quite a wrestling match to replace them. As often as not, they would spring out when hit and give the " holder-down " a nasty clout.
Birmingham, 27. C. S. DUNBAR.