THE 
 
 MARTIN P. CATHERWOOD 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL 
 
 OF 
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR 
 
 RELATIONS 
 
 AT 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
'^^/ 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/details/cu31924061195610 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 1856-I915 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 :a £@emortal Volume 
 
 BEING ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE FU- 
 NERAL OF FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR, CEDRON, 
 INDIAN QUEEN LANE, GERMANTOWN, PHILA- 
 DELPHIA, PA., MARCH 24, 191s; AT A MEMORIAL 
 MEETING HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
 SOCIETY TO PROMOTE THE SCIENCE OF MANAGE- 
 MENT (NOW TAYLOR SOCIETY), UNIVERSITY OF 
 PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA., OCTOBER 22, 
 1915; AND AT MR. TAYLOR'S HOME « BOXLY," 
 CHESTNUT HILL, PHILADELPHIA, PA., OCTOBER 
 23, 1915. 
 
 TAYLOR SOCIETY 
 ENGINEERING SOCIETIES BUILDING 
 29 W. THIRTY-NINTH STREET 
 NEW YORK mix. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1920 
 BY THE TAYLOR SOCIETY 
 
 THE PLIMPTON PKESS 
 NOEWOOD-UASS-tt-S-A 
 
OF this book there has been printed an edition 
 of one hundred copies, of which this copy is 
 No. .5 .5 In accordance with the primary pur- 
 pose of the publication, fifty copies have been de- 
 posited in the principal public libraries and 
 libraries of engineering societies of the United 
 States and of foreign countries. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Addresses at Mr. Taylor's Funeral, Germantown, 
 Philadelphia, Pa., March 24, 191 5 
 
 James M. Dodge, Philadelphia 3 
 
 Morris L. Cooke, Philadelphia S 
 
 Addresses at Memorul Meeting, Philadelphia, Pa., 
 
 October 22, 1915 9 
 
 Program of Memorial Meeting — Speakers — Honor- 
 ary Vice-Presidents 10 
 
 Harlow S. Person, President of the Society to Pro- 
 mote the Science of Management 11 
 
 Rudolph Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia . . 13 
 
 Henri LeChatelier, Institute of France 16 
 
 (Read by Col. Vignal, Military Attache of French Embassy) 5 
 
 Charles de Freminville, Paris 25 
 
 (Read by Mayor Blankenburg) 
 
 A. Wallichs, Royal Polytechnic School, Aix-Ia- 
 
 Chapelle 39 
 
 (Read by Mayor Blankenburg) 
 
 J. J. Sederholm, University of Helsingfors, Finland 52 
 
 (Read by President Person) 
 
 Carl G. Barth, Philadelphia 56 
 
 Henry L. Gantt, New York 61 
 
 Sanford E. Thompson Boston 66 
 
 Louis D. Brandeis, Boston 72 
 
 James M. Dodge, Philadelphia 77 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll CONTENTS 
 
 Addresses at "Boxly," Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia 
 October 23, 1915 79 
 
 Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, Pomfret, Conn. 81 
 
 Harold Van Du Zee, Germantown, Pa 87 
 
 Letter from William A. Fannon, Appleton, Wis. 98 
 Memorial Resolution of the Society to Pro- 
 mote THE Science of Management to Mrs. 
 
 Taylor iii 
 
 Benediction at Mr, Taylor's Grave, West Laurel 
 
 Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa., October 23, 1915 113 
 Rev. Langdon C. Stewardson, Greenwich, Conn. 115 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 AT MR. TAYLOR'S FUNERAL, CEDRON, INDIAN 
 QUEEN LANE, GERMANTOWN, PHILA- 
 DELPHIA, PA., MARCH 24, 191 s 
 
BY JAMES MAPES DODGE 
 
 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR was a 
 prophet with honor in his own country and, 
 at the same time, honored and respected in 
 every civihzed country of the globe. He was a 
 devoted husband and faithful friend, modest and 
 considerate; he was a remarkable student, an in- 
 ventor of the first rank and an engineer of resource 
 and keen perception, indefatigable in his work and 
 unswerving in his devotion to truth. With a re- 
 markable combination of temperament and learn- 
 ing he became the bearer of a message that is 
 destined to make him recognized the world over 
 as the emancipator of the worker and of the em- 
 ployer. He delivered the worker from the oppres- 
 sive burdens of the old order and gave him freedom 
 to win the best for his family and himself. He de- 
 livered the employer from the necessity of being only 
 a task-master and gave him the opportunity to be the 
 friend and co-worker of those associated with him. 
 
 Through his scientific investigations of the rela- 
 tions between employer and employee he was able 
 to formulate a system which made it possible for 
 both parties to realize that their interests instead 
 of being in irreconcilable conflict were identical and 
 that they were interdependent, and that all ques- 
 tions between them could be settled by kindness, 
 forbearance, and patient investigation without resort 
 
4 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 to mistrust, suspicion, or antagonism. He was the 
 bearer of the only flag of truce that was ever carried 
 upon the battlefield of industrial strife. Ignorance 
 and prejudice have fired upon this flag, but it was 
 never lowered, and now that the hand that carried 
 it must relinquish its noble office, thousands of 
 others will sustain it in its exalted position, and I 
 predict that it will never be lowered and that the 
 employer and the employee will both prosper under 
 it as they have never prospered before, and with 
 increasing respect, regard, and solicitude for each 
 other's welfare. 
 
 Many others have prayed for an industrial social 
 millennium, expecting it to come from spiritual 
 grace through lapse of time, but Dr. Taylor not only 
 saw the possibilities of the future, but he did more: 
 he told in detail exactly how this long-hoped-for 
 condition might be actually accomplished at once. 
 The seed he has sown is springing up in thousands 
 of places; the message he gave us is making hun- 
 dreds, yes, even thousands of converts; the work 
 he so ably started, being based upon eternal truth, 
 will partake of the lasting characteristics of its 
 foundation. 
 
BY MORRIS LLEWELLYN COOKE 
 
 SO much stress has been put upon the practical 
 accomplishments of Frederick W. Taylor that 
 the great reach and sweep of his spirit has, 
 except for the few, been almost submerged. All 
 his lifetime of patient, tireless investigation; all 
 the acuteness of his highly scientific mind; all the 
 aspirations of a sensitive nature, were bent on the 
 one end — of making human life a better thing to 
 live. To this object he made the freest possible 
 sacrifice of his fortune, his time, and his health. 
 
 The strength of the great movement which Mr. 
 Taylor originated lay very largely in the devotion 
 which we in the ranks felt for our leader. We rarely 
 thought to call him a great man — it seemed like 
 such a surface observation to anyone who ever saw 
 him at work. But we were always conscious of his 
 incessant struggle — of the long weary years of 
 battling to make men have faith in themselves. 
 
 He had a wonderful capacity for friendliness — a 
 capacity that could stretch across seven seas, and 
 last a lifetime, and reach the lowest man in the 
 ranks. He taught us our mutual dependence and 
 then proceeded to carry nearly all the load. He 
 tinged all our work with ideality. Hear his own 
 words, "I can no longer afford to work for money"; 
 "All our inventions and changes are made to pro- 
 duce human happiness;" "In all your relations, do 
 
6 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 to the Other fellow what you would have him do 
 to you." Just a year ago, Father Sertilanges, 
 preaching in Paris, said: "The love of God is the 
 Taylor System of our inner life (I'amour de Dieu est 
 le systeme Taylor de notre vie interieure)." Mr. 
 Taylor made us feel that there is nothing we cannot 
 accomplish — and this without hurting our fellow- 
 men. 
 
 Those of us who are gathered here this afternoon 
 are only representative of a large army of men and 
 women to whom the principles of Scientific Man- 
 agement as practiced and taught by Mr. Taylor 
 have made a compelling appeal. In every part of 
 the world — in the mines of Mozambique, in far-off 
 Japan, and among each of the contending armies on 
 the Continent, and all over this country — were 
 those who called him "Master." Standing beside 
 the body of our fallen leader, I wish I could convey 
 even the slightest suggestion of what his inspiration 
 has been to his followers and what a calamity has 
 come to them — as to the world — in his death. I 
 wish that to you and through you who are here I 
 could issue a call that would seal the solidarity of 
 this movement for the bettering of human relations 
 in business and industry, for which Mr. Taylor gave 
 his life. 
 
 If we could only lose ourselves as he lost himself 
 in his love of humanity! If we could only have the 
 supreme confidence in the final outcome which he 
 never lost! If we could only care as little as he 
 cared about being numbered with the crowd, when 
 the crowd was wrong! And above all, if we could 
 only act as if we believed that industry and national 
 
FREDERICK W I N S L O W TAYLOR 7 
 
 prosperity and life itself are complicated problems, 
 not to be solved by any easy formulas, but worthy 
 of the closest scientific scrutiny, the most patient 
 and untiring investigations, the highest ideality 
 that the human mind and spirit can bring to bear 
 upon them! This is the glory of Frederick W. 
 Taylor's life and this is the heritage he leaves for 
 those who believed in him — who followed him — 
 who loved him. 
 
 It was a part of the greatness of Mr. Taylor that 
 he was not altogether concerned about the world's 
 understanding of the greatness of his principles and 
 motives. His loyal friends would do well to keep 
 in mind his own words: "Patience, patience, and 
 then more patience." His ideas forged ahead pri- 
 marily because they were true and because they 
 fitted in with the spirit of the time. But Taylor's 
 "hanging on with his teeth," as he expressed it, 
 and his willingness to stand alone when he was 
 right, made them prevail. 
 
 Clean cut in his vision and keen in his judgment, 
 fearless of criticism or misunderstanding, Frederick 
 W. Taylor rang true in every act. He thought 
 straight and spoke his mind with no uncertain 
 sound and his speaking cleared the air of sophis- 
 tries and evasions. No man who was ever honored 
 by his friendship, sustained by his counsel, upheld 
 by his invincible spirit, can ever willingly set him- 
 self an easy task or be unwilling to tread the 
 difficult way — so it be straight and clear. 
 
 Perhaps it is true that this great pioneer in a 
 search for fundamental laws underlying human re- 
 lations in industry had to die before the world 
 
8 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 could grasp and appropriate the spiritual signifi- 
 cance of his ideas. But let us never for a moment 
 think of his genius as resting from its labors. The 
 torch he kindled he has passed on to other hands to 
 carry forward in the world of men. But it is impos- 
 sible not to believe that already his eager curiosity, 
 his undimmed mentality, his splendid enthusiasm, 
 are engaged in a new and spiritual adventure, for 
 which his training and discipline were a fitting prepa- 
 ration. No more baffled by human limitations 
 within and without, his passionate search for truth 
 given a universal field and scope, his horizon bounded 
 only by the stars, Frederick W, Taylor will always 
 lead us by the inspiration of his continuing life, the 
 comradeship of his undying spirit. 
 
 "Bid him awake from the dream, the probation, the prelude, 
 to find himself set 
 Clear and safe in new light and new life — a new harmony 
 
 yet 
 To be run, and continued, and ended — 
 Who knows?" 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 AT THE MEMORIAL MEETING, HOUSTON HALL, 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA., 
 
 OCTOBER 22, 191S 
 
The Officers and Members 
 
 of 
 
 The Society to Promote the Science of Management 
 
 request your presence 
 at a meeting to be held in memory of 
 
 Frederick U^inslow Taylor 
 
 on Friday evening, October twenty-second 
 
 at eight o'clock 
 
 Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania 
 
 Speakers 
 
 Rudolph Blankenburg - Edgar Fahs Smith 
 
 Mayor of Philadelphia Provost of University of Pinna. 
 
 ^ Carl G. Barth , Henry L. Gantt 
 
 , Louis D. Brandeis Harlow S. Person 
 
 James M. Dodge Sanford E. Thompson 
 
 Honorary Vice Presidents 
 
 Clarence M. Clark Henri le Chatelier 
 
 Morris L. Cooke Wilfred Lewis 
 
 William Crozier, U.S.A. R. Poliakoff 
 
 Edwin F. Gay Hans Renold 
 
 C. F. Goodrich, U.S.N. Ida M. Tarbell 
 
 H. K. Hathaway Sanford E. Thompson 
 
 Y. Hoshino Henry R. Towne 
 
 Toro Ishiki A. Wallichs 
 
BY HARLOW STAFFORD PERSON 
 
 Mr. Provost: 
 
 ON behalf of the Society to Promote the 
 Science of Management ^ I thank you for 
 this welcome, and through you the Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania for its cordial hospitality. 
 It is peculiarly fitting that the Society should hold 
 this memorial meeting in this environment, — in 
 Pennsylvania, in the city of Philadelphia, under the 
 roof of a great university. In this state, because 
 within its borders Mr. Taylor saw his great problem, 
 and through nearly half a century devoted himself 
 to its solution. In this city, because here he later 
 made his home, and here his body rests. In this 
 city, furthermore, because into its records have 
 been indelibly written, that all may read, the most 
 perfect application of his philosophy of manage- 
 ment to efficient municipal administration. Under 
 the roof of a great university, because in purpose, 
 in method, in temperament, he represented all for 
 which a university stands. He was investigator 
 and seeker after truth; he was discoverer and for- 
 mulator of truth; he was jealous guardian of truth; 
 he was teacher and leader of men. 
 
 Because of the prejudice developed by their en- 
 vironment, educators in estimating men like to test 
 
 1 [Now named Taylor Society, in honor of Frederick 
 Winslow Taylor. — Ed.] 
 
12 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 them for these characteristics. It is a joy to have 
 found them in Mr. Taylor. That is the source of 
 the inspiration which has prompted educators to 
 associate ourselves with this Society for the purpose 
 of preserving and developing the principles dis- 
 covered by him, and for the purpose of convincing 
 every man of their fundamental soundness and value 
 to society. As an investigative and educational 
 personality this Society is a lineal descendant of 
 Mr. Taylor, investigator and educator. 
 
 Mr. Taylor embodied the highest ideals of the 
 most exacting university, — an unquenchable pas- 
 sion to learn the truth; an indefatigable energy 
 and persistence in the search for if, a command of 
 the essential intellectual and physical apparatus of 
 investigation; an imagination which penetrated the 
 darkness ahead; and a modesty which forbade the 
 common sin of premature announcement of results. 
 
 It was a quarter of a century after Mr. Taylor 
 first conceived the first principles of his philosophy 
 of management before he announced them in the 
 memorable address before the American Society of 
 Mechanical Engineers. To some of us, one of the 
 most heroic acts in the history of science was Charles 
 Darwin's modesty and patience in long and quiet 
 investigation which preceded the announcement of 
 epoch-making discoveries. The story of it thrills 
 us. Likewise we are thrilled when we realize that 
 we have been associated with and now continue the 
 work of a man who has shown a similar example 
 of supreme modesty and patience. 
 
 Again, Mr. Provost, on behalf of the Society, I 
 thank you and the University for its cordial welcome. 
 
BY RUDOLPH BLANKENBURG 
 MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE greatest tribute I can perhaps pay to 
 the memory of Mr. Taylor is to advise you 
 that soon after my election as Mayor of 
 Philadelphia, four years ago, I requested him to call 
 upon me. He did so, and at my house we discussed 
 all phases of city government and what would best 
 serve the City of Philadelphia during the new 
 administration. 
 
 After fully discussing this important question, I 
 asked him to make a great sacrifice for the public 
 by accepting the position of Director of the Depart- 
 ment of Public Works. He seemed pleased, but hes- 
 itated, stating that he did not see how he could do 
 so. When I saw him again, a day or two later, he 
 said, "It would be a real pleasure for me to accept 
 your offer so as to help you in the great work of 
 regenerating Philadelphia, but it is impossible for 
 me to do so on account of my health. I have really 
 more to do now than should be asked of any man, 
 and it is a physical impossibility for me to add to 
 my work." 
 
 But Mr. Taylor helped me after all. When I 
 looked further for a man to fill the important posi- 
 tion of Director of Public Works, Mr. Taylor helped 
 me in the selection and recommended to me one of 
 
14 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 his disciples. I appointed that disciple as Director, 
 and he has made good and is an honor to the City 
 of Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Taylor was to me a paradox. On one hand 
 we find his rugged intellect blasting its way up 
 through layer after layer of conventions formed by 
 generations of prejudice, tradition, and ignorance 
 until he became recognized as perhaps the world's 
 foremost industrial leader. When truth was at 
 stake, he was resourceful, robust, and tireless. The 
 problem once even dimly visioned he pursued with 
 the zest of a hunter until he conquered. 
 
 On the other hand, those whose contacts with 
 him were, like my own, only casual and who went 
 to him as converts, rather than to be converted, 
 could hardly sense his power. He was born and 
 bred to a gentle manner. His sweet smile and 
 courtly bearing were only the surface indications 
 of an innate and broad-spreading sympathy and 
 kindliness. He knew he had much to give and he 
 gave it with a generosity which knew no limits. 
 Yet few men of this or any other time had sensed 
 so clearly how much there is to be known and what 
 a short way we have gone on the journey. 
 
 We in Philadelphia who saw Mr. Taylor come 
 and go among us as our friend and neighbor only 
 dimly comprehend — if at all — that the world has 
 been listening to his teachings for years as to one 
 of the master minds of his time. The Japanese, 
 the French, and those of Scandinavian lands were 
 among the peoples who have read his books in their 
 own tongues for years. The industrial scientists of 
 Germany, Italy, and Russia have crossed the sea 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR I5 
 
 with the beautiful home of Boxly as the end of their 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 Today his fellow-townsmen are alive to the sig- 
 nificance of his mission, and an eagerness to ac- 
 quaint ourselves with his methods and principles 
 is springing up in all our hearts.^ 
 
 This war-torn world of ours has indeed lost a 
 great leader at a time when it needs him most. 
 It would seem that when the moment comes to 
 bind up humanity's wounds, the creed which Mr. 
 Taylor lived and died to establish may prove one 
 rock on which we may build a more lasting peace. 
 
 The City of Philadelphia is indeed proud of his 
 genius and even more proud of the great service he 
 rendered to mankind. 
 
