The executive and his control of men; a study in personal efficiency

Front matter

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

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Preface

The very practical need of our times is more executive ability. In proportion to the demand for it, such ability has always been scarce, and will steadily become more so under the rapid growth of organized enterprises of every sort. Happily, all of us seek power, be the direction what it may ; we are builded for upward striving. Since it is only partially true that leaders are born, not made, this power-seeking tendency in our nature if cultivated may be turned into executive capacity. Such result is the chief purpose of this book.

One must always follow, even while leading ; we are never wholly initiators. Whom shall we follow ? Insincerity, shiftiness, and bluster have too often won the ear of the foolish and clouded the discerning eye; but hurling these epithets indiscriminately at every fresh seeker of power just as truly wounds the man of vision and exalts the thick-skinned mercenary. Since this study lays bare the means by which men control others, one is enabled more surely to realize its second aim, the wise selection of leaders and rational submission to their guidance. The perpetuity of organized life depends upon the rise of superior men into positions of authority, even though it mean oneself, the half-god, must withdraw when the god appears.

The methods described are those which executives use, and they use them to get results. Whether the results are desirable in the case of any particular executive, the reader will decide for himself in view of the principles presented in Part III. If these methods employed to control men at times seem crude and harsh, viii PREFACE

we must remember they were once more crude and more harsh. It is too often that, intent on the ideal, we overlook the very real progress already made, usually a case of overimpatience delaying its own aim. So in judging our leaders and their methods we should adopt the relative viewpoint, exacting of them no absolute standards, but content if in view of all the attendant circumstances they measure up as men.

Around few questions have more controversy and speculation been aroused than the one here treated. It is for this reason that in the following pages much concrete material is being presented, since, in charting an intricate field such as individual ascendancy, a book of deductions is to be feared. As for the product in toto I venture to hope that through its influence not a few people will work together with increased efficiency.

In prosecuting these studies, I have become much indebted to the hundreds of American executives furnishing me data about themselves; to numerous biographers to whom credit in the footnotes, on account of frequent quotations and their brevity, was not always given ; and also to my old friends, Professor Blakey of the University of Minnesota, Professor Barnes of the Tennessee State Normal School, and Dr. Miles of the Carnegie Institution's Nutrition Laboratory, and my colleagues, Dr. Grimshaw of New York University and Mr. Wahlstad of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, for reading the manuscript in proof sheets. Especially am I indebted to my wife, faithful heart, efficient worker ; and to my old teachers who inspired as they taught.

E. B. G.

New York City, January 1, 1915.

Chapter I, Executive Ability 3-10

Its fundamental character. Importance of management. Increased size of management units. Heterogeneity as a test of skill. Progressive peoples demand speed in operation. Efficiency as basic requirement. Why organizations develop. Conformity to type ; the genius and the fool. Periods of stress give birth to social saviors. Two types of leaders; executive here studied. Plan of treatment.

Part I. Individuality

Chapter II. The Source of Personal Power . . 11-21 Removing the mystical from leadership. Group habits encase men. The cramp of custom in relation to migrant or innovator. Surmounting opposition. Maintaining positive attitudes. Executive meets opposition face to face. Energetic character of great men. The work requirement. The unusual as opportunity; the overflow nature. The basic requirement of leadership. The body viewed as a chemical machine.

Chapter III. The Physique of Executives . . . 22-34 Dorsal and ventral cavities of body; digestion. Statistical investigation decided upon. Height and weight of railroad presidents, governors, university presidents, reformers ; other lists of American executives. Leaders compared with average men, with intellectuals and with men of less success. The question of correlation between leadership and physique. Tables showing weights and heights. Graphs of frequency distribution.

x CONTENTS

Chapter IV. The Energizing Level .... 35-42 Small- stature heroes dynamic men. Energy level fluctuates. The arousing of indolence. The possibility of retarding fatigue. Increasing the energizing rate through a stimulating environment. Individual wealth, authority, and social approval as stimuli. Other elements of stimulus in environment. The potential genius discovered. Progress promoted, with safety to individual ; high levels consistently maintained.

Chapter V. The Increase of Power .... 43-54

Desire to act is inborn. The luminous idea has the onward impulse ; its effect upon Napoleon. Characteristics of this idea : clearness, narrowness, and ability to hold interest; how power may be derived through it. The will and its relation to the idea. Effect of the set task, faith in self, impulsive temperament, and intensity of conviction. Emotional power for leaders through constructiveness and self-assertiveness, occupying the focal point, and assuming positive attitudes. The atmosphere of power ; work without ceasing.

