STENOGRAPHERS, TYPISTS, AND COMPTOMETRISTS 99
These rankings were then submitted to the official who
had previously ranked his workers in the same way, but
according to his own opinion of their comparative abilitles
as comptometrists. The agreement between the two
Was very close. The rankings based on the tests in comptometry
alone coincided with those given by the official
111 every respect. On the basis of the tests other than the
comptometer tests, there were two disagreements, both
Ver y slight. It appeared that one of these operators was
new and comparatively inexperienced and, although not
quite as good as some of the others on the machine,
gave indications, by her good work in the other tests, that
she would soon surpass some of the other girls who had
een ranked above her. The department head agreed
Aat this was his opinion also, but said that he had ranked
. ae gml low because he was using as a criterion only ability
1Tl comptometry, without regard to mental ability or potentiality.
The other operator who had been ranked
ni gher by him than on the basis of the tests was a very old
a nd experienced hand who had won her rank through con-111Ue
d practice in the same kind of work, but who was
^knitted to be not as versatile or as capable as some newer
§ lr ls ranked beneath her. The important fact about this
group of tests, from the employment point of view, is
fta t the instantaneous verdict made possible by them was
f u bstantially the same as that rendered by the official
ln charge of the group after he had known the individuals
teste d for weeks, months, and even years. As a re-°f
this experiment, the official who had been skepbefore
made a written statement in which he
tical
^pressed himself as entirely convinced that these tests
^ere reliable. ...
The above incident is related largely as an illustration
