The New York herald., 1921-05-14
EDISON NOT aiming
AT COLLEGE GRADS
Famous List Of Questions
Not for Their Especial
Benefit, He Says.
PREFERRED TO OTHERS
Says Value of Question
PREFERRED TO OTHERS
Says Value of Question
naire Was Destroyed by
Publicity.
is PREPARING A NEW ONE
Will Copyright 1t and Threat
ems Terr0rs of Law to Those
Printing 1t.

Although Thomas A. Edison was III
at his home in New Jersey last night
with a cold which he caught while on
a fishing trip last week, he managed
to work most of the night on a great
pile of questonnaires which prospec-
tive employees of the Edison plant
have attempted to answer during the
last few days, and in assembling a
mass of material out of which he in
tends to prepare another list of ques-
tions which he will submit to appli-
cants for Jobs.
"The value of the list | had" said
Mr. Edison. has been destroyed, so
far as / am concerned. because of the
publicity 1t has received, and because
of the fact that THE NEW YORK HER
AID printed all of the answers. But no
one will print this new list that I'm
preparing, because / am going to copy
right it, and any paper that prints 1t
as an Edison QUESTIONABLE will have
to 60 to law about it."
Mr.. Edison told NEW roGK HERALD
reporter that the general public misun-
derstands MIN entirely so far as con.
Germs his attitude toward college men.
He declared that he Is not shooting at
college men particularly with his lists of
questions on the contrary, he wants
college men, and prefers a man with a
college education to any other sort.
Sou> a.
Most of the men who have answered
my questions are college men," he said.
"and they make the best type of en-
ployees. But some OF them are so ter
ribly dumb Just look at this" he went
on. picking up one of the lists which
lay before him. Here is a questjonnaire
sent back by man with a high tech
nical education and as fine a personal
record as / have ever seen. But he is
amazingly ignorant of the ordinary
things: out of thirty questions he has
answered only about three. To me that
proves that he Is not observant. that he
doesn't know what Is going on in the
world about him and that he doesn't
read the newspapers correctly. Any
man who reads the papers and rea6s
the really informative news which all
of them contain will be able to make an
a IS grade every time.
Mr.. Edison said that the thing that
gets my goat" is the terrible gap that
his questionnaires have shown to lie
between the A p c men and the
X Y u men. between the ones who
can answer a large percentage of the
questions and those who fail utterly.
Where are the ID r G men," he
asked. "and the r S T men? All OF
the boys who come here for jobs are
either very good or they are very bad;
there do not seem to be any middle
men: none who are not terribly full
of knowledge now, but full enough that
there might be hope for them later
on. / would like TO find some of these
men, but now l seem to get hold of
only the A r men and the Y Y
men"
The inventor said that he was ar
ranging TO have the old questionnares
which he has been using for some time
iabulated and prepared for publication.
and that the public would be amazed
to read the answers and learn the
ignorance of the average college grad
uate. But with all of the ignorance
displayed Mr.. Edison said that he had
had very fine results from the ques-
tionnaires.
Many OF the boys who came In with
A Il @ ratings" he said. have been
placed in executive positions of great
responsibility and they are making
good In fact, every boy who was able
to answer these questions made gooi
from the beginning.
Il originated the idea OF the question
naire because ] have never been able
to tell by looking at n man how much
ability he possessed. | decided to ques-
ton every applicant for job and find
out how much he knew and If he was
live wire. Since / put this system
into effect | have come very close TO
getting what | want in employees. ani
do not expect to have so many losses
as | used TO have when the hiring was
hit or miss. Every year in the United
States billions OF dollars are lost be-
cause incompetents arc hired and pu,
into positions Of responsibility"
MIR Edison said that he had received
great many anonymous letters since
the newspapers began giving publicity
to his system OF hiring men. Many Of
them. he said. were ''villainous." but H.
he's not turned any over to the police.
because none of them has been signed
and there has been nothing but the
postmark TO indicats where they came
from.