SOURCE: "The Taylor System," in Taylorism at Watertown Arsenal: Scientific Management in Action 1908-1915, Harvard University Press, 1960, pp. 13-48.

In the following essay, Aitken provides a detailed analysis of Taylor's system.

Questioned by Colonel Wheeler about his explanation of the molders' strike, John Frey admitted that workmen sometimes seemed to behave irrationally. "I know," he said, "the fiendish deviltry with which we throw down our things and go out on strike. They deliberately go in in the morning, and say 'Boys, we'll say "No" to this,' and then they take their time, putting away their things or not, and taking their time about things as they go out." But underlying this apparent irrationality, he insisted, was an attitude that made sense. A walkout was not always a rejection of the job; sometimes it was a means of defending it. "The workman believes when he goes on strike...