The Washington herald., 1920-10-10

be impression Of gentle frmness of will;
forehead broad and full over nicely arched
brows; luxuriant, wavy hair-such is Hen
rita F. H. Ried, the guiding genius of one
OF the country's biggest commercial enter
prises, the Bush Terminal Sales Building, in
New York.
She also is the virtual directress of three
other stupendous concerns, the warehousing
and railroad enterprises of Irving t Bush.
Besides which, as if by way of good measure,
she is the owner of big apartment house.
An instance of Miss Ried's capability in
business affairs is afforded by the manner in
which she has arranged for the hiring Of
employees for the concerns with which she
is connected along ideas which few men
would have developed. The total personnel
Of the Bush interests is upward of 10000,
and the chances are said to be that every one
In all that vast army of employees is in the
very position best calculated to promote the
interests of the corporation and at the same
time be insured of his own rapid upward
progress.
Whyp
When Miss Ried, some FIVE years ago. be-
came assistant to the president of the con-
cern, she took an Inventory of its needs
and found, among other things, that the
labor turnover was excessive. She was
present when one of the foremen
angrily dismissed a meek looking chap
who looked as if the loss of the position
meant to him the going down of the
whole world into the blackness of night.
why are you discharging the young
MANI asked Miss Ried. And the foreman
told her that it was because of incompe
tency and complete ignorance of his work.
''As for his ignorance" said Miss Ried,
"that is something which can be mended.
He can learn; and as for incompetency,
although untitled for your department, he
may be useful in some other"
She promptly created a personnel depart
ment and installed card index file in which
were recorded ali the essential facts in the
business history Of each employe. A sys-
fem of code markings indicated their prog
ress or reverse and to the eye Of the
exneriepced executive gave a pretty complete
nicture of the individual, not only as cog
in a big machine, but also as human
being.
Although never interfering in the opera
tion of department or overriding the au
tbority of an executive, Miss Ried simply
reouired tho. The case of any discharged EN-
Move should be reviewed by the personnel
board and be finally passed on by herself as
chief personnel officer. The board could not
recommend the reinstatement Of an en-
Move in the department from which he had
been discharged, but was expected, II pos
sible to place him suitably and successfully
in some other department.
This plan tended strongly against hasty
and fu-considered action, greatly reduced
tie labor turnover and quickly resulted in
vastly improved morale throughout the entire
organization.
'In this way" as the story was told,
young men whom the head of one
department has turned away as incompetent
have been enabled to discover themselves
and become useful in some other department.
Rarely has any of them failed to make
good in the end; and some have risen to re-
sponsible and even to executive positions.
Believe me, men who are now drawing
really big salary in the company would have
gravitated into some obscure employment If
the Judgment of the foreman who would have
discharged them had been accepted as final,
and, perhaps, would never have discovered
their own latent possibilities. And 50, the
success which We have had in our method
Of discovering precisely in what work per-
son is able to give the best value for his
wages has convinced me that there are prob
ably exceedingly few young persons who are
wholly improbable to themselves and to the
community, If only the trouble were taken
to ascertain what that factor within them is
which adspts them most to excel"
A BOUT the time the United States en-
n tered the var our government adopted
plan to cover the worlds seven seas"
with fleets of wooden cargo carriers. To
accomplish this, the time devoted to the con-