Ohio History Journal

MANSEL G. BLACKFORD

 

Scientific Management and Welfare

Work in Early Twentieth Century

American Business: The Buckeye

Steel Castings Company

 

 

 

At 5 o'clock Tuesday afternoon the first heat was turned off from one of the

furnaces in the new works of the Buckeye Malleable Iron and Coupler

Company in South Columbus.... Someone gave a signal and in a minute

everyone in the building and out of it was on hand to watch the great crane

as it lifted the smoking ladle and carried it to the furnace. Then at a touch

the furnace itself slowly turned on its axis until the steel came pouring forth

in a stream of liquid fire amid a cloud of fiery spray. It was a beautiful sight,

indeed.1

 

With these vivid words a newspaper reporter described the en-

trance of the Buckeye Steel Castings Company of Columbus, Ohio,

into the steel age in 1902. On October 14 of that year the company

began producing steel castings.² By this time Buckeye already had a

twenty-one year history, for the firm had started as a malleable iron

manufacturer in 1881. In its early years the company had difficulty

in carving out a market for its goods and had hovered on the brink of

failure for about a decade. In the 1890s, however, the corporation's

management saw the importance of what was then the growth in-

dustry of its day, American railroads, and Buckeye started making

 

 

Mansel G. Blackford is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State Universi-

ty. This article is based on parts of chapters three and four of the author's Buckeye

International: Past to Present, 1881-1978, in preparation. The author wishes to thank

Lewis I. Day and other officers at Buckeye International for allowing him complete

access to corporate records, without any restrictions on writing. The author would

also like to thank Andrea Lentz for her research assistance in the preparation of this

study.

 

 

1. Columbus, Citizen, Oct. 15, 1902.

2. The Buckeye Steel Castings Company later became part of Buckeye Interna-

tional, and Buckeye International merged with Worthington Industries in 1980.

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Scientific Management                                        239

 

iron automatic couplers and other car parts for railroads across the

nation.³

As trains became longer and heavier, Buckeye switched to the

production of stronger steel couplers. To do so, Buckeye contracted a

large, ultra-modern steel foundry on Parsons Avenue, just south of

Columbus. By 1916 the company's officers could accurately observe

that Buckeye was operating "the largest steel foundry in the world

... devoted entirely to the manufacture of steel castings for rail-

road work."⁴

Buckeye purchased its raw materials-scrap steel, limestone, and

pig iron-locally. It then melted them in its furnaces and cast the

resulting metal in molds. The cast steel products were finished in

chipping and grinding rooms and strengthened by heat treatments

in annealing furnaces. They were then shipped to customers

throughout the United States.

With its movement into steel, Buckeye proved to be a business

success, earning large profits. It was not an easy success. "We have

had hard things to bear," Samuel P. Bush, Buckeye's president be-

tween 1908 and 1927, wrote his wife about the business.⁵ In fact,

myriad problems hindered Buckeye's progress, but by 1916 the com-

pany had become an industry leader.

 

Buckeye Financial Data⁶

(all figures in thousands)

Year                    Assets                            Net Sales               Net Earnings

1896                   $ 515                              $ 374                     $ 100

1902                   1,609                                  698                          75

1907                   2,694                                  2,113                       392

1914                   3,953                                  1,902                       245

1917                   7,312                                  9,640                1,002

 

This article examines two of the major factors in Buckeye's suc-

cess, the scientific management of its steel foundry and the adoption

 

 

3. For more detail on Buckeye's early years, see Mansel Blackford, "Small Busi-

ness in America: Two Case Studies," in Paul Uselding, editor, Business and Economic

History: Papers Presented at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Business History

Conference (Urbana, Ill., 1979).

4. Buckeye Steel Castings Company, pamphlet, February 1916, unpaged. All com-

pany records prior to 1958 have been donated to the Ohio Historical Society in

Columbus, Ohio, where they are available for use without restriction.

5. Samuel P. Bush to Flora Bush (probably 1908), S.P. Bush Collection at the Ohio

Historical Society.

6. These figures are derived from Buckeye's annual financial statements.

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240                                               OHIO HISTORY

 

of welfare work practices for its laborers and local community. By

combining the two elements, Buckeye was able to develop a very

efficient, low-cost foundry operation while, at the same time, avoid-

ing labor unrest. An investigation of the pursuit of these dual goals

by Buckeye's management helps provide an understanding of the

thoughts and actions of early twentieth-century businessmen. Such

an examination also reveals a good deal about Ohio's nascent steel

industry.

Buckeye is a particularly good company to study, because it was a

small to medium-size corporation in the early 1900s.⁷ Too often

historians have generalized about the behavior of businessmen after

looking at only big businesses. As Ralph Hidy, one of the deans of

American business history, noted, "that scholars know far too little

about the history of small enterprise is a truism."⁸ Precisely because

it was not a big business, knowledge of Buckeye's history enhances

our understanding of the evolution of American business and its

impact upon its social and economic environment.

 

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

 

Buckeye shared in and, in some cases, led the technologic ad-

vances which transformed the steel castings industry in the opening

decades of the twentieth century. In the operation of their plant, in

their accounting practices used to monitor the work of the plant, and

in still other ways Buckeye's officers were in the forefront of change.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries an increasing

number of businesses, particularly those engaged in heavy manu-

facturing, adopted the principles of "scientific management" as a

way of removing production bottlenecks in their factories. Buckeye

Steel was one of the corporations to embrace scientific management

ideas.

