of the yard before them, very much as chessmen are moved on a
chess-board, a telephone and messenger system having been installed for
this purpose. In this way a large amount of the time lost through having
too many men in one place and too few in another, and through waiting
between jobs, was entirely eliminated. Under the old system the workmen
were kept day after day in comparatively large gangs, each under a
single foreman, and the gang was apt to remain of pretty nearly the same
size whether there was much or little of the particular kind of work on
hand which this foreman had under his charge, since each gang had to be
kept large enough to handle whatever work in its special line was likely
to come along.

When one ceases to deal with men in large gangs or groups, and proceeds
to study each workman as an individual, if the workman fails to do his
task, some competent teacher should be sent to show him exactly how his
work can best be done, to guide, help, and encourage him, and, at the
same time, to study his possibilities as a workman. So that, under the
plan which individualizes each workman, instead of brutally discharging
the man or lowering his wages for failing to make good at once, he is
given the time and the help required to make him proficient at his
present job, or he is shifted to another class of work for which he is
either mentally or physically better suited.

All of this requires the kindly cooperation of the management, and
involves a much more elaborate organization and system than the
old-fashioned herding of men in large gangs. This organization
consisted, in this case, of one set of men, who were engaged in the
development of the science of laboring through time study, such as has
been described above; another set of men, mostly skilled laborers
themselves, who were teachers, and who helped and guided the men in