Upstart

“ It is, therefore, of vital importance that the worker be properly selected, in order that, in his advancement and promotion, he shall be able to achieve his task after having been put at the new work. He must be advanced and promoted in a definite line of gradual development, in accordance with a fully conceived plan. This should be worked out and set down in writing as a definite plan, similar to the plan on the instruction card of one of his tasks. ”

“ We are all sedentary armies, and movements and changes are easily made. Once the forward movement has been commenced, it will be more difficult to pull out my Army from the line of advance, and a further delay in the transfer of my force from its present position will lead to great confusion both at the front and on the L. of C., and a great loss of power and efficiency in the coming campaign. ”

“ Every operation requires a time fixed for its commencement, a period and place for its execution, The points of inherent importance in the conduct of a campaign,—time, place, secrecy, code of signals, agents, and method. ”

“ Until the second way shall be in operation long enough—say, two years—to have a chance to work out successfully, there is absolutely no question but that the needs of the situation must be met in the first way. ”

“ You never wonder what is round the next corner, and begin to prepare for unknown contingencies; but you wait till the corner is turned, and the contingency arrives, and passively allow your mind to crystallise itself into a plan of action. ”

“ But it will need, in the expansion that must follow this campaign, a steady and a ceaseless growth in numbers, not only of the men who handle machines in flight, but of those who serve the squadrons by their work on land, and who build up the organisation which is vital to success. ”

“ I’ve been in the business long enough to know what I’m talking about. It takes years to build up such a fighting machine, and, when it’s torn to pieces, rebuilding is bound to be another job of years. ”

“ But ever will the play cycles of time alternate with the service cycles of progress. And after the service of time there follows the superservice of eternity. During the play of time you should envision the work of eternity, even as you will, during the service of eternity, reminisce the play of time. ”

“ Having planned what is to be done the next day and allowed that custom to become habit, will develop such regularity that each hour will have its regular work and nothing will crowd it out. The system produces it. Turn a kaleidoscope. Each jarring makes new adjustment of figure. Your duty is a kaleidoscope. The proof is that every one who tries such adjustment, succeeds. The school boy knows the time of bell ringing, the hour for arithmetic, geography, etc. The train man knows the minute to be at each station. The clerk or workman is ready to stop work at a certain time. ”

“ That such skill may be gained quickest, Scientific Management synthesizes the units into definite groups, and teaches these to the workers as groups.
Teaching Done by Means of Motion Cycles. — The best group is that which completes the simplest cycle of performance. This enables the worker to associate certain definite motions, to make these into a habit, and to concentrate his attention upon the cycle as a whole, and not upon the elementary motions of which it is composed. ”

“ The delay thus gained might not be more than a second in duration—but that second may be critical; for in the constant rising and falling of considerations in the mind, where two associated systems of them are nearly in equilibrium it is often a matter of but a second more or less of attention at the outset, whether one system shall gain force to occupy the field and develop itself, and exclude the other, or be excluded itself by the other. ”

“ It is not to be presumed that the limited means on which we have had to commence will enable us to mature any practical plan of operation within a year or two; but the good work has been seriously commenced, and we have every ground for reasonable hope that it will go on and prosper. ”

“ I have never proposed to myself to begin outward construction; because I do not believe that the time has come for it. Our present business is with inward preparation, especially the preparation of those who have ceased to be content with the old, and find no satisfaction in half measures. ”

“ So with the enthusiasm of youth and with ample means at our command, we began to prepare for the inception of our work, and soon, to our boundless joy, we saw our cherished plans taking form. As the massive walls began to rise, our hearts were filled with exultation and as the great structure assumed proportions and the various outer departments began to environ it, we grew so excited, so absorbed, that we scarcely ate or slept. ”

“ As the apparatus makes only one complete revolution at a time, and that in the fraction of a second, the control has to be of such a finely adjusted character that the record obtained is of movement purely and simply, and not of the insect in a quiescent state preparatory to flight. ”

“ One part of this instruction was quite interesting, particularly if the exercise was a match against time, or if there was competition between detachments or sections; this was the dismounting and remounting the piece and carriage. In this operation each man must know his precise place, and fit into it as accurately as if he were a part of a machine. ”

“ The last stage, like the first, is an expansion of a specific social form of development of productive forces: it entails the transformation of productive activity into estranged activity, or labor, the materialization of this estranged activity in productive forces, the identification of the productive forces with a conventionally established equivalent. ”

“ The great division of history into phases by Turgot and Comte first affirmed this law in its outlines by asserting the unity of progress, for a mere phase interrupts no growth, and nature shows innumerable such phases. ”

“ The handle or lever for closing the gate should be in full sight, and one should acquire the habit of working systematically, so that he may instinctively do what is necessary, even though his attention be for the moment diverted from his business. ”

“ It is, however, mainly as a labor- and time-saving device that the new plan is advocated. If any one doubt, let him keep the score of any rubber under the old method while the same rubber is being scored by some one familiar with the advantages of the new. ”

“ Our first business must be to measure off as correctly as possible the longest line we can get—and, with a little management, I think we ought to be able to make that line a mile in length, which will be long enough for our purpose. ”

“ Every hour brings additions to the original scheme, suggests some new expedient to secure success, or discovers consequential advantages not hitherto foreseen. While preparations are made, and materials accumulated, day glides after day through elysian prospects, and the heart dances to the song of hope. ”

