We can see and feel the waste of material things. Awkward, inefficient,
or ill-directed movements of men, however, leave nothing visible or
tangible behind them. Their appreciation calls for an act of memory, an
effort of the imagination. And for this reason, even though our daily
loss from this source is greater than from our waste of material things,
the one has stirred us deeply, while the other has moved us but little.

As yet there has been no public agitation for "greater national
efficiency," no meetings have been called to consider how this is to be
brought about. And still there are signs that the need for greater
efficiency is widely felt.

The search for better, for more competent men, from the presidents of
our great companies down to our household servants, was never more
vigorous than it is now. And more than ever before is the demand for
competent men in excess of the supply.

What we are all looking for, however, is the readymade, competent man;
the man whom some one else has trained. It is only when we fully realize
that our duty, as well as our opportunity, lies in systematically
cooperating to train and to make this competent man, instead of in
hunting for a man whom some one else has trained, that we shall be on
the road to national efficiency.

In the past the prevailing idea has been well expressed in the saying
that "Captains of industry are born, not made"; and the theory has been
that if one could get the right man, methods could be safely left to
him. In the future it will be appreciated that our leaders must be
trained right as well as born right, and that no great man can (with the
old system of personal management) hope to compete with a number of