made up of ninety millions of individuals, and it can be made strong and noble only as they are strong and noble. No sound house can be made of unsound timber. No honest country can be made of dishonest individuals. We are constantly tempted to put too much emphasis on methods and too little on character. The saying of Stevenson, which we quote from memory, not with verbal accuracy, is worth constantly recalling: There is but one person whom it is my duty to make good myself. My duty toward the rest of mankind is rather to make them happy." 66 What can I do to make the Government honest? One thing I can do is to treat the Government with honesty-not cheat the tax collector or the CustomHouse. What can I do to put an end to this detestable graft? One thing I can do is neither to pay it nor to receive it. What can I do to purify politics? One thing One thing I can do is to vote for the public welfarenot for any private interest. Moral reform, like charity, begins at home. One way to make the next year the best year that America has ever seen is for each individual to make his own year the best in character that he has ever lived. That is a very simple recipe; but it is as radical and as far-reaching as it is simple. THE LONG VIEW OF LIFE A young man gets a position in a business of some kind, and secures his opportunity, which is all he has a right to ask for. There are two ways in which he can deal with it: He can do his work honestly day by day for his wages at the end of the week, filling up exactly the measure of work assigned to him. This will make him a trustworthy employee, who can be counted on to do conscientiously what he is told to do; he becomes a good soldier in the army of workers. Or (and this is the turning-point in his career) he can fill the measure to overflowing, pouring all his intelligence and energy into it, without much thought of the amount he is to be paid. If he chooses this way, he presently gets out of the ranks and becomes a leader, a captain in the army of workers. He may be satisfied with doing well what falls to him each day, or he may push on by mastering the details of his business, making himself familiar with every part of it, and fitting himself for steady advancement by keeping ahead of the work required of him. Most men are content with what comes to them, and remain employees; a few make themselves masters of the secrets, methods, and conditions of their business and become employers. A man fixes his place in life by the amount of time and work he is willing to put into preparation for larger tasks and greater responsibilities. In this country few young men need to be urged to work harder; for work already fills an immoderate and excessive portion of the time of most Americans. But young men and older men in this country need to be urged to plan their work on longer lines and to do it with greater intelligence. One of the most interesting directions which scientific experiment is taking to-day is that of intensive farming; this means, not adding acre to acre, but doubling and quadrupling the yielding capacity of the acres under cultivation. And this is supplemented in the business world, especially in the great industries, by the scientific management of business, the end of which is, by more intelligent methods of work, to reduce the labor and at the same time greatly increase production. These two principles every young man ought to study: how, without additional work, he can get more effective work out of himself; how, without the expenditure of increased force, he can make himself more fruitful. The vital defect of the young man who plans his work for the day instead of for the decade is that he works like an arti• san instead of like an artist; he does what is set before him and obeys orders instead of looking ahead and making himself an expert. He does not apply ideas to his work, but pursues it in routine fashion, without individuality of method. The problem which the young man who is to be successful, not only in the practical but in the fuller and nobler sense of the term, must face, is to reduce the expenditure of physical and nervous strain while increasing his productivity and bringing out of himself the finer fruits which scientific methods have developed. There is an enormous undeveloped force in the human race that some day, by more thor ough training and more intelligent use of faculties, will be at the service of humanity. As we are now drawing energy from the air and the earth to do the work and carry the burdens of humanity, so some day we shall draw from the unused and ill-directed capacity of men a finer and greater efficiency. The end of life is not to toil like a slave, but to work like a free man, with a vision of what one means to do with one's life, with intelligence of method, with concentration of power. THE SOURCE OF MORAL AUTHORITY A correspondent, on another page, gives to our readers his idea of the way in which the Moral Law was communicated to men. His view may be summarized in a sentence thus: God gave it to Adam, Adam gave it to Methuselah, Methuselah gave it to Noah, Noah gave it to Abraham, Abraham gave it to Moses, and Moses gave it to the rest of us. According to this view, we have to go back four thousand years to get the first publishing of the Law, and an indefinite number of years prior to that time to get the first giving of the Law. Our correspondent seems to think that this view gives the Law direct authority. We think it requires us to travel a long way back to get to the Law, and still further back to get to God. We hold a very different view. We agree with the author of the Book of Deuteronomy: For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. Our correspondent goes not only across the sea to bring us the Law, but across many centuries. We believe that the Law is very nigh unto us— -in the hearts of men, that they may do it. The The law of gravitation is written in the nature of material things. Isaac Newton did not give the law; he found it. laws of health are written in man's constitution; they are not given by the treatise on physiology, they are simply interpreted by that treatise. The Moral Law is written in the constitution of man. Moses is not, properly speaking, a lawgiver, he is an interpreter of the law previously written, as Paul says, "in the hearts of men." When the Decalogue says, Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, it simply interprets the laws of the social order; it simply means that men are so constituted that if they are to live happily and peacefully together, they must obey these laws. Much as the doctor means when he says to his patient, You must not smoke, or, You must take more exercise; he means that you are so constituted that if you are to have a healthy life you must forego the smoking, and you must take up the exercise. The law, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, simply means: This is your constitution; you