Endowments; Industrial efficiency; Economics--Societies, etc.; United States; National Efficiency Society; Dewey, Melvil, 1851-1931
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Origin Information
1901
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
digitized microfilm
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 81
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
EFFICIENCY SOCIETY, a nation-movement not for promoting efficiency in field where engineers have already done much, but rather for extending the of efficient engineering to all other relations life... College graduates often show unfitness to transact simple business after giving 16 years to training for life, and we cry for more efficient education. We have countless millions in our churches and they have done great good, yet in great crises of war panic or plague we deplore that more of the efficiency of the American machine is not found in our churches. We hear of millions dying for lack of food and shelter and learn that with our boasted efficiency in many lines we are the most wasteful nation the world has known. The new idea was that by persistent, systematic study and comparison of experiments and experience we might approximate in the manifold relations of life an increased efficiency comparable to that so obvious in our machines. This great idea appealed to leaders and thinkers in many fields. Over a thousand joined the Efficiency Society organized at a national convention held in the Engineering Building, New York, 18 March 1912. J.G. Cannon, president of the Fourth National Bank, was president, and its officers and committees included many of the best known men in America. Its constitution says its object is to promote efficiency or percentage of results obtained relative to effort expended in every activity of man and in everything he employs. 11 On 12 Feb. 1916, the National Institute of Efficiency was incorporated in Washington to supplement the work of the older society by making widely available throughout the country the results of research and experiments as developed and focalized by its committees. On its board of governors were leaders from a dozen different States, The general absorption in the Great War led both Society and Institute to defer much of the work planned, and later they were combined in a single National Efficiency Society incorporated in Washington but with headquarters at 119 West 40th street, New York, where fuller information can be had. It publishes a quarterly and has made The Independent its official journal, sent weekly to all members. It also publishes efficiency monographs from time to time and provides free or at reduced cost books and pamphlets of special interest to its members. It plans meetings and provides speakers, and through its officers and committees tries to focalize and disseminate for the public good anything likely to be widely useful to those specially interested in increasing efficiency. It does not assume to go into details of special callings which are best treated by their own local and national associations. It is thus a union of those willing to turn over for the common good the results of their own studies, and all such are welcomed to its membership. In friendly co-operation with the leaders of other enlightened nations its ultimate goal can be safely prophesied as 'The Federation of the World for Greater Efficiency.' Melvil Dewey, President, National Efficiency Society." [SOURCE: The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge. vol. 9, The Encyclopedia Americana Corporation, 1918, pp. 719-720. Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=969PAAAAMAAJ. Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.] "The Efficiency Movement was a major movement in the United States, Britain and other industrial nations in the early 20th century that sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement best practices. The concept covered mechanical, economic, social, and personal improvement. The quest for efficiency promised effective, dynamic management rewarded by growth... ...The Efficiency Movement played a central role in the Progressive Era in the United States, where it flourished 1890–1932. Adherents argued that all aspects of the economy, society and government were riddled with waste and inefficiency. Everything would be better if experts identified the problems and fixed them. The result was strong support for building research universities and schools of business and engineering, municipal research agencies, as well as reform of hospitals and medical schools, and the practice of farming... ...Leading philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller actively promoted the efficiency movement. In his many philanthropic pursuits, Rockefeller believed in supporting efficiency. He once said, 'To help an inefficient, ill-located, unnecessary school is a waste ...it is highly probable that enough money has been squandered on unwise educational projects to have built up a national system of higher education adequate to our needs, if the money had been properly directed to that end.." [SOURCE: "Efficiency Movement." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficiency_Movement. Accessed 3 Oct. 2018.]
Language
English
Library Location
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University