 While we may some day erect monuments in 
 marble or bronze to his memory, Frederick Winslow 
 Taylor has erected for himself, in the city of his 
 birth, an imperishable memorial in the great work 
 which he has woven into the fabric of our institutions. 
 
 ' Mayor Blankenburg then read abstracts from papers 
 sent for the occasion by Mr. Charles Freminville of Paris, 
 France, and Professor A. Wallichs of the Royal Polytechnic 
 School of Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, both of which are printed 
 in full in these proceedings. 
 
HOW HAVE I KNOWN FREDERICK W. 
 TAYLOR; WHY HAVE I ENDEAVORED TO 
 POPULARIZE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT?' 
 
 BY HENRI LE CHATELIER 
 
 FREDERICK W. TAYLOR is a mechanician 
 and I am a chemist: he is an engineer, and I 
 am a professor. What has brought us in 
 touch with each other? How have I been led to 
 undertake the popularizing of industrial methods, 
 which is quite outside of my province? Some will 
 say it is chance, — the veriest accident. But, in 
 the Taylor System there is no room for chance; 
 all facts are necessarily related to each other. The 
 very object of this system is to disentangle the in- 
 evitable relations of phenomena. Chance has to do 
 only with those relations of which we are still igno- 
 rant. The questions which I raise here give very 
 clear proof of the correctness of this definition of 
 chance. If the bringing together, across the Atlantic 
 Ocean, of two scholars entirely unknown to each other 
 seems at first sight inexplicable, the following state- 
 ment will demonstrate, on the contrary, that it was 
 inevitable and that chance had nothing to do with it. 
 I have devoted my life to the study of science, 
 and in pursuit of this study I have allowed myself 
 
 * Read by Col. Vignol, Military Attache of the French 
 Embassy, and special delegate to the memorial meeting by 
 appointment of the President of France. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR \J 
 
 to be guided by a few leading principles borrowed 
 from the philosophical works of Taine. To my mind 
 the end of science is simply the study of the relations 
 existing between phenomena; that is to say, the 
 study of natural laws. Moreover, a sound method 
 for the study of these laws consists in at once direct- 
 ing all one's efforts toward the analysis of the most 
 important factors ; that is, of those which play a pre- 
 ponderant part in the determination of a given result. 
 
 Being, moreover, a professor in a polytechnic school, 
 I naturally had to interest myself from the very 
 first in the elements of industrial progress; in my 
 opinion science is the dominating factor therein. In 
 order to develop the influence of science in French 
 industry, and to make our engineers understand the 
 beneficial role of scientific methods of work, I es- 
 tablished La Revue de Metallurgie about fifteen 
 years ago. In this publication I proposed to give 
 a leading place to the studies of industrial science, 
 while giving ample space to purely technical in- 
 formation, which was necessary to insure the read- 
 ing of my review by those manufacturers who are 
 often but partially convinced of the practical value 
 of science. 
 
 Faithful to these principles, in editing this review 
 I was obliged systematically to give a conspicuous 
 place to the dominating facts, — to allot the number 
 of pages devoted to each industrial process, accord- 
 ing to its real importance. At the time of the Paris 
 Exposition in 1900, struck by the evident impor- 
 tance of high-speed tool steel, I reviewed system- 
 atically all the articles bearing on this discovery 
 in order to give extracts from them in La Revue 
 
l8 FKEDERICK W I N S L O W TAYLOR 
 
 de Metallurgie. I published among other things 
 an extract from a lecture of a Sheffield engineer, 
 Mr. Gledhill, attributing the discovery of high-speed 
 tool steel to a lucky chance. A careless workman 
 had overheated one of his tools and, far from dam- 
 aging it, he had considerably improved it. This 
 incident coming to the knowledge of two industrial 
 engineers, Messrs. Taylor and White, had given 
 birth to high-speed tool steel. Not believing in 
 chance, I had followed up this article with some 
 personal remarks, saying that it had certainly re- 
 quired a high order of scientific observation and 
 investigation on the part of the engineers in ques- 
 tion to have been able to draw such an important 
 discovery from the carelessness of a workman. 
 This article fell under the eye of Frederick Taylor. 
 Some months afterwards when he decided to pub- 
 lish the history of his discovery in his celebrated 
 presidential address to the mechanical engineers, 
 "The Art of Cutting Metals," he sent me a copy of 
 the final proofs, thanking me for my wb'rds of appre- 
 ciation. It might interest me, he said, to know 
 that chance, as I had foreseen, had had abisolutely 
 nothing to do in the discovery of high-speed tool 
 steel. 
 
 I then asked Mr. Taylor to authorize my publish- 
 ing a French translation of his paper, which he very 
 obligingly granted. But, he added in his letter, he 
 believed that he had done something much more 
 important than his work on cutting metals, namely, 
 his scientific management of shop work. He asked 
 me to read attentively his paper called "Shop 
 Management" and to give him my criticism of it. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR IQ 
 
 I knew the work in question very well by name, but 
 I thought that it treated simply of a system of pay- 
 ing wages, the differential system, more or less 
 similar to Halsley's system of premiums, which had 
 not seemed to me sufficiently interesting to make 
 me buy the book and read it. Once in possession 
 of this volume, I studied it conscientiously and I 
 was profoundly surprised to find in it a very remark- 
 able application of the scientific method to industrial 
 prbblems. In undertaking the publication of La 
 Revue de Metallurgie, I had proposed to generalize 
 the applications of science to industry, but I had 
 not understood the full extent of the domain of 
 science. I had hardly dreamed beyond the intro- 
 duction of the laboratory and of its experimental 
 methods in factories, but I had not foreseen the 
 possibility of extending the domain of science over 
 all the realm of industry, including questions of 
 organization, commercial questions, labor questions, 
 etc. 
 
 I was somewhat ashamed to find the science of a 
 practical man infinitely more developed {elevee) than 
 my own. From that day on I felt myself obliged, 
 in order to remain faithful to the program which I 
 had from the first mapped out for myself, to con- 
 stitute myself an apostle of the Taylor System. 
 From the beginning I was perfectly aware of the 
 difficulties and of the time which the spread of the 
 new ideas would require. It had already been hard 
 enough to induce manufacturers to make use of 
 laboratories, even when the material results were 
 tangible and paid immediately. It would be still 
 more difficult to make them accept a more complex 
 
20 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 method of work, more costly to put in operation and, 
 above all, giving only more remote results. Calling 
 to mind, then, this other principle of Taine, that to 
 convince people it is not sufficient to give them good 
 reasons, but that above all you must fire their imagi- 
 nations by a series of individual facts which they 
 can easily digest and which all lead to the same end, 
 I made up my mind, either in La Revue de Metal- 
 lurgie or in other publications, to come back in- 
 cessantly to the advantages of Taylor's Scientific 
 Management. A nail is finally driven home by the 
 constant repetition of little blows. It was in this 
 way that an active correspondence with Frederick 
 Taylor was brought about and the beginning of 
 those sentiments of friendship arose which made 
 his premature death particularly painful to me. We 
 shall endeavor at least to make his ideas live and 
 to awaken the feeling of gratitude to which he is 
 entitled because of the beneficent work he left 
 behind him. 
 
 After all, the bond which inevitably drew us to- 
 gether was the community of our scientific interests, 
 directed alike toward industrial progress. We have, 
 independently and without any acquaintance, come 
 upon each other from difi^erent routes which led to 
 the same end: we had to meet sooner or later. 
 There was indeed no accident in the origin of our 
 collaboration. 
 
 Now, what has the result been, as far as France 
 is concerned, of the efforts made to spread the 
 Taylor System? It has been nothing, if one judges 
 by appearances. There is not to my knowledge 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 21 
 
 a single one of our factories which has been entirely 
 reorganized by the inspiration of the principles of 
 scientific management. I know only half a dozen 
 where partial applications have been attempted. 
 Among these, the St. Jacques Factory at Monlucon, 
 a branch of the Company of Chatillon, Commentry 
 and Neuves House, is the most remarkable example 
 to cite. This factory is directed by Mr. Charpy, 
 an expert, and a correspondent of the Academy of 
 Sciences, who had already begun to introduce scien- 
 tific methods of work in his factories before he knew 
 of Frederick Taylor's publications, which only en- 
 couraged him to persevere in the path in which he 
 had been walking. On the other hand, there has 
 certainly been brought about a widespread stimu- 
 lation of ideas in the industrial world ; I know of it 
 by the many letters that I have received. More- 
 over, it is possible to give even more direct proof of 
 this. The French translation of the "Principles of 
 Scientific Management," has been printed in two 
 editions to the number of 8000 copies, of which 
 3000 have been gratuitously distributed and 4000 
 sold — representing, then, at least 5000 readers. 
 To-day Frederick Taylor's ideas are familiar to the 
 majority of French engineers: whether they will 
 or no, these necessarily exercise an influence on every 
 one of their decisions. But the name of Taylor is 
 not spoken on that account, and it hardly ever will 
 be, because his ideas can never be applied in our 
 industry until they have passed into the spirit of 
 other engineers and have become their very own. 
 
 The advice of consulting engineers, which is con- 
 sidered so natural in the United States, does not 
 
22 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 obtain with us. To reorganize a factory you appeal 
 to one of Taylor's disciples — Barth, Gantt, Thomp- 
 son, etc., or to one of their imitators. With us, on 
 the contrary, a factory insists on reorganizing itself 
 only with the help of its own staff, and on invoking 
 no name except that of the firm. I had warned 
 Frederick Taylor that in France his system would 
 take the name of the engineers or the firms which 
 would put his ideas into practice. "I desire noth- 
 ing more," said he; "so that my ideas spread, it 
 matters little the dress under which they cir- 
 culate," 
 
 If French engineers have studied the ideas of 
 Frederick Taylor with interest and sympathy, it has 
 not always been so with workmen and especially 
 with labor unions. However, their opposition has 
 been less active than one would have feared and 
 especially it has generally been half-hearted. The 
 greatest difficulties on the part of workmen came 
 about because certain shops, in spite of the explicit 
 recommendations of Frederick Taylor, chose to 
 apply only a few of the principles of Scientific 
 Management, selecting those which seemed to them 
 the most advantageous. 
 
 I have had in my own hands letters from working- 
 men complaining very justly that they had been 
 forced to increase the speed in running their machine 
 tools, receiving the bonus promised by Taylor — 
 but that the precautions had been neglected which 
 were necessary to insure an increased supply of 
 materials commensurate with the increase of the 
 production of the machines. They were thus forced 
 to lie idle from time to time, for an hour or more, 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 23 
 
 and in spite of the higher wages per hour, they did 
 not make any more per day than they had before. 
 
 The statements about the Taylor System issued 
 by the leaders of the labor unions have disagreed 
 considerably — some of them have frankly taken 
 the defensive, as has Founiere, in a series of articles 
 published in the Depeche de Toulouse. Others have 
 declared that the Taylor System was excellent in 
 itself, and that there would be no objection to it, 
 if the employers were not brigands and did not 
 attempt to use this method as a weapon against the 
 workingman. Finally, some of them, like Puget, 
 have shown themselves to be decidedly antagonistic 
 to new methods of work, but, in order to combat 
 them, they have used arguments in absolute bad 
 faith. For example, they cited an alleged quota- 
 tion of an English journalist named Frazer, making 
 him say in his book "America at Work," that all 
 workingmen working under scientific management 
 reached the cemetery before coming of age. Now 
 there is nothing of the kind in the volume in ques- 
 tion. Frazer does not mention anywhere the scien- 
 tific method of Mr. Taylor, the existence of which he 
 does not suspect. His invective is aimed at a large 
 manufacturing plant in Philadelphia whose prin- 
 ciples of administration are really the very negative 
 of those of scientific management. In this shop the 
 rule is to choose for each operation the most capable 
 man, and then to let him do the best he can, without 
 tying him down to any principle of management. 
 In France, the most earnest opponents of the Taylor 
 System are perhaps the economists. That may seem 
 surprising, but on second thought one understands 
 
24 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 why scholars discussing industrial questions which 
 are altogfether out of their province, without ever 
 having set foot in a machine shop, must in the nature 
 of things conform their ideas in their criticisms to 
 previous opinions and to systems estabHshed by 
 long tradition. They do not dare to launch out into 
 new fields whose foundations they are not able 
 personally to appreciate. Be that as it may, Fred- 
 erick Taylor's ideas are making their way little by 
 little. Machinery was forced upon industry in 
 spite of the attacks of which it was the object; it 
 will be the same with the scientific principles of 
 management of work. From certain points of view 
 their success would be even easier, because ideas 
 have a far greater force of penetration and of dif- 
 fusion than material objects. One can break up 
 machinery, burn down shops, but there is no way of 
 coercing ideas. 
 
THE, RESPONSE OF FRANCE TO 
 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 
 
 BY CHARLES DE FREMINVILLE 
 
 THE associates of Frederick Winslow Taylor, 
 gathered together to perpetuate his memory, 
 have, in asking me to present a few remarks 
 on the work of their master, conferred on me a great 
 honor, to which I had no right to aspire. 
 
 I shall endeavor, however, to invoke the upright- 
 ness, the energy, and the elevation of character of 
 the eminent man who gave me such a cordial wel- 
 come. At the same time I wish to point out, from 
 the point of view of the engineer, how Frederick W. 
 Taylor's ideas were presented in France; with what 
 sympathetic interest they were received; and how 
 great a service they are called upon to render to the 
 French. Those ideas acquaint them at the most 
 opportune moment with a method of organization 
 which appeals to them more than any other, because, 
 depending, in spite of what has been said, on the 
 development of the individual, it responds perfectly 
 to their own aspirations. 
 
 When Frederick Taylor's works "On the Art of 
 Cutting Metals" and "Shop Management" ap- 
 peared, they attracted the particular attention of a 
 learned engineer whose name is universally recog- 
 nized, M. Henri le Chatelier, because they repre- 
 sented the most remarkable application of the 
 
26 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 scientific method to industrial work, and the finest 
 development of that industrial science towards 
 which M. le Chatelier himself was already striving 
 to lead the way. Through his interest these im- 
 portant works were first published by La Revue 
 de MHallurgie. 
 
 The method used involved such determination 
 and continuity of effort, such close cooperation for 
 an unprecedented length of time, and laws carried 
 out to such a fine point, that it was difficult to think 
 it was not exaggerated. 
 
 But from the moment I heard of this great work 
 it was easy for me to recognize in it the development 
 of those experiments in the cutting of metals which 
 had been pointed out to me at the time of a visit to 
 the shops of William Sellers in 1885 and which could 
 not have been published until a much later date. 
 I was able then to bear my humble witness to the 
 work of Frederick Taylor. 
 
 Nevertheless, when the works of Frederick Taylor 
 were published in France, the name of the great 
 engineer must have already been known there, for 
 it was that of one of the inventors of the high-speed 
 tool steel which had made such a great sensation at 
 the Paris Exposition in 1900. Everyone knew then 
 that this great discovery was the result of the sci- 
 entifically exact experiments conducted right in the 
 shops with remarkable method and perseverance by 
 Frederick Taylor and his associates. Such a dem- 
 ' onstration could not pass unnoticed. Not only did 
 Taylor reveal himself as an observer beyond the 
 ordinary — but he taught others how to observe; 
 he showed the extent of the field which opens up 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 27 
 
 before trained observation and he should be recog- 
 nized, without argument, as the head of a new School 
 of Observation. 
 
 "On the Art of Cutting Metals" had been pub- 
 lished with "Shop Management" by M. le Chate- 
 lier. The volume passed from hand to hand, and 
 after having commanded the attention of manufac- 
 turers, of the directors of railroad companies, etc., 
 it reached the managers of the shops and the fore- 
 men, who were struck by the practical advice, based 
 on a profound knowledge of the world of labor, which 
 they met in every line. 
 
 From that moment Frederick Taylor acquired in 
 France the right of citizenship, and the assimila- 
 tion of his ideas and of his method was only a 
 question of time. 
 
 If Frederick Taylor had awakened the interest of 
 experts by the application he had made of the scien- 
 tific method, the manufacturers and their associates 
 had recognized a master in him and did not allow 
 him to be reduced again to the rank of the inventor 
 of a system of industrial control. 
 
 It may be said that the French, thereby following 
 their natural bent and conforming to their traditions, 
 will be more and more drawn to Frederick Taylor's 
 ideas because of the ideal that inspires them and 
 of the fact that Mr. Taylor, in showing how the 
 scientific method can be made accessible and put 
 within reach of a great many fellow laborers for 
 the development of a vast and fertile field, re- 
 sponds to a very real need in the French character. 
 
 "Method" has long been honored in France. It 
 characterizes the spirit which the great technical 
 
28 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 schools endeavor to inculcate in their pupils and 
 which has contributed not a little to their ability 
 to occupy an extremely important place in industry. 
 It is the men who have gone out from these schools 
 who have, for more than a century, superintended 
 the building of the scientifically planned bridges 
 which are found everywhere spanning the rivers of 
 France. The discoveries or applications of science, 
 made by their successors, do not count more. It is 
 useless to enumerate them here — for America, 
 which does not have to borrow any laurels from 
 others, is the country in which one most often hears 
 homage rendered to the discoveries of French 
 science. Suffice it to say that it is thanks to these 
 men that the French railroads were able a year ago 
 to accomplish the mobilization of troops with a 
 precision which so much astonished Americans. It 
 is to them that France owes her artillery; and it is 
 the spirit of "method" with which they are imbued 
 which has put them at the head of our armies. If 
 the pupils of these schools have occasionally brought 
 upon themselves the reproach of wishing to intro- 
 duce " method," with its uncompromising exactitude 
 into a realm which, some assert, does not admit of 
 its application and which they designate by the 
 name of " practice," it is because they themselves 
 have not had sufficient faith in " method " to pursue 
 the application to its logical conclusion. 
 
 These men are the first to admit this and to ac- 
 knowledge that Mr. Taylor, in developing "method" 
 in industrial operations much farther than anyone 
 had dared to conceive of doing before, has estab- 
 lished "the missing link" for which they sought. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 29 
 
 They do not see a "system" in Frederick Taylor's 
 work (although it is generally so designated in 
 France) but a remarkable extension of the applica- 
 tion of "method." 
 
