International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1930)

7i — LABOUR. THE FILM IN THE SERVICE OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT After the rapid survey we have made of what has been done in Europe, either by the governments, or by public and industrial bodies and institutions, in the application of the cinema to a better understanding of labour problems, the unique contribution which the United States has given and is giving in this domain cannot fail to claim the most earnest attention of the I. E. C. I. It is well known that practical experiment in the doctrines of labour organization have been developed and applied mainly in the United States, where industrial progress has achieved record production and « rationalization » is the logical result of a state of things originating in unbounded economic possibilities, vast natural wealth, and an intensely busy and widely developed home market — all conditions which render possible, and indeed necessitate, the most complex industrial system and serial production on a gigantic scale. On this account, the great captains of industry of the United States have devoted their energies and talent to developing the Taylor ian theories, which found a hotbed in the conditions I have alluded to above. Mr. Ford's book « My Life » gives a masterly description of the advantages of scientific management, whose natural home is undoubtedly the American workshop. The main purpose of scientific management is to bring scientific progress into harmony with industrial practice, with a view to increasing output and diminishing the cost of production. It does not, of course, necessarily follow that American systems of rationalization can be extended to Europe — or even to European countries that are the most developed industrially — on the assumption that, since they have been successful in the United States, they must necessarily work equally well in the several countries of the Old World. However, America's effort to make its methods known on this side of the Atlantic has given rise to a widespread movement and found expression not only in a number of national institutions, but also in the International Institute set up in Geneva under the auspices of the International Labour Office. All these bodies, however, appear to be lacking in some essential propaganda factor, which neither yearly congresses, nor the general campaign carried on by pamphlets and periodicals can supply. Hence the necessity of having recomse to the most practical of ail means of popular campaign work — the Cinematograph. Modern society is coming to realize more vividly every day that this is the means par excellence of education and for bringing home to everyone the most varied aspects of the complex life of the peoples. In America, the Government, the universities, and the great industrial world have realized the advantages to be derived from the use of the moving picture; and on this account it has been introduced into schools, workshops, and farms, to explain principles, to guide experts, to train the young in the choice of their careers and trades, and to demonstrate the use of particular systems and modern innovations. The experiments recently made by a big industrial firm in America in the use of the cinematograph for the purpose of improving the quality and quantity of their employees' work, is of considerable interest. Films were taken of a number of employees engaged on their particular jobs, and were later shown in slow motion to the individuals concerned, who were thus able to study their own actions while at work, to observe defects, and correct wasteful or unnecessary movements. In this manner they were enabled to improve their performance and the results obtained were so good that an average increase of output amounting to 10 % was obtained.