Frederick Taylor is usually acknowledged as the father of scien-

tific management, and his ideas have become known as "Taylor-

ism." Born in 1856, he was educated at the Stevens Institute of

 

 

7. Generally speaking, a company with assets of $10,000,000 or more was consid-

ered a big business in 1917. Buckeye's assets came to $7,300,000 in that year. See

Thomas Navin, "The 500 Largest American Industrials in 1917," Business History

Review, 44 (Autumn, 1970), 360-86.

8. Ralph Hidy, "Business History: Present Status and Future Needs," Business

History Review, 44 (Winter, 1970), 483-97.

• 3
 

Scientific Management                                          241

 

Technology. A quest for efficiency dominated Taylor's life. In the

1870s and 1880s he worked at the Enterprize Hydraulic Works,

Midvale Steel, and elsewhere to reestablish managerial control over

the growing complexity of factory operations. In doing so, Taylor

stressed three factors: the efficient layout of a plant to move mate-

rials from point to point in a logical fashion, accompanied by the

minute subdivision of labor; strict record keeping to speed the flow

of materials through the plant (this also entailed decreasing the

powers of plant foremen in favor of a new centralized plant planning

department); and detailed internal cost accounting to keep track of

exactly what went on in a plant. In the early 1900s Taylor's ideas

were well known in American business circles, and they soon spread

abroad.⁹

Buckeye's management were well versed in the principles of

Taylorism. Their familiarity with the subject is not surprising.

Trade journals like the Foundry carried numerous articles on the

subject, and Buckeye officials attended professional conferences at

which the topic was discussed. Moreover, Buckeye's management

may well have visited other companies which formally adopted the

Taylor system, perhaps Joseph and Feiss of Cleveland or Pullman

Palace Car of Chicago. Finally, S.P. Bush, Buckeye's president, may

have known Taylor personally. Bush received a degree in mechani-

cal engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1884,

one year after Taylor.

Buckeye's steel plant was modern in construction. The buildings,

put up by the American Bridge Company, were made of brick and

structural steel. Steam power drove much of Buckeye's machinery,

but direct current electricity, generated in the company's own

powerhouse, drove many of Buckeye's overhead cranes and some of

the finishing tools. The internal layout of the steel plant also bore

the imprint of the scientific management thought, as every effort

was made to speed the flow of materials through the various stages

of production.¹⁰

 

9. Numerous studies exist on the origins of scientific management. See Alfred D.

Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), 269-83; Samuel Haber,

Efficiency and Uplift: Scientific Management in the Progressive Era (Chicago, 1964);

Leland Jenks, "Early Phases of the Management Movement," Administrative Science

Quarterly, 5 (December, 1960), 421-47; Joseph Litterer, "Systematic Management:

Design for Recoupling in Manufacturing Firms," Business History Review, 38 (Win-

ter, 1963), 369-81; Daniel Nelson, Managers and Workers (Madison, Wis., 1975),

chapter 4. On Taylor's character see Frank Coply, Frederick W. Taylor: The Father of

Scientific Management (New York, 1923), 2 volumes; Sudhir Kakar, Frederick

Taylor: A Study in Personality and Innovation (Cambridge, Mass., 1970).

10. Some 300 glass plate negatives, most in excellent condition, show every aspect

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242                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

The production process began with the arrival of pig iron, scrap

steel, limestone, sand, and other raw materials at the Buckeye

plant. Once unloaded from the railroad cars by large cranes

(magnetic cranes handled the scrap steel), they were routed via

Buckeye's own intra-plant railroad system to their various destina-

tions. Most of the sand went to the foundry where it was shoveled by

hand into the molds. These metal molds had previously been made

in Buckeye's pattern shop, which employed belt-drive, steam-

powered machinery. Each mold consisted of two parts, a top (the

cope) and a bottom (the drag). Meanwhile, some of the sand traveled

to the core room, where a universal core machine formed it into

cores for the molds. The cores were then transferred to the foundry

and placed inside the molds. With this step accomplished, workmen

joined the copes and drags together. With the molds ready to receive

it, molten metal was now needed. While the molds were being pre-

pared, the pig iron, steel scrap, and limestone were sent to the

foundry's furnaces to be melted down.¹¹

Most steel castings companies operated as open-hearth works in

the early twentieth century. In 1909 about 92 percent of the United

States' production came from open-hearth furnaces and in 1919 a-

bout 85 percent. Open-hearth castings production became more and

more of a science and less of an art as time passed. The steel "doctor"

of the nineteenth century, a person who carefully guarded his recipe

for a successful melt, gave way to the scientist and metallurgical

engineer of the twentieth century. Even so, making steel castings

remained an art, as well as a science, during Buckeye's early years.12

Buckeye engaged in both "basic" and "acid" open-hearth opera-

tions. For basic steel the firm used a charge of 25 percent basic pig

iron, 63 percent scrap steel and 12 percent limestone; for acid steel

the charge was 20 percent acid pig iron and 80 percent scrap steel¹³

Preparing and working the charges was a blend of art and science.

Buckeye's plant superintendent gave detailed written instructions

to his foremen on how to carry out their tasks, and the company set

up a well appointed laboratory to perform quality control work. Yet,

 

 

 

of Buckeye's steel foundry operations for 1914-1920. They have been donated to the

Ohio Historical Society.

11. Ibid.; Buckeye Steel Castings Company, pamphlet, 1916.

12. William P. Conway, Jr., Cast to Shape (Rocky River, Ohio, 1977), 60.

13. S.P. Bush, Notebook, Years 1903-1905 Inc., unpaged. The acid open-hearth

process could use only pig iron which was very low in phosphorus; the basic process

could use pig iron higher in phosphorus. See Steel Founder's Society of America, Steel

Castings Handbook (first edition, Cleveland, 1941), chapter 3.

