task, namely, a given amount of work which he must do within a given
time; and the more elementary the mind and character of the individual
the more necessary does it become that each task shall extend over a
short period of time only. No school teacher would think of telling
children in a general way to study a certain book or subject. It is
practically universal to assign each day a definite lesson beginning on
one specified page and line and ending on another; and the best progress
is made when the conditions are such that a definite study hour or
period can be assigned in. which the lesson must be learned. Most of us
remain, through a great part of our lives, in this respect, grown-up
children, and do our best only under pressure of a task of comparatively
short duration. Another and perhaps equally great advantage of assigning
a daily task as against ordinary piece work lies in the fact that the
success of a good workman or the failure of a poor one is thereby daily
and prominently called to the attention of the management. Many a poor
workman might be willing to go along in a slipshod way under ordinary
piece work, careless as to whether he fell off a little in his output or
not. Very few of them, however, would be willing to record a daily
failure to accomplish their task even if they were allowed to do so by
their foreman; and also since on ordinary piece work the price alone is
specified without limiting the time which the job is to take, a quite
large falling off in output can in many cases occur without coming to
the attention of the management at all. It is for these reasons that the
writer has above indicated "a large daily task" for each man as the
first of four principles which should be included in the best type of
management.

It is evident, however, that it is useless to assign a task unless at
the same time adequate measures are taken to enforce its accomplishment.
As Artemus Ward says, "I can call the spirits from the windy deep, but