“ They can neither retrace their steps, nor falter, nor even afford to mark time. The sands are running out, the short span of six brief years intervening between the present hour and the termination of the second stage of the enterprise on which they have embarked will soon expire. The hosts on high, having sounded the signal, are impatient to rush forward, and demonstrate anew the irresistible force of their might. ”

“ Your dull season is the time to have it done. I can introduce my efficiency ideas now without disorganizing your operations. Then, when you are busiest, the new system will be in perfect working order, for your service. ”

“ Suppose, then, that the driver e is moved a certain portion of a revolution with tail d at its highest point, and is then moved through the same portion of a revolution with d at its lowest point in its path of revolution, and being at a greater distance or leverage when at the top than when at the bottom it will revolve the work less. ”

“ Now the habit of composing the plan as perfectly, yet as succinctly as possible, daily or nightly, combined with the energetic impulse to send it off, will ere long give the operator a conception of what I mean by Foresight which by description I cannot. And when grown familiar and really mastered its possessor will find that his power to think and act promptly in all the emergencies of life has greatly increased. ”

“ Constant and steady use of the faculties under a central purpose gives strength and power, while the use of faculties without an aim or end only weakens them. The mind must be focused on a definite end, or, like machinery without a balance-wheel, it will rack itself to pieces. ”

“ We have first a stage of interest and elation, then a slump, a depressed or negative phase, as Wright said, a stage when things are not going smoothly or when organization seems endlessly complicated. Then is the time when, if we are of an unstable type, we throw up our work. ”

“ It is immaterial whether the necessity for a change of system occurs at one hundred and twenty, or at two hundred and seventy yards below the surface, provided the powers of the machinery are equal to the increasing difficulty of the task. ”

“ I have known people to suddenly enter a new line of work, and be fully equipped, with little or no training. So make the statement: “I am fully equipped for the Divine Plan of my life,” and be fearless in grasping opportunities. ”

“ The under-world being in contact with machinery, which, however perfect, still needs some little thought outside habit, had probably retained perforce rather more initiative, if less of every other human character, than the upper. ”

“ Advance admits the possibility of retreat; progress (L. progredi, to walk forward) is steady and constant forward movement, admitting of pause, but not of retreat; advance suggests more clearly a point to be reached, while progress lays the emphasis upon the forward movement; we may speak of slow or rapid progress, but more naturally of swift advance. Progress is more frequently used of abstractions; as, the progress of ideas; progression fixes the attention chiefly upon the act of moving forward. ”

“ After eight paragraphs describing formations and methods of crossing open areas, for example, the authors reminded the reader that the methods described were only suggestions, that “other and better formations may be devised to fit particular cases, [and that] the best formation is the one which advances the line farthest with the least loss of men, time, and control.” ”

“ As we advance from cycle to cycle, this is continuously taking place. The hand gave way to the stick, the stick to the spade, the spade to the hand-plow, the hand-plow to oxen, oxen to horses, horses to steam, etc. It is the natural progress from one step to another, in every branch of thought, learning, and industry. ”

“ We are in the beginning of a new time, with such forces of organization and unification at work in mechanical traction, in the telephone and telegraph, in a whole wonderland of novel, [Pg 225] space-destroying appliances, and in the correlated inevitable advance in practical education, as the world has never felt before. ”

“ The same plan was being adopted as that which they had used at the ditch: one man, his advance covered by a hot fire from the others, would stoop and run forward to a previously selected place, then a second, third, and so on, each beginning to shoot from the new position, as he got to it. ”

“ All that could be done was to wait—wait for the wind, wait for an answer on the wireless, wait for the sight of some craft to aid them, either by providing a tow or sending word of their plight to those that could help. ”

“ Thus do those different powers act their several parts for ever, in the grand stage of the universe; as the ages, years, months and weeks and days, play their parts under direction of time—the manager of the stage. ”

“ When a step in the development has been taken, this step itself constitutes a change of situation which requires a new adaptation; it becomes the point of departure for a new step in the adjustment, and so on interminably. ”

“ The vacant stage on which he was to act, and where all had yet to be created—the greatness of the difficulties, the smallness of the means intrusted him—would rouse a man of his disposition like a call to battle. ”

“ PATIENCE THE MOST DIFFICULT THING.—If you have the patience, as you should, to continue this running practice, until you absolutely eliminate the right and left control, as a matter of thought, occasionally, if the air is still turning the machine, and eventually, bringing it back, by turning it completely around, while skimming the ground, you will be ready for the second stage in the trials. ”

“ Each stage of development brings back the recollection of the course taken in the preceding stage, and the development has been so often repeated, that all doubt—and with all doubt, all consciousness of action—is suspended. ”

“ Cutting and tying by piece work, an active hand could readily complete his task, the allotment for a day’s work, an hour before noon, and some of those who had walked six or seven miles in the morning would knock off as soon as the task was finished and loaf around the quarters until sundown, while others, pushing their luck, held on until the evening, putting two days’ work into one. ”

“ The task is one of the greatest, the most [103] vital, and the most promising which mankind has ever faced. With the general theories proved and demonstrated, the great crisis of invention has passed, and the slow, unspectacular process of development and application has set in. ”

“ Everything seemed regulated in advance: work and pleasure,—for they had their pleasures too,—but regulated in advance! . . . Hurrah for unforeseen ills that released one from the program! But there was little hope of release, even on the score of ills. ”