superintendents, etc., on one side and the men on the other, and the
main questions at issue are the speed and accuracy with which the work
shall be done. Up to the time that task management was introduced in the
Midvale Steel Works, it can be fairly said that under the old systems of
management the men and the management had about equal weight in deciding
how fast the work should be done. Shop records showing the quickest time
in which each job had been done and more or less shrewd guessing being
the means on which the management depended for bargaining with and
coercing the men; and deliberate soldiering for the purpose of
misinforming the management being the weapon used by the men in
self-defense. Under the old system the incentive was entirely lacking
which is needed to induce men to cooperate heartily with the management
in increasing the speed with which work is turned out. It is chiefly
due, under the old systems, to this divided control of the speed with
which the work shall be done that such an amount of bickering,
quarreling, and often hard feeling exists between the two sides.

The essence of task management lies in the fact that the control of the
speed problem rests entirely with the management; and, on the other
hand, the true strength of the Towne-Halsey system rests upon the fact
that under it the question of speed is settled entirely by the men
without interference on the part of the management. Thus in both cases,
though from diametrically opposite causes, there is undivided control,
and this is the chief element needed for harmony.

The writer has seen many jobs successfully nursed in several of our
large and well managed establishments under these drifting systems, for
a term of ten to fifteen years, at from one-third to one-quarter speed.
The workmen, in the meanwhile, apparently enjoyed the confidence of
their employers, and in many cases the employers not only suspected the