INTERNAL RELATIONS. 59 



out or completed work crossed off. An effort is made from time 

 to time to consolidate the incomplete entries and start anew in a 

 fresh place ; but the same results are sure to follow : the most 

 space is finally occupied by what matters least, and the most 

 important part is hidden by the most irrelevant. 



8. When there is more than one department, a special order 

 book is sometimes kept for each foreman, into which are copied 

 the orders which specially concern him; but as it can hardly 

 ever be foretold into which department an order may not go, 

 such a plan can only serve an uncertain purpose and lead to 

 indefinite results. At the best, it removes the difficulty only a 

 step beyond that already discussed. 



9. There is another practical objection to the use of an order 

 book which is of far greater importance than may at first appear, 

 that is, the impossibility of its being in two places at once. It 

 is needed at the office for the entry of orders, and it is needed at 

 the shop for reference to these entries, often at the same mo- 

 ment. It will be found that with the delays in its transmission, 

 added to the time it is actually in use at the " other " place, the 

 occasions of its being on hand when wanted at either place seem 

 very rare. If the book is retained at the office, it requires fre- 

 quent absences of the foreman from his proper work, and it in- 

 volves the doing of his clerical work at least twice : once in a 

 memorandum of some form, and once in the office book. 



It would be better if some means were found by which what- 

 ever record was needed should be on hand whenever and wher- 

 ever wanted ; that whatever work of record was required should 

 for a single cause be done but once ; and that its effect should 

 be positive, determinate and distinct. 



KEEPING ACCOUNT OF LABOR CHARGES. 

 The timekeeper, generally the foreman, goes about the shop 

 towards the close of the day and asks each workman how he has 

 spent it; according to the workman's recollection he enters the 

 time reported in a book, as hereafter described. 



NOTE. An exception to this practice existed in my time at the National Armory, 

 where, in some departments, each workman entered on a little slip of paper in his own 



