SUPERVISION, INSTRUCTION AND SUPPORT 



the specialist gets a chance to exercise his talents to a great 

 extent, but even here he must realize the importance of work- 

 ing through the county agents. 



No kind of work of specialists is more important right 

 now than that done by the market experts. If they can shape 

 their instruction, in standardization and selling, so that the 

 county agents can grasp and promote them, they will render 

 a great service to all the people. Better still, it must be 

 cohesive and usable so that the farm folks will co-operate. 

 After all, the main question is one of earnestness and devo- 

 tion on the part of individuals who make up the organiza- 

 tion. Hard and fast rules can not be laid down. A few 

 general guiding principles are better than many regulations. 

 It is impossible to catalogue the titles and duties of all the 

 various kinds and classes of the army of people who are 

 really working out a new system of procedure as they march. 



The situation is very well stated in a quotation from an 

 article by Herbert Hoover, in the World's Work, for April, 

 1920. He said: 



"When a man has a big job to do, he first decides just what he 

 wants to accomplish and then he gets the men he needs to do the 

 work. He puts one man at this, and another at that, and tells both 

 of them what the common purpose is. Pretty soon A and B overlap 

 and then have to be got together and have a talk. The discussion 

 settles where A gets on and B gets off, and both go ahead until a 

 new situation arises. After a while B's work is found to be un- 

 necessary, and he drops out. A new angle of work turns up, and C 

 is put at that. When I was in the Food Administration, the Govern- 

 ment kept sending efficiency experts to us, and the first thing they all 

 wanted to do was to draw a 'chart of organization.' I wouldn't let 

 them even get seated in a chair. An organization isn't a chart, it's 

 a body of men — and any new organization that can be charted is 

 badly launched.' " 



He further emphasizes the importance of practical 



[165] 