are made for love; not to love is to be unnatural; to love is to be in accordance with your own nature. You and God are made for one another; you have sprung from him; you can walk in fellowship with him; if you understand him aright and understand yourself aright, you will be knitted to him indissolubly by a great love. We do not, therefore, go back four thousand years to Mount Sinai, nor, an indefinite number of years prior to Mount Sinai, to Adam. We do not go back at all. We look into our heart and our conscience, and we look into the hearts and consciences of our fellow-men, and we there see written in invisible ink-but ink that nothing can erase-the laws of right and wrong. The authority of that law is in the spirit of man because God is in the spirit of man, and the Bible is an authority because, and only because, it is an expression of the experiences of men who recognized this law and interpreted it; who saw this God, who is the Lawgiver, and were obedient to him, and loved him, and lived with him. C BY ERNEST HAMLIN ABBOTT A few weeks ago Mr. Louis D. Brandeis startled the country by declaring at a hearing on railway rates before the Inter-State Commerce Commission that it would be possible for the railways of the country to make a saving estimated at a million dollars a day. Mr. Brandeis's statement was received with incredulity by many and with ridicule by some. A group of Western railways offered him any salary which he might name if he would undertake their management and bring about the saving which he had declared possible. Mr. Brandeis's assertion was so astounding that it sounded like the talk of a visionary with a patent panacea. But he based his assertion, not upon some quack nostrum, but upon scientific principles which he had seen applied in other industries with marvelous results. In the following article are set forth those principles of scientific management, and some of the benefits to the capitalist, the laborer, and the consumer which have actually been accomplished by their application.-THE EDITORS. "But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected. "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master-that's all." Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper, some of them-particularly verbs, company manufacturing machinery, was a few years ago struggling with an annual deficit. Now it is carrying on a business which is highly profitable. It has doubled its output. What has made the difference? It has not installed any new machinery, except for some minor changes. It has not enlarged its plant, except for they're the proudest-adjectives you can do anything devoting more floor area for storage. with, but not verbs. However, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say "Would you tell me, please," said Alice, "what that means?" "Now you talk like reasonable child," said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. I meant by impenetrability that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life." "That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said, in a thoughtful tone. It has not increased its force of workmen ; on the contrary, it is putting out its increased product with a force of men on the whole smaller than that which it formerly employed. It has not made its saving by reducing the wages of the men; on the contrary, it has increased those wages over the former scale by at least twenty-five to forty per cent. It has not "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," brought this change about by dismissing said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra." -Through the Looking-Glass. UMPTY DUMPTY was evidently Whether it is a football team or a college faculty, a shoe factory or a railway, a machine-shop or a hotel, every body of men engaged in a common task requires management. There are, however, two kinds of management, the old and the new. Humpty Dumpty would fit in well with the traditional methods and the traditional attitude adopted by many successful managers of the past. In recent years, however, a number of concerns have abandoned the traditional methods and the traditional attitude. They have done so because, frankly, they have found that it has paid to do so. concern in Philadelphia, for example, a One its former employees and engaging a new and better lot of men; on the contrary, of its present force a large majority were in its employ at the time of its depression. It has not raised to the consumer the price of its product; on the contrary, it is charging less for its product than it formerly did. Other concerns, large and small, engaged in many kinds of productive activity, have similar stories to tell. This is something that concerns us all. It is not merely of interest to those engaged in business. It is of concern to us whose financial operations seem to consist mainly in paying the butcher, the grocer, the tailor, and other creators of the cost of living. If there is any way by which production can be increased, so that there will be more flour, more clothes, more building materials, more of all sorts of necessities, and at the same time the great mass of the people who produce these things shall have more money to buy them with, we shall not be worried any longer by the rising cost of living. If at the same time a manufacturer can be surer of his profits, and the wage-earner finds his work less of a strain, we shall get our benefits at a cost to no class except those who thrive on trouble. If there is something that will bring us these benefits, we ought to know about it. What has made this difference in the concerns to which I have referred has been simply a revolutionary change in management. to The problem of management is to secure the best results of the whole body by securing at once the efficiency of each individual and the working together of all the individuals with each other. Some men seem to be born managers. The traditional method by which those responsible for a concern attempt to make the management of that concern effective is to find one of these born managers and put him in authority, and to supply him with subordinate bosses who, like him, have, but in lesser degree, the managerial instinct. Such men having been selected, they undertake to get the best possible work out of the workers. How they do this depends partly on the bosses and partly on the bossed. Some born managers have the power to drive, others have the power to lead. For a section gang on a railway a man is chosen as boss usually because he is a good driver. He walks around among the men and sees that they work with their picks and shovels about as well as they know how. In a force of workers who are of a higher type mentally, on the other hand, as, for example, in a machine-shop, the man who, while exercising authority, also encourages the workers to make suggestions and try to improve on familiar methods of work is regarded as especially