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PLAYER SECTON
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 23, 1918
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The Demands Which the War Will Make Upon Both Labor and Supplies
During the Present Year Make It Imperative for Player-Piano Manufacturers
to Increase Their Manufacturing Efficiency Through Every Possible Method
The outstanding problem of the present time
is conservation of energy.
By this is meant
the very definite question of producing as
much as possible from the man-power and ma-
terial capacity of the nation, during a period
when both will be largely absorbed in military
work, while the probable demand for the prod-
ucts of industry will be enormously increased.
Tying 1 our discussion down to our own in-
dustry, the situation comes to this: In the first
place, there is every reason to anticipate a very
large demand for player-pianos during the com-
ing year. In the second place, there is the al-
most complete certainty to be faced that ma-
terial will be scarce and labor just as scarce.
Therefore, how are we to fill the demand?
Labor Shortage
A few considerations on the question of labor
will not be out of place. There are as many
opinions concerning the duration of the war as
there are people to voice opinions. Most of
them, of course, are worthless; but the best in-
formed seem to be neither excessively optimistic
nor at all pessimistic. The campaign of 1918
may finish it all up, and in that case next year
will see us with the labor market in better con-
dition. When the end comes it will come with
astonishing suddenness; that much is perfectly
certain.
Hut suppose we take'the middle view and look
to the campaign of 1919 as final. In that case
it may be expected that the drafts of man-power
for the army will account for not less than three
million men and that twice as many will be di-
rectly engaged in work intended for the mili-
tary and naval needs of the war. To these men
will by that time have been added probably a
million women; so that we may say with reason
that during the year 1918 it -will not be exces-
sively conservative to estimate that one-tenth
of the population, or one-fifth of the available
labor power, will be absorbed in non-pacific in-
dustry.
Naturally, the effect upon the labor situation
for industries like ours will necessarily be acute.
We shall be short of men.
The Material and Supply Situation
It is not to be expected that this nation will
continue during the remainder of the year 1918
in the same state of confusion with regard to
transportation tljat has characterized the early
winter. It is quite certain, in fact, that there
will be a progressive improvement, as the Gov-
ernment finds itself taking a tighter grip on
the situation. Therefore, the anticipated short-
age of supplies for manufacturing will not, in
all probability, be traceable to transportation
troubles if it continues to exist at all. Xor shall
we rind the same difficulty regarding the ship-
ment westward of manufactured goods, since
the great movements of raw material will be
mainly eastward and the cars may return loaded
with manufactured products for internal con-
sumption. Any difficulty, in fact, is much more
likely to supervene through a definite shortage
of raw material, such as we have already ex-
perienced to some extent and are likely to hear
more of as time goes on.
Such a situation as this we must face frankly.
If the needs of airplane manufacture, for in-
stance, absorb so much piano wire and spruce,
even of o
ducing mills are overstrained, the piano busi-
ness will have to wait. If there is any difficulty
in getting leather, the cause will be found in
military needs. And so on. We cannot help
these matters. But it is safe to say that, with
due organization, there is raw material enough
in the country for all needs, military and non-
military alike. Give us a little time and we shall
get these matters of organization settled to the
satisfaction of all. That much we can say rea-
sonably, liven if production must be cut down
somewhat, we shall simply have to concentrate
on better class goods. That, in reality, is the
goal towards which we arc all the time tending.
The Demand
In the face of conditions, then, which spell
difficulty, even though not insuperable difficulty,
in keeping up the quantity of output, we are
faced with the probability of a very much in-
creased retail demand.
The predictions that
were made by croakers when we entered the
war nearly a year ago, the shriekings of those
who were commanding us to stop everything
(including all the activities that produce the
means for financing the war), have pretty well
been suppressed. A healthier and saner tone
now prevails. It is becoming understood that
the business of the nation is to win the war, and
that winning the war means having the money
with which to win it. This money must, come
from the people; and they can only get it by-
having commerce and industry to produce wealth
for them. Otherwise we shall be in the plight
of that mining village of which one has heard,
where the mines petered out and the few inhabi-
tants who had been unable to get away were
eking out a frugal living by taking in each
other's washing!
Cons derations such as these teach us tliat
the war activities of the nation, combined with
the drafting of man power for service abroad
which will create a shortage of skilled labor,
will re>ult in an enormous increase in the earn-
ing power of the people. The experience of
Great Britain shows that the enormous activ-
ities of modern war so stimulate industry that a
state of almost unbelievable prosperity exists
among the working classes.
It is this increase in earning power which will
lead to a parallel increase in buying. People
who have never been able to buy an upright
piano will have one, people who have only
dreamed of a player-piano will have one. Peo-
ple who have longed in vain for a baby grand,
will have one. The retail demand will be enor-
mous; and there is no wisdom in imagining
aught else.
Organizing Production
But it is obvious that we must organize pro-
duction if we are to come anywhere near filling
this demand which we see coming into existence
already. We have to increase our production
under conditions that would normally tend
largely to decrease it. How is this to be done?
For one thing the labor question must be
taken up; now and definitely. But this does not
mean merely the matter of replacing one lot of
nun with another lot of men and women. It
means really analyzing the whole question of
distributing our labor through the processes of
manufacture. Every man who can be replaced
by the development of an automatic process is
a man who in after-the-war days will not be
needed in the industry. The man who cannot
be replaced by the development of an automatic
machine process may, however, be replaced by a
woman. There is no doubt of this.
Female Labor
I n a player factory the following departments
can certainly be organized on a basis of female
labor only:
Motor—Assembling motors, testing motors,
assembling miscellaneous non-speaking' pneu-
matics, testing same, gluing up motor pneu-
matics.
Bottom Action—Gluing up bellows cloths, as-
sembling bellows, testing bellows.
Top Action—Making pneumatics, making
valves, gluing up pouch boards, assembling top
actions.
Testing—Testing top actions, timing motors,
adjusting expression devices, etc.
This leaves the mill work and the shipping to
be done by male labor. Probably there will be
little need for any experiments in fitting female
labor to this sort of work.
A few words here are to the point. There
is too much inclnation to treat this important
(Continued on ['age 4)