Chapter VI. Effective Effort 55-72

Crude activity directed into effectiveness. Control of energizing rate ; power as needed. Alertness ; its advantages in dispatch, effective expenditure, and opportunism. Methods through which originality is secured. The maturing of thought. Focalization demanded of executive by complexities of modern life. Initiative. Napoleon as an example of effectiveness in effort. Methods.

Chapter VII. Organization 73-84

Growth of organized enterprise. Its advantages in self-multiplication, division of labor, use of substitutes psychologically cheap, workable policies, stimulating and stabilizing effect upon executive ; ideal of effective expenditure. The organizer's type of mind. Drawing up a systematic plan ; the organization chart. Sorting out typical tasks, man analysis, adjusting man and task. Routine tasks and the use of machinery.

CONTENTS xi

Chapter VIII. Systematic Personal Effort . . 85-94 Administrative burdens crushing unless systematized. Classifying the material to be dealt with. Working at the apex of the business pyramid. Handling correspondence. Making use of mechanical aids. The " buffer." Aiding the overloaded memory. Planning the day's work. Sharing burdens with subordinates. Doing versus getting things done. Results without haste. Conclusion of Part I. Individuality.

Part II. Motivating The Group

Chapter IX. Stimulating and Controlling Men . 95-105 Executive as stimulator. Apathetic organizations far too common. Outer versus inner methods ; stimulation as release. Mankind builded for action. Effort secured through stimulating instincts, emotions, intellect; whole mind made active. Various methods available for this purpose. Control ; why men submit to others. Collective struggle for existence breeds social nature, with subordination. Loyalty. How the executive as he stimulates secures control.

Chapter X. Personality 106-121

Power through presence ; as Webster, De Lesseps, Napoleon. Explanation of personality. Physique, emotion, intellect, and socialized nature as elements of natural prestige. Why personality includes both positive and negative appeals. The ascendancy based upon fear. Upon positive and negative self-feeling. Upon inscrutability. Compoundings of emotions in admiration, awe, reverence, and love ; the ascendancy thus established. ' Practical measures for extending personality's sway.

Chapter XI. Imitation 122-134

Tendency to do as others do more than an instinct. In general, the superior is imitated by the inferior. Positions of authority confer imitation prestige. How wealth dazzles. The aristocracy of achievement. The idealizing tendency molds potter's clay into hero stuff. Imitation prestige colors all our thinking. Making use of imitation in management.

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Chapter XII. Suggestion 135-148

Hypnotism merely dramatic form of common phenomena. Various uses of suggestion. Every normal person suggestible. Suggestion power ; prestige of the suggestor, suggestibility of the subject, the volume and duration of the suggestion. Mobs, crazes, panics, political " landslides." How suggestion is made effective. Slantwise and direct suggestion ; Antony's oration. Keeping suggestion positive. Infectious nature of suggestion, and how leaders utilize this.

Chapter XIII. Emulation 149-160

Breaking records through contests. Rivalry both lures and spurs. Utilizing emulation in management. The leader as pace setter. Enthuse an organization by making work a game. Contests with the " enemy." Beating records. The promotion policy. The quick, vigorous, and continuous action of emulation ; its exalting the strong and efficient. Providing incentive, getting all to take part, and ruling out wranglings.

Chapter XIV. Art 161-173

The leader as actor or stage manager. Why art 1 possesses power. The aesthetic demands of followers. Art stimulates ; its use for this purpose in war and work. The effect of medals and banners. Impressing things dramatically. Enlisting the imagination. Art permits high lights and shadings. Ceremonialism as a means of control. Degeneracy of art ; the Ancient Regime.

Chapter XV. Illusion 174-187

Deception predated civilization. Its influence widely ramified to-day. Manipulating attention so as to emphasize or conceal. The befuddlement of reason ; Mohammed convenient revelations, the prosperity argument in politics. By a clever distortion' of values, illusion passes the shoddy as genuine. Credulity natural and error follows hard upon it. Error attractive ; it lives t long and dies hard. How illusion approaches sincerity.

