do not as yet exist in this field. All that can be offered is modest
pioneer work, and just these inquiries into the mental qualities and
their relations to the industrial vocations have attracted my
attention only very recently, and therefore certainly still demand
long continuations of the experiments in every direction. But we may
hope for satisfactory results the earlier, the more coöperators are
entering the field, and the more such researches are started in other
places and in other institutions. I therefore offer these early
reports at the first stage of my research merely as stimulations, so
as to demonstrate the possibilities.

As an illustration of the method of examining the mental process as a
whole, I propose to discuss the case of the motormen in the electric
railways. As an illustration of the other type, namely, of analyzing
the activity and testing the elementary functions, I shall discuss the
case of the employees in the telephone service. I select these two
functions, as both play a practically important rôle in the technique
of modern economic life and as in both occupations very large numbers
of individuals are engaged in the work.




VIII

EXPERIMENTS IN THE INTEREST OF ELECTRIC RAILWAY SERVICE


The problem of securing fit motormen for the electric railways was
brought to my attention from without. The accidents which occurred