 The French workman himself was not the last 
 to understand how Taylor obtained such astound- 
 ing results in the working of metals. Long since 
 accustomed to associate the names of scholars with 
 great industrial discoveries, he willingly accords to 
 them the admiration and respect due to extraordi- 
 nary men, and frequently experiences a lively desire 
 to contribute, however little it may be, to their 
 work. "Never mind," he has said more than once 
 to himself, after having applied himself very methodi- 
 cally to his task, "I have done a little like Taylor." 
 So it is not surprising that the seekers after prece- 
 dents have explored France with the greatest care, 
 in the hope of finding the germ of Mr. Taylor's 
 ideas there. But they have been obliged to admit 
 that they found themselves in the presence of a 
 new work. If they happened to discover that some 
 of the finest geniuses of French mechanics, such as 
 Belidor, Vauban, Coulomb, had paused for a few 
 moments to analyze the motions of the workman 
 and had left a few notes on the subject, there was 
 still no connection between these notes and the 
 labors of Frederick Taylor. Not only were these 
 labors not minimized by these great men, but they 
 received brilliant tributes from them. 
 
 Frederick Taylor is not, however, content with 
 teaching how to observe: he wishes to show how to 
 act. He proves that most industrial tasks involve 
 incredible losses of energy, — that they are not co- 
 
30 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 ordinated, except by altogether insufficient plans 
 for them as a whole. The workman is not trained: 
 he is not directed : his work results in goods of such 
 varying quality as to be unworthy of the time in 
 which we live. 
 
 Routine rules supreme in the shop. It often 
 engenders systematic loafing and, at other times, 
 overwork. Order must be installed, and to that end 
 fixed rules for the management of the work must be 
 adopted, from the top to the bottom of the scale. 
 This is what one cannot get people to admit, with- 
 out the greatest difficulty. Moreover all organiza- 
 tion which assures the effective cooperation of the 
 separate elements contributing to management is 
 often sufficient to insure the success of a business. 
 Minute study of the motions executed during a 
 task in itself makes it possible to perfect the habits 
 which constitute the power of the workman. And 
 the breaking up of the work into elements easily 
 grouped together is the only way to establish a fair 
 price for this task, leaving no room for any errors 
 by either party. These elements of work have 
 been very properly compared, by one of Mr. Taylor's 
 associates, to the letters of our phonetic alphabet. 
 Why not make use of them, instead of continuing to 
 try to make estimates which are completely lack- 
 ing in exactness, and which may be likened to the 
 endless symbolic characters of the Chinese ? 
 
 It has been said that many people would rather 
 die than pause one moment in their work to re- 
 flect on what they are doing. How many others 
 uselessly waste their precious time and strength 
 constantly reinventing what they ought to have 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 3I 
 
 learned once and for all ? A man rarely takes the 
 trouble to notice what is under his eye; not even 
 what is pointed out to him. The simplest observa- 
 tion, such as is apparently within reach of everybody, 
 has little attraction for him. He is continually 
 asking himself why all that he sees is not better 
 done, and his one idea is to improve everything. So 
 there were not lacking innovators anxious to make 
 use of the work of Frederick Taylor in improving 
 things. They found themselves face to face with 
 a man who had a horror of compromise and was un- 
 willing to distort the principles which he had enun- 
 ciated. Above all did Taylor consider that it was a 
 waste of time to formulate elementary principles 
 already established. A professor does not ask his 
 pupils constantly to reaffirm the rules of grammar. 
 Why should a man hesitate to adopt those rules 
 which govern the employment of all his time and 
 strength and the activities of all his life, — rules in 
 reality much more sensible than those rules of 
 grammar which make it possible for the average 
 man to express himself correctly ? 
 
 Habit and environment have made the most com- 
 plicated rules instinctive. Why would it not be the 
 same with those which have to do with coordinat- 
 ing the movements of the workman ? All this ought 
 not to be constantly the subject of argument. It 
 ought not to have to be rediscovered. 
 
 Frederick Taylor generously said that if he sacri- 
 ficed his tastes, which inclined him towards the 
 study of mechanics, in order to accomplish a task 
 very often monotonous in spite of its great impor- 
 tance, it was in the hope that by so doing he would 
 
32 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 at least make it possible for others to devote them- 
 selves entirely to the development of their natural 
 inclination instead of having continually to begin 
 over again what he had already done. 
 
 This is the kind of education of a man which 
 Frederick Taylor took upon himself. It is a task 
 which has always been a thankless one, and which is 
 rendered more or less arduous by the particular 
 mentality of those whom it addresses. 
 
 The mentality of men varies according to coun- 
 try and is all the more difficult to define as each one 
 is made up of contradictions. It is generally ad- 
 mitted that the Frenchman is little concerned about 
 the exclusive ownership of what he has created and 
 that he has frequently neglected to exploit his 
 finest inventions, contenting himself with having 
 labored for humanity. He is, however, possessed 
 with a fierce individualism in anything that con- 
 cerns his personal liberty. 
 
 It might be said that he never alienates himself 
 from himself, but waits until this constraint is put 
 upon him from without. It is rarely that he lends 
 himself to long collaboration. 
 
 The American, who seems to us to place much 
 more emphasis on keeping in his own hands what he 
 considers to be his own property, whose motto is 
 "Mind your own business," knows, however, how 
 to cooperate with others, how to organize a partner- 
 ship, and he is willing to make sacrifices to that end. 
 
 To a Frenchman, the work of Frederick Taylor 
 is indeed a development of American genius, char- 
 acterized by an elevated feeling for the individual. 
 Here we find again the effort of the man accustomed 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 33 
 
 to depending on himself alone, especially on his 
 own energy and perseverance, constantly taking 
 most minute inventory of his personal resources — 
 the least as well as the greatest — and improving 
 them in order, with the cooperation of his asso- 
 ciates, to exploit them. 
 
 Frederick Taylor teaches his countrymen how to 
 make tremendous progress in the path which is 
 natural to them, by pointing out to them how much 
 trained habits increase the efficiency of a man, and 
 hence his personal value; and he makes an appeal 
 to the confidence Americans have in their own 
 ability, to enthuse them to utilize their efforts in 
 the shop as rationally and logically as they are 
 careful to use them on their own account. 
 
 Again it is to American energy that Mr. Taylor's 
 indefatigable efforts to call attention to his ideas 
 and to establish them must be ascribed. Taylor's 
 ideas have seemed to be revolutionary to some 
 Americans. To a Frenchman they were born and 
 have developed in the very environment in which 
 they should naturally be born and developed, i.e., 
 in the country of Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Taylor gives a lesson of the greatest importance 
 to the French in acquainting them with a type of 
 organization which applies equally to individual and 
 to collective organization, making it possible for 
 them to make the best of their natural resources. 
 
 Frederick Taylor liked France and would have 
 liked to be of use to her. For the too brief hours 
 during which we were together, we happened upon 
 a maritime laboratory, on the coast of Brittany, 
 born of the most modest beginnings and sheltering 
 
34 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 for several years the joint labors of fishermen and 
 scientists. Discoveries of the greatest importance 
 had been made here with the most rudimentary 
 material, but they had brought very little honor to 
 their authors. The most elementary of their valu- 
 able findings were hardly taken advantage of. For 
 instance, when they investigated matters of public 
 interest such as public health, they brought upon 
 themselves endless trouble. 
 
 They consoled themselves with reading the 
 accounts of the application made in distant coun- 
 tries, of their discoveries, and on such a colossal 
 scale as to be almost incredible. Frederick Taylor 
 must have made more than one reflection when visit- 
 ing this laboratory. At any rate he had the pleas- 
 ure of being able to say to his hosts that there was 
 no exaggeration in what they had read, and that 
 their discoveries had been made the object of the 
 most important application. 
 
 Frederick Taylor found there a graphic example 
 of a fact which had been pointed out to him again 
 and again. What he saw excited his enthusiasm but 
 also his desire to help France to derive more prac- 
 tical advantage from the discoveries she was able 
 to make. He was full of hope on this subject, for he 
 could see how completely his ideas had found an 
 echo in France, and how serious were the efforts 
 already made to put them into practice. And so 
 during the last sojourn he made in our midst, in one 
 of those addresses in which one would seek in vain 
 for a word of flattery, he did not hesitate to salute 
 in France the country which offered the finest future 
 for the application of his methods. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 35 
 
 The movement then launched, which seemed so 
 full of promise, has been arrested by the war, but 
 already France is thinking of the future, and of the 
 necessity, greater than ever before, of undertaking 
 a systematic organization of her resources and of 
 her work. 
 
 The "Kultur" imposed by a despotic power will 
 always be a horror to the French people, but they 
 will gladly accept a method — a plan — which 
 encourages the development of individuality, lay- 
 ing its foundation on its individuality and giving it 
 consciousness from its power. This is what they will 
 find in following the path indicated by Frederick 
 Taylor. And so it is towards him that many eyes 
 are turning to-day. 
 
 Frederick Taylor presented his works in the sim- 
 plest possible form without attempting to attract 
 any attention to himself and without asking him- 
 self whether the reader would care to penetrate his 
 personality. His associates have told me from the 
 first how dependable was his friendship, so I may 
 be permitted to recall the impression which he made 
 on a stranger who had the good fortune to pass 
 several hours with him, first in his accustomed 
 environment and then in France, in altogether dif- 
 ferent and greatly varied surroundings. 
 
 Frederick Taylor was an observer of exceptional 
 penetration, but his work is witness to the fact that 
 he was indeed one of those men, rare in any country, 
 who from the beginning of their careers subordinated 
 all their actions to a high and perfectly definite 
 purpose. No one has ever done so with more energy 
 or determination. In full command of this masterly 
 
36 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 trait of scientific observation which he possessed in 
 such high degree, he continually directed it towards 
 a definite end. Never did he allow his imagination 
 to bewilder his observations, or to alter their ex- 
 actness. They all bear the trace of absolute sincerity. 
 
 Again we detect the same integrity when he is 
 concerned with the application of his ideas to the 
 organization of labor. He is not afraid of provok- 
 ing contradiction and he did not welcome that ap- 
 probation which is so dangerous and which drowns 
 the idea by returning it to that void from which it 
 had been delivered. 
 
 Taylor possessed a deep lofty mind, embracing a 
 widely extended field of activity. If he gave himself 
 particularly to the task of making people under- 
 stand the efficacy of his method for the better 
 utilization of material resources and of the every- 
 day activities; if it pleased him to show, with rare 
 ability, that this method could be applied as well 
 to agriculture as to mechanics or to sports, he knew 
 how to raise himself above his work itself in order 
 to affirm that the use of the means which he recom- 
 mended must cease with the material world. And 
 it is no exaggeration to say, that in struggling against 
 the waste of energy and time which constantly ac- 
 companies not only industrial labor but also that 
 of everyday life, he strives to make a larger place 
 for the intellectual life. 
 
 His conception of spiritual endeavors was very 
 high. Avoiding a too common confusion, he estab- 
 lished an absolute distinction between the work of 
 the workman and that of the artist. He knew enough 
 to recognize that an artist worthy of the name must 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 37 
 
 always fear to imprint the trace of simply manual 
 or physical habits on his work, although the skill of 
 the workman is the result of this same methodical 
 development of such habits. 
 
 Frederick Taylor regarded spiritual things with 
 great respect. He was deeply touched when he 
 learned that one of the most authoritative voices 
 of the French pulpit, in a daring comparison, had 
 not been afraid to define "the Love of God" as 
 "the Taylor System of our inner life." 
 
 The man of genius is not frightened by the great- 
 ness of the task which he undertakes, and troubles 
 himself little about the profit which he ought to 
 get out of it, for it is a small task indeed whose 
 materialization does not exceed the life of an 
 individual. 
 
 Inevitably Frederick Taylor could not have put 
 in the complete development of the movement which 
 he had begun, but he was able to see that the roots 
 were already very deep, and that a brilliant future 
 opened up before him. 
 
 His last days were, however, to be greatly sad- 
 dened. After having devoted his life to the better- 
 ment of material conditions and to the raising of the 
 standard, he had to witness the most abominable 
 use which man has ever made of his resources. When 
 I saw Taylor in Philadelphia on the eve of this ter- 
 rible war, he recognized perfectly the importance 
 of the preparations made by the Germans and he 
 saw, better than anyone else, perhaps, what kind of 
 war it would be that would set them in motion. 
 But he refused to believe that a man capable of 
 unchaining them could exist. 
 
38 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 This is, however, what happened. The letter 
 which he wrote me at that time showed me what a 
 shock he had received. He could not free his mind 
 from that scene of horror, and it may be believed 
 that this obsession hastened his end and that 
 Frederick Winslow Taylor was a victim of modern 
 barbarism. 
 
WHAT DO THE GERMANS THINK 
 OF TAYLOR? 
 
 BY PROFESSOR A. WALLICHS 
 
 THE character and significance of the Taylor 
 doctrine have been accepted by the German 
 people only in part, both because the time 
 for making clear, either orally or in writing, Taylor's 
 meaning has been too short, and because we here 
 are just at the beginning of its practical application. 
 Nevertheless I cherish the definite hope that in the 
 near future the true value of Taylor's eff^orts will 
 be more thoroughly comprehended and appreciated 
 by a large number of the German people. The 
 essence of the doctrine, namely, "To better the con- 
 ditions of the laboring classes and to increase the 
 general pleasure in work," must certainly find in 
 the German people fertile ground for development. 
 This is especially true, because in Germany the de- 
 mand for a means to settle social inequalities is 
 becoming steadily stronger, and the earnest purpose 
 to get together in the pursuit of a common goal 
 is beginning to ripen among ever larger sections of 
 both labor and capital. 
 
 Taylor did not grow tired of pleading with both 
 sides: "Your interests are, for the most part, not 
 hostile, but identical." And he did not content 
 himself with words alone: he had proven the truth 
 of his doctrine in practice before he proclaimed it. 
 
40 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 In that lies, as I see it, the immense value of his 
 work. The world has had enough of the profound 
 opinions of learned economists and philosophers as 
 to human happiness. Taylor, however, did not give 
 his propositions publicity until after he had by hard 
 work and incessant struggle thoroughly tested the 
 possibility of carrying them out. In his classic 
 "Shop Management" he declares repeatedly that 
 "nothing is so convincing as bringing to pass actual 
 results." 
 
 The remarkable thoroughness in the execution of 
 his work, his consideration of all the circumstances, 
 — whether or not they had hitherto seemed insig- 
 nificant, — his perseverance in the pursuit of his 
 aims, must and will find ultimate recognition on the 
 part of the German people. Economists, German 
 engineers, and scholars who understand the true 
 essence of the Taylor doctrines have, almost without 
 exception, become his disciples. Among these we 
 find men of distinguished reputation such as Bathe- 
 nau, Kammerer, Schlesinger, Hempel, Oswald and 
 others. Naturally the Taylor principles are most 
 widespread in the ranks of engineers and industrial 
 managers. Among these are few indeed who do not 
 know at least the name of the Taylor System; 
 another group, forming the majority, has a superficial 
 knowledge of the character of the Taylor doctrine; 
 and a group of German engineers, of by no means 
 least importance to-day, has acquired a thorough 
 understanding in all respects of the great lifework of 
 Mr. Taylor. Among these last one finds unreserved 
 appreciation, while the critics are found more among 
 those who have only a superficial knowledge of the 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 4I 
 
 system. This fact is the best recognition of the 
 correctness and practical value of Taylor's principles. 
 A small group of German scholars and manu- 
 facturers, immediately after the publication of 
 Taylor's basic works, "Shop Management" and 
 "On the Art of Cutting Metals," recognized their 
 far-reaching significance. So it seemed to the writer 
 a worthy task to make Taylor's books useful to a 
 wider circle of German engineers by translating 
 them into German. It is worthy of note that the 
 latter work, "On the Art of Cutting Metals," met 
 with greater appreciation than " Shop Management." 
 The reason for this may be found in the fact that 
 the latter book dealt with experiments and proper- 
 ties of steel and so brought into prominence valu- 
 able discoveries in the difficult problem of the proper 
 production of high-speed steel, with the result that 
 people were eager to utilize this knowledge in the 
 metal-working shops. This book aroused the great- 
 est interest in manufacturing circles as well as 
 among scientists. The minuteness of detail, thor- 
 oughness, and uncommonly logical method of Tay- 
 lor's work, overcoming all difficulties, called forth 
 our undivided admiration. Indeed, the procedure 
 as adopted by Taylor to solve the difficult problem 
 of the regular production of high-speed steel may 
 candidly be designated as classic. The efforts of 
 engineers and scientists all over the world to at- 
 tain results in similar lines had led to no results, 
 because they had failed to investigate each variable, 
 of which Taylor names twelve, individually, while 
 holding the others constant. Taylor was the first 
 one to succeed in a comprehensive plan. He showed 
 
42 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 how experiments must be conducted in the workshop 
 with genuine scientific thoroughness and proper se- 
 quence in order to obtain practical results. By this 
 Taylor has rendered to industry as well as to science 
 inestimable service. It might be further empha- 
 sized that the great significance of Taylor's writings 
 was recognized simultaneously by engineers and 
 scientists. I need but mention the names of Neu- 
 haus and Schlesinger. 
 