fit for his task. If by intimidation or tact he prevents friction, or by an abundance of good fellowship in himself he spreads among the workers a spirit of co-operation, he is unusually successful. There are certain constant difficulties thus encountered in the management of men. In the first place, efficiency depends so greatly upon the personal equation that a change from one manager to another is sometimes fatal. In the second place, there is a continual condition of unstable equilibrium because the natural interest of the worker is to do as little work as he can without losing his recompense or forfeiting advancement, while it is the natural interest of the management to get as much work as possible out of the workers without increasing their recompense or foregoing the chance, when it comes, of reducing it. In the third place, the workers, as a whole, know more about their work and the right way to do it than the manager does, and are therefore in a position to seem to be accomplishing more than they really are. In the fourth place, the manager has such a number of details to look after that when something of apparently minor importance goes wrong he cannot afford to give his time to attend to it, and the worker must deal with it as best he can, although it may involve some one else over whom he may have no authority or concerning whose work he has no knowledge. In such a case the manager is entirely right in ignoring a minor matter in order to give his attention to a more important matter, in spite of the fact that the total effect of all the minor defects may be greater than the total effect of all the greater defects. To overcome these difficulties many devices have been proposed. Instead of paying workers so much a day, many concerns pay them according to the amount of work each does. If a worker does more than his fellow, he gets more. He gets so much for every ton of coal he shovels, or every piece be turns out at his machine, or every coat he finishes. This is Humpty Dumpty's method. This acts. as an incentive to the worker to work as hard and as fast as he knows how. The workers in most industries, however, have come to the conclusion that this device is not for their benefit. It sets a pace that results in fatigue and in ultimate injury; and, moreover, it usually results in an ultimate reduction in wages, since the pacemaker tends to set the standard for a day's work, and everybody else finds that at the end of a day he has fallen behind, and, consequently, does not get even a day's wage. Then there are many devices for reports, for time-checks, for accounts of stock, for daily cash balances, for inspectors, and "spotters," and spies. spotters," and spies. These, however, all tend to bring into the open the latent hostility between the workers and the managers, and render ineffective every effort to utilize tact and encourage good fellowship. In some concerns, whose directors are far-sighted men, there are systems of profit-sharing. These, admirable as they are in enlisting the loyalty of men to the concern of which they are made partners, do not, however, remove the chief difficulties of management. All such devices-whether good or bad-are based on the assumption that the workers themselves know how to do their work in the best way, and that what is needed is an incentive to induce them to do their best. It is as if in the human body the brain for the toe were in the toe, the brain for the elbow were in the elbow, the brain for the arm, the hand, the knee, were respectively in the arm, the hand, and the knee; and as if the duty of the brain in the skull were ended by giving directions to the different members as to what they should do, and trying to get them to think out for themselves how and when to do it. As a matter of fact, the human body (however it may be with the body of the jellyfish) is organized on a different principle. The brain for the toe, the elbow, the arm, the hand, the knee, is all in the skull, with subordinate nerve ganglia at various centers charged with the duty of carrying out its orders. Under this arrangement the toe, the elbow, the arm, and every other member of the body is relieved of the duty of trying to plan its own functions. If the toe encounters any trouble-too great cold, for instance-it is not left to find a remedy for itself; it at once notifies the brain, and the brain knows just what to do under the circumstances. In this way every member of the body has the planning department of the body at its instant service. The one brain is the servant of all. Under this arrangement the feet of the runner, the arm of the baseball pitcher, the fingers of the artist or the pianist, the throat of the orator or the singer, become highly skilled. If some organ of the body gets out of order, all the members, of course, suffer; but the planning department immediately gives the matter its attention, and, if it cannot restore normal conditions, it calls in an expert. The responsibility is concentrated where the knowledge is. That, in brief, is the difference between Humpty Dumpty management and scientific management. Let us see what this difference means when applied to a machine-shop. Here, let us say, is a factory which makes cylinders of all kinds. Under Humpty Dumpty management, the order goes forth from the president's office that a dozen cylinders of a certain size are to be manufactured. The foremen announce the order, and the mechanics go after the tools and the material. Then the foremen and the mechanics stand around in groups, and with measures and dividers decide what size the different parts shall be, what holes shall be bored, and what bolts shall be used. Each mechanic is encouraged to make suggestions; and every one who shows ingenuity is rewarded in some way. Finally, when, after much discussion and interchange of opinion based on experience, a design or set of designs is decided upon, the work begins. Each mechanic decides how to set his lathe, what feed to use, and on what cone he shall slide the belt. All set to work. Over each group of mechanics is a boss who watches them to see that no one shirks. He has watched men before, and has an idea as to what constitutes a day's work. If the men do not work as fast as he thinks they ought, he calls them to account, and threatens discipline. No shop is managed exactly on that plan, because no one really believes thoroughly in Humpty Dumpty management. Practically every shop has a designing-room. Why? Because it is perfectly plain that highly trained mechanical engineers know more about the designing of machines than mechanics do. So every shop has at least a rudimentary planning department. This department plans exactly what shall be made. The plans are based on the results of scientific experiment. A vast amount of time has been spent in testing the strength of metals, in calculating the effect of strains, in watching the results of chemical combinations. From |