The Washington times., 1919-03-09

IN the business world and in industry the
great cause of failure is what is called
= round pegs in square holes"-men
who are misfts, in their occupations
This Wellknown economic fact was rec
ogniEed when we started to raise an army
Of five million men. Every army division,
to be efficient, must include in its person
mel men Of no fewer than eighty-eight diff
ferent trades.
Out of the great undigested mass of re-
cruited men these specialists must be Sc
lected. Nor was it safe rule to assign
man to electrical work, for instance, sim
ply because that was his trade. He might
be round peg in square hole"-a very
poor workman at his trade.
It was necessary, therefore. to hnd out
with some degree Of accuracy what men
were fitted to do no matter what they said
or thought they could do For this pur-
pose a very Interesting series Of tests were
devised to ind out the mental and techni-
cal rating Of every recruit. A few OF the
simpler tests are shown on this page to-
dsv.
incidentally, in addition to sorting the
men into the trades they were more or
less proficient In, a number Of interesting
general facts were discovered. The tests
showed a startling divergence between
men who work with their hands or with
toOls, and men who do even routine work
wa their brains. The lowest were
lsarers, miners, teamsters and tarm'
e. scoring less than so. In the next
gtoap, scoring 50 to SO we're found tailors'
brbers, painters, carpenters bakers
ce5ks.
Between 60 and SO we're railway en-
gineers, tool-Foom experts, shipbuilders'
tool and gauge makers and auto assem-
blers. The examining officers were sur
pFised to find general clerks, mailing
clerks, bookkeepeFs, far above mechanical
experts The locomotive engineer
averaged IS to SO, but the railway clerk
AVERAGED 80 TO 81. But most surprising yet
was the discovery that stenographers and
typists as a class rated ll5 to lls-away
ahoye the best experts with skilled tools.
sFMore than half of the men in an up-to-
date army must be skilled in special trades
Il order to perform their military duties
satisfactorily.
Take the infantry, the fundamental arm
q the fighting service. For every 100000
mn in its ranks 40,000-fOuT in every
FWhere the engineers, the Signal Corps
and other specialized military bodies are
Concerned the number of men trained and
experienced in definite lines must be far
greater proportionately
Fifty-fve distinct varieties OF chemists
have been employed in this war all OF
them derived from civil life and assigned
TO this kind Of duty or that, according to
their special aptitudes and experience.
An aero repair squadron in the field is
required to build an average OF two flying
machines Q. day. How many airplane me-
chanic, engine Fepairment and other eX-
perts must il have to fulfil this function?
And how shall they be obtained quickly?
Whatever the line of specialized military
activity, the problem is to spot and as
semble the requisite men, determining in
each case their abilities by what are called
trade tests"-i e., examinations that posi-.
lively fix their capacity and probable use
fulness.
This business Of trade testing has been
developed in a remarkable degree during
the war. The examination quickly tells
how good a man is at his trade, and may
be conducted by any intelligent officer
In few minutes it classifes soldiers into
four grades of skill-Q) novice, (2l sp-
prentice, 90 journeyman, (4) expert.
-, The examination takes three forms
oral, picture (the soldier being called upon
for descriptive comment) and perform.
ance" Thus, for example, the oral test
for a man who claims to understand tai
loring occupies ten minutes, during which
he must answer seventeen questions
Each correct answer counts 4, each fail
ure 0. The total score tells whether he is
to be rated as a novice, an apprentice,
journeyman, or an expert.
The picture test for a man who claims
TO be a horseshoer occupies twenty min
utes, with twenty-nine questions The
score is made in the same way. For a