 After the favorable receptoin which the German 
 edition of this book, On the Art of Cutting Metals," 
 had met in Germany, it was clear that Taylor's 
 basic work entitled "Shop Management" could not 
 long be withheld from German engineering circles. 
 The writer, therefore, undertook at once this task, 
 with all the greater zeal because after careful study 
 he found it a treasure house of great truths in the 
 difficult art of management and especially in the 
 treatment of the workmen. Taylor recognized that 
 the often asserted antagonism of the interests of 
 employer and employee need not exist with proper 
 management and treatment; that rather there 
 exists a mutual interest in the success of the enter- 
 prise, and that this same interest can well be united 
 with a higher wage and more humane treatment of 
 the worker. With remarkable insight he devised 
 ways and means to save unnecessary loss of time, 
 yet without the necessity of overworking the oper- 
 atives. He recognized the significance in their 
 bearing on the final result of all the circumstances 
 hitherto considered merely incidental. The small 
 things and the seemingly insignificant he found 
 worthy of exhaustive investigation; and just because 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 43 
 
 they hitherto had been neglected, these incidentals 
 offered so much room for improvement that the 
 result of the aggregate was amazingly beneficial. 
 No one had suspected how much time actually had 
 been lost by unnecessary motions and faulty arrange- 
 ment. Taylor shed light in every nook and corner 
 of the daily routine, and examined everything in 
 the effort for well-planned use of time. His ability 
 to grasp things fully and with keen perseverance to 
 draw from the knowledge attained its practical appli- 
 cation, together with his wonderful knowledge of men 
 and his true love for humanity, enabled him to win 
 a success which has aroused the astonishment and 
 admiration of the world. 
 
 I now turn to the question, "In what measure 
 thus far have results been obtained in Germany 
 by the application of the Taylor principles?" 
 
 In some places very noteworthy beginnings have 
 been made. In many places there exists the "ear- 
 nest intention "to gain the economic and social advan- 
 tages resulting from the use of the new doctrine. 
 However, success in the sense of favorable or un- 
 favorable economic influencing of results in industry 
 in general presupposes a longer existence of the new 
 system. But we cannot yet speak of this, for a 
 general dissemination of this new theory in the 
 economic circles of this country has taken place 
 only within the last two years, in spite of the pub- 
 lication in German of the basic Taylor writings, as 
 far back as the beginning of 1909. If, therefore, I 
 can report but little of our experiences in Germany 
 with "scientific management" (as the Taylor doc- 
 trine has justly been termed of late), I may never- 
 
44 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 theless treat the subject somewhat more broadly 
 with respect to our domestic industries and speak of 
 the probable effect on our social and economic life, 
 to be expected from the general introduction of the 
 new system. In Germany it is about the same with 
 scientific management as with many inventions in 
 technique. German industry takes up new ideas 
 much more slowly than foreign industries, but it 
 soon far surpasses them in development and scope 
 because it undertakes the experimentation and com- 
 plete working out with genuine German scientific 
 thoroughness and perseverance. When I first be- 
 came acquainted with Taylor's doctrine, I was 
 surprised that these ideas originated in America 
 and not in Germany, because the admirable thor- 
 oughness, the great perseverance with which Taylor 
 pursued his goal, the almost arbitrary rules covering 
 all apparently unimportant details and processes, 
 the analyzing and observing one by one of all the 
 activities and motions, are phenomena which are 
 more characteristic of the German than of the Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 This fact established, the many objections to the 
 possibility of a general introduction of Taylor's 
 scientific management in German industries are 
 removed. For the reasons already stated, it is 
 admirably suited for our conditions, that is to say, 
 the application of these principles as such; not, 
 however, the wholesale transplanting of all the regu- 
 lations and mechanisms, as employed in any par- 
 ticular one or another of the shops organized by 
 Taylor in the United States. To be sure, these give 
 us the key and the main outlines how to proceed, 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 45 
 
 but by no means the absolutely binding directions 
 for its application. We are not to introduce this 
 new system, but to develop it point by point, in 
 accordance with our own conditions. We should 
 proceed according to genuine scientific method, not 
 empirically; we must try to find the existing laws 
 in both mechanical processes and handwork, and on 
 these as a basis, build up standards and laws cover- 
 ing how and with what aids the work is to be done. 
 
 The reasons which hinder a rapid and extended 
 application of Taylor's doctrine lie not in the limi- 
 tations of the field but in the lack of trained forces 
 to guide its introduction, and partly also in the 
 weakness of human nature among the managers. 
 The self-esteem of many of these gentlemen is hurt 
 by the thought that processes discovered and devel- 
 oped by others should be better than their own kind 
 of management worked out through decades of 
 struggle and strife, in many cases with successful 
 results. They oppose it, therefore, chiefly because 
 they fail to recognize the superiority of new methods. 
 Many assert that they have long since recognized 
 and adopted to a large extent the principles devel- 
 oped by Taylor. They also consider that Taylor's 
 control of the smallest elements, going beyond 
 anything they undertake in their own organization, 
 is superfluous hair-splitting. Where these concep- 
 tions have taken root, they undoubtedly work against 
 the spread of scientific management, since the better 
 is always the enemy of the good. Nor can it be 
 disputed that at least a part of these assertions are 
 correct. We know of numerous organizations in 
 most branches of our industries, which have achieved 
 
46 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 phenomenal success because of their well regulated 
 and fairly well executed planning of work; but no 
 one had proven or even suspected that thorough 
 scientific observation of all, even the minutest and 
 seemingly most insignificant processes, would result 
 in such significant reductions in the time and efi^ort 
 of work. No one else has shown Taylor's perse- 
 verance in carrying through a well-defined logical 
 program. Still less have our managers perceived the 
 importance of the cooperation of the workers for 
 obtaining the greatest economy. The social aspects 
 of his success are not sufficiently recognized. Taylor 
 himself places them above the purely technical 
 features. Just a short time ago he expressed himself 
 clearly on this subject to a German visitor. His 
 words follow: 
 
 "These plans for reducing the cost of production 
 will be improved and surpassed by others, primarily 
 through machine technique and also through better 
 ideas of organization; of all these things which 
 to-day we claim as the best obtainable, not one 
 will remain. 
 
 " But one thing will and must remain, and that is 
 the basic idea which guided me, from the very begin- 
 ning, in all my work; namely, the fundamental 
 recognition which alone carries us forward: 
 
 "the earnest and honest EFFORT FOR IMPROVED 
 RELATIONS BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE, 
 THE STRIVING TO ABOLISH THE ANTAGONISM BE- 
 TWEEN THESE TWO FACTIONS — TO THIS WE MUST 
 STEADFASTLY HOLD." 
 
 Such words prove that Taylor sees, in social prog- 
 ress, his greatest success. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 47 
 
 To judge by the numerous statements which have 
 come to me from managers, I cannot conclude that 
 the large majority of these men deny the superiority 
 of Taylor's ideas over established conceptions. We 
 have a sufficient number of men who, free from an 
 exaggerated idea of their own success, wish to make 
 the most of the economic value of this new doctrine. 
 But more difficult to meet is the above mentioned 
 lack of organizers trained in Taylor's ideas. For 
 the improvement of this condition, both public and 
 private bodies should cooperate in the interests of 
 industry and, through special courses of instruction 
 and trips to the United States for study, take steps 
 to build up a suitable force of teachers. 
 
 The systematic training of organizers is quite 
 essential for the following reasons. The develop- 
 ment of scientific management must be undertaken 
 in the factories without disturbance and along with 
 the regular routine work, by a special organizer, 
 not by the manager of the plant. The manager 
 has neither the time nor the thorough knowledge to 
 carry out all the details of study in accordance with 
 the prescribed regulations. The introduction of 
 such a new task requires, therefore, considerable 
 additional work, which primarily has little to do 
 with the process of production; step by step after 
 preparation, the various departments of the shop 
 undergo reorganization. 
 
 All the reports received from German industrial 
 circles of initial experience during introduction are, 
 almost without exception, favorable. As an example 
 I append a report of a firm engaged in the wood 
 industry in the Rhine district: 
 
48 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 "The first test with Taylor's principles was made 
 on a 'Fasson' lathe which turned out large quan- 
 tities of wooden pieces for cabinet makers. A 
 worker on this machine worked at piece work at 
 the rate of three (3) pfennigs per meter, earning 
 at his maximum capacity between 4 and 4.20 marks 
 daily, accomplishing about 130 to 150 meters' work 
 during the same working time. After time studies 
 were taken with a stop watch, it proved that the 
 actual working time was only one-fourth of the 
 total time and that the rest of the time was lost 
 through the sharpening of tools, setting up, repair- 
 ing of belts, bringing of the material, etc. 
 
 "We introduced, first of all, tools of high-speed 
 steel instead of the ordinary kind hitherto used; 
 we replaced the existing bronze bearings with ball 
 bearings, and the ordinary belts with best quality 
 leather belts. The result was remarkable. Al- 
 though the worker was transferred from piece work 
 to day work based on his average daily earnings, 
 he easily produced 300 meters daily. After the 
 introduction of a premium system, based on his daily 
 wage, in a short time he ran up to 400 meters daily. 
 Through further time studies it was then established 
 that the forward and backward run of the machine 
 which heretofore had been done by the workman, 
 could be done automatically, and that during the 
 backward run the next piece of material could be 
 brought up by the workman. The result of these 
 further improvements is the present daily production 
 of at least 550 meters and average earning of about 
 5 marks daily for young workers from 17 to 18 
 years of age, while formerly adults, working to the 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 49 
 
 limit of their endurance, could earn only 4.20 
 marks. 
 
 "As we did not simply pocket as profit the ad- 
 vantage in production so obtained, but reduced 
 correspondingly the selling price, there resulted 
 immediately an increased volume of sales, so that 
 not only was no reduction in working force neces- 
 sary, but on the contrary, the installation of a 
 second and then a third Fasson lathe. 
 
 "To the above mentioned favorable result was 
 added the circumstance that, according to Taylor's 
 doctrine, we took the Fasson lathes at once away 
 from the supervision of the general foreman, and 
 instead we established a functional foreman, whose 
 only duty was to provide the raw material and set 
 up the machines. The above result shows how this 
 unproductive labor paid for itself." 
 
 This report is in many respects very instructive. 
 It shows that in a plant excellently managed accord- 
 ing to ordinary standards, studies made in a small 
 auxiliary department under the inspiration of Taylor's 
 works, and changes made on the basis of these 
 studies, have resulted in surprisingly large economies 
 for the business, and in essentially increased earnings 
 for the workman; this, too, without taking any 
 steps to change the entire organization through 
 especially trained organizers. Naturally in this 
 plant further studies and adjustments will follow 
 until, in the course of years, it can be said that in 
 all respects the standardization of the working proc- 
 esses has been completed. The report shows that 
 where the determination for improvement exists, 
 former shortcomings are quickly found. Without 
 
50 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 exaggeration one can maintain that in all plants 
 like successes in individual cases can be obtained. 
 
 Another report lies before me, from the repair 
 shop of a chemical plant in the south of Germany. 
 Here, to be sure, the work was done by one of the 
 few organizers now living in Germany, who had been 
 trained in one of the Taylor plants in the United 
 States. The success here was in an altogether 
 different field; while in the former instance the 
 improvements were limited principally to an im- 
 provement in method for a work chiefly mechanical, 
 in the chemical plant the success was achieved 
 exclusively by a strictly supervised -preparation and 
 division of the tasks to be done by the repair workers, 
 employed mainly on handwork. A work order in 
 the Taylor sense, heretofore considered impossible, 
 was introduced. This gave to each workman each 
 day a task defined in writing and with only one 
 possible interpretation as to time, nature, and extent. 
 At the same time order in keeping of stores was 
 established according to the Taylor methods. Even 
 in the first year after the introduction, the yearly 
 losses in stores were greatly decreased, and the amount 
 of work accomplished was greatly increased. Great 
 economies were already eff^ected, without any change 
 in the wage system. As is known, Taylor and his 
 followers have obtained the greatest increase in 
 production through changing the wage system in 
 such a way that the workman, on accomplishing the 
 tasks in the prescribed time, receives a considerable 
 increase in wage. 
 
 The workmen pay no attention to the time limit 
 if the incentive of increased wages does not impel 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR §1 
 
 them to it. The use of such wage systems as 
 increase the desire to accompUsh the task can, how- 
 ever, be successful only when a strictly regulated 
 scheduling of order of work, of moving of material, 
 and of maintenance of standards, etc., has been put 
 through. So far as I know, no plant in Germany 
 has yet reached this stage ; but from previous obser- 
 vations I do not doubt that we shall ultimately do 
 so. In one department of a large Berlin machine 
 shop the men no longer object as they have hereto- 
 fore to the exact measurement by the stop watch 
 of the working time of the best workmen for the 
 purpose of determining a just piece rate. They 
 have recognized this method as just and, since the 
 introduction of this strictly controlled management, 
 they have drawn essentially higher wages, averaging 
 90 pfennigs per hour. Of course the stop watch 
 can be used only openly for the measuring of the 
 working time, any underhanded methods being 
 rightly subject to deep mistrust. And you must 
 not call it the "Taylor System," the worker's press 
 having frequently warned against this system and 
 the workers themselves repeatedly been urged to 
 resist every attempt at its introduction. 
 
 It will be seen, from these reports, that Taylor's 
 ideas have found fertile ground here in Germany. 
 The great European war has been an obstacle in the 
 development of this as in so many other relations. 
 Nevertheless, I am fully convinced that after peace 
 is proclaimed, which, let us hope, will be soon, 
 Taylor's stimulation will be felt again in Germany 
 with redoubled force — to bless a favorable economic 
 development and to better the lot of the workman. 
 
APPRECIATION OF MR. FREDERICK 
 W. TAYLOR 
 
 BY PROFESSOR J. J. SEDERHOLM 
 
 THE most memorable event during my three 
 months traveling in North America was 
 undoubtedly my meeting with Mr. Taylor. 
 It was so, both because I personally admired him 
 so much, and because I think that his teachings are 
 exactly what we want in my country, Finland. 
 
 I can add nothing to the characteristics of his 
 personality, and should I speak of the kindness 
 with which he offered me his help, I should have 
 only to describe what all of his friends have expe- 
 rienced. Let me therefore restrict myself to con- 
 sidering what benefit my own country may be 
 expected to reap from his influence. 
 
 As is well known, the struggle for existence 
 between the nations of Europe is very keen both 
 politically and economically. The small nations in 
 particular are forced to strain all their efforts in 
 order not to be overwhelmed or left behind. 
 
 It is therefore simply a necessity for us to learn 
 from every nation, appropriating the best which 
 they have to offer. Personally I think that we have 
 especially much to learn from the United States. 
 Of this I may mention an instance, rather trivial 
 in itself, but significant. When our sportsmen 
 formed the ambitious plan that Finland should beat. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 53 
 
 at the last Olympian games, as many of the other 
 countries as possible, they took their training 
 methods from America. The result was that little 
 Finland became the fourth country of the world in 
 this international sporting contest, ranking next to 
 the United States, Sweden, and England, and beat- 
 ing Germany, France and other large countries. 
 
 Now I think that in all kinds of human industry 
 we also ought to learn from the Americans how to 
 "go ahead," hoping for a similar success if we do so. 
 
 The Taylor System is to Europe not only "an 
 American lesson," it is the American lesson. It is 
 true that I have read in a foreign newspaper an article 
 about it, full of misrepresentations, in which it 
 was styled "false Americanism." To me, on the 
 contrary, it is the very essence of good Americanism. 
 
 We have, in most countries of Europe, enough of 
 strong and industrious laborers, but much work is 
 here going on with an exasperating inefficiency. 
 Remember that Finland lies in the same latitude 
 as Greenland, a circumstance which accounts suffi- 
 ciently for a good deal of dullness. When our people 
 go to America, they are stimulated and work very 
 differently, but when they return it is not long before 
 they revert to earlier habits. 
 
 The Taylor System enables us to introduce Ameri- 
 can briskness in every field of human industry in 
 Europe. 
 
 In my youth I read, with much pleasure, the book 
 of Laboulaye, "Paris in America." Now we want 
 another thing, which might be properly called " Phil- 
 adelphia in Europe." Every workshop in Europe 
 where the Taylor methods are introduced is like a 
 
54 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 little Taylor-Philadelphia, an American colony, 
 founded by the followers of Mr. Taylor. 
 
 There we will learn how to work with American 
 quickness and efficiency. But, as is well known, 
 the Taylor System is not at all a method of "speed- 
 ing up." It is a system of working intelligently, 
 with spared effort, and it offers to everybody taking 
 part in the work advantages unheard of before. 
 Therefore, every "Philadelphia in Europe" may also, 
 in accordance with the literal meaning of the name 
 of the Quaker City, be called a "fraternity," a 
 "brother loving community." Every workshop 
 where the Taylor System is used is a place where 
 men work in harmony, in conjoint effort, to mutual 
 benefit, and more intelligently than ever before. 
 
 This we regard to be the great discovery of Mr. 
 Taylor, that he has found the necessity of using 
 much more brains than before in managing industries 
 and, in general, all human work. His scheme seems 
 to be as simple and obvious as the famous egg of 
 Columbus, but it is, however, in most fields an 
 innovation. 
 
 Last winter when I was alternately lecturing on 
 the Taylor System and the Evolution of the Animal 
 World, I was struck by a curious analogy. In the 
 history of the earth, it was only at a late date that 
 nature discovered the usefulness of large brains. 
 The monster reptiles of the Mesozoic era had only 
 minute brains in their gigantic bodies. Still at the 
 eve of the Tertiary era mammals with the size of 
 our cattle had brains as small as a walnut, and it 
 was not until the end of that era that the brains 
 attained their present size. This development reached 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR ^^ 
 
 its climax in Man, Homo Sapiens, the animal with 
 brains, who, on account of his intellect, became the 
 master of the earth. 
 
 Industry has still to learn the same lesson. It has 
 not yet advanced beyond the Mesozoic stage, but 
 the time will soon come when people will regard 
 shops without a planning department of sufficient 
 size, shops where hundreds of laborers are managed 
 by half a dozen of engineers and foremen, with the 
 same wonder as is felt by us when we look at the 
 skeleton of a Diplodocus Carnegie with its gigantic 
 body and almost microscopical brain. And when 
 that time arrives, then everybody will also recognize 
 the greatness of Frederick Winslow Taylor, the 
 discoverer of the simple truth that large brains are 
 necessary in industries and, in general, for managing 
 all kinds of human labor. 
 
BY CARL G. BARTH 
 
 WHILE I made Mr. Taylor's personal 
 acquaintance at least as far back as the 
 year 1884, while working for William 
 Sellers & Co. of this city as a draftsman, and as such 
 occasionally had to do with the working up of some of 
 his ideas for the improvement of machine tools, it 
 was not until the summer of the year 1899 that I 
 became associated with him at the works of the 
 Bethlehem Steel Co., an association which continued 
 uninterruptedly until his death, nearly sixteen years. 
 
