average wages. In this matter the individual
opinions of foremen and superintendents differed widely, but when the
reports from all the establishments visited were compared, a
sufficient degree of uniformity was found to serve as a basis for
estimating the amount of experience workers of average intelligence
would need, under normal shop conditions, in order to become fairly
proficient.

There was practical unanimity in fixing the period at four years for
tool makers and three to four years for machinists. Higher estimates
were received from the superintendents of plants doing a jobbing
business or manufacturing high grade machine tools than from the
specialized shops making a single product. The superintendents of
automobile manufacturing plants, where the standard of quality in
production is necessarily high, gave the lowest estimates of all.
Table 20 shows the estimated time required to learn the various types
of machine work.

TABLE 20.--ESTIMATED TIME REQUIRED TO LEARN MACHINE TOOL WORK

------------------------------------+----------------------+
Workers | Time required |
------------------------------------+----------------------+
Grinding machine operators | 12 to 15 months |
Lathe hands | 6 to 9 months |
Planer hands | 6 months |
Gear cutter operators | 6 months |
Turret lathe operators | 4 to 6 months |
Screw machine operators | 3 to 6 months |
Bench hands | 3 to 6 months |
Milling machine operators | 2 to 4 months |
Drilling machine operators | 2 weeks to 4 months |
------------------------------------+----------------------+

The weakness of specialization, with its constant tendency towards the
substitution of semi-skilled operatives for trained workmen, lies in
its failure to provide a body of workers from whom to recruit the
large directive force needed in any scheme of production based on
semi-skilled labor. This condition is regarded by many employers with
grave concern, and in a few plants apprentice schools designed
primarily to train future foremen have been established.

Practically all the foremen in the shops visited had received an
all-round training as machinists, and there are few opportunities for
promotion open to men who have not a general knowledg