Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

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58 Visual Education Motion Pictures in Business IMPROVING LABOR THROUGH FILMS THE Department of Economic Research of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company has developed from statistics the positive statement that 68 per cent of all monies is expended in labor. It is therefore obvious that the efficiency of labor bears a 68 per cent ratio to the welfare of our country. There is no great dispute in any wellorganized business over the spending of money when it is to be invested in a machine that will save labor. There is no hesitancy, for example, about the expenditure of money for a stoker that will burn less coal; in fact, a way is nearly always found to provide funds to improve any mechanical device or business system when it can be shown that good returns will accrue from the investment. The expenditure of money to improve the biggest cost factor in all business — the 68 per cent of everything, which is labor — is, however, almost negligible. An editorial in the Saturday Evening Post of December 23 states: "It's about time that all corporations and manufacturers made an end of their stupid attitude on cheap labor and the immigration question. When they stop employing labor in a manner as reminiscent of reckless waste as the slaughter of passenger pigeons, they may be able to show reason why their demands should be treated with respect by the House and the Senate Immigration Committees. But while they employ their laborers on seasonal work during part of the year, and waste their labors entirely for the remainder of the time, the House and the Senate Immigration Committees should accord them about the same respectful consideration that is usually accorded the scapegrace son who wastes his inheritance on special automobile bodies and gold diggers." The desire to serve best and to get ahead is always found in the man who knows his job best. There is one route that is shorter than any other when it comes to teaching men to know their jobs better, and that route is showing them the work they are doing as it should be done. A job can always be done well once, and when it is well done once before a motion-picture camera, it can be multiplied times without number on the silver screen. The moving picture is the most aggressive teacher yet known to man. Without any of the unpleasantness of a rasping voice or the misinterpreted printed paragraph, it can reach millions who would not listen and millions who would not read. TEACHING SAFETY TO WORKERS "D URING the last three years," reports Frank E. Morris, of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, "we have shown our safety films, 'The Outlaw^ and 'The Hand of Fate' to over 18,647 working people in various industries. Many of these 'shows' were given in plant cafeterias, machine shops, foundries, or wherever the workers could be assembled, either during their rest period or on company time. "Carrying the pictures to them in this fashion is appreciated by the audiences because it lends variety to their day. They enjoy the movies without the trouble of cleaning up and without late hours. The audience is made groupconscious on the safety idea, and that idea is more easily incorporated into their workaday lives because the picture is displayed right 'on the job'. "Moving pictures on accident prevention are a very vital part of an industrial safety program." HOW A CEREAL MANUFACTURER USES FILMS VARIED and valuable are the uses to which the Quaker Oats Company, whose products are known the world over, puts the motion picture in conducting its many-branched business. Films produced and circulated by the Livestock and Poultry Services enable the company to stimulate and cooperate with the livestock and poultry industries of the country— incidentally advertising their by-products. In the Export Department, what might be called a propaganda film serves to spread the gospel of American cereals abroad and thus create a demand for the company's products in foreign fields. Another motion picture which takes the observer on a trip through the mill is used for educational purposes not only in the company's own sales-force, but frequently also to implant in wholesale grocery salesmen an intelligent enthusiasm for Quaker products. "It was in 1917 that the Feed Department produced its first two-reel film," said Prof. J. A. McLean, in charge of the Livestock Service Department, to a representative of Visual Education. "This was a strictly educational picture for the swine industry, setting forth the best types of hogs and the best representatives of the various breeds; consequently, of course, picturing that year's champion show animals. Three years later another single reel was produced — 'The Grand Champions of the 1920 Swine Show' — copies of which have been widely circulated by the National Swine Association. Two years ago we produced 8,000 feet of film on dairy cattle, devoting two reels each to Holsteins, Jerseys, Ayrshires and Guernseys in America. "In the making of these four dairy films, twenty-six states were covered and ninety-six of the leading breeding herds of the country were visited. In addition to the prints which are being distributed by the various breeders' associations of the country, we have in our own collection seven copies of each film. These are kept constantly busy at our own educational meetings, which are conducted by a force of farm-raised and college-trained lecturers. At these livestock improvement meetings the film furnishes the main attraction of the program, although as a rule it is preceded and followed by short talks." Whereas the films of the Feed Department do educational service outside the company's own organization, a motion picture recently produced by the Cereal Sales Department is intended primarily for home consumption. It is used as a part of the preliminary training of every new salesman. "Our idea," explained Mr. Donald Douglas, manager of retail sales, "has been to show each new member of our selling staff just how Quaker Oats are made — to sell him the idea of 'Quaker quality' before asking him to go out and sell it to others." Sending the recruit on a personal visit to the mill, according to Mr. Douglas, has been found to be of doubtful value. His attention is too apt to be scattered among the thousand-and-one details of the plant, so that he misses the essential things he was sent there to observe. "The roar of a machine, the passing of a truck, the work of a girl operator — little things like these catch his attention and distract his mind from the main issue. When he has gone the round of the mill, he is more likely to remember what a certain machine looks like than what it actually does. The film, on the other hand, is direct and emphatic. It demands concentration. It eliminates non-essentials and hammers home the really important facts. When a green