" he said, grinning triumphantly, the
phone extended to Melroy.

The engineer picked up another phone, snapping a button on the base of
it.

"Melroy here," he said.

Something on the line started going _bee-beep-beep_ softly.

"Crandall, executive secretary, I.F.A.W.," the man on the other end of
the line identified himself. "Is there a recorder going on this line?"

"Naturally," Melroy replied. "I record all business conversations;
office routine."

"Mr. Melroy, I've been informed that you propose forcing our members in
your employ to submit to some kind of a mental test. Is that correct?"

"Not exactly. I'm not able to force anybody to submit to anything
against his will. If anybody objects to taking these tests, he can say
so, and I'll have his time made out and pay him off."

"That's the same thing. A threat of dismissal is coercion, and if these
men want to keep their jobs they'll have to take this test."

"Well, that's stated more or less correctly," Melroy conceded. "Let's
just put it that taking--and passing--this test is a condition of
employment. My contract with your union recognizes my right to establish
standards of intelligence; that's implied by my recognized right to
dismiss any person of 'unsound mind, deficient mentality or emotional
instability.' Psychological testing is the only means of determining
whether or not a person is classifiable in those terms."

"Then, in case the test purports to show that one of these men is, let's
say, mentally deficient, you intend dismissing him?"

"With the customary two weeks' severance-pay, yes."

"Well, if you do dismiss anybody on those grounds, the union will have
to insist on reviewing the grounds for dismissal."

"My contract with your union says nothing whatever about any right of
review being reserved by the union in such cases. Only in cases of
disciplinary dismissal, which this is not. I take the position that
certain minimum standards of intelligence and mental stability are
essentials in this sort of work, just as, say, certain minimum standards
of literacy are essential in clerical work."

"Then you're going to make these men take these tests, whatever they
are?"

"If they want to work for me, yes. And anybody who fails to pass them
will be dropped from my payroll."

"And who's going to decide whether or not these men have successfully
passed these tests?" Crandall asked. "You?"

"Good Lord, no! I'm an electronics engineer, not a ps