• 5
 

Scientific Management                                       243

 

despite this progress, many of Buckeye's operations were done on an

ad hoc basis. In working the charge or batch, fracture testing alone

was used to determine when the heat should be tapped. Moreover,

the plant foremen still had considerable leeway in their operating

instructions. In preparing a basic charge, foremen were given the

following instructions:

(a) 1 box clean heavy melting stock in each door (b) limestone following (c)

shop scrap as much as you can get in the furnace or heavy stock as much as

you can in the furnace limited by the height of the scrap in the furnace,

being unable to get in with the boxes (d) as soon as possible get rest of scrap

in (e) pig iron last put in as soon as rest of charge melts low enough to get in

the furnace.14

 

The same type of instructions informed foremen on how to work the

charge:

When about melted iron ore is added. The amount varies with the carbon as

shown by fracture specimens taken from the first part of the heat. The ore is

added from time to time until a low carbon fracture is obtained . . . lime is

added from time to time until the phosphorous is removed.¹⁵

 

Buckeye was primarily an open-hearth operation, using seven

twenty-five ton capacity tilting open-hearth furnaces by 1916; but

the company experimented with other melting techniques as well.

Electric furnaces were first used commercially in the United States

in 1911. Authorities of the day rated electric furnaces superior to

open-hearth, chiefly because electric steel was reported to be more

elastic and more uniform in quality than open-hearth steel. Buck-

eye set up a Heroult electric furnace in 1915, under a licensing

agreement with the United States Steel Corporation which control-

led the American patents for the Heroult furnace. For an initial

payment of $10,000 plus later royalties based on the tonnage pro-

duced, United States Steel agreed to share with Buckeye "its en-

gineering knowledge and skill acquired in its prior extensive experi-

ences and use of electric furnaces." United States Steel sent an

engineer to Buckeye to set up the furnace, and Buckeye initiated its

electric steel operations in 1916.16

Once thoroughly melted, the molten metal was poured from the

 

 

14. Bush, Notebook.

15. Ibid.

16. Buckeye Steel Casting Co.-United States Steel Co., Legal Agreement on Heroult

Furnace, 1915.

• 6
 

244                                             OHIO HISTORY

 

furnaces into ladles. Called "tapping the heat," this process was a

dramatic event. Proper timing was of the utmost importance. "Be-

fore you tapped a heat out, it had to be right," recalled Albert Stock,

who began work at Buckeye in 1906 and who was in the foundry

before the First World War.¹⁷ Once the melter, a skilled workman,

determined the batch of molten steel was ready, he signaled for the

ladle to be brought by an electrically driven crane to the furnace.

The heat was then tapped and the fiery steel poured into the ladle.

This was the most exciting moment in the production of cast steel,

replete with clouds of smoke and red and yellow flames. Stock re-

membered the process well:

 

Then, we had whistles to blow. Number two furnace is ready, blow the

whistle! Number three furnace is ready! [Then, you] swing the lid off the

ladle, all heated and ready to go ... Then, they tap it, and the molten [steel]

will run in.¹⁸

 

As Stock indicated, workmen had prepared the large ladle earlier.

They had lined the ladle with bricks and then covered the bricks

with cement. Buckeye workers introduced an innovation in the lin-

ing process: they used a concrete gun to blow the outer lining on

rather than apply it by hand. Workers preheated the ladle before it

received the molten steel, to prevent cracking of the lining. Once

full, the ladle was conveyed by the crane to a position over the

molds, and the still-liquid steel was poured into the molds, one at a

time. After hardening in these molds, the cast steel couplers and

other railroad car parts went to other buildings for finishing.¹⁹

Buckeye's finishing methods once again demonstrated the com-

pany's concern for modernity. The castings were removed, or as

workmen phrased it, "shaken out," from the molds by jarring

machines, rather than by hand. Once out of their molds, the castings

had the sand still adhering to their surfaces removed. Sandblasting

equipment to clean castings became available around 1900, and

Buckeye set up the industry's first fully equipped sandblast rooms

soon after that. The now clean castings went to various buildings for

finishing work, primarily grinding and chipping, to smooth edges

and remove any abnormalities. The machinery in the chipping room

 

 

17. Interview by the author with Albert Stock, Oct. 4, 1978. This tape-recorded

interview has been donated to the Ohio Historical Society.

18. Ibid.

19. Buckeye Steel Castings, pamphlet; Data on Ladle Lining, September, 1917,

pamphlet.

• 7
 

Scientific Management                                245

was driven by compressed air, while the grinding machinery was electrically powered (but belt-driven). From the finishing buildings the steel castings went to annealing furnaces where they received heat treatments to harden and strengthen them.20 Systematic testing of the finished products completed the produc- tion cycle. Buckeye maintained metallurgical and chemical labor- atories to analyze its products and ensure a standard quality for them. The metallurgical laboratory operated drop test and static test machines with 1,000,000 pound capacities. The chemical laboratory was equipped with experimental heat treating facilities and with microscopic analysis equipment. In addition to quality     20. Glass plate negatives of the plant interior.

