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Show DID YOU EVER STOP TO THINK By Edson R. Waite, Shawnee, Shaw-nee, Oklahoma. J. S. Parks, president of the Fort Smith (Arkansas) Times-Record Company, Com-pany, says: That the best story I have read in a long time on the subject of Thinking was the bulleting issued a few years ago by the American Educational Association As-sociation of Philadelphia. As I recall it, it was about as follows: Jim was a Track-walker. He inspected in-spected the roadbed. He had to think about ties, rails, joints, nuts, bolts and frogs. If he did not think about his work something would go wrong. There might be a derailment or a WTeck. The road would become inefficient. ineffi-cient. It would be his fault. The thinking of Jim, the Track-walker, was important. Smith was a Switchman. He stood in the tower-house. He had to think about time-tables, schedules, train dispatches, dis-patches, switches and signals. If he did not think about his work something some-thing would go wrong. There would be delays or accidents. The railroad would become inefficient. It would be his fault. The thinking of Smith, the Switchman, was important. Williams was the General Manager of the railroad. He sat at his desk. He had to think about income, expenses, expens-es, property, supplies and equipment. If he did not think about those things something would go wrong. It would be his fault. The thinking of Williams, the General Manager, therefore, was important. Brown was president of the railroad. He sat at a desk in a private office. It was also his job to think. He had to think about the policy of the road, operations op-erations of its different divisions, the various problems of transportation and things of that sort that came to him. If he did not think about his work something would go wrong. It would be his fault. The thinking of the President, therefore, was very important. import-ant. Now if Jim, the Track-walker, had stopped thinking about his work the thinking of the General Manager could not have prevented an accident. If Williams, the General Manager, had stopped thinking about his work the thinking of the Track-walker could not have provided the payroll. It can easily eas-ily be seen that everyone's thinking was necessary. So it is in any business. Each part of an organization depends upon the thinking of all departments. Everybody Every-body has to think. Summarized, it means that the think-tank is as important as the water-tank. |