 But while therefore, abstractly, in a better posi- 
 tion than anybody else to give an account of his 
 work and influence during this period of his life, I 
 am by temperament, and by lack of education along 
 certain lines, anything but fitted for such a task in 
 a manner befitting an occasion like this. Besides, 
 the time allotted is too short for this. What I 
 can say will therefore be of a fragmentary nature 
 only, and principally intended to give a little in- 
 sight into Mr. Taylor's great character, as I learned 
 to view it in my association with him. 
 
 When Mr. Taylor began the original work that 
 finally culminated in a complete system of scientific 
 management for industrial establishments, he had 
 no idea of what he was steering towards. The 
 difficulties that first beset him in his career as a 
 leader of men, led him to believe that most of them 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 57 
 
 would disappear if he could find some scientific 
 way of predetermining the time it should take to 
 do a given piece of work in a machine tool, such as 
 a lathe or a planer. However, it took him and his 
 several associates a period of some eighteen years 
 before this problem was even theoretically solved 
 to his satisfaction, and still, odd as it seems, the 
 solution effected is to-day almost forgotten, in 
 view of the many other problems that beset the 
 management of an industrial institution, for which 
 Mr. Taylor has also ofi^ered such eminently satis- 
 factory solutions along scientific lines. 
 
 However, when 1 joined Mr. Taylor at Bethlehem, 
 it was for the express purpose of assisting him in the 
 solution of this, his original pet problem; and I 
 shall never forget the intense delight evinced by Mr. 
 Taylor on the morning of a certain day when I was 
 able to hand him an empirical mathematical formula 
 representing the results obtained by a set of experi- 
 ments made in metal cutting with high-speed tools 
 of his and Mr. White's renowned make, which was 
 at once recognized as the beginning of a better way 
 of attacking the problem than anything previously 
 brought to light. 
 
 The fact that the work was not his own did not 
 in the least detract from his satisfaction. Great 
 soul that he was, it did not matter to him whence 
 the solution came, — his efforts for so many years 
 seemed finally likely of being crowned with success, 
 and that was all he cared for. 
 
 It was a few months later that the final solution 
 of this problem enabled Mr. Taylor's task system, in 
 conjunction with Mr. Gantt's bonus, as a substi- 
 
58 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 tute for Mr. Taylor's differential piece rates, to be 
 instituted at Bethlehem. Inside of a comparatively- 
 short time this led to that most astonishing increase 
 in production, which at the time was the wonder of 
 all visitors to the works, and which was partly due 
 to the high speed tools, and partly to the scientific 
 methods employed in their use on machines that 
 had been rebuilt and respeeded to meet the new condi- 
 tions, in connection with the reward to the workmen 
 who properly cooperated in the whole matter. 
 
 My first visit with Mr. Taylor at Bethlehem 
 for the purpose of discussing a possible engagement 
 happened to be on a day that certain yard laborers, 
 who were to be put on piece rates, threatened to 
 strike. Word to that effect reached Mr. Taylor 
 during our interview, but while it is impossible to 
 believe that it did not inwardly affect him, he did 
 not betray the slightest perturbance and completed 
 his interview with me as if nothing had happened. 
 I will add that I learned later that the strike did 
 not take place. 
 
 While Mr. Taylor at times was a very exacting 
 master, and at all times demanded that every sub- 
 ordinate do his full duty, he was also so high minded 
 that he readily took a reprimand from a subordinate. 
 I shall thus never forget the fine manner in which 
 he once took a most rude reminder from myself, and I 
 cannot refrain from the temptation to tell the story. 
 
 I was in his office waiting ifor his attention, when a 
 captain of the army, who was stationed at Bethle- 
 hem as head inspector for the Ordnance Department, 
 brought in a certain colonel from the Watervliet 
 Arsenal, to renew a former acquaintance, with Mr. 
 
FREDERICK WINSL OW TAYLOR 59 
 
 Taylor. All three gentlemen were enthusiastic 
 golfers, so that the conversation soon turned to this 
 subject, which was kept up, not only until the colonel 
 had been escorted to his carriage, but long after Mr. 
 Taylor and the captain had returned to the office, 
 where by this time some three other subordinates, 
 besides myself, were waiting to see Mr. Taylor. I 
 finally got so impatient that I broke in on the two 
 gentlemen with a: "Hang your golf talk, gentlemen, 
 it has lasted long enough. I am here to do business 
 and want attention." 
 
 The effect of this was about the same as a thunder- 
 bolt from a clear sky, and sent the captain out of the 
 door and Mr. Taylor back to his desk, where I sat 
 down with him to transact the business in hand. 
 Before starting in, however, I felt that a humble 
 apology for my extreme rudeness was in order, but 
 Mr. Taylor waived it aside by a most kindly pat on 
 my back, at the same time saying, "Mr. Barth, it 
 is all right. There are times when it is a subordi- 
 nate's duty to call a superior's attention to his duty, 
 and that is all you did." I can recall a number of 
 superiors I have had in the past, that would have all 
 but fired me, if they had been in Mr. Taylor's place. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest lesson taught some of us 
 by Mr. Taylor, is the value of confidence in general 
 principles and general experiences. 
 
 I have thus never forgotten the absolute confidence 
 with which he some twelve years ago assured a 
 certain prominent manufacturer that the recent 
 favorable reports the latter had received about 
 greatly improved conditions in a plant in another 
 city in which he was interested, could not represent 
 
6o FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 the facts; it would, he said, in the very nature 
 of the conditions that were known to have existed 
 there a few months earUer, take almost as many 
 years to bring about the alleged improvements. 
 This subsequently proved to be the case. 
 
 His faith in scientific methods and the immutable- 
 ness of natural laws and general principles, he only 
 shared, of course, with numberless scientists of his 
 day, but as a practical engineer and manager he 
 had had experiences that do not come within the 
 range of the professional scientist. 
 
 Another of Mr. Taylor's most striking character- 
 istics was his great appreciation of those of his 
 superiors of former times who had taught him 
 valuable lessons. For some of those he did not 
 entertain a high general regard, — but with a fine 
 discrimination he would laud the good he had seen 
 in them, and draw his lesson from it. And as regards 
 seeing the good in other people, the development of 
 his character, as I had the rare opportunity to notice 
 it, resembled what I once heard a lecturer say about 
 Abraham Lincoln. "His heart grew more and 
 more tender as the years went by, until just before 
 his death he was ever ready to see excuses for the 
 behavior of even those of his disciples who were not 
 as loyal as they might be to the great ideals for which 
 he had worked so faithfully and disinterestedly." 
 
 Great was his work viewed from only the material 
 side: greater, by far, were the ideals that prompted 
 it, and which he left to sustain us, as they did him, 
 through the numerous difficulties, large and small, 
 which the practical continuation of his work carries 
 with it. 
 
BY HENRY L. GANTT 
 
 IT was my good fortune to be associated with 
 Frederick Winslow Taylor when, as a young 
 man, he was developing those characteristics 
 that were to make him famous. 
 
 His reputation does not depend upon the fact 
 that he designed and built the most successful big 
 steam hammer in the world, or that he developed a 
 method of treating tool steel that trebled its cutting 
 power, or that he determined the laws of cutting 
 metals, or even that he was the father of scientific 
 management. These were incidents in his career, 
 and only the logical results of his methods. At an 
 early date he realized how much of the world's 
 work was based on precedent or opinion, and under- 
 took to base all his actions on knowledge and fact. 
 
 Endowed naturally with untiring energy and a 
 wonderfully analytical mind, he concentrated all 
 the power of that combination on the problem of 
 determining the facts he needed. He was interested 
 in what had been done mainly for the indication it 
 gave of what could be done. His mind was con- 
 tinually on the future, and to him the great value 
 of knowledge was that it enabled him to anticipate 
 that future. Accurate in his calculations and logi- 
 cal in his conclusions, he never failed to put his 
 trust in the results of his investigations, and often 
 
62 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 accomplished what was considered by others to be 
 impossible. Indeed it was those problems that had 
 been given up by others as impossible of exact 
 solution that it was his delight to attack, and it is 
 surprising to how many of them he found that 
 solution. 
 
 Balked at the outset of his career as foreman of 
 the machine shop of the Midvale Steel Company 
 by the lack of knowledge of cutting steel which then 
 existed, he set himself the task of suppyling that 
 lack. The first three years were spent in finding out 
 how to study the problem; and, although the work 
 was not completed for over twenty years, it is a 
 fact that when I entered his employ in 1887 the 
 fundamental laws had already been approximately 
 determined. Subsequent investigations served to 
 confirm what had been done and to correct minor 
 inaccuracies. 
 
 At Bethlehem he became so interested in deter- 
 mining these laws exactly, that it is doubtful if 
 he ever realized how wonderfully accurate his earlier 
 results really were. To be sure, much more ground 
 was covered in the subsequent work, but as an in- 
 vestigation into the laws of cutting metals, his work 
 as a young man at the Midvale Steel Works stands 
 out, to my mind, as far the more remarkable achieve- 
 ment. In his subsequent work he followed strictly 
 the methods he had previously perfected. 
 
 One of the by-products of this investigation was 
 the discovery of the Taylor- White process of treat- 
 ing high-speed steel, the far reaching effect of which 
 has not only not yet been realized, but cannot be 
 until all the other problems entering into machine 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 63 
 
 shop management have been given the same kind 
 of study as has been given the cutting of metals. 
 
 The least heard of, but, to my mind, his most 
 daring feat, was the design of the great hammer of 
 the Midvale Steel Co., which kept its alignment 
 by the elasticity of its parts which yielded to the 
 force of a foul blow and returned exactly to their 
 former position. Dependence upon the principle of 
 elasticity enabled him to build a hammer which, 
 for its weight, had far greater power than any other 
 hammer that had ever been built. All previous 
 hammers of this class had been designed to keep their 
 alignment by great mass and stiffness, and it took 
 a bold man to throw precedent aside when the stake 
 was such a large one. I do not know of any more 
 daring or successful piece of engineering construction. 
 
 The fact that he became a pioneer in another 
 field is not surprising, for he was destined to be a 
 leader in whatever field his activities took him. 
 
 It seems quite likely that if he had adhered to 
 what was then known as strictly engineering, he 
 would have made even a greater reputation than he 
 achieved in the field of management. 
 
 The work by which he is best known, however, is 
 not what was then regarded as strictly engineering. 
 Strange as it may seem, although much knowledge 
 and thought had been devoted to the design of ma- 
 chinery and apparatus, but little study had been 
 given to the possibilities of the men who were to 
 operate that machinery. Even to this day many 
 engineers consider their work done when they have 
 designed and built and demonstrated the possi- 
 bilities of a piece of apparatus. They seem to feel 
 
64 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 that the efficient operation of it is not in their prov- 
 ince. Mr. Taylor felt otherwise. To him perfec- 
 tion in design was worthless without efficiency in 
 operation, and at an early date he turned his atten- 
 tion to the efficient utilization of human effort. 
 
 In this work he used the same method that had 
 already brought him success, namely, to disregard 
 opinions, from whatever source, unless substan- 
 tiated by facts. Where facts were not available, 
 and they seldom were, he used the scientific method 
 for their determination. 
 
 When I went to the Midvale Steel Works in 1887, 
 he had already made considerable progress in this 
 work, and had fully developed the methods of detail 
 analysis and study which later became the origin 
 of scientific management. 
 
 He recognized as an economic as well as an ethical 
 fact, that the employer should always consider the 
 interests of the employee. Endowed with vast 
 energy and great ability to work, he recognized 
 the advantage such qualities would be to others, 
 and off^ered high wages to those who would develop 
 them. That he was correct is shown by the remark- 
 able success which has been attained by all who 
 profited by his training. 
 
 If I were asked to point out his most prominent 
 characteristic, I should say that it was his ability 
 to prosecute the task he had set himself regardless 
 of the lack of sympathy of his friends and the criti- 
 cism of his enemies. Having determined on a course 
 of action he pursued it regardless of consequences; 
 and inasmuch as such courses were planned by a 
 clear head and followed with an iron will, he often 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 65 
 
 accomplished results far in excess of what even his 
 most earnest supporters thought possible. 
 
 To end here would not complete our picture. He 
 was not the steam roller that some people like to 
 represent him, but he did believe that a strenuous 
 life was the life worth while, and that it not only- 
 brought more financial compensation, but that it 
 added to the usefulness and happiness of men. He 
 believed : 
 
 "That when the day is over and your work is all well done, 
 That when the campaign's ended, that when the battle's 
 
 won, 
 Then friendship keen, and memory of many happy days 
 Bring the glorious satisfaction that a life of action pays." 
 
 He had still another side: People said he made 
 work of his play. True, work was his joy. Not 
 the routine that could be done by anybody, but the 
 work that others had been unable to do. An un- 
 solved problem was a constant challenge to him, and 
 he attacked it with a thoroughness and an eagerness 
 that it is hard to comprehend. The fact that for 
 several years he continually worked at problems 
 that brought him no financial return, is evidence 
 that he had reached the stage when — 
 
 "We shall work for an age at a sitting. 
 
 And never be tired at all; 
 And no one shall work for money. 
 
 And no one shall work for fame; 
 But each for the joy of working. 
 
 And only the Master shall praise. 
 
 And only the Master shall blame." 
 
STAGES BETWEEN MIDVALE AND 
 BETHLEHEM 
 
 BY SANFORD E. THOMPSON 
 
 THERE stands out vividly in my mind an 
 occasion some twenty-five years ago when 
 a messenger pulled me out of bed at three 
 o'clock one winter morning to go down to the pulp 
 mill. I was met there by Mr. Taylor. " Mr. Thomp- 
 son, I told you to have an idler built for every belt 
 in this mill. Why was this not done? I don't 
 want any excuses — I won't have any excuses — 
 why wasn't it done?" This was one of my first 
 lessons in the training which every man received 
 who came under Mr. Taylor's direction in those 
 days. Over and over again we would hear the 
 requirement to "Get there. It doesn't make any 
 difference how you get there, but get there." And 
 again, "Don't wait for anything." And we mar- 
 veled and still marvel how he could remember the 
 numerous instructions he gave us all and call us to 
 account in his extraordinarily emphatic manner for 
 the least omission. 
 
 My personal friendship with Mr. Taylor really 
 began as a result of my insistence on repeating a 
 certain unsatisfactory test. This test required some 
 forty hours of continuous application. Mr. Taylor 
 was always on the lookout for traits in others which 
 embraced this principle of carrying a thing through 
 to its conclusion. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 67 
 
 It was always his plan to establish system even in 
 details. He would say, "If a belt breaks once, it 
 is excusable. If the same belt breaks again from 
 the same cause it is absolutely inexcusable. A 
 routine plan of inspection or repairs should have 
 been adopted to prevent the second break." And 
 is not this one explanation for his various accom- 
 plishments? His numerous patents, his exhaustive 
 researches, his individual attainments in many 
 fields, all had the express purpose of overcoming 
 some practical difficulty by improving the method 
 so as to prevent recurrence. 
 
 This energy and thoroughness characterized his 
 services as general manager of two large sulphite 
 pulp mills, one of them in Maine and the other in 
 Wisconsin, during the years 1888 to 1893. 
 
 He was selected for this position when in Midvale 
 by a group of capitalists who, as government officials 
 in the War Department, had noted Mr. Taylor's 
 accomplishments in the manufacture of war materials 
 at Midvale. In the construction of the mills he 
 introduced large quantities of special machinery 
 which he designed himself. Here, as elsewhere, he 
 considered not the question of whether a certain 
 thing had been used before, but he was always 
 seeking out a method or a machine which would 
 accomplish the work in hand regardless of precedent. 
 
 In one of the pulp mills he applied piece work 
 to all the complicated operations of manufacture 
 by his method of elementary rate fixing, and this 
 resulted within 18 months in doubling the output. 
 
 Leaving this company in 1893, he devoted his time 
 for the next ten years to the introduction of book- 
 
68 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 keeping and of management methods into various 
 plants in the East and Central West. 
 
 This period, from the time of leaving Midvale 
 until he completed his work at South Bethlehem, 
 was in a sense the most important of his life. During 
 this time, as a result of his practical contact with 
 managers and workingmen, he developed the prin- 
 ciples which have been designated and accepted as 
 scientific management. 
 
 Coming from Midvale, we recognize the compe- 
 tent, hustling, able, inventive engineer. In his 
 notable paper, "A Piece Rate System," read before 
 the Mechanical Engineers in 1895, we find the first 
 presentation of what he then termed "elementary 
 rate fixing," that is, the determination of the proper 
 time for doing a piece of work by unit time study. 
 But we find in this paper scarcely a reference to 
 the broader subject of management or scientific 
 standardization. 
 
 In his paper, "Notes on Belting," however, pre- 
 sented two years earlier, in 1893, the principles of 
 standardization and of scientific research are clearly 
 brought out in the development of definite laws, 
 and of a definite system for handling the complex 
 problem of belting — the adoption of the scientific 
 method — the method which eliminates from a test 
 all variables but one, the method which develops 
 a problem step by step until the attainment of 
 definite laws. 
 
 The principle of unit times, which is now recog- 
 nized as forming the basis for the accurate analysis 
 of labor operations, was completely developed while 
 at Midvale. During that same period also were made 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 69 
 
 the belting tests and the beginning of various other 
 researches aiming toward standardization of methods. 
 
 Not, however, until the publication of "Shop 
 Management" in 1903, is seen the development of 
 the complete system based not on theory, not on 
 opinion, but as a result of this broad experience in 
 operation gained by his contact with manufacturing 
 plants all over the country. 
 
 In other words, he discovered as a result of his 
 work — a fact probably not yet fully appreciated 
 even by some of you here to-day — that, in order 
 to carry on these fundamental principles of ele- 
 mentary rate fixing, of unit times, there must be 
 embraced a comprehensive plan of organization, 
 a plan which includes the establishment of func- 
 tional management, with its planning, its routing, 
 its inspecting, and its training of employees, and 
 above all, with its scientific analysis of labor and 
 machine operations for the purpose of standardiza- 
 tion of materials and methods. 
 