• 8
 

246                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

control work, these laboratories engaged in product development

work.²1

Like officials of other manufacturing concerns, Buckeye's man-

agement tried to establish control over their increasingly complex

operations through fairly sophisticated accounting systems.²² Buck-

eye's officers engaged in detailed cost accounting, as they sought to

pinpoint and lessen their company's production expenses. From

1902 on, the steel plant's superintendent figured out the cost per ton

of steel melted and apportioned this cost among the different pro-

duction processes. A page from his plant notebook for April 1905

shows how he broke down the costs:

 

Costs of Production for April, 190523

Metal in mould                                                                                  $49,266

Moulding                                                                                           17,730

Core-making                                                                                      4,873

Annealing and cleaning                                                                      3,419

Fitting and finishing                                                                          15,725

Patterns and drafting                                                                             414

Repairs to plant and equipment                                                        5,266

Locomotive service, heat, light, and power                                       2,779

Selling expense                                                                                  2,755

Shipping expense                                                                                  989

Office expense                                                                                      698

Superintendence                                                                                    527

Misc. expenses                                                                                  2,691

Salary of officers                                                                                   838

Advertising                                                                                           250

Insurance and taxes                                                     350

Freight                                                                                               2,347

Testing                                                                                                  259

Total                                           $111,179

Add for defective castings                    2,241

 

 

 

21. Ibid.; Bush, Notebook; Steel Founders Society of America, Steel Castings

Handbook, 9.

22. On the history of accounting see Chandler, Visible Hand, 278-79; Samuel P.

Garner, The Evolution of Cost Accounting to 1925 (University of Alabama, 1954); H.

Thomas Johnson, "Early Cost Accounting for Internal Management Control," Busi-

ness History Review, 46 (Winter, 1972), 466-75; A.C. Littleton, ed., Studies in the

History of Accounting (Homewood, Il1., 1956).

23. Bush, Notebook.

• 9
 

Scientific Management                                    247

 

As can be seen, Buckeye's superintendent figured both fixed and

variable expenses in his accounting of costs. Buckeye was among

the companies pioneering in the inclusion of indirect and overhead

costs-selling, office, superintendence, and advertising expenses-

as part of its costs of production. Many companies simply ignored

these expenses. In handling depreciation, Buckeye's plant superin-

tendent also took an approach quite advanced for his day. While not

engaging in true capital accounting (few businesses had reached

this level of sophistication), Buckeye's superintendent was figuring

monthly charges for furnace repairs, building repairs, machinery

repairs, and building depreciation as production costs as early as

1903. As he explained his accounting methods in that year:

 

For instance, we produced 18,500 tons of castings from the beginning of

operation to Dec. 31, 1903. Total cost furnace repairs $12,129 = 70¢ per ton

Repairs of buildings about $3,000 = 20¢ per ton

Repairs of machinery about $6,000 = 35¢ per ton

Depreciation of buildings figured at 3% per year.

Buildings are worth $200,000. Depreciation is $5,000 or 35¢ per ton.

Depreciation of machinery is figured at 10% per year. Machinery is worth

$250,000. So depreciation comes to $25,000 or $1.40 per ton.²⁴

 

In their approach to business Buckeye's management adopted the

most modern methods. They experimented with novel melting tech-

niques, laid out their new steel plant in a systematically efficient

manner, and used the most up-to-date accounting methods as a

check on their plant's operations. Buckeye's operations resembled

those of late nineteenth-century Carnegie Steel.²⁵ As at that much

larger corporation, a concern for efficiency and reducing costs

permeated the work of Buckeye's plant superintendents. Although

personalities, personal whims, and luck continued to influence busi-

ness decisions (especially in the realm of small and medium-size

businesses), as the American business system matured, rational

considerations based upon concerns for efficiency and costs came to

play larger roles.

 

THE QUEST FOR COMMUNITY

 

"Labor will never be reasonably contented without a living wage

that is economic; that is a wage that will permit of existence and

 

24. Ibid.

25. On Carnegie Steel see Harold Livesay, Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big

• 10
 

248                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

some reasonable advance in civilization," S.P. Bush, Buckeye's pres-

ident, wrote his company's directors in 1918. "Everyone in a com-

munity," he continued, "must have decent living conditions as well

as facilities for education and recreation, and these the average

industrial community has not supplied."²⁶ To improve this situation

a business, Bush concluded, needed to do two things:

 

First, it should lead and assist in the particular community in which it is

situated, in bringing about a wholesome community condition. Second,

within the confines of its own operation and property it must provide all

those conditions which make for fair dealing, health, efficiency, and a

general outlook on the part of all, of confidence and helpfulness.²⁷

 

In actions that would today be considered highly paternalistic,

Buckeye's officers engaged in a broad range of what was then known

as "welfare work," as they sought to improve labor relations and

take part in community development projects during the first two

decades of the twentieth century.²⁸ The National Civic Federation,

an association of businessmen, labor leaders, and government offi-

cials, offered a commonly accepted definition of welfare work

in 1904.²⁹ Welfare work "involves special consideration for physical

comfort wherever labor is performed; opportunities for recreation;

educational advantages; and the providing of suitable sanitary

homes." Moreover, it includes "plans for saving and lending money,

and provisions for insurance and pension."³⁰ Buckeye became active

in all phases of the welfare work movement. Moreover, Buckeye's

officers widened the definition to include not only their own work-

ers, but society in general.

Certainly, there was room for change, particularly in wages,

hours, and working conditions for laborers in the steel industry. The

hours of work were long. As late as 1920 some 27 percent of the

industry's labor force worked six days per week, 37 percent six days

one week and seven days the next, with the remaining 36 percent

engaged seven days each week. For their twelve-hour shifts workers

received wages which were about average for laborers in manufac-

 

Business (Boston, 1975); Joseph Wall, Andrew Carnegie (New York, 1970).

26. S.P. Bush to R.S. Warner, John Deshler, T.P. Linn, March 6, 1918, in the

Buckeye Collection at the Ohio Historical Society.