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Chapter XVI. Discipline 188-202

Moral suasion versus the iron grip. Authority prestige. The feeling of inferiority in followers ; joyful subordination and obedience. Open and closed resources. How obedience getters close resources. Are they closed to-day ? Methods of making discipline effective. Graded penalties. The approach toward self-government. Good form in administering punishment. Why its certainty is important.

Chapter XVII. Rewards 203-215

Followers possess keen bargaining scent. The real content of rewards. Wealth does not satiate. Motive behind American materialism. Why money alone can reward certain workers. Fatigue versus results. The grading of rewards. The antagonism between capital and labor. Day rate. Piece rate. Various modifications developed under scientific management. Mutual interest plans. Right and wrong methods of bestowing rewards.

Chapter XVIII. Idealism 216-226

The motivating power of ideals. How ideals are builded ; their relation to moral virtues. Utilitarian idealism. Idealism in war spirit, civic pride, theocratic groups, socialism. Emotionalized standards. Ideals adjusted for effectiveness. Executives possessed of great expectation. The control of ideals indirect yet none the less real. Bringing idealism into work. Leader and cause unified.

Chapter XIX. Instruction 227-244

Valuable knowledge accumulated; instruction quickly transmits it. Executives increasingly called upon to teach. Typical methods employed ; library, lectures, bulletins and other printed matter, trips, self-improvement clubs, and schools. All knowledge not of equal value. Developing standards. Learner must retrace entire route but at accelerated pace. Weaving details into generalizations, applying generalizations to new concretes. Results attained.

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Part III. Limits Upon The Executive

Chapter XX. Interest and Apathy .... 245-258 Subordinates not mere puppets ; at all times they limit the executive. Lack of attention and interest negate most appeals. The psychological moment. Periods of waxing and waning interest, and effect upon executives. Forces making new adjustments necessary. What normally interests people. Reshaping the interests. Compulsive ideas. Simplicity, removal of distractions, and permitting ebb and flow as means for maintaining interest. Apathy obverse of interest.

Chapter XXI. The Arousing of Opposition . . 259-274 The relation between apathy and opposition. How individual habits and group customs create opposition to innovations. Pain of a new idea, insecurity and danger in innovation ; repression of innovator. The width of variation. The career of Joseph II of Austria ; changes slow to realize. Men because of age necessarily grow out of harmony. Statistical investigation of reformers. John Law's career. Coercive power.

Chapter XXII. Competitors 275-292

Why competition develops. Attitudes to be taken toward competitors, and advantages of each. The mind's discordant elements. How doubt arises and decision is secured. Individual resolution merges into group resolution. Prestige versus prestige, prestige versus logic, logic versus logic. When to use prestige and when to use logic. Securing complete motivation.

Chapter XXIII. The Executive's Adaptability . . 293-300 Competition builds up centers of authority. Such authority always subject to adaptability. Pure democracy in theory, and as practiced. Adaptation an all-pervading principle in nature; authority subject to it. The variety of demands upon the executive. Surplus favors adaptability. The gospel of relaxation. The perfecting of adjustments through experience. How the amateur becomes expert. Old-fogyism. Maintaining balance.

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Chapter XXIV. The Final Process : Assimilation . 301-311 Restatement of thesis. Variations assimilated become living tissue. Men as representatives of their age. Increasing stimulus ; decreasing opposition. Making new appear old or old appear new. Difference between world genius and average executive. Time required to develop a conquering cause ; early trials of Mohammed and Jesus. Numbers usually win, yet not always ; the rise of superiority. The law of parsimony demands most for least; the executive a means toward this end.

Appendix. A Statistical Study of Executives . . 313-335

THE EXECUTIVE AND HIS CONTROL OF MEN

A STUDY IN PERSONAL EFFICIENCY

CHAPTER I

"Such earnest natures are the fiery pith,

The compact nucleus, round which systems grow ! Mass after mass becomes inspired therewith, And whirls impregnate with the central glow."

"The executive's chidE business is to organize, deputize, and supervise." — E. P. Ripley.

The control of men is the real problem of every organization. Ninety-seven per cent of a group of manufacturers interviewed declare it their most serious difficulty ; scientific managers agree that systematic " soldiering" is the menace of industry; psychologists are convinced that the average man, without injury, could increase his output by a half ; observation and investigation reenforce the same truth, that progress waits upon men and is thus dependent upon executive ability.

