cting of a life work, similarly, the same care
must be taken in learning accurately the requirements of work--the exact
size and shape, as it were, of each vocation--as is spent upon learning
the exact qualifications of each individual. Both require common sense and
intelligent judgment.

We measure a man's height in centimeters or inches. Pounds and ounces or
grams and centigrams offer us exact standards of measuring his weight. But
there are no absolute standards for measuring the man himself, and
probably there never can be. Human values, therefore, can be standardized
only relatively. By the study of large groups we can, however, ascertain
approximately the average or normal. In this way, physical standards have
been set up as to pulse rate, temperature, respiration, etc. Chemical
analysis determines norms of blood composition, and microscopic
investigation determines the average number of blood corpuscles per cubic
centimeter. The Binet-Simon mental tests are based upon certain
approximate averages of intelligence and mental development established
in the same way. The Muensterberg associated-word test of intelligence and
other psychological experiments are among the efforts made to establish
such standards. These are valuable as far as they go and probably yield
all the information that their originators claim for them, which,
unfortunately, is not a great deal. By time and motion studies, we are
enabled to set up standards of efficiency that work out well in practice.
All these, however, still leave us in the dark as to the man himself--his
honesty, his loyalty, his highest and best values.

ELEMENTS OF THE VOCATIONAL PROBLEM

But, granted for the moment that we could devise and successfully apply
exact and accurate standards of measurement for human beings, our work
would be only partially done. Any mechanic knows that it is a sad waste of
time and pains to standardize tenons, with micrometer and emery paper, to
a thousandth of an inch, so long as the mortises are left unstandardized.
A valuable man makes an unusual record on the staff of some employer.
Other employers immediately begin to lay plans to entice him away.
Transferred to another organization, he may prove mediocre, or even
undesirable, in his services. Hiring "stars" away from other employers has
proved disastrous so many times that the practice is no longer common.
Many a flourishing and fruitful tree has been transplanted, only to wither
and d