United States. Council of National Defense. Committee on Labor. Section on Industrial Training for the War Emergency

“ We try to find out in the training school where the student’s strong point is, whether on machine operation or bench work, and are enabled in this way to place them in a job they are particularly suited for, thus keeping the problem out of the factory. If they show a proper degree of interest, they are given all possible encouragement.
We have had to materially increase the size of our school, and with the hearty co-operation we are receiving from the heads of the different departments, we believe the employment of women on our work is proving a success in every way. ”

“ In our own experience, without doubt, much more attention has been given by foremen and fellow-workmen to the supervision of women’s work than has been given to the average male employee in the past, the assumption being that a woman, having less mechanical background and intuition than a man, required more training and more specific instructions. ”

“ The opinion that the company is doing a disinterested thing in training new operators has led some to believe that the wage scale for learners could be made very low. One way to help a man to act like a gentleman is to dress him as such and treat him as far as possible as such. The same holds true with operators in training. The fact that they are rated well and trained by the best of mechanics, on the best of tools, in a shop with good surroundings, means much in the final success of industrial training. ”

“ J. J. Pierson, Dilution Officer of the British Ministry of Munitions in the London District, says: “You can make a toolroom operator of a woman in three weeks. If you can’t do it in three weeks, you can’t do it at all. You have simply gotten the wrong woman. Pick out a long fingered, sensitive, intelligent woman from the shop force who has been carefully trained and is especially satisfactory and exact in her production and upgrade her in this way.” ”

“ The grave situation of shortage of labor (it now being estimated that there is a shortage of 250,000 skilled workers [3] ) is being met by a new quick method of training operatives. All over the country, day by day, one factory after another falls into line and puts in a training department to train its own people—the same sort of quick, intensive-training plan to meet the same sort of situation which the regulations in France prescribe for every manufacturer employing 300 people or more, and the English ministry of munitions requires in its contracts for materials. ”

“ The patriotism shown by the employers in meeting the numerous difficulties which confronted them in training women for every conceivable kind of work, in reorganizing their factories for new productions by new labor, adapting their machinery to the measure of skill and strength available to work them has been one of the most inspiriting experiences of the war. ”

“ We find, too, that on quantity production in toolroom, we are in a position to effect some very great savings in time and money, as it permits standard jigs and fixtures, such as in ordinary manufacturing; for instance, we at one time machined all our flat tool bits made of high speed steel before hardening and grinding, while our present method is to heat bars of steel in gas furnace and then punch out with die under heavy hammer or press. This method alone in a couple of hours gives us a supply ahead that would ordinarily take one machine or more in continuous operation to produce. ”

“ Our graduate apprentices, adjusters and tool setters have been so well trained that they have always been sought for by competitive concerns. Since the war, and especially during the past six or eight months, it has become increasingly necessary to develop the training of employees to the greatest extent. Where formerly help might be obtained who had, at least, some knowledge of machines and shop practice, it is now necessary to take help who have absolutely no knowledge of factory work and teach them to become skilled. ”

“ Our experience is that if you take a man over 30 that has become disgusted from a blind alley profession, where there is no hope of advancement, point out the possibilities of the machine tool trade, and give him a living wage to start, even though at first he is not worth it, he develops into a good and loyal man. ”

“ As the war activities took workers we turned our school into training quarters for mechanics. For instructors we aim to use the best workers in a particular class that we have, providing that they have the natural ability to instruct others. Some men lack the ability to impart their knowledge to others. This type of man does not make a good instructor. A man should not only be an expert in his trade, but he should have the natural ability to impart his knowledge in order to become a good instructor. ”

“ The shop for training adjusters for the Gun Department is designed to teach men how to adjust the type of machines to which they are to be assigned for all classes of work which may be run upon them. This training should ordinarily take from two to four weeks, but many times it has seemed desirable to graduate candidates more quickly than this; if they are bright and intelligent it has proven satisfactory to do so. No attempt has been made to train operators in the Gun Department except in the shops where they are to work. ”

“ The excellent arrangements made by the Cincinnati manufacturers to relieve the shortage of labor by placing women at work in machine shops and elsewhere were extremely interesting.
After learning what had been done we started using women in our machine shop in line with your idea and the results have been very satisfactory. * * * It is not a question of economy with us but of releasing men for other work in the foundry which women cannot perform. We believe that an intensive training of two weeks would enable women to turn out practically as much work as men are now doing. ”

“ Each training department occupies about 10,000 square feet of floor space in buildings separate from the factories. They are equipped with modern machinery tooled up for production, the machines and equipment being of the same type as that in the factory proper.
The primary purpose of these departments is to train women, also men, for the needs of the factory, upon production work, assembly, inspection, shop clerk work and tool crib tending. It is the aim of the Instruction Department to train the learner to do her work habitually correct, both as to quantity and quality. ”

“ As the girls graduate from the starting department, or school, they don the regular shop uniform, consisting of a suit of overalls, and take their place alongside the men and under the same general conditions as to hours of labor and rates of pay. This stepping-up method of training the unskilled females has been a success with us as far as it goes, and has enabled us to increase our production 50 per cent. ”

