The New York herald., 1922-01-31
WON QUIZ, JOB, NOW
WINS AN EDISON GIRL
s. A. Halsey, Rated AA, Is
Promoted Right Into In
ventor's Family.

When the list of questions Thomas
A. Edison put TO young men vino APP
piled to him for jobs in his associated
industries in West Orange was pub
lished last spring there was consider
able adverse criticism of the inventor s
method of sorting out men.
Excited persons wrote to newspapers
to say they would not use such syst
tenn In selecting executives for their
plants-if they had happened to have
any plants. Mr. Edison. though some
what astonished at the storm his ques-
tions had aroused, especially in the edu-
cational world, smiled with the calm OF
"A years and continued the QUESTIONABLE
system in West Orange
Because of all these things IL is in
teresting to know that Samuel a. Hal
sey, the only man who answered all the
questions correctly and was given a
grade of AA by MIR. Edison on Feb
ruary Is, 1921, is now. after making good
at number of varied jobs in the Edison
Industries, manager of the Phonograph
Corporation of Manhattan, one of the
inventors companies. and tomorrow
will be even more intimately connected
with the inventor For tomorrow night
In the home In Llewellyn Park, West
inventor and chairman of the board of
directors OF the industries. Mr.. Halsey
will marry Miss Charlotte w. Hawkins,
sister of Mrs. Charles Edison. The
QUESTIONABLE started everything, for
Mss Hawlins has been doing welfare
work in the big Edison plant, and It
was there Mr. Haisey met her and for
nulated his own QUESTIONABLE, consist
ing or one question, to be answered by
Yes or No
Mr.. Halsey is of Newark family
and his first business was in the real
estate field In that city. Later on he
tried insurance, motor trucks and
numerous other occupations. usually con-
nected with the selling or executive end
and always seeing new places and meet
| ing new people. When the war came
along, although over the draft age, Mr.
Halsey worked for the recruiting SER
vice of the United Statec Naval Re-
serve force in Newark, then enlisted
| himself as chief yeoman. assisted in
| the construction of the Pelham camp
| became traffic manager of the camp
| and was sent to the Navy Yard to take
| charge OF gasoline vehicles and garages
After twenty-eight months in service he
came back to civil life to become as
| sociated with his former commander
| Elliott c. Brown. in construction work
! in New York city. He resigned a veal
ago.
All this time Mr.. Halscy's stock of in
formation had been increasing. and
when news of the Edison questionnaire
! reached him It came like challenge to
battle. Mr.. Meadowcroft. guardian o:
the QUESTIONABLE, gave him the little
slip which had blasted the hopes Of sc
many collegians. Mr.. Halsey sat dowr
and started dynamiting his way through
the questions.
Mr. Edison himself happened to come
irto the room just as Mr.. Halsey COM
pleted his paper. The inventor. after
reading the answers carefully, marked
it AA and told the applicant to repor,
Monday. His first job was calculating
the cost of operation OF hand cranes. as
compared with electric cranes. but later
he was transferred to "A post directly
under Charles Edison. He worked on a
payroll board system whereby personnel
was automatically adjusted to output