 As I said, at the beginning of this period we have 
 the able engineer : at the close of this period we find 
 the scientist, the man who has worked out, years in 
 advance of his time, the application of science to 
 the cutting of metals and the application of science 
 to industrial management. 
 
 In 1894, while he was engaged in this introduction 
 of management methods, Mr. Taylor proposed that 
 I take up with him an analysis of work in the build- 
 ing trades with a view to publishing unit costs of 
 various kinds of construction work. This has 
 resulted in the publication of the books "Concrete, 
 Plain and Reinforced" and "Concrete Costs," and 
 
70 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 material for other works on earthwork, carpentry, 
 etc., is nearly ready for publication. 
 
 In this writing of books we find the same fidelity 
 to standards. He made up his mind as a result 
 of examination of facts that a thing should be done 
 in a certain way, and in that way it must be done. 
 While Mr. Taylor did comparatively little in the 
 direct preparation of these books, their success is 
 due to Taylor principles. Adopt standards — pre- 
 sent simple, clear-cut conclusions — give conclusions 
 at the beginning of every discussion. And it is 
 interesting to learn that these principles are being 
 accepted at the present time in engineering reports 
 and technical writing as a result of a precedent thus 
 established. 
 
 At the time of beginning this work I made my 
 first visit to Mr. Taylor's early home — a quiet 
 mansion located on Ross St., Germantown. I had 
 the great privilege of meeting his father and mother, 
 an accomplished gentleman and a gentlewoman of 
 the type rarely met with in the younger generations 
 — in a home where the refinement of the family 
 life was marked. It had been the desire of these 
 parents to give the son in his young days a broad 
 education. He spent three years, from his thirteenth 
 to his sixteenth year, in Europe, traveling and study- 
 ing music, art, and language. It is suggested that his 
 acquaintance with the beauties of the Alpine passes 
 developed a love of nature which found expression 
 in his design and layout of the Boxly Estate. 
 
 It was during this association with him that I came 
 to understand his real character. Before this I was 
 a little in doubt as to what was the real Taylor — 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 7I 
 
 whether he was essentially the taskmaster that he 
 sometimes .appeared, that he seemed to be when he 
 would require the attainment of the apparently 
 insurmountable, when he hauled us over the coals 
 as man never did before. But I soon learned to dis- 
 tinguish the man himself from certain qualities that 
 were not really traits but were simply acquired by 
 him in his usual thorough and scientific manner 
 because he saw that at certain times and under 
 specific conditions a special plan of action, a special 
 policy, a special manner of speech was necessary in 
 order to train his subordinates or in order to accom- 
 plish his purpose. Always underneath was the 
 generosity, courtesy, tenderness, loyalty to friends 
 and subordinates, readiness to appreciate and com- 
 mend, absolute fairness. He went into everything 
 he undertook a little farther — often immeasurably 
 farther — than anyone else had gone before. As 
 one of his Midvale associates said to me, "Taylor 
 is all right except that he is a generation ahead of 
 his times." That remark was made more than 
 twenty years ago, and the industrial world is gradu- 
 ally growing up to the level then already attained 
 by him. 
 
 Throughout my association with Mr. Taylor that 
 which stands out most clearly is the definite accom- 
 plishment of purpose, not by brute force, not by the 
 temporary and physical means of sheer weight or 
 numbers, not of the type of ability which built the 
 pyramids, but of the type which produced the accu- 
 rate mechanism of the watch — the adherence to the 
 scientific method, the appreciation of the establish- 
 ment of standards. 
 
BY LOUIS D. BRANDEIS 
 
 AMIDST our rejoicing over the achievements 
 of this great man comes one regret. Those 
 for whom he labored most, the working 
 people, are not represented at this meeting. 
 
 It was Taylor's purpose to make the laborer 
 worthy of his hire ; to make the hire worthy of the 
 laborer; to make the standard of living and the 
 conditions of working worthy to be called American. 
 The American standard of living implies a wage 
 adequate for proper housing and food and clothing, 
 for proper education and recreation, and for insur- 
 ance against those contingencies of sickness, accident, 
 unemployment, premature death or superannua- 
 tion, which fall so heavily upon the working classes. 
 That standard implies hours of labor sufficiently 
 short to permit those who work to perform also their 
 duties as citizens and to share in the enjoyment of 
 life. That standard implies postponement of the 
 working period to an age which enables the child 
 to develop into a rounded man or woman. That 
 standard implies working conditions which are not 
 only consistent with the demands of health and 
 safety, but are also such as may make work for 
 others what it was for Taylor — the greatest of 
 life's joys. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 73 
 
 Taylor recognized that in order to make such a 
 standard of living and of working attainable the 
 productivity of man must be greatly increased; 
 that waste must be eliminated, and particularly the 
 waste of effort which bears so heavily upon the 
 worker. And yet the man who sought so to develop 
 industry as to enable labor to reach these higher 
 standards of working and of living met, throughout 
 his life, widespread opposition from those whom he 
 sought particularly to help. Let all who are under- 
 taking to carry forward his work recognize this 
 hostility as a fact of fundamental importance; for 
 it presents the main problem which confronts scien- 
 tific management. 
 
 The causes of this hostility are twofold : 
 
 First: Only a part of the necessary industrial 
 truths have been as yet developed. 
 
 Second: The necessary assent to the application 
 of these truths has not been obtained. 
 
 Taylor was a great scientist. He established cer- 
 tain truths, fundamental in their nature. But he 
 obviously covered only a part of the field of inquiry. 
 The truths he discovered must be further developed 
 and they must be supplemented by, and adjusted 
 to, other truths. The greater productivity of labor 
 must be not only attainable, but attainable under 
 conditions consistent with the conservation of health, 
 the enjoyment of work, and the development of the 
 individual. The facts in this regard have not been 
 adequately established. In the task of ascertaining 
 whether proposed conditions of work do conform 
 to these requirements, the laborer himself should 
 take part. He is indeed a necessary witness. Like- 
 
74 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 wise, in the task of determining whether in the dis- 
 tribution of the gain in productivity, justice is being 
 done to the worker, the participation of representa- 
 tives of labor is indispensable for the inquiry which 
 involves essentially the exercise of judgment. 
 
 Furthermore, those who undertake to apply the 
 truths which Taylor disclosed must remember that 
 in a democracy it is not sufficient to have discovered 
 an industrial truth, or even the whole truth. Such 
 truth can rule only when accompanied by the con- 
 sent of men. 
 
 We who have had occasion to consider the hos- 
 tility of labor leaders to the introduction of scientific 
 management know that the hostility has in large 
 measure been due to misunderstanding. Much of 
 all the waste which Taylor undertook to eliminate 
 has no direct relation to the specific functions of the 
 workingman. It deals with waste in machinery, in 
 supplies, in planning, in adjustment of production 
 and distribution — matters in which changes cannot 
 possibly affect the workman injuriously. And yet 
 we found in many leaders of labor undiscriminating 
 opposition to the whole of the so-called Taylor 
 system. But even if we succeed through education 
 in eliminating the general hostility to the introduc- 
 tion of scientific management in departments of the 
 business which do not directly affect labor, there 
 will remain a wide field where the proposed changes 
 do directly affect labor in which there is determined 
 opposition. This opposition can be overcome only 
 through securing the affirmative cooperation of the 
 labor organizations. In a democratic community 
 men who are to be affected by a proposed change 
 
RFDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 75 
 
 of conditions should be consulted, and the inno- 
 vators must carry the burden of convincing others 
 at each stage in the process of change that what is 
 being done is right. Labor must have throughout 
 an opportunity of testing whether that which is 
 being recorded as a truth is really a truth, and 
 whether it is the whole truth. Labor must not only 
 be convinced of the industrial truths — which sci- 
 entific management is disclosing — but must also 
 be convinced that those truths are consistent with 
 what may be termed human truths. Is the greater 
 productivity attained clearly consistent with the 
 health of the body, the mind, and the soul of the 
 worker? Is it consistent with industrial freedom.? 
 Is it consistent with greater joy in work, and gen- 
 erally in living.? These are questions which must 
 be answered in the affirmative, and to the satisfac- 
 tion, not of a few, merely, but of the majority of 
 those to be affected. 
 
 To do honor to Mr. Taylor and worthily to carry 
 forward his work, those who are his disciples and 
 those who may become such should recognize that 
 they have in the solution of these questions a call 
 upon them for patient effort no less exacting and 
 severe than that to which Taylor subjected himself 
 when pursuing the law of cutting of steel. Every 
 step in the installation and the working out of scien- 
 tific management calls for such cooperation by 
 representatives of labor. The obstacles to securing 
 it are great. Twenty-five years may be required to 
 remove them fully. But whatever the time required 
 to fully convince organized labor, it must be given, 
 if our work is to be well done. The consent and the 
 
76 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 cooperation of the worker so represented must be 
 secured. In no other way can we attain in full 
 measure the increase of productivity upon which 
 our well-being so largely depends. In no other way 
 can we secure that joy in work without which in- 
 crease of productivity will not bring greater happi- 
 ness. In no other way can we attain that freedom 
 and development of the worker without which even 
 his greater happiness would not promote the general 
 welfare. Let us work unremittingly in the spirit of 
 Taylor to solve the problem he left unsolved. In 
 the solution of that problem — which in a true 
 sense is the labor problem — the greatest honor 
 will be done to his memory and the greatest service 
 to mankind. 
 
BY JAMES M. DODGE 
 
 IN life he was ready at all times to explain and 
 to defend the ideals and inspiration he be- 
 queathed to us, gathered from that great inex- 
 haustible source of inspiration, the wisdom of the 
 universe, and in these he was fearless, untiring, just, 
 and considerate. To those seeking knowledge he 
 was kind and fraternal; to those asking for under- 
 standing and opportunity he was generous and 
 sympathetic; to those upon whom he bestowed his 
 affection and friendship he was all that a man could 
 be. No one having talked with him or seriously 
 having inquired into his work could possibly have 
 had the slightest doubt of his honesty and earnest- 
 ness. The greatness of the legacy he left us is 
 attested by its expanding development and augmen- 
 tation in value. He gave it to us freely, without 
 restricting clauses or perplexing codicils. The wills 
 of men inscribed on parchment may be broken and 
 the fancied hopes of the testator frustrated through 
 legal quibble based upon trifling errors; but the in- 
 tellectual will of Dr. Frederick Winslow Taylor, 
 devising to all mankind the results of his lifework, 
 can never be broken, because he has inscribed him- 
 self upon earnest, thankful, and affectionate hearts 
 by his priceless bequests to all of us. Thus we may 
 have no hesitation in saying, take him for all in all, 
 "we shall not look upon his like again." 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 AT MR. TAYLOR'S HOME, " BOXLY,' 
 
 CHESTNUT HILL, PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 PA., OCTOBER 23. 191 5 
 
BY ADMIRAL CHAUNCEY F. GOODRICH 
 
 IT would be sheer presumption on the part of a 
 plain sailor to add to the glowing eulogies pro- 
 nounced last night on the character and achieve- 
 ments of Mr. Taylor by men whose knowledge of 
 their subjects and intimate relations with him are 
 only rivaled by the eloquence of their tributes. 
 
 Bear with me for a few moments and pardon, I 
 pray you, the necessarily personal nature of my 
 remarks while I touch briefly upon certain of 
 Mr. Taylor's services to the National Government, 
 some of which are known to but few individuals, 
 hardly a dozen in all. 
 
 Although I had met him in 1885, it was not until 
 1889 that I became closely connected with him 
 under the circumstances referred to by Mr. Thomp- 
 son last evening. Out of this association grew a 
 friendship only terminated by Mr. Taylor's death. 
 
 I venture to call it intimate, although it is quite 
 possible that, through pride, I use too strong a 
 term. At least it gave me the courage to go to him 
 for help when there fell to my lot to discharge as 
 difficult and vexatious a duty as can well be ima- 
 gined. Yet this duty was of my own seeking. Why.? 
 You may well ask. 
 
 The answer is that it involved a great work and 
 countless knotty problems which to do and to solve 
 offered an opportunity to benefit the Navy, to which 
 
82 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 I have devoted practically all of my life and surely 
 all of my best thought and most earnest endeavor. 
 
 Huge as were the obstacles in the path, I felt con- 
 fident that with Mr. Taylor's wise counsel and vast 
 experience at my disposition a start at least might 
 be made. 
 
 In 1907 I was sent to the New York Navy Yard 
 as Commandant, to find an industrial situation which 
 beggars description. Within the yard walls were no 
 less than five separate, distinct, unrelated plants, each 
 seeking to be wholly sufficient in itself. Each 
 plant was subject to orders from one of the divisions 
 of the Navy Departmerit known as "Bureaux" — 
 which avoided as far as possible even calling upon 
 another Bureau's plant for assistance. When I 
 say that there were five blacksmith shops, five car- 
 penter shops, five pattern shops, five sets of machine 
 shops, etc., and that in substantially every case one 
 shop could do all the work of the yard, I shall have 
 given you a glimpse at the situation. Here was a 
 chance to effect enormous economies through the 
 obvious course of consolidating all work of one 
 kind under one roof and suppressing plants not 
 actually needed. 
 
 Naturally I turned to Mr. Taylor for advice — 
 freely given. And I may say here that I never ven- 
 tured to suggest to the Navy Department any change 
 or reform until the whole matter was threshed out 
 between him and me. 
 
 It was some time before the first move was made, 
 because I wished first to acquaint myself thoroughly 
 with the conditions and not — so to speak — go off 
 at halfcock. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 83 
 
 At once I discovered that the time I needed for 
 personal investigation was denied me by the absurd 
 regulation which required all official correspondence 
 to pass through my hands. Even the heads of yard 
 departments were forbidden to communicate di- 
 rectly with each other. Soon after assuming com- 
 mand of the yard I read a letter somewhat to this 
 effect: "For the information of the Equipment 
 Officer the Naval Constructor reports that steam 
 launch #269 is ready to receive its wheel ropes." 
 
 You see the Naval Constructor could build the 
 launch, but the moving of its wheel ropes belonged to 
 another department. 
 
 I called in my chief clerk and asked why in thun- 
 der the Naval Constructor was bothering me with 
 such piffle, "why did he not notify the Equipment 
 Officer direct?" "It's against the regulation of the 
 Navy and of the yard, sir," and such was the fact. 
 
 So I came over to Boxly, told Mr. Taylor of this 
 preposterous, inconceivable weaving of red tape, and 
 asked him how I could cut it. He replied that the 
 head of an industrial establishment should never 
 even see the trivial or routine things — that noth- 
 ing but the unusual and exceptional should meet 
 his eyes — or questions of extreme importance, etc. 
 
 After more talk and after receiving invaluable 
 hints, back I went to New York and issued an order 
 that "as an experiment" all subordinates under my 
 command should communicate directly with each 
 other on matters having my approval, but that they 
 were forbidden to initiate new subjects without my 
 knowledge and consent. The effect on my labors 
 was instantaneous and immense. The experiment 
 
84 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 proved a great success, and when reported to the 
 Navy Department its methods were adopted for the 
 entire service. 
 
 It thus came to pass that from having to sign my 
 name from three hundred to eight hundred times a 
 day on wholly perfunctory indorsements, chiefly 
 "Respectfully forwarded," about forty times were 
 found to suffice, and these signatures were to docu- 
 ments that required my careful consideration. 
 
 Thus were the chains that bound me to my desk 
 shattered and opportunity afforded me to go around 
 the yard and investigate conditions and methods. 
 
 The nation was fortunate during this period in 
 having at the Navy Department, first as Assistant 
 and then as Secretary of the Navy, the Hon. Tru- 
 man H. Newberry — a man of extensive business 
 experience, clear mind, and exceptional courage. 
 Mr. Newberry welcomed any and all suggestions for 
 the improvement of aff^airs at the navy yards with 
 which he was especially charged, and with singular 
 fidelity to the public good he ignored the protests 
 of the politicians, who loudly complained of the work 
 of navy-yard reform, and he furnished that indis- 
 pensable factor, departmental authority, without 
 which nothing could be done. 
 
 It is only fair to say that Mr. Newberry himself 
 initiated a number of reforms — only one of which, 
 however, was not preceded by a conference with 
 me. This exception was due to a kind and generous 
 consideration. He foresaw that it would occasion 
 violent opposition and recrimination. These he 
 sought to take to himself, thus sparing me from 
 attack. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 85 
 
 And I should also remark that he knew of my close 
 relations with Mr. Taylor, having been assured by 
 me that I would propose no scheme to him that had 
 not been previously discussed between Mr. Taylor 
 and myself. 
 
 Out of the countless instances that might be 
 quoted I will only mention one to illustrate the 
 value of the latter's advice. 
 
 One day there came to my office a printed sched- 
 ule of the quantities of tool steel required for the 
 ensuing year in but one department of the various 
 navy yards. A certain yard alone, by the way, 
 asked for over forty tons of this material. This will 
 give you some idea of the total amount for all the 
 yards. 
 
 I noticed that each yard demanded a particular 
 kind, mentioned by brand. Using fictitious names, 
 let us say that Portsmouth wanted "Ajax," Boston 
 "Acme," New York "Alpha," and so on down the 
 line, each certifying that none other would suffice. 
 At once I posted over to Boxly and explained the 
 case. "You are paying for a brand — not for the 
 steel," said Mr. Taylor. "Make your own speci- 
 fications and open the bids to all manufacturers." 
 To make a long story short, I suggested to the Navy 
 Department that a "Tool Steel Board" should be 
 formed to go into the question. My recommenda- 
 tion was adopted. Through Mr. Taylor's help the 
 Navy began buying its tool steel — not by brand 
 but by its own specifications. The very first pur- 
 chase of high speed tool steel brought the price down 
 from $1.25 a pound to thirty odd cents; and the 
 Commandant of the Washington yard, with its 
 
86 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 great gun shops, informed me that the new steel 
 did one-third more work than the old. 
 
