While the film refers to “business” the location of the story is the Postal Service, at the central sorting station at the foot of Bay Street in Toronto. Conveyors are featured assisting the sorting and movement of mail, with the employees working to the pace of the conveyors. The implication is that this technology might have broader applications in other types of work. Just a few years later the postal workers featured in the film were on strike.

“Speeding Up Your Business”, 1922, film, 3 minutes, 36 seconds, Graphic Consultants Collection, accession number 1972-0105, item number ISN 185315, Library and Archives Canada.

Film editing by David Sobel. Music by Allen Booth

Further Discussion

“Test of Strength Faces P.O. Heads and Strikers.” Toronto Daily Star, 20 June 1924, p. 3.

Lowe, Graham. "Class, Job, and Gender in the Canadian Office." Labour/Le Travail, vol. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 11-37.

Baxter, V.K. "Class Conflict and Postal Reorganization." Labor and Politics in the U.S. Postal Service, edited by Rosemary Feurer and Chad Pearson, Springer Studies in Work and Industry, Springer, 1994.

Antaya, Sean. "At War with the Machine: Canadian Workers’ Resistance to Taylorism in the Early 20th Century." The Great Lakes Journal of Undergraduate History, vol. 3, no. 1, 2015, Article 3.