Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....English, Charles W. 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 11, 2010, 12:59 am

Source: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
Author: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 278 - 279

     CHARLES W. ENGLISH.  One of the most forward-looking and effective means 
ever developed for bringing about more complete utilization of factory or shop 
labor is that provided by the Chas. E. Bedaux Companies, an organization of 
engineers whose work is coordinated and controlled by International Bedaux 
Company, Incorporated, of New York. Operations in the United States are 
carried on by three companies, and one of these, The Chas. E. Bedaux Company 
of Pacific States, Inc., has its main office in Portland. Charles W. English, 
of Portland, is president.

     The Bedaux engineers specialize in labor measurement and control as means 
of eliminating waste, increasing costs and increasing production and wages. 
All tasks are evaluated as to the amount of effort required to perform them, 
and the activities of individuals, departments, or plants are then measured in 
terms of human energy expended. Unutilized or misdirected effort is disclosed 
by the difference between actual output and measured capacity to produce, and 
this wasted effort is directed into productive channels.

     A fair day's work, alike to all, is definitely fixed as a given amount of 
effort. A fair day's wage for this fair day's work, with additional pay for 
additional work, assures compensation to the employee in true relation to his 
efforts. The employer, on the other hand, is assured a definite amount of work 
in return for the wages paid.

     Supervision and indirect labor are likewise measured, controlled and 
rewarded on the basis of results obtained in improving quality, increasing 
production, and eliminating wastes and losses. The tie between supervision, 
reward and performance of labor creates an effective and healthy cooperation 
through community of interests.

     All labor is measured in terms of the same unit, and this permits 
effective control to be established simply and rapidly. Comparison between 
actual costs and the correct costs, represented by the true money value of the 
effort involved, discloses losses which are specifically accounted for and 
subsequently eliminated.

     In the practical application of the foregoing principles, the Bedaux 
engineers adapt their method of measurement control and wage incentive to 
conditions as they find them within the particular manufacturing plant. The 
Bedaux engineer in charge works in cooperation with the local organization to 
educate labor and supervision alike in the elimination of waste, increase in 
production, and subsequently in earnings, through everyday use of the 
measurement and control provided. Members of the manufacturer's organization 
are trained to carry on the work and are given instruction in all details 
necessary to assure permanent and continued benefits from Bedaux control and 
incentive after the engineer has introduced the basic methods to be followed.

     The Bedaux organization does not concern itself with manufacturing 
methods and equipment, but measures the extent to which labor is utilized in 
connection with existing facilities. No attempt is made to standardize 
operations or to improve methods, though Bedaux measurement frequently 
discloses losses due to the character or arrangement of the equipment and 
points the way directly to improvements.

     As observed in operation, the wide success of the Bedaux methods appears 
attributable, in a large measure, to the means provided for promptly and 
definitely discovering all losses in human power, and to the effectiveness of 
the subsequent control, coupled with a sound and protective wage incentive, in 
bringing about the realization of the full productive capacity of the labor 
employed.

     Industrial concerns have long been able to buy their material, equipment 
and power on a definite basis of cost, but heretofore they have not been able 
to accurately measure the human element, and subsequently use it to the best 
economic advantage.

     The results of Bedaux applications in a great many plants in different 
industries have been an average increase in production of 44 per cent, 
accompanied by an average reduction in factory labor costs of 20 per cent, and 
an average increase in wages of fifteen per cent. Bedaux methods are in active 
operation in several hundred plants in this country, and have been installed 
in some twenty-five leading plants on the Pacific Coast in the last three and 
a half years.

     The Chas. E. Bedaux Company of Pacific States has a present staff of ten 
engineers, technically trained men experienced in general industrial work, and 
trained in the practical application of Bedaux principles.

     Charles W. English is a native of Michigan and a son of Walter and Emma 
English. He was reared in Grand Rapids, where he completed the course of the 
public and high schools, after which he entered the University of Michigan, 
majoring in mechanical engineering. In 1920 he met Mr. Bedaux and identified 
himself with the Bedaux organization. For several years Mr. English was 
connected with the New England division, where he installed Bedaux methods in 
a number of leading manufacturing plants, until in 1924, he came to Portland 
as president of The Chas. E. Bedaux Company of Pacific States. This 
organization has done effective work in papermills, sawmills, canning and 
packing plants, as well as textile, rubber and furniture factories, and Mr. 
English estimates that about sixty per cent of new business comes through 
their satisfied clients.

     In 1915, in Portland, Mr. English was united in marriage to Miss Ruth M. 
Patton, and they are the parents of a daughter, Lucile E. Mr. English is a 
member of the Waverly Country Club, the Advertising Club, the Royal Rosarians 
and the Chamber of Commerce. He is performing a real service to the 
manufacturers who become his clients, and he and his organization are playing 
a definite part in the industrial development of the northwest. All who have 
come into contact with Mr. English are favorably impressed with his 
earnestness of purpose, his high ideals, and his integrity of character, and 
the has made a host of warm friends since coming to Portland.

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