27. Ibid.

28. On corporate community involvement see Morrell Heald, The Social Responsi-

bilities of Business: Company and Community, 1900-1960 (Cleveland, 1970).

29. On welfare work in American business see Heald, Social Responsibilities,

chapters 1 and 2; Nelson, Manager and Workers, chapter 6.

30. Nelson, Managers and Workers, 101.

• 11
 

Scientific Management                                             249

 

turing establishments.³¹ In 1910 they received $1.92 per day, a fig-

ure which had risen to $2.22 four years later.32 The annual average

wage for all types of steelworkers came to $697 in 1910, some $46

more than the average for all manufacturing industries in that

year. Despite such innovations as the use of electrically driven

machinery, work in the steel mills and foundries remained hard,

dirty, and dangerous.³³

Buckeye's wages were somewhat better than the average for the

steel industry. In 1898-99 its work force of about 525 men earned an

average annual wage of $528.³⁴ Five years later the company's 417

wage earners average $653, and the corporation's forty-two salaried

employees (exclusive of officers) took home an average of $1154.35

The pay varied with the job. Foremen, of whom there were eight in

1902, received an average of $4.50 per day in that year.36 Below

them were the other positions:

 

Buckeye's Payroll for December 17, 190237

 

Department              Number of Men          Daily Wage

Pattern-making                                       22                                     $2.85

Furnace platform                                   11                                     2.75

Mechanical                                             21                                     2.48

Office                                                     9                                       2.15

Core-making                                           43                                     1.85

Chipping                                                128                                   1.77

Foundry                                                 181                                   1.64

 

 

 

31. United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Wages and

Hours of Labor in the Iron and Steel Industry, 1907 to 1920," Bulletin 305 (Washing-

ton, 1922), 5, 11. The figures for days worked per week are for all occupations at

open-hearth furnaces. The figures for wages are for common (unskilled) workers at

open-hearth furnaces.

32. Ibid.

33. David Brody, Steelworkers in America (New York, 1960), 48, 94. See also the

novel, Thomas Bell, Out of the Furnace (Pittsburgh, 1976).

34. Buckeye Malleable Iron and Coupler Company, Payroll Cashbook, 1898-1899.

35. Buckeye Steel Castings, "Note on Payroll, 1904," Buckeye Collection, Ohio

Historical Society.

36. Bush, Notebook.

37. Ibid. Unfortunately, no such detailed labor or personnel records have survived

for later years, at least not until the 1960s. These wages were probably about the

same or slightly higher than the average for the steel castings industry as a whole. In

1910 a melter averaged $5.00 per day, an assistant melter $4.00, a helper $3.00, and

a laborer $2.00. See Conway, Cast to Shape, 65.

• 12
 

250                                                 OHIO HISTORY

 

Wages rose in later years, particularly during the First World

War, as Buckeye's management sought to keep its workers with the

company. In late 1916 Buckeye's officers, noting that "it was becom-

ing more difficult to obtain the necessary force of men," boosted

wages 10 percent.³⁸ Now employing nearly 2000 men, Buckeye had

become one of Columbus' largest industrial employers. Pressures for

additional wage hikes continued over the next few years, and in

1919 Buckeye's officers granted a general 10-13 percent increase

"on account of the unprecedented high cost of living."³⁹ Buckeye's

wartime experience paralleled that of other steel companies. The

average wages of open-hearth workers across the United States

more than doubled between 1914 and 1919, reaching $4.40 per day.⁴⁰

Working conditions were about the same at Buckeye as elsewhere

in the steel industry. The company operated two twelve-hour shifts,

and changed to the eight-hour day only in 1922.⁴¹ By today's stan-

dards physical plant conditions were primitive. Adequate ventila-

tion was a chronic problem. In 1917 Buckeye spent $12,000 for

foundry ventilation "to give relief to the men working on the fur-

nace platform."⁴² While Buckeye had one of the most modern plants

in the business, it lacked many of the amenities now taken for

granted. Asked about work in the foundry before the First World

War, Albert Stock characterized it as hot, dirty, noisy, and physical-

ly demanding. It was, in short, "awful."⁴³

Buckeye pioneered in the use of safety devices. Photographs of the

plant taken between 1912 and 1919 show drive belts well shielded,

workers wearing safety glasses, and multi-lingual safety bulletins

prominently displayed.⁴⁴ Yet, accidents did occur. In 1915 and 1916

two men were crushed to death on the furnace platform "partly

because of lack of sufficient room between the charging machine

and the north side of the structure."⁴⁵ Stock later recalled that acci-

 

 

38. Buckeye Steel Castings Company, Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of

Directors, Dec. 16, 1916, (hereafter cited as Directors Meeting); Buckeye Steel Cast-

ings Company, Minutes of the Meeting of Executive Committee, Feb. 26 and May 2,

1916, (hereafter cited as Executive Committee Meeting). The Columbus Iron and

Steel Company and the Carnegie Steel Company of Columbus had raised their wages

10 percent a short time before.

39. Buckeye Steel Castings, 1916 pamphlet; Executive Committee Meeting, Nov.

14, 1919; Henry Hunker, Industrial Evolution of Columbus, Ohio (Columbus, 1958),

55.

