66

Oh, I don't know," was his reply. "Things look pretty good to me as they are. I might as well stand pat and jog along the old way."

Another advertising' man in the same city contemptuously and somewhat profanely declared that he had never received, and never expected to receive, any help from psychologists. He concluded by asking:

What the mischief does a psychologist know about business, anyhow?"

He had missed the point completely. It is not that the psychologist claims to be a business man, but that he claims to possess, and does possess, methods for studying human nature, its motives, its likes and its dislikes, with an exactness and ease impossible to the business man, who must, at that, be a pretty good student of men himself in order to be successful. Moreover, by his expert knowledge the psychologist is able to save the business man from making costly mistakes-such as investing a large sum of money in an advertising campaign along lines that . violate psychological laws, and hence are foredoomed to failure. By enlisting the aid of the psychologist and submitting proposed advertisements to him for criticism and revision a heavy and sometimes disastrous loss might be averted.

This is precisely what not a few American advertisers are doing to-day, and what they are likely to do in increasing numbers. Psychologists of such standing as Professors Scott and Münsterberg are frequently called upon to test specific advertisements, sent to them by progress ive manufacturers and dealers for the purpose of determining in advance of publication the probable suggestive value of their wording and general appear

ance.

Even such a seemingly trivial matter as the kind of type used may be fatal to an advertisement's effectiveness. If it is to be illustrated, much will depend on the character of the illustration, which, if unwisely chosen, is sure to suggest to the mind of the prospective customer ideas altogether different from the ideas the advertiser wishes to convey. Special attention has to be paid to the position and comparative conspicuousness of the various textual elements-the name of

the commodity, its description, the seller's name and address, etc. Concerning these and all similar problems the psychologist is in a position to give valuable advice, because of the special knowledge he has gained through his scientific study of mental operations in the individual and in the race.

In the selling of merchandise across the counter or "on the road" the business man can also profit greatly by utiliz ing the results of psychological research as an aid in increasing his power to make sales. Indeed, it is not too much to say that every salesman who would really master his vocation should study psychology as earnestly as he studies the goods he is trying to sell. In order to sell them it obviously is necessary for him to induce a favorable mood in those whom he approaches, and, while many men seem to know instinctively how to do this or have learned in the hard school of experience how to do it, there can be no doubt that even the most expert salesman would find his efficiency, and consequently his earning capacity, considerably enlarged by a careful study of, for example, the psychology of suggestion.

To many people the word “ suggestion" has a sinister meaning, and implies some uncanny, occult force applicable only under abnormal conditions, as when a person is hypnotized or is mentally weakened by disease. In reality there is nothing supernatural about it; it is a fact of universal occurrence, and it is applicable to everybody. By suggestion is meant nothing more than the implanting of an idea into the mind so skillfully that it disarms opposing ideas and tends to realize itself in action. Every salesman is striving to do this very thing. It is his object, above all else, to carry conviction with regard to the goods he offers, to inspire a belief that their purchase is desirable, and to transform that belief into an actual purchase. Only in so far as he is able to do this is he a successful salesman.

Now, during recent years some of the foremost psychologists of this country and abroad have been conducting exhaustive experiments to ascertain the factors of suggestibility-the principles by which ideas may be most readily and effectively

conveyed with suggestive force from one mind to another. The result of their efforts has been the accumulation of a great variety of data and the formulation of some definite laws, knowledge of which is of extreme importance to salesmen. No matter how confident a man may be that he already knows all there is to be learned with regard to handling other people and my personal investigations have satisfied me that many salesmen, like many advertising men, feel that they stand in no need of outside and "academic" assistance—there is no one who would not profit from a close acquaintance with the psychology of suggestion. yond any question, there is a science of salesmanship, rooted in the scientific scrutiny and analysis of the workings of the mind; and the day must come when the business world as a whole will recognize this.

Be

That its general recognition is indeed almost at hand is indicated pretty clearly by the success that has attended the efforts of a progressive Westerner to establish a school of salesmanship having among its principal courses instruction in business psychology. This man, a graduate of the University of Michigan, started his school in Chicago in 1902. To-day he has branch schools in many of the leading cities of the United States and Canada, and the services of his instructors are constantly in demand by big business firms as well as by individual salesmen and heads of sales departments. Some firms have even retained him to map out "selling talks " for their travelers, in order to enable them the more easily to apply in a concrete way the psychological principles taught in the regular courses of instruction. And, judging from the appreciative letters he has received, it would seem that recourse to his advice and tuition has been of widespread benefit. Thus the Washington, D. C., superintendent of one of our largest life insurance companies declares:

"I now thoroughly realize that salesmanship is a science and the practice of it a profession. Although I have met with some success, yet your lessons make it very plain that I have been working in the dark for more than twenty years. knew more or less of how to sell my line,

I

but my efficiency has been greatly increased by the knowledge you give regarding whys and wherefores. Your lessons, especially on The Psychology of Selling,' are most practical. My opportunities have increased marvelously because of my increased ability in the work of instructing, directing, and encouraging my staff."

