48 THE DESIGN AND NEW CONSTRUCTION 



to be judged by others. This question which he has brought up and discussed has 

 particular interest to people in our business, I take it, in two ways; one is in the 

 results produced, which have been most excellent; and the other in its bearing on 

 improvements in general office and draughting-room method. I do not think there 

 is any draughting or office force in this country, either in the government service or 

 outside, which in efficiency and in promptness and in actual knowledge of what 

 they are doing exceeds that of the force under Mr. Robinson, and those of us who 

 do business continually with various governmental departments and with various 

 organizations outside know that work which goes there is dealt with most promptly 

 and most effectively, and if you get turned down it is done emphatically and at 

 once without holding you up for a long time. I think that the results in that 

 direction have been very remarkable, and I regret to state, in a way, that most of 

 them have been accomplished since Mr. Robinson succeeded me in the job. 



As indicating what can be done with an office force, I think it is very instructive 

 to anyone who is interested in scientific or common-sense, or any other form of 

 management — which, of course, is what all of us who are trying to manage some- 

 thing should continually try to adopt — we should try to do things in an easier and 

 better way, and with more method, and in my judgment there is greater room for 

 improvement in most offices, in most drawing rooms, than there is in most work. 

 In my experience, efforts at scientific management have usually been aimed at 

 correcting the evil habits of some one outside of the main offices, and I beUeve 

 that in the offices is the proper place to begin. 



Chief Constructor R. M. Watt, Vice-President: — Naval Constructor 

 Linnard might have referred to another phase of the subject — that, while appro- 

 priation bills vary in amounts appropriated, they seldom vary in numbers of types 

 of ships required, as was evidenced by the last appropriation bill, thus throwing 

 practically the same work on the design branch of the bureau when appropriations 

 are small as when they are large. 



As chief constructor, I desire to express my appreciation of the system which 

 has just been described, for under the able administration of Naval Constructor 

 Robinson it is unquestionably producing results. 



The President: — Is there any further discussion? Does Mr. Robinson wish 

 to close the discussion? 



Mr. Robinson: — I was not fishing for bouquets when I wrote this paper. 

 I appreciate the complimentary things which have been said, nevertheless. 



With regard to what Mr. Linnard said, I may say that we have one less employee 

 now than we had ten years ago, so that his statement is correct. As a matter of 

 fact our money expenditure is the same now, but we have distributed the expense of 

 one man over the balance of the force. The original reason I had in mind in pre- 

 paring this paper was because I am very much interested in system, and while I 



