Progressive energy is so valuable that it needs no praise at this
time. We have had its value stated so often that it is actually
over-rated in the average mind. Not that it has been over-valued,
but that the reiteration has obscured the importance of other
qualities. There should be a greater appreciation of the value of
energies that are wholly employed in accomplishing results by old
means and methods.

Progressive energy, when it is kept within certain bounds, is a
prime asset of an industrial organization. It is like a wholesome
amount of labor to man; it may be drawn upon without loss, and its
use actually strengthens its source. But when it is not wisely
kept in control it only annoys and interferes with real progress
and real accomplishment of results.

The only way to get work done is to let the worker move along
habit lines. The only way to progress efficiently is to make the
new ways and means lead off gradually from those in use.

The progressive man who actually directs work along such lines is
the most valuable to the world. The one who ignores the "moment of
inertia" is a disturber, whether he is a director or a "hewer of
wood and carrier of water".

The man who is doing the real work in the world is not the
so-called progressive. He is one who points out newer or better
methods which may be easily established by a gradual exchange of
old habits for new ones.