On the other hand, it must be said that an attentive reading of the prospectus of this school of salesmanship leaves the impression-at any rate, has left it on the present writer-that, although it certainly represents a step in the right direction, it claims too much in its implications that by conscientiously mastering its teachings anybody can become a successful salesman. If the researches of the modern psychologist have established any one fact, it is that the choice of a vocation is a matter that should receive far more thought than most people at present give to it. For it is now known that success in any calling depends on something more than industry, training, and interest in one's work. All these make for success, but there is need also for taking into the strictest. account one's physiological and psychological fitness for the particular task.

Usually this is the last thing thought of, if it is thought of at all-personal inclination, the financial possibilities of certain occupations, or mere chance being the determining factor in the vocation choice. And because of this neglect of what ought to be a fundamental consideration many men go through life, so to speak, like square pegs trying to fit themselves into round holes. Too often they are complete failures; sometimes they achieve a partial success, but nothing like the success that would have been theirs had they, before definitely choosing their calling, allowed themselves to be scientifically tested as to their psycho-physiological fitness for ittested, for example, as to their type of memory, their type of attention, the rapidity of their reactions to various stimuli, and so forth. With regard to all such problems the modern psychologist, by the use of his delicate instruments and ingenious methods of experimentation, is able to offer the greatest assistance. And they are problems of far more than theoretical importance to the young man or woman choosing a career. As was pointed out

not long ago by Professor Münsterberg in the course of a discussion of this subject:

"There are mills in which everything depends on the ability of the workingman to watch at the same time a large number of moving shuttles, and to react quickly on a disturbance in any one. The most industrious workman will be unsuccessful at such work if his attention is of the type that prevents him from such expansion of mental watchfulness. The same man might be most excellent as a worker in the next mill, where the work demanded was dependent upon strong concentration of attention on one point. There he would surpass his competitors just because he lacked expanded attention and had the focusing type. The young man with an inclination to mill work does not know these differences, and his mere self-observation would never tell him whether his attention was of the expansive or of the concentrated type.

"The psychological laboratory can test these individual differences of attention by a few careful experiments. . . . Moreover, the psychological experiment can analyze the great varieties of fatigue, the fluctuations, the chances for a restitution of energy after fatigue; and it is evident that every result can be translated into advice or warning with regard to the vocational choice of the boy or girl. There are machines to which people with one type of fatigue could never be adapted, while those with another type might do excellent work. Even the natural rhythm of motor functions is different for every individual. The pace at which we walk or speak or write is controlled by organic conditions of our will, and is hardly open to any complete change. Again, it is clear that the thousands of technical occupations demand very different rhythms of muscular contraction. If a man of one natural rhythmical type has to work at a machine that demands a very different rhythmical pace, life will be a perpetual conflict in which irritation and dissatisfaction with his own work will spoil his career and will ruin his chances for promotion. In a similar way, simple experiments might determine the natural lines of interest in a boy or girl."

As is well known, growing appreciation

of the need for reforms in this matter of vocation-choosing has led, quite recently, to the establishment in various American cities of vocation bureaus and schools. Not one of these, so far as I have been able to discover, has thus far made any systematic use of the resources of the psychologist to aid it in its work. According to Mr. Meyer Bloomfield, Director of the Boston Vocation Bureau, the pioneer institution of its kind, this is partly due to a belief that the experimental methods of the psychological laboratory are not as yet exact enough for the vocation bureau's purposes, and also it is due to a fear that the introduction of laboratory methods would "frighten people off."

"You see," Mr. Bloomfield explained, "if we were to attempt to test boys and girls the way Professor Münsterberg suggests, their parents would at once leap to the conclusion that we thought there was something the matter with them, and that would be the last we should see of them. People, as you know, are extremely suspicious of things they do not understand, and psychology is a sealed book to most laymen."

None the less, it is safe to predict that the vocation bureau, if it is to justify its existence, will before long have to bid defiance to popular prejudices in this respect. And for this reason :

That the business men of the United States, waking up to the great waste of National efficiency involved in the unguided selection of vocations by the workers of the country, are themselves beginning to test employees by the rigid methods of psycho-physiological investigation, and are beginning to enforce a vocational change on those whose "reactions indicate that they are not properly quali fied for the work they have set out to do.

This, assuredly, is the central and most significant fact in the new movement for "scientific management," concerning which we have heard so much lately. Its founder, Mr. Frederick W. Taylor, of Philadelphia, and the business experts associated with him, aim, on the one hand, at increasing the industrial output, with increased profits to employer and employee, yet with a decreased cost of production, so that the consumer also shall benefit; and, on the other hand, as indis

pensable to realizing this economic ideal, they seek to select and train the workingmen and the workingwomen for the tasks which they are best fitted to perform. In this work of selection they do not depend on observation alone; they insist on scientific certitude, and they obtain this by means of an elaborate system of "time and motion study," involving, either directly or indirectly, an analysis of each worker's psycho-physiological characteristics.

