BADIN BULLETIN
VOL. II
APRIL, 1920
No. 7
^ ^ ^
OF GENERAL INTEREST
. ^ ^
What Is Efficiency?
Efficiency has been called “doing the
right thing, in the right way, at the
right time.” It is the accomplishment of
a maximum of results with the least
expenditure of time or money. It is the
attainment of the desired result in the
best, easiest, and quickest way.
We become efficient through education
and practice—education in the science
of efficiency, practice in the art of effi
ciency.
The art is centuries old; all of us
practice it to a greater or less degree.
Since time immemorial we find it re
flected in the lives and habits and under
takings of men whose names have been
handed down to us as great men; and
to a greater or less degree all of us
practice it in our own lives.
The science of efficiency, the recogni
tion of its laws and its principles, is
comparatively new—not much more than
thirty years old. Within that period a
few men, notably Harrington Emerson,
and Frederick W. Taylor, have directed
study and thought toward finding the
underlying causes, principles, and laws
which have been and are responsible for
success. They have not invented a new
schcme or system or fad. They have
only sought out and recognized certain
truths, old as the human race, and have
endeavored to list, classify, and explain
them so that we common folks can more
quickly grasp their significance, and
teach ourselves to use them.
Efficiency is not “System," for the
most systematic of methods may yet
be woefully inefficient—for instance,
our friend who scrubbed the front porch
with a toothbrush. Nor is it mere stren
uousness, energy, and action, for some
of the least efficient cause the greatest
commotion. Instead, it is generally a
matter of thinking more, working less,
and accomplishing more. Sometimes
even lazy people are exceedingly effi
cient.
Science is organized, classified facts.
A Chinese boy spends years learning to
read and write as well as our boys can
at the end of a few months. The Chi
nese language is a jumbled, accidental
hodge-podge of word pictures, thought
pictures, ideas. Our alphabet is logical.
Its characters represent sounds instead
of thoughts or pictures. The mouth
can make less than thirty different
sounds. Any word, sentence, or thought
can be classified according to these
sounds, and represented by our letters;
consequently our language is far easier
to learn.
Libraries are able in a few minutes’
time to give us great quantities of infor
mation about any subject, for the reason
that they classify their books wonder
fully well.
{Continued on page 5)
Our Neighbor’s Rights
No right-minded person would know
ingly do anything that would injure his
neighbor’s property; yet many of our
good citizens are thoughtlessly allowing
members of their households to do that
very thing. Many people who wish to
have flower and vegetable gardens are
complaining that their good work is
oftentimes largely brought to naught by
somebody’s children, chickens, or dogs.
Now no one would deny that children,
chickens, and dogs are useful and desir
able members of a community. They
are mighty good to have—in their right
places. But when they get out of their
place, and onto the neighbor’s newly pre
pared yard or garden, they become a
nuisance and an evil. They are destruc
tive. So—
TAKE NOTICE
All persons who possess children,
chickens, or dogs are hereby notified
that these must be kept off their neigh
bors' yards and gardens. Please see that
this is done,
The State’s Free Dental Service
The Bureau of Medical Inspection of
Schools is organized as a jjart of tlie
State Board of Health of North Caro
lina. Though it is rather recent in its
.establishment, it is recognized - already
as being one of the best in the entire
country.
They have a system of examination
cards which are sent out to the various
schools in the State. A preliminary
examination of the children in the school
is made by the principal, or a physician
who is employed locally, as in the case
of the Badin Schools.
These records are sent to the offices
of the Board, at Raleigh, where the
data is compiled in such form that the
exact needs of the community become
apparent. The number of children in
the community, the number of cases of
adenoids and enlarged tonsils, the num
ber of defective teeth among all of the
children of the community, and the num
ber of cases of defective vision, together
with the degree of success with which
glasses have been fitted in each case
where any attempt has been made to
correct the defect, are some of the facts
that these records show.
So far the work was rather inexpen
sive, and could be carried on with con
siderable ease; but these are only the
preliminaries. The real task of the
State Board, as they see it, is not merely
the compilation of facts which will show
the pathetic conditions that prevail in
the schools of the State, but to organize
and conduct a program which will be
effective in the correction of these de
fects. It is not enough for them to
know just how many children in Badin
are suffering from enlarged tonsils or
decayed teeth, which act as a harbor
for disease, and continually infect the
system with germs; what they want is
the correction of these defects by the
best skill that can be obtained.
They began by sending notices to the
parents pf the children, stating the de-