Walter Vandyke Bingham

“ When the mobilization of the National Army began in September 1917, and the nation poured into the cantonments its human wealth of trained artisans, teachers, business and professional men, laborers, farmers and shop hands, many of them illiterate or non-English speaking, the newly appointed Personnel Officers had extremely little information to guide them in making judicious assignments of such varied skill and talent. ”

“ Let the student have before him a full and explicit description of the duties of the job he must be able to hold down after graduation, and of the qualifications in the form of particular sorts of skill, technical knowledge, general abilities and personal traits which he must possess if he is going to make a success of that job. Let each instructor be in a position to speak with authority when challenged to justify every task he assigns as contributing directly to the development of one or more of these essential qualifications. ”

“ Personnel offices have been established in all Army divisions, depot and training camps, coast defense stations, aviation fields, special training camps for Staff Corps and at other Army Posts. In these offices a special card system furnished accessible information as to the educational, occupational, and military qualifications of every man. With a minimum of clerical work this system selected 973,858 men for transfer largely into technical units in the Engineers, Aviation, Ordnance and other Staff Corps, and even more men for transfer within the divisions or camps. ”

“ In the Telegraph Company you want neither a wire chief nor a racing pigeon fancier, but a telegraph engineer to "make studies and survey routes for construction of permanent telephone or telegraphlines;—and specify layout of telephone and telegraph offices and power plant for common battery telephone switchboards." ”

“ The college student pursuing an electrical engineering course or a course in interior decoration, or the young woman who aims to be a secretary or a social worker or a teacher of the arts and crafts, needs a clear definition of precisely the duties for which he or she is being trained. ”

“ But in each Pigeon Company of 324 men there are also two Master Signal Electricians; one is "in charge of the training and instruction of the men as pigeoneers and is responsible for the care and condition of the pigeons." ”

“ The Committee on Classification of Personnel in the Army as such has disappeared. After fourteen months of service under the Adjutant General it was transferred to the General Staff and merged with the Central Personnel Branch, newly created to supervise the procurement, placement, transfer and promotion of officers throughout all branches of the Army. This means that centralized control of personnel work for both officers and soldiers is recognized and thoroughly established as an integral part of the United States Army organization. ”

“ To increase the accuracy of selecting skilled workers among the enlisted men, a system of practical trade tests was devised, standardized and installed in twenty camps. At the time of the armistice about 130,000 men who claimed occupational skill had been trade tested. ”

“ The preparation of this information has demanded an exhaustive study of the entire Army organization to determine where ability of various kinds is required. Its effective utilization has necessitated the development and supervision of an Army personnel system to discover the occupational, educational and military qualifications possessed by the recruits and to insure their assignment to the proper units. ”

“ The psychologists in turn have tested 1,716,000 soldiers and furnished the personnel officers with their intelligence ratings to assist in making assignments, balancing units, and selecting men for special responsibilities. ”

“ The Supply Section of an Aero Supply Squadron requires as its Master Signal Electrician an airplane mechanic; other companies need a tinsmith, a coppersmith, an armorer, a toolmaker, a master painter, an instrument repairman, a construction foreman, a storage battery electrician, a truckmaster, all masquerading with the title, grade and pay of Master Signal Electrician. ”

“ These commissioned personnel specifications are for use in recruiting officer material, in selecting men for training as officers, and making assignments. Statistical studies have been made of the relative significance of age, education, civilian earnings, intelligence and other qualifications of officers in the different branches of the service. ”

“ While it happened that the original membership of the Committee consisted almost wholly of psychologists, many industrial and business specialists in employing, classifying and assigning men were called upon to insure the successful prosecution of the work. ”

“ Sixteen civilian supervisors, directed by the Committee, acted in an organizing and supervisory capacity in the field. Approximately 450 officers and 7,000 men were engaged in this personnel work. The number of soldiers interviewed by trained examiners and classified according to their best Army usefulness was in all, approximately three and a half million men. ”