Increasing Efficiency In Business | Page 6

the
close of the walk he seemed to be relatively free from exhaustion and
undaunted in spirit.

The work accomplished by such men as Gladstone and Roosevelt is
incomprehensible to most of us who have never undertaken more than
puny tasks. These men retain their strength and in no way seem to be
undermining their health by the accomplishment of their

Herculean labors. Body and mind seem to respond to the demands
made upon them. Their periods of sleep and their vacations seem to be
no more than the hours and days of rest required by those of us who
accomplish infinitely less.
No need, however, to go beyond the field of business or industry to
find men whose super-energy has carried them to epochial discoveries
or feats of organization. The invention of the incandescent lamp by
Edison is said to have been accomplished, for instance, only after
forty-eight hours' continuous concentration on the final problem of
finding the right carbon filament and determining the proper degree of
vacuum in the inclosing bulb. Months of experiment and research had
gone before; eighteen hours a day in the laboratory had been no
uncommon thing for the inventor and his assistants, but in the last
strenuous grapple with success his own physical and mental powers
were alone equal to the strain. Not once during the two days and nights
did he rest or sleep or take his attention

from the successive
tests which led up to the assembling of the lamp which lights the
world's work and play.
The steel blade that is used seems to last as long as the one which is
allowed to lie idle. The wearing out in the one case does not seem to be
more destructive than the rusting out in the other.
We have a choice between wearing out and rusting out. Most of us
unwittingly have chosen the rusting process.
This, indeed, may be said to be Edison's regular method of work, as it
is the method of many other men who have accomplished great things
in science and industry. Both mind and body have been trained and
accustomed to exertions which seem quite impossible to ordinary
individuals.
Many persons find that increased intellectual activity results in less

fatigue and greater achievements. As a student I did my best work and
enjoyed it most the year I carried the greatest number of courses and
assumed the most outside duties. In my

capacity as adviser to
college students I find many who are able to accomplish thirty per cent
more work than is expected of college students but fail to do equally
well the regular amount. There are others who can carry the regular
amount but not more without injury to their health.
College grades afford a means of recording intellectual efficiency
directed toward particular problems. With no apparent change in bodily
conditions the same student frequently increases his efficiency a
hundred per cent. The increase seldom has an injurious effect on health,
but is merely evidence of the fact that he has suddenly wakened up and
is applying energies which before were undiscovered. A slow walk for
a single mile leaves many persons ``dragged out'' and exhausted, but a
brisk walk of the same or a greater distance results in invigoration and
recuperation. Likewise the droning over an intellectual task results in
exhaustion, while vigorous treatment whets the appetite for additional
problems.
This swift, decisive attack on problems was

the method of
Edward H. Harriman, who crowded into ten years the railroad
achievements of an extraordinary lifetime. Decisions involving
expenditure of many millions of dollars were arrived at so quickly as to
seem off-hand, even reckless. In reality, they were the products of brief
periods of intense application in which he reviewed all the conditions
and elements involved, and forged his conclusion, as it were, at white
heat. Back of each decision was exact and thorough knowledge of the
physical and traffic conditions of each of his railroads. In the case of
the Union Pacific, at least, he gained this mastery by patient, intensive
study of each grade and curve and freight-producing town on its 1800
miles of track.
The inhabitant of the torrid zone upon moving to a northern climate is
severely affected by the chill of the atmosphere. The discomfort may
last for days or months, but he becomes acclimated and is able to
withstand the cold without serious discomfort. Likewise the inhabitant

of a cool climate feels exhausted

by the heat of the torrid zone.
In some cases he is unable to accustom himself to the change, but in
many instances the acclimatization follows rapidly and leaves the
individual well fortified against the dangers of excessive heat.
Persons who have accustomed themselves to stimulants