This need for executive ability is fundamental in all organized effort. Wolves have a head of the pack, mustangs in the Southwest group themselves under some powerful male, sheep follow the bellwether. Monkeys, if we may believe travelers' accounts, on their raids or marches have general and staff. The reason is evident. Leaders make for effective group action, and whether it be animal herd, robber horde, war machine, or department store, effective group action in the struggle for existence means survival.

Opportunity for the executive, now as heretofore, treads hard upon ability. The centralization of industry, the growth of cities, the increased facility of communication, the development of the modern state itself, have alike socialized men, interlaced their interests, and expanded the boundaries of their collective life. The village squire merges into the representative, to appear before whose numerous constituents even requires much mileage and leathern lungs; stagecoach driver and keeper of the toll road have become railroad officials; peddler and money lender are transformed into department-store manager and corporation director, the one numbering his employees by the hundreds, his customers by tens of thousands, and the other with his finger on many of our purses ; handicraftsman, swept by the new currents of business, becomes captain of industry, the term manufacture (rnanu, by hand, factum, a making ; literally, a making by hand) to-day as a fossil revealing the surges of an Industrial Revolution. In short, whereever one may choose to look, tremendous undertakings are being rolled up and await direction. To fail here is to be crushed under the load of civilization.

With growth in size has come increase in complexity. It is no homogeneous population to which the present-day executive appeals. The old North-European stock, men from Ireland, Scandinavia, and Germany, no longer possesses America for itself, but must compete and mingle with the sons of Croatia and Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. When these rub shoulders within the same organization, the racial difference in itself is liable to work

COMPLEXITY AND SPEED 3

demoralization through coteries and cliques. Moreover, the skilled are found with the unskilled, the strong with the weak, the cultured with the grossly ignorant; and machinery, pitting mechanism against man and mechanism against mechanism, complicates still further these human differences. Utilities are being produced, transferred, distributed, and consumed under conditions continually growing more intricate. And this affects not alone factory foreman or sales manager, but preacher, editor, politician, agitator. They all give-and-take within the social mass. For their diverse ends they have builded organizations without number, more complex than any timepiece. In such heterogeneity are vast advantages, — else it would not have come about, — but it requires skill to realize these in practice.

Another element involved is speed, a comparatively modern requirement. The ancient civilizations, Egypt, Persia, India, China, as the savage and patriarchal society which preceded them, gave promise of an advancement they somehow failed to fulfill. Shackle upon shackle — communism in property and industry ; physical, economic, and social isolation; reverence for past achievements; rulership of the old; hypertrophy of institutionalism — stagnated these ancient peoples. Once on the path of progress, however, — in itself a great achievement, — with competition and discussion, the forward look, the tentative attitude, and the future brightly painted, men began to feel a thrill in motion. Such is increasingly true in our day. The inventor scarce has perfected one device before he is urged on by fresh demands; the politician in drafting a good bill has won opportunity to draft better bills; the pleased scientist, contemplating his new generalization, is admonished to make it shorter and more comprehensive ; industry, pressed hard by labor for higher wage, capital for increased interest, landowner for more rent, and management for greater profit, vibrates with energy, its individual workman speeded up, its organization adjusted so that from raw product to shipping room the material flows without congestion, its capital made active through frequent turnover. Yet to work rapidly, to meet the new and subdue it promptly, in the individual are characteristics of an expert; with huge and intricate organization, a task for super-man.

Much more comprehensive than size of organization, its heterogeneity, or the required speed of manipulation is the demand for effectiveness in its operation. In fact, size, complexity, and speed are in themselves but means to this larger end, efficiency. Fundamentally, what is here involved is nothing less than success in the struggle for existence, the prime consideration why any creature should limit its individuality in order to lead the collective life. Ants exhibit no Hobbesian war, but instead dwell in colonies together ; prairie dogs live in towns ; wolves hunt in packs ; deer, cattle, buffaloes, and horses each group themselves into herds. Savages, in their clans, phratries, and tribes, indicate one stage in the transition toward Greek city state, feudal holding, English manor, German free city, workmen's gild; and these in turn are but the forerunners of present-day municipalities, neighborhoods, trade-unions, political parties, and corporations. Why have men thus persistently led the collective life? Because no principle is more basic than desire for greatest gain with least effort ; — men through combined actions can accomplish what individually is impossible, they can get more as members of an organization than they could as individuals.