40. Department of Labor, Bulletin 305, 11. This figure is for unskilled workers.

41. Bush, Notebook.

42. Executive Committee Meeting, March 7, 1917.

43. Stock interview, Oct. 4, 1978.

44. Glass plate negatives of the plant interior.

45. Executive Committee Meeting, Dec. 28, 1916.

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Scientific Management                                      251

 

dents were fairly common. One worker he knew died when caught in

the ropes of a tumbler; another was decapitated when an emory

wheel flew off. In fact, "I expect I could name you twenty killed off'

in industrial accidents, Stock concluded.⁴⁶ From about 1910 on,

Buckeye had a safety officer who followed up on accidents to prevent

their recurrence. For instance, in 1917 the company spent $14,500

to extend the furnace platform five feet to eliminate the cause of

accidents in that area.⁴⁷

Buckeye's involvement in welfare work took many forms, and this

involvement began early. The new steel plant operated a medical

office as early as 1903. Within twelve years this facility had grown

to include an emergency hospital staffed by a company doctor and

nurses. By this time Buckeye had also built modern washrooms and

locker rooms and was running a company kitchen. The corporation

constructed a baseball field on vacant land adjoining the plant, and

sponsored picnics at which, Stock later recalled, "a little beer drink-

ing" took place. Not everyone, however, participated in the picnics

and athletics. After working all week, "the boys," Stock remem-

bered, "were pretty well played out and stayed home." Buckeye's

officers occasionally aided laid-off workers, at a time when there

was, of course, no government unemployment insurance.⁴⁸

Like many corporations, Buckeye broadened the scope of its wel-

fare work during the First World War. In April, 1917, the company

began providing life insurance for all employees who had been with

the company two months or more. Three months later Buckeye's

directors voted to purchase 108 acres of land opposite the steel plant

for $143,000 to provide adequate housing for its employees.⁴⁹ During

the First World War Buckeye's management also began working

closely with the YMCA in sponsoring educational, social, and rec-

reation activities for company employees. Within the plant, minis-

ters addressed monthly meetings in talks "intended to be inspi-

rational and educational." Weekly meetings were also held in the

various departments. Buckeye employees were also encouraged to

sign up for special courses offered by the YMCA in such fields as

mechanical drawing, electricity, and accountancy in order "to ren-

 

 

46. Stock interview, Oct. 4, 1978.

47. Executive Committee Meeting, Dec. 28, 1916.

48. Buckeye Steel Castings Company, 1916 pamphlet; Bush, Notebook; Columbus

Dispatch, Feb. 9, 1948; Directors Meeting, Jan. 30, 1911, Jan. 26, 1915; Executive

Committee Meeting, Dec. 14, 1912; Stock interview, Oct. 4, 1978.

49. Directors Meeting, July 21, 1917; Executive Committee Meeting, April 2,

1917.

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252                                                OHIO HISTORY

 

der greater service to themselves and to humanity.⁵⁰ Two weekly

Bible classes enrolled about thirty employees each, and a music

program led to the formation of bands, orchestras, choruses, and a

horn quartette. A thrift program was set up to spur "the intelligent

conservation of our financial, physical, and mental resources for the

development of fuller, broader, happier, and more efficient lives." In

particular, Buckeye encouraged its employees to buy homes "in good

old Columbus town."⁵¹

The social and athletic programs probably interested the greatest

number of employees. Buckeye fielded teams in baseball, basket-

ball, volleyball, bowling, trap shooting, horseshoe pitching, tennis,

and track for competition in the YMCA league. The social program

was also extensive. Four major social gatherings took place in 1919-

20. Typical was an intershop picnic attended by 700 employees at

Indianola Park on August 16, 1919. Athletic contests, including the

100 yard dash and "a watermelon race," took place; bands played;

and the employees feasted on box lunches. A few months later some

275 employees braved "fog and rain" to take part in "an enjoyable

evening of music readings, moving pictures, and refreshments" at

Washington Park.⁵²

Buckeye's officers took up welfare work for a variety of reasons.

Many had a genuine desire to improve the working and living condi-

tions of their employees for humanitarian reasons. Most notable in

this respect was S.P. Bush. However, Buckeye's management also

viewed welfare work as good business. In particular, they hoped

that improved working and living conditions would lessen the turn-

over rate at their steel plant and, thus, decrease costs of production.

Buckeye's directors set up a life insurance program for their em-

ployees "to encourage the men to work more steadily" and to "pro-

mote loyal cooperation."⁵³ Similarly, Buckeye's officers bought the

land for new housing because, as Bush put it, "Housing facilities

must be provided near the plant if the Company is to have a satisfac-

tory force of employees."⁵⁴ Finally, Bush and other Buckeye officials

believed they had a duty to insure that their employees would be

 

 

50. Buckeye Steel Castings Company, Industrial YMCA Activities, 1918-1920,

pamphlet, 3, 16-17. Other courses were: blue print reading, shop mathematics, steam

engineering, automobile, welding, chemistry, business English, salesmanship and

English for Coming Americans.

51. Ibid., 14-15, 18-19, 21-22.

52. Ibid., 4-12.

53. Executive Committee Meeting, April 2, 1917.

54. Directors Meeting, July 21, 1917.

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Scientific Management                                       253

 

loyal, patriotic Americans imbued with middle-class citizenship

values.

This last concern was related to the changing nature of Buckeye's

labor force. Fragmentary evidence suggests that the company's

workforce was composed almost wholly of native white Americans

in the 1890s, which is not surprising since the overall population of

Columbus was 90 percent native-born white in 1900. (Blacks made

up only 7 percent of the total population, and few were employed in

manufacturing.)⁵⁵ This situation changed dramatically over the

next two decades. Increasing numbers of immigrants and blacks

moved to Columbus, and many of these newcomers were employed

in manufacturing concerns. Blacks, in particular, came to Columbus

in the war years. During the First World War "a movement," noted

the secretary of the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, a Columbus-

based trade association formed in 1910, was "started in the state

providing for the distribution, housing, and employment of Negro

laborers coming from other sections of the country."⁵⁶ Buckeye took

part in this campaign. As Stock observed, "some of the guys went

down South trying to get Negroes."⁵⁷ This effort succeeded. By 1919

Buckeye had at least 150 black employees, 7.5 percent of its total

workforce. The proportion of immigrants at Buckeye also rose, as

Hungarians, Poles, Greeks and others joined the company's employ.