 Mr. Taylor's independence is to be seen in this 
 episode. He was summoned to Washington by one 
 of Mr. Newberry's successors and asked to help 
 improve matters. As he did not like or admire 
 this official, he told the latter frankly that he was 
 ready to do everything in his power to further the 
 interests of the Navy, but that was his only motive, 
 since he refused point blank to be considered as 
 anxious to contribute in any way to the success of 
 that gentleman's administration, something in which 
 he had no interest whatsoever. 
 
 I tell this story to illustrate Mr. Taylor's absolute 
 integrity in both thought and deed. 
 
 He would not permit any incorrect inference to 
 be drawn from his willingness to serve his country. 
 He could not lie, and he hated a liar with a hatred 
 expressed in his own picturesque terms. 
 
 To those fortunate individuals who won his 
 esteem and confidence he gave freely from the rich 
 treasury of a rare nature, exceptional ability, and, 
 vast experience. 
 
 Gladly do I acknowledge my own indebtedness 
 in these respects. 
 
 I regard it as a blessed privilege to be able to 
 count myself among the close friends of Frederick 
 Winslow Taylor. 
 
BY HAROLD VAN DU ZEE 
 
 1HAVE been asked to talk a few moments on 
 the very unusual and remarkable experiments 
 on the cultivation of red fescue grass that Dr. 
 Taylor has carried on here for several years, and in 
 which it was my privilege and good fortune to assist. 
 
 Some thirteen years ago Dr. Taylor purchased 
 these grounds and at once, in his usual thorough 
 way, began planning the home you now see, with 
 every detail well adapted to the normal enjoyment 
 of his family and friends. 
 
 Among the things thought desirable was, of course, 
 a putting green, on which to improve an already 
 well established skill. Now the making of a putting 
 green was not, at that time, thought to be a task of 
 unusual scientific difficulty, so ordinarily well used 
 methods of soiling and cultivation were used in the 
 full expectation of a satisfactory green. 
 
 The green could not be used the first season, — 
 it was too tender. The second season it was still 
 tender, and the third season it had failed badly in 
 this severe climate. 
 
 For several years Dr. Taylor worked with all his 
 ingenuity to make the green a success. The in- 
 jured places were cut out and refilled with a differ- 
 ent soil, then seeded with much care. At another 
 time, when the grass seemed below par, holes were 
 punched with a steel dibble and filled with bone 
 
88 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 meal, topped with a germinating mixture. Other 
 carefully thought out efforts were made to get good 
 grass. All these repairs were carefully watched, but 
 the watching did not help, and it became apparent 
 that all the ingenuity was going into the grass and 
 none to putting. 
 
 You who have been intimate with Dr. Taylor will 
 understand that when something was found that 
 could not be done, that was the very thing that 
 would be done and, moreover, every one would help 
 do it. You all are familiar with the history of the 
 slide rule. Here, when these grounds were pur- 
 chased, was a large quantity of box hedge over a 
 hundred years old, but in a very untidy and useless 
 condition. If this could be transplanted into an 
 orderly design for a garden, it would be a prize. 
 Experts declared that no efforts to transplant would 
 succeed; intimate friends made sport of the idea 
 — money thrown away and all that. Yet eleven 
 hundred feet of the box was transplanted without 
 losing a bush, and you all have seen the result. 
 
 It seemed that making a satisfactory putting 
 green had become another of the things that could not 
 be done. So with the failure of the efforts at repair 
 began a work that grew to a long series of unusual 
 and interesting experiments to make grass of fine 
 quality grow in this unfavorable climate. There 
 came a fixed determination to learn how to make a 
 putting green that would satisfy the most exacting 
 requirements of any golfer, and at any season. 
 And Dr. Taylor began planning a series of tests for 
 an investigation of this baffling subject. 
 
 I shall never forget from how simple a basic 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 89 
 
 Statement has grown an unfinished work covering 
 several years of unceasing effort. Dr. Taylor's 
 first explanation to Mr. Bender and myself was that 
 grass needed nourishment, root space, ventilation, 
 and moisture. For the best meeting of these four 
 requirements there have been carried out many 
 hundreds of growing tests, and thousands of tests of 
 materials, relating to their physical properties, 
 source, cost, etc. It is certain that Mr. Sanford E. 
 Thompson had a lively time in his laboratories dur- 
 ing the early part of the work, and doubtless can 
 measure his records by the cubic feet. My own 
 files contain several pounds, and perhaps nearly a 
 hundred plans, of tests and experiments. By this 
 it is easy to see that even if the four basic require- 
 ments appeared simple, there was great difficulty 
 in meeting them. Nevertheless, there was to be 
 no stopping till they were met in some way. 
 N A brief account of an earlier effort made by Dr. 
 Taylor to have a putting green may serve to show 
 what really great effort was put into the work here. 
 In 1901, at his former home, a very rough piece of 
 lawn was converted into a green in a somewhat novel 
 way. It was thoroughly soaked until almost marshy; 
 then the rough places were pounded down to a true 
 surface with broad iron rammers. Thousands of 
 small holes were made in this smooth surface by 
 means of large nails fastened point down on the 
 under side of a piece of board. The holes were then 
 carefully filled with a germinating mixture, the 
 green was watered regularly and fed twice a season. 
 The result was the possession of a fair green, accord- 
 ing to the requirements of that time. 
 
90 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 Here at Boxly a much better grade of green was 
 thought necessary, and the lack of success^ in the first 
 years of ejffort became a strong stimylus to find the 
 reason of the failure and the requirenients for success. 
 
 Dr. Taylor never lost an opportunity to inquire 
 into any interesting turf, wherever it might be 
 found, and several times brought here samples of 
 particularly fine turf from other parts of the coun- 
 try, replanted them here, and watched their progress 
 and noted the interested results. They were mostly 
 negative, owing to the severe climate. It was after- 
 wards determined that the fescue, a most desirable 
 grass, was best suited to a cool climate and would 
 not thrive as some of the other grasses in this par- 
 ticularly hot and often humid atmosphere. This 
 conclusion was accepted only after a long series of 
 tests in great variety. 
 
 The very fact that the red fescue was a difficult 
 grass made it all the more interesting to find out 
 how to grow it successfully, hence the perseverance. 
 Dr. Taylor's discussion of his results and conclusions 
 have been published in the American Golfer. So I 
 shall give only an account of what was done. 
 
 In 1909 forty-two germinating experiments were 
 started to discover the best way to germinate seeds 
 and to sustain the early growth of the grass. In 
 planning the tests each test had one condition of 
 soil difi^erent from any other, and records were kept of 
 the entire soil construction and of the progress of the 
 growth. By the term "soil construction" is meant 
 the physical composition, the kinds and proportions 
 of materials, the thickness and depth of the different 
 layers, etc. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 9I 
 
 Dr. Taylor considered that the ordinary term 
 "soil" could mean anything from a rich swamp 
 muck to a barren hillside surface, and therefore 
 was not a precise term in any sense. For the same 
 reason it was decided that no soil in the ordinary 
 sense could be used, because it could not be repro- 
 duced readily at any time or place, and unless a 
 successful soil could be exactly reproduced success- 
 ful results could not be duplicated. A full appre- 
 ciation of these facts led to the construction of soil 
 with standard materials that were to be obtained 
 an5nvhere with fair assurance of uniform quality, 
 making possible indefinite duplication. 
 
 This consideration led to prolonged efforts to find 
 materials that would be uniform and could be 
 easily obtained in indefinite or unlimited quantity. 
 Many of the materials used in the tests were found 
 only after long and persistent hunting, and were 
 either not available at first or not known. Among 
 these were bar sand, Jersey peat, cow manure, 
 cracked bone, sands from New England, leaf mold 
 from the local woods, swamp muck, many sizes of 
 gravel, and fine stone. Every material had to be 
 tested to show its physical characteristics, much 
 in the way sand is tested for use in concrete or filtra- 
 tion work. Knowledge of the physical qualities 
 was used to determine the amount and position of 
 each material in the solid composition. 
 
 One interesting quality of the different materials 
 was the power of lifting water from a free supply 
 at the bottom to considerable heights by capillary 
 attraction. The difference in height came from a 
 difference in the size and shape of particles of the 
 
92 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 materials, mostly sand, and the proportion of the 
 different sizes in the material. Some sands would 
 lift the water but little more than an inch, others 
 would lift over thirty inches. The high lifts took a 
 long time, and, as might be expected, the amount 
 at the top would be rather small. This water-lift- 
 ing power was investigated carefully in hundreds 
 of ways, as it was to be used in experimenting with an 
 exactly controlled supply of water in an elaborate 
 series of tests. 
 
 It will now be seen that all of the four require- 
 ments first mentioned are provided for. A novel 
 plan for study of these four requirements was car- 
 ried out in the fall of 1909. It consisted of a con- 
 crete basin about fourteen feet square and sixteen 
 inches deep, placed in one corner of the putting 
 green. This was so arranged as to bring the finished 
 work into the regular surface of the green. The 
 basin was built with small reservoirs to hold water 
 and with drain outlets at different heights to control 
 the depth of the water in the soil. These outlets 
 were visible. One half of the basin, separated from 
 the other half by a concrete partition, was to hold 
 the water at a high level, and the other half was to 
 hold it at a low level. At a low place in the surface 
 of each basin was provided an inlet by which the 
 rain water or sprinkler water could reach the reser- 
 voirs. In the soil construction means were pro- 
 vided for drainage of surplus water. In this basin, 
 although only thirteen by fourteen feet, were first 
 placed test constructions for over a hundred differ- 
 ent experiments. 
 
 As the scheme of test construction has been the 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 93 
 
 same throughout the entire work, it will be outlined 
 here. 
 
 It was considered that the growth of the grass 
 from the seed to full maturity might be aided by- 
 suitable changes in soil for different depths of root- 
 ing. Therefore the soils were constructed in layers 
 of predetermined thickness and position, there being 
 from four to perhaps a dozen layers of soils in a test. 
 Some of the thicknesses would be j inch, and from 
 that to twelve inches. Where a series of conditions 
 were to be tested, some of these layers were laid in 
 strips, with an upper strip crossing a lower one, 
 on the gridiron plan. This simplified the construc- 
 tion and helped to systematize the work. In this 
 way one experiment would cover the area of one 
 crossing of the strips, and these areas were, of neces- 
 sity, small. It was unexpectedly interesting to 
 note that the grass was very sensitive to the influence 
 of the soil, so the lines of the divisions would keep 
 clearly marked where soil changed from good to bad. 
 But in many cases the quality of the different soils 
 used varied so little that the grass was often of 
 uniform quality over several areas. 
 
 The materials used in the soil construction for this 
 basin included crushed stone, gravel, broken glass, 
 agricultural lime, four different forms of nourish- 
 ment, and seventeen different sands. In arranging 
 these, nothing was taken for granted. Positive 
 knowledge of the fineness or size of soil particle, the 
 voids, and water-lifting capacity was used in the 
 selection, and the materials, either simple or mixed, 
 were placed in positions that seemed interesting for 
 each test. By this selection and arrangement were 
 
94 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 provided means by which the water could go up, 
 and by which it could go down, freedom for the 
 roots, places where they could go for moisture, and 
 where they could go for nourishment. 
 
 It was impossible to avoid the feeling that in 
 carrying out these extensive experiments, Dr. Taylor 
 had a sort of unconscious joy in putting shop methods 
 to work. There was the precise classification of 
 materials, precisely measured proportions, an ac- 
 curate percentage of water to be applied to the dry 
 materials. It seemed as if he constantly kept in 
 mind a routing plan for the roots and for the water. 
 There were provisions for the young roots, provisions 
 for the middle-aged roots, and for the mature roots, 
 and doubtless the roots were more happy than if 
 left to themselves and enjoyed greater luxury than 
 grass ever had before. 
 
 And what was the return for all this on the part 
 of the grass .? Much of it failed to thrive through the 
 hot weather, while some did fairly well. Many of 
 the failures were satisfactory, because they elimi- 
 nated certain combinations. Dr. Taylor often ex- 
 pressed a wish that not all tests should prove satis- 
 factory — there would be so little to learn. As a 
 matter of fact Dr. Taylor derived much information, 
 a part of which has been published, and discovered 
 valuable combinations and some unusual materials, 
 many of which were brought in by the carload. 
 
 The germination of the seeds was fairly startling. 
 In the early tests a quart of seed would be mixed 
 with four quarts of prepared soil and the mixture 
 would be spread over the surface in a layer f inch 
 thick. This quantity of seed, if evenly spread 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 95 
 
 without soil, would make a layer about .17 inch 
 thick. Later discoveries led to the mixture of one 
 quart of seed to 2500 quarts of the prepared soil, 
 so the resulting germination would show about 6 
 to 10 spears of grass to the square inch, and in the case 
 of the creeping bent this seemed to give the best 
 results. It is estimated that there are 300 million 
 creeping bent seeds to the cubic foot and about 
 11,700,000 to the quart, so it can be seen what a 
 vast number was used in the early work in excess of 
 what was needed. The early practice would take 
 about 50 bushels to 1000 sq. feet and the latter would 
 use but tVo quarts for the same area, or 15 quarts 
 per acre. The seed men do not approve of the latter 
 method. 
 
 The different materials were rarely found easily 
 and at low cost, and much hunting was done. When 
 the desired material was found it was very likely to 
 be in unsuitable shape for use; then came a hunt 
 for the machinery to bring it into condition. Dr. 
 Taylor was much pleased at the discovery of agri- 
 cultural machinery for this work, and machines were 
 finally found that served for mixing, for cutting, for 
 grinding, and for shredding, at relatively low cost. 
 Ten to twenty horse power gasoline engines are 
 needed for this work. 
 
 A somewhat different line of effort has been inter- 
 esting. Dr. Taylor learned of some remarkable sod 
 in Southampton, Conn., and we made an inspection 
 trip in April, 191 1. The sod was so very attractive 
 that Dr. Taylor purchased it as it was, a special 
 strip containing nearly 2700 square feet of fine fescue. 
 This sod was cultivated in an unusual way by Mr. 
 
96 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 Olcott, who at one time was editor of the Hart- 
 ford Courant. The Olcott method was to expand 
 a sample sod to occupy about seven times its or- 
 dinary space by cutting it into blocks 2 inches 
 square and planting these in square holes of a well 
 worked soil spaced 7 inches from center to center. 
 The bare soil between was kept entirely clear of 
 weeds, and in two or perhaps three seasons a fine firm 
 turf covered the entire area. On this experimental 
 sod garden were grown probably the finest specimens 
 of turf in the world, and the specimens used came 
 from as far as China and Japan. The turf so ex- 
 panded was expanded again in the same way, with 
 a like result of fine turf. 
 
 Dr. Taylor transported nearly fifteen hundred 
 square feet of this turf in two carloads, and placed 
 it on this forecourt and on the sod garden here. 
 Much placed in the sod garden was expanded by 
 the Olcott method to cover about seven times its 
 original area, and the present turf in the corners of 
 the forecourt was taken from this cultivation of his 
 garden. The two carloads were brought from the 
 Olcott farm in 191 1, at the end of the dry season, 
 about the last of August, and the turf expanded from 
 this was planted in the forecourt in September 1913, 
 — a very successful two years' expansion. 
 
 A striking incident occurred in this sod transac- 
 tion that illustrates well Dr. Taylor's clearness and 
 steadiness of mind. It was decided to take up the 
 sod during the latter part of August, and when we 
 went to inspect it during the summer, we found 
 that it had turned white and looked really dead from 
 the very severe and exceptional drought of that 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 97 
 
 season. In spite of this Dr. Taylor never expressed 
 the least hesitation or regret or fear of the result, 
 and the operations for the transportation continued 
 as though the turf were in the most flourishing con- 
 dition. Most people with so expensive a project 
 on hand would have hesitated to proceed, tried to 
 reconsider, or attempted some strenuous and perhaps 
 useless remedy. Not so with Dr. Taylor. Somehow 
 he felt sure he was safe and right, and the result 
 proved him right. This faculty of knowing things 
 correctly is doubtless one of the secrets of his success 
 in achievement. 
 
LETTER FROM WM. A. FANNON 
 
 IT was on a bright Sunday morning in 1884, 
 probably June, that I first met Mr. Frederick W. 
 Taylor, of Germantown. He was then Chief 
 Engineer of the Midvale Steel Co. at Nicetown and 
 he wished to have Mr. Charles W. Shartle, now of 
 Middletown, Ohio, and myself come into the Mid- 
 vale employ and assist in working out his new system 
 of management. If for no other reason, his proposi- 
 tion, presented with force and enthusiasm, had us 
 mightily stirred, so that we talked of nothing else 
 on our way home. 
 
 I had had personal experience with piece-work as 
 a boy. And again, just prior to my meeting Mr. 
 Taylor, my fellow workmen and I had had our rate 
 cut as a reward for getting out a large production and 
 showing others how it could be done. This rate- 
 cutting evil was general at that time, however, and 
 was due to setting the rate per diem on insufficient 
 data. So with this well in mind as a concrete illus- 
 tration of the ill-effect of the old piece-work or per 
 diem system, Mr. Taylor's scientific method of 
 getting data before establishing a rate per diem 
 appealed to us. Added to this was his idea of not 
 only one rate per diem, but several, which might be 
 called accumulative rates.^ His methods seemed 
 
 ' [Differential rates, Ed.] 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 99 
 
 to US an insurance against the employer's having 
 any reason for cutting rates and also against the 
 employee's earning a compensation out of all pro- 
 portion to what the employer could afford to pay or 
 inconsistent with the earnings of other men of equal 
 or similar skill in the plant. And the confidence 
 that must exist between men in business transactions 
 which this careful rate setting engenders was also 
 reflected in Mr. Taylor's personality and won us over 
 to confidence in the practical working out of his 
 proposition. 
 
