30 W . G. Langzvorthy Taylor 



does the machinery itself from the untouched crust of the earth. 

 Given a certain complex of machines, they must be served by a 

 certain complex of workers, some tending the more materialistic 

 processes, the raw materials, the cranes, and the like, others 

 finishing the more delicate product, and others, still higher, keep- 

 ing the whole process in mind, foreseeing what provision must 

 be made in order that continuous work may not be interrupted, 

 assigning the several lower workers to the machines to which 

 they are best adapted, and studying the irregularities, the fail- 

 ings, the shortcomings of the subordinates, in order by hook or 

 by crook, by reward, by cajolery, by threat of lowering of the 

 distributive share of the product, to keep them continuously at 

 their tasks, and to keep understudies ready to step in if a worker 

 default. These higher workers, then, must be students of the 

 psychology of the lower workers, must possess a firm will, a 

 strong personality, a high intelligence, and in every way lead a 

 more psychic life. These are conditions set by the materialistic 

 conjuncture. Given such a conjuncture, the grades of workers 

 must be such as they are. We may imagine government super- 

 vision, control, or ownership ; if the new method of choosing the 

 classes of workers be not efficient, industry will suffer, will not 

 continue to inhabit its present dwelling, but will relapse to a lower 

 environment. 



For example, what do we find to be the result of insufficient 

 moral qualifications in captains of industry? Take the trust as 

 an instance. The only condition under which trusts can prosper 

 permanently is that they be not organized for the purpose of 

 wrecking them or sucking them dry, but that they be managed 

 as going concerns intending to offer their products to the public 

 at current rates of profit so long as said products are in demand 

 and hence harmonize with the conjuncture. If the captains pre- 

 fer to put up prices, and to take every means to get a "rake-off" 

 from a temporary corner, their organization is sure to suffer ; 

 latent competition will become active and aggressive, the work- 

 begun by competitors will be finished by hard times and by the 

 courts of bankruptcy or insolvency, and a whole branch of indus- 

 try will be relegated back to smaller industry, to more primitive 



30 