In 1918 some 10-20 percent of Buckeye's workers were of foreign

birth.⁵⁸

Like some other manufacturing concerns around the United

States, Buckeye undertook what was known as "Americanization

work" among the foreign-born employees.⁵⁹ "A systematic effort was

made," noted Buckeye's officers, "to encourage them [immigrants]

to attend night school, to take out naturalization papers, and to

adopt American ideals and customs." Each Fourth of July the com-

pany held elaborate public celebrations to honor those employees

who had become citizens during the past year.⁶⁰ Buckeye also main-

 

55. Buckeye, Payroll Cashbook, 1898-1899; Hunker, Industrial Evolution of Co-

lumbus, 41.

56. Ohio Manufacturers' Association (hereafter abbreviated as OMA), Minutes of

Executive Committee Meeting, July 11, 1917, in OMA archives, Columbus, Ohio. See

also William Kaufman, The Neighbors of the South Side Settlement (Columbus,

1943), 40.

57. Stock interview, Oct. 4, 1978.

58. Buckeye, Industrial YMCA Activities, 13, 20.

59. On Americanization work in the United States, see Edward Hartmann, The

Movement to Americanize the Immigrant (New York, 1967); Gerd Korman, Indus-

trialization: Immigrants and Americanizers (Madison, Wis., 1967).

60. Buckeye, Industrial YMCA Activities, 13.

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254                                       OHIO HISTORY

tained a special program of activities for its black employees. A savings club, musical organizations, and Bible study groups all grew up. Shop and intershop socials were well attended. One held in Glenmary Park in 1919 attracted 150 black workers from Buckeye "in spite of the inclement weather." Blacks joined other Buckeye employees on some of the athletic teams representing their company in the YMCA league (something quite unusual at a time when segregation was common in the United States), but they also formed their own all-black teams in baseball, basketball, volleyball, and track for intershop contests.61 Buckeye's officers carried their paternal concern for their workers over into a somewhat similar interest in the social and economic development of Columbus as a whole. Buckeye's officers played ac- tive roles in the development of Columbus' philanthropic organiza- tons, both in terms of leadership and financial support. They also took part in the formation of local business groups designed to spur their city's growth. Columbus expanded rapidly in the early twentieth century, as its   61. Ibid., 20-21.

• 17
 

Scientific Management                                    255

 

population soared from 126,000 to 237,000 in the twenty years after

1900. Industrial growth lay behind much of this population in-

crease. By 1914 the city had some 800 manufacturing plants em-

ploying 35,000 workers, and it had risen to fortieth place among the

industrial cities of the United States.⁶²

With growth came signs of modernity. As one writer has recently

described the transformation of Columbus in the early 1900s, "the

village cocoon had burst wide open, revealing a small metropolis."⁶³

Because of electrically illuminated arches which crossed above

downtown streets, Columbus became known locally as the "Arch

City." Though streets remained uncrowded by today's standards

(traffic policemen regulated the flow of vehicles and pedestrians on

downtown streets by turning large umbrellas lettered with "Stop"

and "Go" on their sides), enough traffic developed to support a gaso-

line filling station at the corner of Oak and Young streets by 1913.

New buildings seemed to spring up overnight. In 1915, for instance,

the old Deshler Block at the intersections of Broad and High Streets

was torn down to make room for the construction of the new Deshler

Hotel.⁶⁴

There was, however, a darker side to this picture, for social prob-

lems accompanied the development of Columbus. Social services-

garbage collection, street repairs, the provision of water and sewer

mains-failed to keep pace with the city's growth. Still more gall-

ing, and perhaps more frightening, to Columbus business leaders

was the discovery that poverty existed in their city.

In the nineteenth century most Americans viewed poverty as the

result of the individual moral failings of those afflicted, not as the

result of structural problems or inequities in society. The solution to

the problem of poverty lay, then, in individual giving and charity to

the "deserving poor," those whose poverty came about through some

accident beyond their control and those who, with a little help,

might be expected to become self-supporting again. Philanthropy

became more highly organized in the opening years of the twentieth

century, reflecting the growing complexity and organization of the

businesses upon which it was coming to depend for financial sup-

port. And, as the problems of industrialization and urbanization

became better understood, a growing number of people traced the

origins of poverty to social rather than moral problems. Giving by

 

62. Hunker, Industrial Evolution of Columbus, 51-56.

63. George E. Condon, Yesterday's Columbus: A Pictorial History of Ohio's Capital

(Miami, Florida, 1977), 52.

