NEEDS OF A GOOD SYSTEM. 79 



of the nature of their acts and of the objects on which they are 

 performed. Every workman knows better what he is doing or 

 has been doing than does any other person, clerk or foreman, in 

 the factory. Every man who wants supplies, knows better what 

 he wants and why he wants it, than any one else can tell him. 



So, the first acts of record, the first accounts of service, and 

 the first requests for material should be made by the man most 

 competent to judge of their fitness. These acts should be subject 

 to proper revision, but no amount of it can supply the initial 

 tendency to truth which is found in the independent statements 

 of those most closely connected with the acts which they record. 



6. Finally, the system should be such, workmanship apart, as 

 to demonstrate the efficiency of the administration by the true 

 cost of its finished product 



