THE  applicant’s  POINT  OF  VIEW  36$
mental  of  all  factors  which  go  to  make  up  the  applicant’s
point  of  view  is  his  self-interest.  The  very  fact  that  he
is  applying  for  a  position  is  an  indication  of  this  fact.
The  prospective  employee  is  anxious  to  improve  his  condition, ­
  either  economically  or  socially.  In  order  to  deal
successfully  with  him,  the  employer  must  recognize  this
fact.  It  is  altogether  too  easy  to  overlook  it,  for  the  employer ­
  has  his  own  interests  to  conserve,  and  sometimes
these  interests  conflict  with  those  of  the  applicant.  However, ­
  it  may  be  stated  as  almost  axiomatic  that  the
employer  who  can  ascertain  the  interests  of  applicants
and  identify  those  interests  with  his  own  program  is
making  the  most  profitable  arrangement  from  every  conceivable ­
  point  of  view.  As  a  concrete  example  of  the
application  of  this  attitude  the  following  incident  will
serve.  A  young  musician  of  great  promise  was  introduced
to  the  employment  manager  of  a  big  corporation.  This
young  man  was  anxious  to  obtain  work  and  was  willing
to  begin  at  almost  any  kind  of  work.  At  the  time  the
greatest  demand  was  for  automatic-machine  work,  and
the  obvious  course  of  the  employment  manager  was  to
hire  this  applicant  for  such  work,  particularly  since  he
was  capable  of  doing  it  and  had  himself  expressed  a  willingness ­
  to  do  machine  work.  However,  the  employment
manager  had,  in  the  course  of  the  interview,  discovered
that  the  young  man  was  a  musician  who  already  depended
in  part  for  his  livelihood  upon  the  use  of  his  hands,  and  as
a  result  he  flatly  refused  to  give  the  applicant  such  work.
“It  is  part  of  my  business,”  he  remarked,  “to  protect
the  interests  of  our  employees  even  when  they  do  not
recognize  those  interests  themselves.  Sooner  or  later
they  will  recognize  them,  and  we  shall  either  be  blamed
or  praised.  Now,  if  you  were  to  lose  a  hand,  or  a  finger,