EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY, LABOR, AND INDUSTRY 389
tration boards do not furnish such a criterion. The
ordinary arbitration board is even less able to classify
workers than the ordinary employment office. The very
fact which hinders such boards in their attempts to render
a fair and just decision is the absence of any impersonal
standard which will enable them to insure that the clas
sification of workers upon which their decision must be
based is an exact one. The psychological method, however,
by means of the same technique which has been applied
to the classification of individuals in the employment
office, will make it possible to classify doubtful individ
uals in the case of labor disputes. By the application of
standard measures, in the form of tests, questions, or
demonstrations, it will become possible for the psycholo~
gist to furnish both labor and industry, or the arbitration
board which sits for them, a scientific and impersonal
basis for making the classification which they desire.
The relation of employment psychology to labor and
industry, then, is an impersonal relation. Like all other
sciences, it is impartial. It does not aim to help any
cause or any party. It is merely an instrument, a method,
which will serve without favor whoever makes use of it.
If industry wishes to obtain the best possible kind of
human material, if it wishes to make the best possible use
of its workers, if it wishes to maintain a reliable check
on its classification of workers, employment psychology
is at its disposal. On the other hand, if organized labor
wishes to carry out collective bargaining, if it wishes to
base its claims for individuals on the sound basis of abil
ity and training, employment psychology provides it
with a technique which will enable it to classify properly
its collection of workers for that purpose.
As for the individual out of work—to be without a job