To fulfill this collective ideal of effectiveness requires, of course, concerted effort; members must work to-

EXECUTIVE A VARIATE 5

gether. In the securing of such action, we note, all men are not of equal value, and herein lies the origin of leadership. Men by nature and nurture are unlike, quite in keeping with most natural phenomena, their qualities exhibiting a normal frequency distribution. 1 Some few are geniuses, some few are cranks, most are mediocres. Now working together requires a certain degree of similarity; since mutually antagonistic men could never carry out a common enterprise, collective action rests upon proper conformity to type. Here arises the problem of the genius and the fool ; they are unlike most men, they insist upon retaining, nay, more than that, upon realizing, their unlikenesses ; and it is difficult to distinguish clearly one from the other. The common criminal it is easy to lock up, yet what does the world not owe to Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Darwin? So stoned they the prophets. Selecting the right variate and cleaving only to him, thus becomes the chief

1 It is of some importance that this point of view be grasped. Let us illustrate by a study made of 61,581 flowers of the normal five-petal sort, these being found distributed as follows:

No. of petals . . .

Frequency iy

Of this five-petal flower, by far the greatest number were normal, that is, were true to type. But some five hundred varied from type; and the fact should also be noted that the greater the variation, the less the number of variates. These frequencies, plotted on a chart, would show graphically what is termed a normal curve of distribution. Galton found alike distribution in measuring the strength of pull of 519 men, and Karl Pearson has plotted a similar frequency curve indicating the distribution of intelligence in 1000 individuals.

All books on statistics treat this subject of frequency distribution, the chapter in G. Udny Yule's Theory of Statistics perhaps being as good as any. For the examples here cited, see Vernon, Variation in Animals and Plants, 15; Galton, Natural Inheritance, 199; and Biometrica, V, in.

W business of the common man, for such variates are immensely helpful.

The particular direction in which his helpfulness is shown depends upon the group need. With enemies round about, the strong arm and steady eye have won respect. When unusual calamities, uncanny visitations, and magic portents terrorize simple faith, he leads who best can peer into the unknown, placate the unseen, and stiffen troubled souls. With men's energies harnessed to work, the materialistic conception of history widely held, and abundant natural resources waiting to be exploited, authority passes to the business man. Or again, a wider socialization emphasizes new alignments, elevating among men the applied scientist, the conservationist, the teachers of brotherhood, social justice, and other phases of applied idealism, as is being done in our own day. Be the particular need what it will, he who best aids his group in realizing it is the helpful variate, the successful executive.

It would follow that leadership assumes maximum importance in times when the organization is under stress. Herds of cattle feeding quietly represent thoroughgoing equality; let danger threaten, and forward stalks the defiant bull. The arrival of a stranger in the Indian camp finds many hands pointing the way to the chief's tent. War clouds gathering in the East permitted Themistocles to break with all tradition by making Athens the greatest naval power in Hellas. It was when government of the people, by the people, and for the people was threatened that Lincoln wielded a power such as few Presidents have ever possessed. Periods of uncertainty, of transition, of struggle intensify the group needs, and in them have all social saviors been born.

To whom shall we to-day grant this title? To

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP 7

him best able to bear the burden of a large organization, most versatile in dealing with its complexities, most adroit in pushing it at top speed, and most effective in guaranteeing its members greatest returns for least effort.

Two types of men, each in his own way, seek to satisfy these tests: one, intellectual, — author, scientist, artist, historian, theologian, philosopher; the other, executive, — railroad president, governor, bishop, university president, trade-union official, factory superintendent. In one type, intellect is emphasized ; in the other, personal impression — a distinction by no means arbitrary, however. The intellectual leader is never divorced from face-to-face relations, and the personal leader depends upon intellect at every step. The difference is one of relative emphasis only. Of the two types, the latter, the personal, is here selected for study, and its representative in the following pages will be referred to as executive, or, should the context make the meaning clear, simply as leader.

This study of the executive presents three main lines of investigation. First, the executive as an individual. What sort of a man is he? In what respects, if any, does he differ from ordinary men? These are among the questions discussed in Part I. Second, the executive motivating his organization. By what means are men stimulated? How is control secured? This comprises Part II. Third, the reactions of his co-workers upon him. By what means do they limit his authority? How may these limits be expanded ? How secure effective adaptation? This is for Part III. Only by considering these three points of view and balancing them in their mutual relations do we reach a complete psychology of management and explain the control of men.