64. Ibid., 74, 83, 85.

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256                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

organizations, particularly businesses, came to replace the earlier

contributions from individuals as time progressed.65 Columbus busi-

ness and professional men sought to place charitable giving on what

they viewed as a sound, efficient, business basis with the formation

of the Association Charities of Columbus in 1900.They set up this

organization:

 

To unite and harmonize all the charitable organizations of Columbus; to

reduce vagrancy and pauperism and ascertain their causes; to prevent in-

discriminate and duplicate giving; to secure the community against impos-

ture; to see that all deserving cases of destitution are properly relieved; to

assist all applicants in obtaining employment and to make employment, as

far as possible, the basis of relief.⁶⁶

 

Many of those associated with Buckeye took part in the early

activities of the Associated Charities, and the corporation began

contributing directly to the organization in 1911. The Associated

Charities, in turn, distributed its funds to hospitals, children's

homes, dispensaries, and other charitable organizations, including

the Municipal Potato Patch Committee, throughout Columbus.⁶⁷

Buckeye began making other corporate philanthropic contribu-

tions in the early 1900s. In 1907 the company's directors approved

"appropriations for charitable purposes" suggested by Bush. Five

years later the company initiated a long-standing relationship with

the South Side Settlement House by donating $500 for its construc-

tion on Reeb Avenue. Buckeye's giving picked up during the war

years. The Children's Hospital received $1000 in 1916, the Knights

of Columbus $3000 and the Salvation Army $2000 in 1919, and the

Boy Scouts $500 in 1920. By 1921 Buckeye's officers had placed

their corporation's contributions on a more systematic basis, giving

$12,840 for "various education, semi-educational, charitable, reli-

gious, and semi-religious funds, objects, and institutions" through

donations to the Associated Charities.⁶⁸

The YMCA was a particular beneficiary of Buckeye gifts.

Embodying ideals of Christianity, education, and self-help, the

 

 

65. Heald, Social Responsibilities, chapters 1-2.

66. "First Annual Report of the Associated Charities of Columbus, 1900." This

report reprints the "Constitution of the Associated Charities of Columbus" and is

available at the Ohio Historical Society.

67. Associated Charities of Columbus, "Annual Reports, 1900, 1903, 1911-12," at

the Ohio Historical Society.

68. Directors Meeting, Oct. 25, 1907, April 24, 1919; Executive Committee Meet-

ing, Dec. 14, 1912, March 25, 1916, May 17, 1919, April 20, 1920; Buckeye Steel

Castings Company, Minutes of Annual Meeting of Stockholders, Jan. 31, 1922.

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Scientific Management                                      257

 

organization was, as has been noted, directly involved in a broad

range of activities for Buckeye employees. Between 1916 and 1921

Buckeye contributed $20,000 to the YMCA and the YWCA. The

company also supplied the site and building for the South Side In-

dustrial YMCA.⁶⁹

Buckeye's officers were also active in city boosterism and the

work of business organizations. Bush, in particular, was especially

energetic. He helped reorganize the Columbus Chamber of Com-

merce in 1908 and was a charter member of the United States

Chamber of Commerce. A member of the executive committee of the

National Association of Manufacturers, Bush was, however, best

known for his work as head of the Ohio Manufacturers'

Association.⁷⁰ Formed in 1910, the Ohio Manufacturers' Association

was set up "to promote the general welfare of the productive indus-

tries in the State of Ohio" and "to oppose propositions that would

tend to restrain such development."⁷¹ Bush served as the body's

second president during the years 1913 and 1914 and remained

active in later times.

Bush was particularly important in the fight for Ohio's work-

men's compensaton laws, a major concern of the Ohio Manufactur-

ers' Association. In 1911 the association concluded that Ohio's

voluntary measure, just passed, was "probably the best law on the

subject in the United States today" and urged employers to give it

"hearty support." Relatively few did, however, and because of their

recalcitrance, the voluntary approach, as association members

agreed a year later, was "well nigh a failure." Only with the passage

of compulsory legislation were many association members satisfied.

Bush found praise for the Industrial Commission set up to oversee

the operation of the law for "endeavoring to administer the law

efficiently and with fairness to all."⁷²

 

CONCLUSION

 

In their pursuit of scientific management and their sponsorship of

welfare work, Buckeye's officers were successful. Their steel found-

 

 

69. Executive Committee Meeting, Nov. 21, 1916, March 25, 1919, April 20 and

July 6, 1920, April 30, 1921.

70. Columbus Citizen, Feb. 9, 1948; Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 9, 1948.

71. "Constitution, OMA, adopted Nov. 10, 1910," OMA archives.

72. OMA, Minutes of Annual Meetings, Nov. 10, 1911, Nov. 19, 1912, Dec. 3, 1914,

OMA archives.

• 20
 

258                                            OHIO HISTORY

 

ry was one of the most efficient in the industry, and it was free of

labor disputes.

Underlying the work of Buckeye's management was a vision of a

harmonious society. As was true of many political, business, and

labor leaders during the Progessive Era, Buckeye's management

yearned for a society functioning smoothly without any friction or

discord. They wanted the efficiency of their foundry to be replicated

in the society around it. This desire was most apparent in S.P.

Bush's thoughts and actions. He wanted labor and management to

work together in mutual harmony for the benefit of both. "In a

general way, labor discontent has grown," he once wrote, "out of the

competitive system, which, when carried to extremes as it has been

in this country, as well as in other countries, results in disaster to

every interest whether employer or employee.⁷³

More than the officers of most companies, Buckeye's management

tried to change this situation. Precisely because their company was

a medium-size venture with strong ties to one locality, rather than a

national giant with offices and plants scattered across the United

States, Buckeye's management became intimately involved in wel-

fare work. A favorable social environment would, they thought, aid

them in the quest of their business goals. They had no doubts about

these goals. "It is fundamental," Bush wrote his fellow officers at

Buckeye, "that those of superior intelligence, generally designated

as leaders, will have to lead in any movement looking to an

improvement."⁷⁴ With a certainty now lost, Buckeye's management

equated the progress of their business with that of society as a

whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

73. Bush to Deshler, Linn, Warner.

74. Ibid.

• 21