Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/92

 78 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The technical work of the state is the duties of officials within the laws and constitutions, the drafting, publication, and enforcing of laws. The state in absorbing coercion from the subordinate institutions has been compelled to take with it a large amount of technical work in which its officials are required to be equipped. This has been indicated above. As will be noticed, the tech- nical problem of each institution is not entirely distinct and separate from that of others. There is overlapping at many points. The mental qualities, however, required to meet this problem wherever found are the same, namely, knowledge and skill.

But a high development of technical ability is not possible without a minute division of labor and a specialization of knowl- edge and skill in limited fields of work. This necessitates in the industrial institutions transfers of goods, the selling of one's own specialized products, and the buying of the products of others for one's own personal and industrial needs. Futhermore, this technical ability must also be specialized within a single industry, and a hierarchy of knowledge and skill must be organized on a larger or smaller scale, according to the extent of the market and the character of the production. Here we have a new problem, that of buying and selling and the organization of responsibility. Material must be bought and sold, wages and salaries must be paid, employes must be selected and fitted into the respective processes according to their equipment in knowledge and skill, and the highest productive energy must be evoked from each employe by the proper play upon his motives. Altogether the problem is one of economizing the technical abilities of individ- uals, that is, of increasing the productive power of each group with the least sacrifices and concessions to other groups and to the associated individuals within the group. This is usually known as the problem of business or administration. It deals with individuals instead of raw material, and the psychical quality required is tact. This quality is seen in the successful business manager who generally has but little technical ability, knows but little of the sciences and the various branches of tech- nology over which he presides, and has no skill in handling