The claims of Part I are usually overlooked, the interest, instead, tending to dwell upon that which is more apparent and more striking, the executive dominating his co-workers. But perhaps he has already withstood certain tests, physical and mental, and it may be that these personal factors have determined that he should be leader and not of the led. Is the executive, therefore, a selected individual? To this question we now turn.

i. What four factors enter into production? What does each contribute? (See any standard work on economics.)

2. Show the importance of the executive's contribution. Is his role increasing or decreasing in comparative importance?

3. Define "utility." Is the politician as real a producer as the manufacturer ?

4. Who is the greatest contemporary leader?

5. Are contemporary leaders surpassed by historical characters?

6. Illustrate by concrete example drawn from personal experience: mutual aid among animals, leadership in animal groups, how a community decides whether the newcomer is a valuable member or otherwise, the four tests of executive ability successfully met by a leader.

McDougall, Social Psychology, Ch. I.

Kropotktn, Mutual Aid, Ch. I.

Chapter II

"The initiative of wise or noble things comes and must come from individuals, generally at first from some one individual."

— John Stuart Mill.

"There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room for many." _ RALpH Wald0 Emerson.

Each executive is inclined to feel his own task is unlike any other; "my business is different." It is a pleasant fiction. All executives are alike in this significant respect, they must handle people. Now human nature is pretty much the same the world over ; in consequence, however apparent the differences in managing mill or public school or railroad, the executive's task is essentially the same everywhere. Making use of methods diverse as to detail but alike in principle, the general manager, bishop, or politician each holds in hand the reins of power.

From this point of view, may there not be certain activities in which the executive most clearly manifests his supremacy? And should not these when revealed answer that age-old question as to what is the "secret" of leadership? Regarding the executive as a man of deeds, in order to estimate his capacity it is necessary to note both what he gets done and the conditions under which he does it. Let us consider first the conditions surrounding this man of affairs.

ii

THE EXECUTIVE AND ADVERSE PRESSURE

The executive, as has been pointed out before, rises to his full power in times of transition. Alexander, Napoleon, Washington, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vail, all J were men of change. The organization each controlled was much different when he had done with it. Yet how adverse to change is the rank and file ! Habit breeds in the narrow outlook and routine practice of subordinates. The organization, quite the same as the larger organization termed society, develops its grooves of thought along which the mental life flows freely but outside of which it is troublesome to go. The approved practice is in the air ; it impinges upon the individual at every turn.

Thus is shaped the age-old struggle between conformity and innovation, a struggle that is of daily significance to every executive. Conformity develops because community enterprise requires concerted action, and concerted action entails discipline. Certain types of conduct, in consequence, become reprehensible ; certain types are approved, because they have seemed to work well. These tend to become social habits. Parents especially, by the overlapping of generations, shape plastic minds to the requirements. Supernatural sanctions come to attach themselves to these folkways, lending horror to the new or unknown and hardening the folkways into mores. As in primitive society, with its ancestor worship, its council of old men who merely disclose what always has been, its insistence that whatever is, is right, so in the early empires of Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia, with the same practices writ large, individuality was dwarfed and innovation crushed under a cake of custom.

But bold, hardy natures chafe under such restrictions.

MEN OF ENTERPRISE 13

Like the Norsemen of whom Gibbon writes, "Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet, sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement, " variates from the East plowed the soft waters of the ^Egean, and in the sheltered harbors and fertile vales became the dynamic men of Greece. When Hellas cramped, their sons in turn pushed westward and Greek colonies fringed the Mediterranean.

A like process was European nation building. The first kings were not institutions but merely individuals who, during the period of conquest and migration which formed the state itself, pushed to the front as successful military adventurers. "The communities conquered by the early host leaders probably regarded the latter as temporary nuisances, who would in due course be removed by the hand of death. Their position was totally opposed to the old ideas of society ; they were much too stern, much too enterprising, much too neglectful of time-honored practice, to suit the easy-going ways of patriarchal society." *

Contemporary leaders realize, too, that notwithstanding the worship of progress we have not escaped the custom which cramps. Whole segments of social life are f ossiferous. Law's strict adherence to precedent, religion's indifference to the fact that it is the letter which killeth, education's materials designed for an age long past, public opinion's threatened "thought trust," industry's "red tape" parading as efficiency, all represent a hardening of the social arteries.