insignificant_.

Reasons for this disproportion are not
lacking. The study of the physical antedates
the study of the mental always. In the history
of the individual as well as of nations,
knowledge of the psychical has dragged far
behind mastery of tangible objects. We come
in contact with our physical environment and
adjust ourselves to it long before we begin to

study the _*acts_ by which we have been able
to control objects around us.

It was inevitable, therefore, that attention
should have been concentrated upon the material
and mechanical side of production and
distribution. Results there were so tangible,
so easily figured. For example, if the speed
of a drill or the strokes of a punch press were
multiplied, the increase would be easily recognized.
The whole country, too, was absorbed
in invention, in the development of tools to
accomplish what had always required hand
labor. The effort was not so much to increase
the efficiency of the individual worker--
though many wise and far-sighted employers
essayed studies and experiments with varying
success--as to displace the human factor
altogether.