i6 
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
applying for the same position, and one seems consider 
ably more desirable than the other, the interviewer may 
be just on the point of hiring this candidate when his eye 
is suddenly caught by the pin of a fraternity which he 
heartily dislikes. The sight of this pin may immediately 
cause him to shift his favorable opinion to the other and 
less desirable applicant. Anyone familiar with employ 
ment conditions knows that the instances given above 
could be multiplied indefinitely. 
The casual methods prevalent not only in employment 
work but in the handling of workers throughout in 
dustry in general is one of the anomalies of the age. 
For fifty years and more, the utmost attention has 
been paid to the development and refinement of the 
mechanical processes of manufacture. The division of 
labor has been carried to a point which would have been 
incredible a generation ago. But the division of laborers 
is almost as haphazard now as it was then. Now every 
large industry has its chemical and physical laboratory, 
in which it examines most minutely the quality of the ma 
terials which it receives and fabricates. But the effort 
during all this time devoted to the improvement of 
methods for handling human material has been ridicu 
lously cheap and inadequate. As a single and a very prac 
tical instance of this easy-going policy, as applied to em 
ployment problems, the following quotation from an 
address to a convention of California railroad men is 
given: “Would you, gentlemen, enter into a contract to 
buy material from a concern, the excellence of whose prod 
uct you had grave reason to doubt? Would you place 
orders to the extent of three and one-half million dollars 
a year, waive inspection of material, accept whatever was 
offered you, and make no effort to get your money’s worth?