y in
home-making and child-rearing. Most young women enter upon the vocation of
wifehood and motherhood practically without any training for these duties.

It is as unscientific to expect all women to be successful wives and
mothers as it would be to expect all men to be successful farmers. It is
as tragic to expect an untrained girl to be a successful wife and mother
as it would be to expect an untrained boy to be a successful physician and
surgeon.

EXECUTIVES AND DETAIL WORKERS

A very broad division of misfits is into those who are fitted to do detail
work, trying to do executive work, and those who are natural-born
executives compelled to do detail work. This is a very common cause of
unfitness.

Some men love detail and can do it well. They naturally see the little
things. Their minds are readily occupied with accuracy in what seem to
others to be trifles, but which, taken together, make perfection. They are
careful; they are dependable; they can be relied upon. Such people,
however, do not have a ready grasp for large affairs. They cannot see
things in their broader aspect. They are not qualified by nature to
outline plans in general for other people to work out in detail. They are
the men upon whom the world must depend for the careful working out of the
little things so essential if the larger plans are to go through
successfully.

On the other hand, there are some people who have no patience with
details. They do not like them. They cannot attend to them. If depended
upon for exactitude and accuracy, they are broken reeds. They forget
detail.

There are many executives holding important positions and making a sad
failure of them because they are, by natural aptitudes, excellent detail
men but poor planners and executives. The following story illustrates,
perhaps, as well as anything we could present, the qualities of these
overworked, busy, busy executives who have no right to be executives, but
ought to be carrying out the plans of someone else:

HOW SOCRATIC HELPED BRAINERD BUILD BUSINESS

People sometimes bring their business troubles to a friend whom we shall
call Socratic. And Socratic helps them out for a consideration. His time
is valuable and he bought his wisdom at a high price.

Some months ago a pompous fellow dropped in. We recognized him as
Brainerd, one of the leading business men of a small city. His story was
this: He had built up a big enterprise during the pioneer boom days of
eas