Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-28
DESPITE HIS QUESTIONABLE
EDISON LIKES COLLEGE MEN
The secret is out.

Thomas A. Edison, whose question
naire method of testing applicants
for executive positions in his indus
tries has aroused considerable COM
ment-most of it adVerse-has eX-
planned it all.
In the copyright~d interview pub
fished by the Newark Evening News,
of Newark, N. j., the wizard of Men
10 Park, vigorously denied that his
purpose was to discredit college men
and defended his system by declar-
ing it helped him to select men who
think. He was seen by The News
representative in his home at Glen
mont, Llewellyn Park, where he had
been busy grading the missionaries.
Here's brilliant reply" the fam
Gus inventor observed tC his caller.
This chap says oatmeal is the cereal
used by most people in the wotld
Oatmeal! Why any youngster knows
it's rice.
bounding West Virginia is Louisiana.
But, say, here's a bird. We have
50 states in the United States.
Good Lord! This is a bright one
from an engineer. He writes that
coke is made by burning, wood in the
ground Some engineer!"
Plenty of ST Don't Knows"
And then Mr.. Edison read off the
great number of 81 don't knows"
found on one paper, the handiwork of
a college graduate.
The newspapers" he continued,
have got the wrong idea entirely out
of this QUESTIONABLE plan. My pur-
10 an11
Why, hang it, that's what I'm trying
to get, college men for the work
down at the plant below.
But I want college men; men VINO
keep their eyes open and when they
walk along see things as they are. [
have suffered big losses through mir
ing incompetent help and today bill
lions of dollars are lost through hir-
ing incompetents in the industrial or
CARNATIONS of this country. l con-
TESS 1 can not tell a mans value by
looking at his face, so I made up the
QUESTIONABLE to see if applicants for
positions really know what they
claim they 90"
Mrs. Edison was an interested list
ener as her husband discussed the
examinations, and here she offered
the following explanation as an Illus
tration of the inventors plan:
Men. for instance, applying for
positions as chauffeurs tell you they
are machinists. And you do not find
out they are not until they take out
an expensive car and ruin 1t, and
you pay perhaps four or five thousand
dollars to learn they were not ma
chinistS at all"
But what gets my goat" interrupt
ed Mr.. Edison. sis this strange fact:
Why do so many young men Who
take the QUESTIONABLE get rated A,
B and c, and the next group runs x,
Y u? Between these two sharply
defined groups is terrific abyss.
Why are there no D, e, F. G men?
Either the applicants are very good
or no good at all. That's what is
puzzling me. Why, there is no med
examined who might be termed a
medium class.
IL put eleven of them in execu-
tive positions, and in each case they
have shown advanced thought on the
work assigned them, some of them
pushing right ahead where there had
been stagnation before
The newspapers have not played
exactly fair with him by printing the
questions, Mr.. Edison believes.
They have spoiled the effect of
my work in trying to get competent
men," he said, but l will make up
new lists Of questions, and these Will
De copyrighted, anu any one USING
them as an Edison QUESTIONABLE will
face a law suit
Says Els Test Works
"A man who can pass the question
naire test can, on general principles,
take a job anywhere. ] put one of
the men who answered the questions
correctly right on a job which in
volved responsibility for a highly
evolved chemical process, and he
made good right off. And if that
young can could make good on that
job he. can make good anywhere"
Mr.. Edison was asked how we'll the
graduates had Jared in promotions
since the QUESTIONABLE system was
put in effect.
Let me see" said he, as his mind