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THE high standards of examination and qualifications for membership set by the Institute of Incorporated Work Study Technologists can be seen in the new Prospectus just issued by the Institute.

IN a recent address Mr. S. J. Noel‐Brown, a work study consultant who is frequently called in by local authorities, said that 209 such bodies, out of a total of 1,800, had shown a lively interest in the subject. Of these many used outside consultants or had joined in group schemes. Some authorities, however, were still living in the quill pen era, scarcely having heard of typewriters. They were struggling along with laborious, out‐of‐date equipment.

WHEN John I. Snyder Jr. flew over from the United States he probably did not relish the Cassandra rôle into which circumstances had forced him. As president of U.S. Industries he gave one of the most depressing addresses of modern times. Since his firm is a large manufacturer of automation machines it was probably natural that he should say: ‘Automation is inevitable. Its use is rapidly increasing. Positive action by the makers of automation machines must be taken now to preserve the human values which could otherwise become cannon fodder of the automation barrage.’

THE ordinary work study practitioner will naturally ask what difference a European Work Study Federation will make to him. If it is to have his whole‐hearted support he will need to be satisfied that it will bring him advantages he would not obtain otherwise. It is too early to give precise answers to such questions. There are, however, some reasonable deductions that can be made.

FIVE years ago a score or so of Work Study enthusiasts met in Holland to consider the desirability of creating an organic link between their national bodies. The following year, slightly increased in numbers, they gathered in Germany to create what is now the European Work Study Federation. Since then, through an annual Congress in Stockholm, London and Zurich, it has established itself as an international body.

FOR the tenth time our American counterpart, the Industrial Management Society, is holding a contest for methods improvement. The brochure giving the rules shows how thoroughly such a project is undertaken. Its main purpose is to stimulate interest in cost reduction through improved ways of doing something, although the mere replacement of obsolete equipment by new plant which is commercially available is not considered to fall within the ambit of the competition.

MISS ANNE SHAW's presence on the platform at the annual general meeting of the Management Consultants Association was a solid assurance that work study still lies within its scope. The initial impression was weakened, however, when the chairman, Mr. D. J. Nicolson, mentioned that the bulk of consultancy work was no longer concerned with work study. Instead, it gave more than half its attention to policymaking and the broad aspects of organising financial, manufacturing and marketing resources.

MR. R. A. Butler's remark about doubling our living standards within the next twenty‐five years has a secure place in contemporary political obiter dicta. It suffers from being the kind of comment that is remembered long after any qualifying context has been forgotten.

THE improvement in the British standard of living is generally desired. Politicians have not only subscribed to that ideal but some of them have indicated the rate at which we should advance. There are, however, certain trends in the country's economic life which must be reversed if we are to make any progress in that direction.

IT is nearly three and a half centuries since John Donne, preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral, of which he had recently become Dean, said: ‘Some men, by the benefit of this light of Reason, have found out things profitable and use‐ful to the whole world; as in particular Printing, by which the learning of the whole world is communicable to one another, and our minds and inventions, our wits and compositions, may trade and have commerce together, and we may participate of one another's understandings, as well as of our Clothes, Wines, Oyles and other Merchandize.’