aced by the correct movements giving the
maximum return for the minimum of effort. In this way, and by a bonus
on wages, a largely increased output is obtained. It is clear that the
adoption of such methods gives the "scientific manager" great power; it
also seems inevitable that the workman should degenerate into an automaton;
it is obvious that in the hands of employers ignorant of the principles
underlying it, and seeing merely a new and highly profitable method of
exploitation, it will be open to serious abuse, as experience has already
shown in America.

[Footnote 1: _Round Table_, Sept. 1914, p. 708.]

[Footnote 2: _Scientific Management_, by F.W. Taylor, p. 47.]

So far the tremendous significance of "scientific management" has not
been fully recognised. Properly understood, it is the complement to the
industrial revolution, which by the more extensive use of machinery, etc.,
increased the efficiency of capital. The present movement aims at a similar
increase in the efficiency of labour as an agent of production. The new
revolution in industry has as yet merely begun, because employers, in spite
of the motive of self-interest, are conservative; but it will receive an
enormous impetus from the conditions arising out of the war. Like the
introduction of machinery and factory industry a century and a half ago and
onward, it may be accompanied by widespread evils and cruel exploitation.
Indeed, there is every likelihood that the methods will be distorted and
misused. By their careful application there is no doubt that the output of
the labourer can be increased without the expenditure of greater effort
than before, but even then there would be the tendency towards becoming
de-humanised. This, however, might be overcome by shorter hours and higher
wages, which would raise the standard of comfort and widen the worker's
interests. Unwisely used, "scientific management" will become an instrument
for shackling the worker, and increasing at a great rate the wealth of the
capitalist. It will be freely admitted that anything that will increase the
productivity of the labourer, and therefore the wealth of the community, is
advantageous, provided there is an equitable distribution of the product,
and that the effects on the working members of the State are not socially
injurious. But the hidden evils that may manifest themselves are very real,
and it is important that not only the workers, but the State should be
prepared to