338 ■ BANQUET. 



were losing tubes right and left. Why? Because I started in, not knowing a thing, and 

 knowing I did not know, and I happened to see the printed article to which I have referred. 

 I adopted it as a Bible, and it happened to be right. You know an expert is described as a 

 dangerous man. A man may be an expert without knowing it, but the minute he begins to 

 be an expert and knows it, fight shy of him — he is a dangerous man. He usually is in such 

 a groove that he cannot see over the top, and he will mislead you — unintentionally, of 

 course. 



The engineering experience that I have had has taught me that the big thing is to use 

 the other fellow's brains. A man once came to me and said, "I heard one of your boys 

 say a nasty thing about you. He said you were a fellow who made a great reputation out 

 of other people's brains." I replied, "That is not nasty. It is a compliment." 



The next move from the Milwaukee was to the Arkansas. I had never seen a turbine. 

 I went to the New York Shipbuilding Company and saw these things going in, the piping, 

 the boilers and the turbine, and I doped out this thing about turbines — keep your bearings 

 up, keep the oil going, keep your clearances properly and the rest will run itself. I finished 

 that job of two and a half years and never lost a tube or any material, and the thing ran 

 beautifully. Why? Because I followed my little Bible. 



From the Arkansas I went to the Eastern Mediterranean, and Admiral Burd ordered 

 me back as chief engineer of the New York yard. Admiral Burd never knew how much 

 engineering I knew. I had been his first assistant on the old Philadelphia and did not 

 know very much about engineering; all I did was to keep my mouth shut, and the admiral 

 got the idea that I was a good engineer. He ordered me to the New York yard as chief en- 

 gineer. I got there and found a wonderful organization, left by my friend, Louis C. Rich- 

 ardson. I did not issue many orders, and what helped me to save the situation in that 

 case was the brains they gave me in the personnel. The only thing I have done as an 

 engineer is to use the other fellow's brains, and to have sense enough to know which fellow 

 had the right kind of brains. 



One of the great secrets in organization is to put the right fellow in the right place. 

 I have followed two rules in organization and management and they are these : — Authority 

 engenders responsibility; responsibility presupposes authority. You would be surprised if 

 you looked over this country to find how many big corporations break those twO' rules and 

 are not satisfactory corporations for that reason. You would be surprised to find how many 

 general managers go into their shops and go to workmen and tell them to do this and that, 

 and pass by the foreman or master mechanic, and you will not be surprised to know that 

 these men are not successful managers. The only thing they have to do in order to become 

 successful is to go back and put into effect these two rules I put into practice in the case 

 of the Milwaukee and in the Arkansas, and that was the reason I was more or less success- 

 ful, not that I knew engineering, because I did not, but I did know how to use the brains 

 and experience of the fellow that did know. 



In connection with that, I want to talk about amalgamation. There has been an effort 



