contained much of general value. Some admitted
that they had never made any conscious
effort to utilize imitation as implied
in the first four questions. Many others
had made particular use of one or more of
the methods. A few of the firms interviewed
had employed all four methods with entire
satisfaction.

The following is a fair representative of
the answers. It is the response of a very
successful general manager of a railroad:--

``I beg to give you below the answer to
the questions which you have asked:--

``1. The superintendent and foremen in
our shops are the most efficient we can find.
They are imitated, and thus influence the less
efficient.

``2. We have the heads of our departments
visit other shops to see how they are progressing
in the same line. If they notice anything
that is better than what we have as to the
output of work, we imitate it by following
their methods.

``3. We have not made a practice of bringing