Production to Pay

Important, though seldom discussed, is the manufacturing ratio between a day's pay and a day's work. Last week Gerard Swope, president of General Electric Co., discussed piecework versus timework payment, said that ''modifications of the piece rate system" had been introduced in General Electric plants. Figures on num-ber of employes, total salaries and total sales showed that in 1928 General Electric Co. had paid an average of 73,526 employes $134,056,000 and had received orders for $348,848,512 of C. E. products. The average employe therefore was paid $1,823 a year (almost exactly $35 a week). The average sales per employe was $4,758.

Therefore, for every dollar spent in wages, General Electric Co. realized $2.61 in sales. The following table shows the same ratio for four of the last 14 years:

No. Employes Payroll Orders Rec'd 1914 46,415 $37,410,490 $83,748,521 1919 70,982 90,927,942 237,623,932 1924 70,570 117,710,760 283,107,697 1928 73,526 134,056,000 348,848,512 Average Salary Average Production Ratio of Production to Pay 1914 $806 $1,804 2.23% 1919 1281 3,347 2.61 1924 1668 4,011 2.40 1928 1823 4,758 2.61

Mr. Swope's first job with General Electric (in 1893) was time work. His $1.00 per day lowered the average pay; his present salary boosts it even more powerfully. Four college degrees hang on his wall. If he wishes, three medals may blaze on his coat: The French Legion of Honor, the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, the American D. S. M. As everyone knows, he is the brother of dynamic Herbert Bayard Swope, ex-executive editor of the (New York) World. Both brothers were born in St. Louis, Gerard slightly more than nine years before Herbert. Gerard is 56; Herbert, 47. Brother Gerard lists membership in ten clubs, Brother Herbert in eight. But they meet at only one, the Lotos.