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on this work should be given to Mr. A. B. Wadleigh, the writer's assistant in this section at that time.

 

Table 1.—Showing Relative Cost of Yard Labor Under Task Piece Work and Old Style Day Work

	Piece Work	Day Work
Number of tons (2,240 lbs. per ton) handled on piece work during the year ending April 30, 1901	924,04015100
Total cost of handling 924,04015100 tons including the piece work wages paid the men, and in addition all incidental day labour used	$30,797.78
Former cost of handling the same number of tons of similar materials on day work		$67,215.47
Net saving in handling 924,04015100 tons of materials, effected in one year through substituting piece work for day work	$36,417.69
Average cost for handling a ton (2,240 lbs.) on piece and day work	$0.033	$0.072
Average earnings per day, per man	$1.88[1]	$1.15
Average number of tons handled per day per man	57[2]	16

 

When the writer left the steel works, the Bethlehem piece workers were the finest body of picked laborers that he has ever seen together. They were practically all first-class men, because in each case the task which they were called upon to perform was such that only a first-class man could do it. The tasks were all purposely made so severe that not more

1. It was our intention to fix piece work rates which should enable first-class workmen to average about 60 per cent. more than they had been earning on day work, namely $1.85 per day. A year's average shows them to have earned $1.88 per day, or three cents per man per day more than we expected—an error of 1610 per cent.
2. The piece workers handled on an average 355100 times as many tons per day as the day workers.