Stop-watch in hand, the expert in scientific management times the reactionsthe quickness of perception, the rapidity of movement, etc.-of, say, a worker at a cotton loom. By repeating these tests and applying them to a large number of workers similarly employed, he finally establishes a time standard calling for the performance of a certain amount of work of a certain kind in a certain time. It is never an impossible standard, but it is always a high one, and its attainment requires of the worker a special fitness as well as energy and industry. Consequently it is distinctly selective in its results. Those who manage to attain and maintain it are rewarded by a substantial increase in wages; those who fail to do so are discharged. In effect, scientific management says to them: "It is quite evident that you have mistaken your vocation. You must find something else to do."

And, in fact, in every office and factory in which the experts with their stopwatches have effected a reorganization, many industrious and earnest workers have lost their positions because they have been found constitutionally unfit. Such was the case, to cite a single instance, in the largest bicycle ball factory in this country, reorganized a few years ago by Mr. Taylor, with the assistance of Mr. Sanford E. Thompson, of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, one of the ablest of the "time and motion " investigators with whom Mr. Taylor has surrounded him

self. Among the most important operations in this factory was the inspection of the balls before they were packed for shipment. Various kinds of defects were looked for, and often they were so minute as to be almost invisible. It was work that called for the closest concentration of attention, and, above all, quickness of perception.

Prior to Mr. Taylor's arrival at the factory about one hundred and twenty girls were employed as inspectors. They were mostly old hands, and were regarded by the factory managers as skilled workers. But Mr. Thompson, as he told me the other day, discovered that the same amount of work could be done in less time and by fewer inspectors if a special selection were made on the basis of reactiontime rapidity. The result was the elimination of all but thirty-five girls. The rest, including some of the most intelligent and hard-working, were discharged solely for the reason that "they did not possess the quality of quick perception followed by quick action."

Surely, it is obvious that it would have been a good thing for these unfortunates had they been able, before undertaking the inspectorial work, to apply at a vocation bureau equipped with a psychological laboratory, where a few appropriate experiments would quickly have determined whether they could react in the right way for the work that would be assigned them as inspectors.

More than this, it is certain that the process of selection and elimination will become increasingly exacting in proportion. as the exponents of scientific management increasingly acquaint themselves with the apparatus, methods, and results of psychological research. They are really only in the initial stages of their labors in this respect, just as the business world in general is only now beginning to appreciate and utilize the findings of psychology in their bearing on the problems of production and sale.

"Though a Socialist, I am often human."-Hashimura Togo.

"A

TOUSLE-HAIRED and wildeyed young loafer to begin with, Socialism has settled down now into a careworn paterfamilias with a vegetable garden and an account in the savings bank."

Thus spoke the amateur Socialist, one Saturday evening, to the four or five neighbors and cronies round the big stove in the rear of his store, while the November wind banged and clattered his swinging sign, "Fine Boots and Shoes. Repairing a Specialty."

"Yes," he continued, "Socialism used to hang round the corner with its hands in its pockets and its hat on the back of its head; I've seen it there, and said it would come to no good end, what with its tobacco and beer, and its bawling and bellowing talk about More for me and less for you

“But now,” resumed the Amateur, "the ladies have taken it in hand and tamed it down considerably. Ever see a young fellow begin to take an interest in his ties and shoes? (I've marked the beginnings of several love affairs in this town by entering in my books, 'One pair of patent leathers on tick.') Socialism began to go out calling in the evening. The ladies began to see possibilities in Socialism. They invited it to tea. Instead of bawling out, More for me and less for you!' Socialism began to pass the preserves and say as pleasantly as anybody, 'More for you and less for me.'"

("My dear Alphonse!" murmured the young man from Mr. Fogbury's law office, who sat on the settle back of the stove. But I thought he had a rather musing look.)

"And one Sunday," concluded the Amateur, as he held his crowbar of a needle against the lamplight to thread it, "I saw Socialism at church! Yes, sir,

Out of respect, perhaps, for the Scripture quotation, old Mr. Gilfeather was silent for a minute or two before announcing rather belligerently:

"He thinks, you know, gentlemen, that the poor are better Christians than the rich. Let me tell you they're not. The minute any one of 'em got more money than the rest, he'd begin to do as the rich man does-soon he'd have his yacht and private car, and play golf all the year round."

"That's a fact," said the doctor, shaking his head at the pity of it. "You know what Kipling says:

66

The Colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady

Are sisters under their skins." "

"Why, sure!" cried the Amateur, cheerfully. "That's what Socialism's been telling you all this time."

"What!" protested old Mr. Gilfeather. "Didn't you say at the Debating Society last week that it took the poor man to be generous and self-sacrificing? You had a lot of fishy statistics to prove it. I didn't half believe 'em at the time."

"Hold on!" pleaded the Amateur, ripping the sole from some village Amazon's mighty boot. "I'll do the sum for you in a minute. Let me think whether she wanted these soles nailed or stitched. Nailed, I guess."

It is a fact, Gilfeather, that the less people have, the more they give away. Why, look at me! Ain't I always giving? Don't I intend to give some of ye this coat I've got on, in the course of a year or two?" genially inquired the Amateur, displaying the ragged tails of the antediluvian garment in which he had patched two generations of shoes for Chichester.

"They are more generous," he repeated, "but it isn't because they're a different breed o' cats from the rich. The rich would be just as generous as the poor if they had the same advantages. Human nature on a small, earned income