“ In the spring of 1914 labor conditions were somewhat disturbed in Detroit. We lost a good many of our expert varnish rubbers, and we could not get skilled men to replace them, and we tried to break in men on the varnish rubbing deck, but found that too much work was spoiled by the green men, and the experienced men did not have time or inclination to properly instruct those who were unskilled. This led to the establishment of a school for training varnish rubbers and was the beginning of our efforts to train unskilled workers. ”

“ The Section on Industrial Training for the War Emergency is concerned with industrial training only as a war measure. It is not concerned with vocational education in general. In all cases in the existing crisis shortage of labor must be met first by training operatives from allied trades who are unemployed and by advancing operatives of ability from lower to higher positions in the occupation itself. For instance, apprentices should be advanced rather than outsiders. It is possible that many sewing women will be without work, and many men in the building trades. ”

“ We are enclosing herewith three photographs showing work in our vestibule school for women on gauge finishing work. The picture of the six women in a line with the instructor at the end shows the pupils on gauge finishing work, lapping plug, thread gauges, snap gauges, etc. These women have proven themselves very apt, but difficulty is being experienced, due to the fact that the necessary laps requiring highly skilled mechanics are often made defective, on account of the feeling of the skilled tool and gauge makers who do not wish any of the women to do any of this work. ”

“ We believe, however, that through the medium of the training room we shall be able to instruct women workers in machine tool operation so they will go direct from the school room into the shop without fear of what is to be encountered therein, and with a better knowledge of the tool they are operating, and the reason they are operating it, than they could possibly acquire through any other method. ”

“ When we have a large number of employees to train in some one line of work we establish a separate organization for them with a view to training them to carry on very efficiently and become skilled employees as soon as possible. ”

“ Only regular factory production which must pass inspection is used for instruction.
In regard to instructors, they have taken a man from the tool room who is a mechanic and a good teacher. He can handle any and all of the machines and has the ability to tell what he knows in a clear way that is readily understood.
Most of the students in the training room at present have been hired from outside but as it is becoming better known among the men, the laborers are applying for admission in rapidly increasing numbers. ”

“ Our school is going along nicely and while we are not perfecting machine tool operators to the degree I would like because of the necessity of rushing them through the school to the shop proper, we are accomplishing, I think, that which we set out to do, namely, to take away from the girl the fear of the shop and to give her a fair knowledge of the tool she is to handle. ”

“ H. E. shell and equal the production of male labor many thought that such work, amounting as it does to little more than manipulative dexterity, was about the limit of the capacity of women who had not received a regular course of Engineering training. After a few months’ workshop experience, however, women are to-day building the greater part of one of the best High-Speed Engines in the country, each woman setting her own tools and work, and able to machine any piece of work that the tool she is on will take. ”

“ Experience has shown that there are advantages in having both men and women in the same department, as it tends to hold the same standard of workmanship and speed for women as for men, while it is believed that having a separate department for women may establish a separate and lower standard, the tendency being to make more allowance for women because of sex. ”

“ All who have tried these intensive methods of training are happily surprised at the shortness of time required to make skilled operatives for precision work in tool room and factory of men from non-essential trades and of the more intelligent women now entering industry for the war. ”

“ The women undoubtedly have benefited beyond measure by the short time spent in the school room, and have gone into the factory with the confidence that carried them through the first few days and made them efficiently productive in a shorter period of time. ”

“ Women have been trained in an incredibly short time, handling appliances of all kinds have been installed, special tools and gauges have had to be made and often when a work has been set fairly going and was reaching full production, a change in the country’s needs for munitions compelled the Ministry to alter a design or a size or to put a firm on to a completely new product, and again the whole process of retaining employees and adapting tools and plant had to be gone through. ”

“ In teaching some of the women we find that some women pick up very quickly some particular trade and when they become experts we in turn make them instructors. We have not yet developed any toolmakers. We have developed men to tool room work, such as turning, grinding, etc., but this is not really toolmaking. ”

“ We also broke men in on drill presses and shapers, using same tactics and had very successful results. To give you an idea as to the class of men from which we have made machine operators, we have working in our shop to-day one bartender, piano tuner, street car conductor, bricklayer, coal miner and an artist—self made. The other unskilled men had had some previous experience on productive labor, either running punching presses, nailing machines, or work requiring a smattering of mechanical ability. ”

“ Exploitation of labor and reduction of wages through dilution for war purposes is to be avoided, and to this end persons brought into an essential industry, or promoted from one grade of work to another, are to be paid the prevailing rate of wages for the class of work for which they have been trained, after a training period of reasonable duration. ”

“ This, at first sight, seems a simple arrangement, but I need not tell you that it is a complicated one and involves expenditure of time, patience and money on the part of the employers and sympathetic co-operation on the part of the skilled employees. Women have to receive careful training, intervening hands in the processes of production have to be upgraded and the skill in the factory has to be spread over a large area, usually necessitating more supervision and care if equal results are to be obtained. ”

“ This is exemplified in the city of Detroit, where it is estimated that 50,000 additional mechanics will be needed before the end of the year. If those now engaged in the war plants could be advanced to more skilled positions, and their places be filled by present residents of Detroit engaged in non-essential or unskilled industries, or those not now at work, the need for housing of the 50,000 mechanics with their families could be, if not entirely, at least, in part, eliminated. ”