 So Mr. Shartle and I entered the employ of the 
 Midvale Steel Co. on July i, 1884. Mr. Shartle 
 was given (at his choice) the erection of new ma- 
 chinery and repair work, commonly known as bench 
 work; and I, the running of a slotting machine 
 which was, besides doing miscellaneous work, cutting 
 out test bars for the United States Government. 
 On this machine I assisted in getting out data not 
 only for making future per diem rates, but also 
 facts from actual practice concerning cutting out 
 test bars from ordnance steel. Mr. Taylor seemed 
 to think that there was a future in selling ordnance 
 to the government and was very desirous of getting 
 such notations. My work was under a stop watch 
 which was in constant possession of a man known 
 in his official capacity as an observer. 
 
 I continued with Midvale in this line of work 
 until May 9th, 1887, or approximately three years. 
 Prior to my leaving, Mr. Shartle had gone to his 
 home in Middletown and had organized a company 
 of his own. I followed and joined him in the business 
 in June, 1887. 
 
lOO FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 During this period that I had been with Midvale, 
 I had seen many interesting developments of Mr. 
 Taylor's system. Prominent among them was the 
 turning of steel axles for railroad service on Pullman 
 and other cars. Prior to Mr. Taylor's starting his 
 system for compensation for the turning of axles, 
 men were paid $1.50 for ten hours' work and a day's 
 work was considered approximately three axles. 
 With his system of accumulative compensation and 
 a rate based on scientific data, the men were earning 
 about twice as much as they had earned before for 
 the same number of hours of work, and were produc- 
 ing from two to three times as much. Approximately 
 the same results were brought about in the turning 
 of tires for locomotives, Pullman, and other cars. 
 The development of splicing and of keeping proper 
 tension on leather belting was also forwarded to a 
 very satisfactory degree. 
 
 After I had been in Middletown, Ohio, for some 
 years, my health failed me, so that I went to Colorado. 
 I was there about six months; and while there I 
 received a letter from Mr. Taylor stating that indi- 
 cations pointed to considerable expansion in the 
 Midvale Steel Co. and if I thought of coming back 
 East at all, he would like me to return to that or- 
 ganization. Later, during a visit to my brother in 
 Philadelphia, I saw Mr. Taylor and I reentered 
 their employ on February 11, 1889. During 
 this latter period I again saw that Mr. Taylor was 
 progressing with his system so much that it increased 
 my confidence in him and his efforts and I decided 
 to remain and tie up with the Midvale Steel Co. I 
 became very much interested in all the progress 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR lOI 
 
 that was being made in all the departments. It was 
 about this time that I married. 
 
 Among his achievements during this second period 
 that I was with the Midvale Steel Co. was the design 
 of a new steam hammer. It was a well known fact 
 up to that time, that the design of all steam hammers 
 had been along certain similar lines. This design 
 was such that, the hammer being in a rigid frame, 
 it would in time, through the jar of operation, crack 
 and break up the frame of the hammer itself. There 
 was also the need of a hammer capable of working 
 forgings of a larger size than had hitherto been 
 attempted. So, in order to build a more durable 
 hammer, and one which would overcome this serious 
 defect of the rigid frame, Mr. Taylor designed one 
 which was unique in its plan and flexibility. It was 
 similar to great jointed spider legs, and it had a 
 stretch and recoil like a spiral spring. With the 
 piston and head, this hammer weighed twenty-five 
 tons ; and, when the steam was let into the cylinder 
 on top, it struck a blow of seventy-five tons. Al- 
 though the hammer was not established when I left, 
 my information was that it effected a tremendous 
 saving in repairs and was a complete success. Sub- 
 sequently, makers of ordnance substituted hydraulic 
 presses for steam hammers, but the designing of this 
 hammer was a bold piece of engineering and re- 
 quired great courage. 
 
 I understand that Mr. Taylor also designed some 
 special tools for turning and machining large forg- 
 ings which are unique and successful. 
 
 During this latter period, the progress of the Mid- 
 vale Steel Co. was such, especially in Mr. Taylor's 
 
I02 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 department, that the then Secretary of the Navy, 
 William C. Whitney, became interested in Mr. 
 Taylor's unique and unconventional progress and 
 asked Mr. Taylor to come to Washigton, D.C., 
 for a conference. 
 
 Some time prior to this conference, a Mr. Thilmany 
 came over from Germany and succeeded in inter- 
 esting Don M. Dickinson, then Postmaster in 
 Detroit, in a new process invented by a German 
 chemist, Professor Andrew Mitterlich, for the con- 
 version of wood by-products into fiber suitable for the 
 making of paper and other products such as shoe 
 boxes and container boards. Mr. Thilmany had 
 in mind principally the utilization of the slabs, 
 edgings, sawdust, and bark that were being produced 
 in the manufacture of lumber from saw logs. And 
 indeed the accumulation was such that there were 
 endless conveyors carrying this waste material into 
 large burners, not only without getting any returns 
 but at a certain cost for the maintenance of these 
 burners. 
 
 Michigan was a great lumber-producing state, and 
 Mr. Dickinson was acquainted with a number of 
 lumbermen who were aware of this tremendous 
 waste and this process for the conversion of it. 
 Through him they became interested to such an 
 extent that they paid Mr. Thilmany a large sum of 
 money for the patent rights for this process in 
 America. Then they organized a company known 
 as the Manufacturing Investment Co. of New York, 
 having for some of its stockholders: Col. O. H. 
 Payne of New York, William C. Whitney, Daniel 
 Lamont, and Don M. Dickinson. At the time Mr. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR IO3 
 
 Taylor was asked to the conference in Washington, 
 they had already started to erect a plant in Madison, 
 Maine, and in Appleton, Wisconsin, and Mr. Whitney 
 was looking for a general manager. His duties were 
 to be, — first to look after the welfare of these two 
 mills, and, after these were properly organized and 
 running, to erect mills in different parts of the country 
 for the further utilization of this waste. 
 
 Mr. Whitney, at the conference in Washington, 
 D.C., offered Mr. Taylor a very much larger salary 
 than he was getting at the Midvale Steel Co. After 
 some deliberation and consultation with some of 
 his relatives and friends, he decided to accept the 
 position as general manager of the Manufacturing 
 Investment Co. and signed a contract dated May 26, 
 1890; and it was specified that, from that date until 
 October i, 1890, he should devote as much time as 
 possible to the affairs of the company and, from 
 October i, 1890, until October i, 1893, he was to 
 devote the whole of his time to this work. He 
 remained with the Manufacturing Investment Co. 
 until June, 1893, which covered a period of about 
 two and a half years. 
 
 Mr. Taylor was anxious to have some of his old 
 time friends in the organization and spoke to several 
 of the employees of the Midvale Steel Co. in his 
 department about coming with him, but did not 
 urge them. He offered me the same opportunity 
 and I made a trip to Alpena, Michigan, where this 
 process was in actual operation in the Fletcher 
 Paper Co. Mr. Fletcher was a lumberman and had 
 started up a paper mill to use the sawmill by- 
 products and turn them into paper. After the visit 
 
I04 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 here, I returned and discussed going with the Manu- 
 facturing Investment Co., but Mr. Taylor and I 
 did not at first agree on salary. The possibilities 
 seemed to be unlimited in this new business and 1 
 learned from Mr. Taylor that there were many 
 young men so eager to get into this business that they 
 were working for a while without any compensation 
 whatever. This was one of the arguments for com- 
 bating my ideas of what salary I thought I should 
 have to break up my home and enter into an entirely 
 new business in a new country. My reply was 
 that he might be able to get those young men but 
 I was not in that class and I would have to have the 
 salary that I stated or I did not feel that I should go 
 with him; but, if he would pay me that salary, he 
 would get the best that was in me. After a couple 
 of weeks' time, he decided to accept my ideas as to 
 salary and I decided to go with the new company 
 and left the Midvale Steel Co. on the 8th of January, 
 1891. I remained with the Manufacturing Invest- 
 ment Co. until it was reorganized in 1899 and 
 changed hands. It is now known as the Interlake 
 Pulp & Paper Co. In the reorganization, the 
 Madison, Maine, mill, divorced from the Appleton 
 Mill, was absorbed by the Great Northern Paper 
 Co. The Interlake continued to operate and is 
 operating at this time with the writer as Vice- 
 President and Manager. 
 
 During Mr. Taylor's incumbency as general man- 
 ager, he established some features of his new system, 
 although this industry did not afford the same op- 
 portunity in detail for the development of the new 
 system which other lines of manufacturing offered. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR lOS 
 
 These features were in vogue for many years, lasting 
 until changing conditions eliminated them. 
 
 Mr. Taylor had hardly taken hold and gotten 
 the organization permanently started before we 
 discovered that the enterprise was to be very largely 
 a disappointment. First, the price paid for the 
 patents was a large one in view of the fact that they 
 did not prove to be as much a controlling factor 
 as had been anticipated. When the company bought 
 these patents, they believed that all other companies 
 wishing to cook wood in a digester would have to 
 pay the Manufacturing Investment Co. a royalty 
 for the use of the lining to the digester, which was 
 considered the last word in the way of digester linings 
 and the final victory over the most hazardous part 
 of the sulphite business.^ Not long afterward other 
 sulphite mills were built and operated by other 
 people who were not obliged to pay the Manu- 
 facturing Investment Co. royalties, and a process 
 was established and became a commercial success 
 although the fiber was not as good as that made by 
 the Mitterlich process. In fact an amusing suit 
 was begun about twenty years later by a Mr. Russell 
 of New England against the Manufacturing Invest- 
 ment Co. for an infringement on the New England 
 company's patents for a lining of the digester. The 
 suit was, however, unsuccessful. 
 
 ■^ As a sample of what this problem of linings was, records 
 indicate that in 1863 Benjamin Tilgeman, a Philadelphia 
 chemist, took out letters patent for his sulphite process but 
 found the problem of getting a suitable digester so difficult that 
 he gave it up as a bad job after spending ^20,000 in trying to 
 overcome this one difficulty. 
 
I06 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 The next unfortunate experience was that, in the 
 Company's anxiety to get these mills started, they 
 did not take sufficient time to select the best loca- 
 tions, for there were other water powers that they 
 might have secured which were far better than the 
 ones they did secure and were equally well, if not 
 better, located for the supply of forest products. 
 
 An additional unfortunate thing occurred. In 
 their desire to get these mills going, there was a 
 competitive spirit started between Admiral Good- 
 rich and Admiral Evans as to who would get his 
 mill first producing fiber. The Appleton Mill, 
 operated by Admiral Evans, succeeded in making 
 the first fiber, which was on March 15, 1891; but, 
 in the haste to get these mills going, there were some 
 unfortunate mistakes made in the designing of the 
 mills by the architect or engineers, some of which 
 were beyond the control of Mr. Taylor, as they were 
 made before he took charge. Yet in this same rush 
 Mr. Taylor also made some mistakes. In fact all 
 seemed to act in an impulsive way and to contribute 
 some to the making of mistakes, due largely to their 
 anxiety to get started and to inexperience as to 
 what was needed in this new process. All these 
 things helped to make the proposition a disap- 
 pointment. 
 
 Then, on top of all, they just got started right 
 when the panic of 1893 showed in a most forcible 
 way that the profits that had been promised by the 
 original promoters and accepted as a fact by the 
 organizers of the Manufacturing Investment Co. 
 were far below what was anticipated. Indeed, it 
 was difficult to make a new dollar from an old one. 
 
FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR IO7 
 
 So great was the disappointment to Mr. Taylor 
 that I think it affected his health. He had gone 
 far enough into this business to find that it did not 
 appeal to him and so he rendered his last service 
 to the company in June, 1893, and then went into the 
 real beginning of the development of scientific 
 management and that of high-speed steel. 
 
 As I look back upon my experience with Mr. 
 Taylor the two times I was associated with him 
 in the steel works and later in the Manufacturing 
 Investment Co., the traits that stand out most 
 prominently to my mind are: his true democracy, 
 his exceeding cleverness, his many-sidedness, his 
 tremendous loyalty to his friends, and his strong 
 purpose and convictions. You always felt that you 
 knew where he stood on any proposition in which 
 he was interested. Indeed I often thought he would 
 have made more rapid progress if he had been more 
 tactful and not so willing to combat in an intense 
 way anybody that saw fit to oppose him or disagree 
 with his various ideas. He seemed to feel that "He 
 that is not with me is against me." 
 
 Many people did not like him because his ideas 
 were at least twenty-five years ahead of his time; 
 but the fact that they could not see his purpose and 
 ultimate ends did not make those ends impossible, 
 although they thought so. 
 
 Sometimes, when Mr. Shartle or I discussed a prop- 
 osition with him, he would act as if we had no right 
 to oppose him or argue the matter. At the time this 
 seemed to us rather harsh, and irritated us; but in 
 the light of what has transpired in the last twenty- 
 five years, it does not look quite so bad. I think he 
 
I08 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR 
 
 saw farther ahead than we did, and it was not egotism 
 that made him take that apparently arbitrary posi- 
 tion, but the fact that he had already gone over the 
 ground thoroughly in advance and had thought it 
 out and come to a conclusion by which he was will- 
 ing to stand. He did not see any use in wasting 
 time by going over the same ground repeatedly. A 
 problem once solved was not to be rehearsed again 
 and again. We were to accept the result he had 
 worked out and knew was right, and go on from 
 where he left off. 1 never saw a man who had a 
 greater courage of his convictions than Mr. Taylor, 
 or one who was more willing to admit his mistakes 
 and not blame others for them. 
 
 Another thing which impressed us was his love 
 for work, regardless of the fact that he was not 
 obliged to, if we properly understood his financial 
 condition. Yet his work was of the most strenuous 
 kind. He even went into recreation in a most 
 strenuous way. His work, under the new Taylor 
 System, seemed to be of the most contradictory 
 character. He was working hard and quarreling 
 with many people to establish a unique system the 
 aim of which was to make a permanent peace be- 
 tween employer and employee, so that they would 
 both get a square deal. 
 
 In addition to the above characteristics one, which 
 impressed us by no means the least, was the purity 
 of his life. 
 
RESOLUTION 
 
 ADOPTED BY THE SOCIETY TO 
 
 PROMOTE THE SCIENCE OF MANAGEMENT 
 
 AT ITS MEETING IN PHILADELPHIA, PA., 
 
 OCTOBER 23, 191S 
 
Whereas, the Society to Promote the Science of 
 Management, in pursuance of its plan to observe a 
 fitting memorial to the life and work of its distin- 
 guished leader, the late Frederick Winslow Taylor, 
 has been favored with the gracious hospitality of his 
 devoted helpmate and companion Mrs. Louisa 
 Marie Spooner Taylor; and 
 
 Whereas, the cooperation of Mrs. Taylor in this 
 memorial has been an important and essential con- 
 tribution to its proper observance; be it 
 
 Resolved, that the Society to Promote the Science 
 of Management hereby expresses its hearty appre- 
 ciation of the part taken by Mrs. Taylor in our 
 joint rendering of due honor to the memory of her 
 revered husband; and be it 
 
 Resolved, that this Society hereby records its con- 
 fident hope that the adherance to Mr. Taylor's 
 ideals and the helpfulness in their realization mani- 
 fested by Mrs. Taylor during his lifetime, through 
 the dark hours of its close, and to the present dedi- 
 cation of this Society to a continuation of that 
 work, will continue with unabated interest and en- 
 thusiasm, and further be it 
 
 Resolved, that these resolutions be spread upon 
 the permanent records of this Society, and that a 
 copy hereof be duly engrossed and presented to 
 Mrs. Taylor. 
 
BENEDICTION 
 
 PRONOUNCED BY THE REVEREND LANGDON 
 
 C. STEWARDSON AT MR. TAYLOR'S GRAVE, 
 
 WEST LAUREL HILL CEMETERY, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA., 
 
 OCTOBER, 23, 191S 
 
^ Benel3tctton 
 
 HMt are gatfieteD Ijerc in tbe ptesence of (£)0D 
 anD at tlje gratie of jFreDericb mingloto Ca^lot 
 tljat toe map tememtier tfte DeaD anD catrp atoap 
 toitb U0 an inspiration for tfte litiing. Cljc spirit 
 of our frienD is upon us noto : tfte spirit of fear* 
 less research anD raDical reform anD lotie of 
 DumankinD. 
 
 ^e liDeD tt)at tie miglit tireak untroDDen pattis 
 of trutt) anD labor, l^e couID not sit content amiD 
 t&e errors of inDustrial faitb or tibe sins of its 
 estat)Iisf)eD practice, ^e sought a principle tot)ic{) 
 sDouID point eacf) toorker to Us appropriate task 
 anD giDe {)im opportunity to Ibappilp fulfil it. ^e 
 maDe incessant toar on toaste, unfitness, incom« 
 petence, injustice, ^is effort toas, Op reaDjust* 
 ment in tU cftaos of life's fumfileD parts, to set 
 tilings rigfet : to tiring eact) man to liis oton : anD 
 so actiietie efficient toil anD social toelfare. ^e 
 kneto ttiat to tie unproDuctiDe toas to DefrauD tDe 
 community anD to beggar tU inDitJiDual. ^ence 
 bis lifelong purpose toas to satie men's souls, to 
 Dring ttjem into possession of tftemselties anD 
 tt)us assist tbem, eact) in Dis oton place anD 
 accorDing to ttie bonest measure of t)is atiilitp, to 
 sertje ttieir fellotos anD to glorifp ttieir (J5oD. 
 
 Co ftonor ftis memorp is to continue tjis toork. 
 Co reference t)is spirit is to spreaD it atiroaD. 
 Co make tt)is ceremonp anD occasion fruitful is 
 to leatje tliis gtounD to*Dap in ttie t)igt) resoltie 
 tDat toe too toill unDertake to satie men's souls, 
 to tiring ttiem into possession of ttjemselues anD 
 tlius assist tDem, eacti in tiis oton place anD 
 accorDing to ttie tionest measure of liis atiilitp, to 
 sertie tDeir fellotos anD to glorify ttieir (5oD. 
 
 ^pon tliis mission map OBoD's blessing rest. 
 
 amen. 
 
CMNEU UNIVERSITY LIBBARV 
 
 3 1924 06'1 ig's-gYo" 
 
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