NOTE—­An analysis of the foregoing record shows 82-1/4% of agreement with the record in regard to the subjects’ characteristics.  This part of the work depends upon an application of principles.  In checking the four classifications, Mechanical, Professional, Commercial and Artistic, the element of individual judgment of the analyst entered into the problem; yet here we have an agreement with the record amounting to 65-1/2%.  Naturally, choice of exact vocation offers an unusually wide field to the personal equation, especially when the analyst has no data, as in this case, in regard to early environment, education, training, residence, and opportunities.  But, even in this case, the students are, in general, in marked agreement with the records.  It is impossible to state this agreement in percentages, since each was given a first, second, and third choice, and since some of the vocations suggested are very nearly those indicated in the record, yet not exactly the same.  A study of these three columns, however, will impress the reader with the accuracy of the analysts’ judgments.

CHAPTER V

IDEAL EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS

The progress of civilization and enlightment is a good deal like that in the old riddle of the man who had a fox, a goose, and a basket of corn to carry across the river and could carry only one at a time.  If you remember, he carried the goose across first, leaving the fox with the corn, since the fox could not eat the corn.  Then he went back, leaving the goose, and got the corn; then, when he returned for the fox, he took the goose back with him and left it alone on the bank, while he carried the fox across to keep company with the corn.  Then he returned once more and brought the goose over, completing the transfer.

So Civilization carries forward, for a time, one aspect of life.  Then she drops this and returns to bring up another.  This, in turn, she drops again and goes back once more, and when she goes back she is likely enough to carry the first advance back with her.  In the end, however, she finally brings up all of the elements and factors in human life.

For the last fifty years we have made great progress in the invention of machinery, the development of new industries, the organization of great financial and industrial institutions, and the volume of production in nearly all lines.  But, in the meantime, in order to make this advance, Civilization has been required to carry back, some hundred of years, the relationship between employer and employed.  Now let us hope she is ready to go back and bring this important factor up to date.

ANCIENT AND MODERN EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS