NEW YORK - CINCINNATI - CHICAGO

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

1912





PREFACE


This book is not intended to prepare for college entrance
examinations; it will not, in fact, prepare for any of the present-day
stock examinations in physics, chemistry, or hygiene, but it should
prepare the thoughtful reader to meet wisely and actively some of
life's important problems, and should enable him to pass muster on the
principles and theories underlying scientific, and therefore economic,
management, whether in the shop or in the home.

We hear a great deal about the conservation of our natural resources,
such as forests and waterways; it is hoped that this book will show
the vital importance of the conservation of human strength and health,
and the irreparable loss to society of energy uselessly dissipated,
either in idle worry or in aimless activity. Most of us would reproach
ourselves for lack of shrewdness if we spent for any article more than
it was worth, yet few of us consider that we daily expend on domestic
and business tasks an amount of energy far in excess of that actually
required. The farmer who flails his grain instead of threshing it