destructive criticism and not enough constructive criticism. If such a misfortune should occur it would cause every department head in the organization to withhold information and consider the whole curve-record system as a new form of diabolical torture. Curves are not intended to give any chief executive an excuse to "jump on" any department manager or foreman. The curve records are intended only to point out those danger points at which construction work is needed. An executive of the right type will soon realize as he uses the curves that he must do the constructive work himself, and that the curves will really have more effect in changing the procedure in his own office than in changing the detailed routine in the departments of his various subordinates.
One of the first tasks confronting any modern executive is that of training, on the one hand, his board of directors and executive committee, and on the other hand, his various department heads and their subordinates, to read curves accurately so that the facts presented may be intelligently grasped and applied to the benefit of the business as a whole. It is unfortunate that so many men serving to-day on boards of directors and in executive positions of large businesses are not able to read even the simplest curve with any real grasp of the facts portrayed. Engineers and other trained men who have real facts available are tremendously handicapped in presenting the facts if it is not feasible to use the graphic method of presentation. A man prepared to show his data in the form of curves, for example like Fig. 157 or Fig. 159, feels that he would have an almost hopeless task to convey the vital facts if only spoken words might be used. The writer ventures to predict that within ten years practically all corporation directors and executives will be able to interpret curves with satisfaction to themselves and with great benefit to their business. The executive who cannot read curves will in the near future be the exception rather than the rule.
If any general manager will take the trouble to train his department heads to read curves and will then supply to them curves showing the facts of his business, he will be tremendously repaid in the interest, enthusiasm, and real progress toward improvement which will be aroused in his men.
It is possible to use a reflecting lantern like that pictured in Fig. 218 to show on a screen the curves from the curve cards described in Chapter XIII. Lantern slides are not practicable when frequent meet-
