Now, in the first place, he has been trained and used to care and diligence, to working to definite instructions. Is that any disadvantage to him? It is clear that such an experience is a distinct advantage. But has he the same knowledge and adaptability and initiative as the older-fashioned worker? Can he tackle a difficult job with the same chance of success? Well, what difficulties has he to face? It does not follow that because he has been working to instructions he remains in ignorance of the essential factors of his trade. On the contrary, instructions scientifically worked out give him far more knowledge than if he is compelled to work them out for himself. The men who work out these instructions are highly paid men who have all the advantages of a shop training and a scientific engineering education combined, and this is an expensive and arduous business. If a man prove a failure, one may be sure he will not be allowed to continue planning out such instructions as we are discussing. Therefore one must assume that the men who make out the instructions have studied every element of the case. The brains of these men are in the methods and instructions used by the workman, and if the latter is worth his salt he will soon know far more than the old rule-of-thumb man. If the worker is a man of ordinary common sense, he cannot help but take notice of the ways in which jobs are done; of the best and most satisfactory tools, both shape and material; of proper speeds and proper depths of cut for roughing and finishing; and many other details that are constantly before him. "But this system converts the workman into a mere machine, and already his work is too dull and mechanical!" That has been said, but not by anyone who understands the system or who has had direct experience of it. That work under _present_ conditions is often dull and mechanical is only too true. One of the reasons why this Reward System is so attractive to the worker is because it removes these conditions. When a man knows he is being paid for efficiency, the work immediately ceases to be dull; as soon as a man is interested in producing as much work as he can, that work immediately ceases to be mechanical. Some jobs will always be mechanical and dull, and the only thing to do in such cases is to change the worker at frequent periods. The conditions under which the Reward System is run must be agreeable, because it means a loss of efficiency if they are not; and when a man is working under agreeable conditions, when he knows he gets a reward for his efficiency, when he knows that rates cannot be cut, when he knows he is doing no injury to his fellow-workers by earning big rewards, he is happier at his work, he takes greater interest in it, he comes to it with a certain degree of pleasure, and he leaves it with far less fatigue and with greater contentment than under any other system.