SOURCE: "Paying for Alaska," in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXVII, No. 3, September, 1912, pp. 534-536.

In the following essay, O'Daniel reviews the first edition of The Principles of Scientific Management.

In his little book [The Principles of Scientific Management], which grew out of a paper prepared for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Mr. Taylor discusses, in a general way, the principles of task management, or, to put it in the words commonly used to describe the author's theme, "efficiency engineering." Although he gives a number of examples of the actual working of the new type of management, he confines his attention for the most part to the fundamental principles underlying its methods. Much of the discussion in the newspapers and magazines has left the impression that the chief, if not the only, object of efficiency engineering is the speeding-up of the workman for the profit of the employer...