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Among leaders of the French Socialist Movement, Albert Thomas (1878‐1932) was one of the few steady supporters of scientific management. The purpose of this paper is to describe how Thomas developed his ideas about advanced management thought and practice during and after World War I.

The paper makes extensive use of published and unpublished primary sources preserved at the Archives nationales, Paris, at the Bureau International du Travail (BIT), Geneva, and at Smith College, Northampton, MA.

Thomas's reformist ideology first stood the test during World War I when he served as minister for munitions for France. After the International Labour Organization had entrusted him with the directorship of the BIT, Thomas helped to create the International Management Institute (IMI) as a center for the collection and dissemination of advanced management thought and practice. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rationalization movement fell into disrepute. Like some progressive members of the Taylor Society, Thomas identified scientific management increasingly with concepts of socioeconomic planning and international cooperation. Nonetheless, the intellectual tide turned against his reformist creed. Having lost the support of its American sponsors, IMI closed its doors in January 1934, only about two years after Thomas's unexpected death.

The paper tries to show how one of the most brilliant French politicians of the last century developed and applied his theories‐in‐use about scientific management under changing historical circumstances.

That ice‐creams prepared with dirty materials and under dirty conditions will themselves be dirty is a proposition which, to the merely ordinary mind, appears to be sufficiently obvious without the institution of a series of elaborate and highly “scientific” experiments to attempt to prove it. But, to the mind of the bacteriological medicine‐man, it is by microbic culture alone that anything that is dirty can be scientifically proved to be so. Not long ago, it having been observed that the itinerant vendor of ice‐creams was in the habit of rinsing his glasses, and, some say, of washing himself—although this is doubtful—in a pail of water attached to his barrow, samples of the liquor contained by such pails were duly obtained, and were solemnly submitted to a well‐known bacteriologist for bacteriological examination. After the interval necessary for the carrying out of the bacterial rites required, the eminent expert's report was published, and it may be admitted that after a cautious study of the same the conclusion seems justifiable that the pail waters were dirty, although it may well be doubted that an allegation to this effect, based on the report, would have stood the test of cross‐examination. It is true that our old and valued friend the Bacillus coli communis was reported as present, but his reputation as an awful example and as a producer of evil has been so much damaged that no one but a dangerous bacteriologist would think of hanging a dog—or even an ice‐cream vendor—on the evidence afforded by his presence. A further illustration of bacteriological trop de zèle is afforded by the recent prosecutions of some vendors of ice‐cream, whose commodities were reported to contain “millions of microbes,” including, of course, the in‐evitable and ubiquitous Bacillus coli very “communis.” To institute a prosecution under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act upon the evidence yielded by a bacteriological examination of ice‐cream is a proceeding which is foredoomed, and rightly foredoomed, to failure. The only conceivable ground upon which such a prosecution could be undertaken is the allegation that the “millions of microbes ” make the ice‐cream injurious to health. Inas‐much as not one of these millions can be proved beyond the possibility of doubt to be injurious, in the present state of knowledge; and as millions of microbes exist in everything everywhere, the breakdown of such a case must be a foregone conclusion. Moreover, a glance at the Act will show that, under existing circumstances at any rate, samples cannot be submitted to public analysts for bacteriological examination—with which, in fact, the Act has nothing to do—even if such examinations yielded results upon which it would be possible to found action. In order to prevent the sale of foul and unwholesome or actual disease‐creating ice‐cream, the proper course is to control the premises where such articles are prepared; while, at the same time, the sale of such materials should also be checked by the methods employed under the Public Health Act in dealing with decomposed and polluted articles of food. In this, no doubt, the aid of the public analyst may sometimes be sought as one of the scientific advisers of the authority taking action, but not officially in his capacity as public analyst under the Adulteration Act. And in those cases in which such advice is sought it may be hoped that it will be based, as indeed it can be based, upon something more practical, tangible and certain than the nebulous results of a bacteriological test.

At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.

The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things in their way. But while it is important that better and more scientific attention should be generally given to the preparation of food for the table, it must be admitted to be at least equally important to insure that the food before it comes into the hands of the expert cook shall be free from adulteration, and as far as possible from impurity,—that it should be, in fact, of the quality expected. Protection up to a certain point and in certain directions is afforded to the consumer by penal enactments, and hitherto the general public have been disposed to believe that those enactments are in their nature and in their application such as to guarantee a fairly general supply of articles of tolerable quality. The adulteration laws, however, while absolutely necessary for the purpose of holding many forms of fraud in check, and particularly for keeping them within certain bounds, cannot afford any guarantees of superior, or even of good, quality. Except in rare instances, even those who control the supply of articles of food to large public and private establishments fail to take steps to assure themselves that the nature and quality of the goods supplied to them are what they are represented to be. The sophisticator and adulterator are always with us. The temptations to undersell and to misrepresent seem to be so strong that firms and individuals from whom far better things might reasonably be expected fall away from the right path with deplorable facility, and seek to save themselves, should they by chance be brought to book, by forms of quibbling and wriggling which are in themselves sufficient to show the moral rottenness which can be brought about by an insatiable lust for gain. There is, unfortunately, cheating to be met with at every turn, and it behoves at least those who control the purchase and the cooking of food on the large scale to do what they can to insure the supply to them of articles which have not been tampered with, and which are in all respects of proper quality, both by insisting on being furnished with sufficiently authoritative guarantees by the vendors, and by themselves causing the application of reasonably frequent scientific checks upon the quality of the goods.

This study examines the scanning/strategy relationship in the context‐specific setting of the health care industry. It extends the current research on the strategy/scanning relationship to include performance. Results confirm the moderating role played by environmental scanning activities in the strategy/performing relationship, thus providing further evidence for the contingency relationship among the environment, the organization's internal processes, and performance.

Numbers of worthy people are no doubt nursing themselves in the fond and foolish belief that when the Food Bill has received the Royal assent, and becomes law, the manufacture and sale of adulterated and sophisticated products will, to all intents and purposes, be suppressed, and that the Public Analyst and the Inspector will be able to report the existence of almost universal purity and virtue. This optimistic feeling will not be shared by the traders and manufacturers who have suffered from the effects of unfair and dishonest competition, nor by those whose knowledge and experience of the existing law enables them to gauge the probable value of the new one with some approach to accuracy. The measure has satisfied nobody, and can satisfy nobody but those whose nefarious practices it is intended to check, and who can fully appreciate the value, to them, of patchwork and superficial legislation. We have repeatedly pointed out that repressive legislation, however stringent and however well applied, can never give the public that which the public, in theory, should receive—namely, complete protection and adequate guarantee,—nor to the honest trader the full support and encouragement to which he is entitled. But, in spite of the defects and ineffectualities necessarily attaching to legislation of this nature, a strong Government could without much difficulty have produced a far more effective, and therefore more valuable law than that which, after so long an incubation, is to be added to the statute‐book.

The question has been recently raised as to how far the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts of 1875, 1879, and 1899, and the Margarine Act, 1887, is affected by the Act 29 Charles II., cap. 7, “for the better observation of the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday.” At first sight it would seem a palpable absurdity to suppose that a man could escape the penalties of one offence because he has committed another breach of the law at the same time, and in this respect law and common‐sense are, broadly speaking, in agreement; yet there are one or two cases in which at least some show of argument can be brought forward in favour of the opposite contention.

This Society, originally known as “The National Pure Food Association,” has been reconstituted under the above title. The objects of the Society are to assist as far as possible in checking the widespread evils of food adulteration, for this purpose to bring about a public realisation of the admittedly serious character of food frauds, and, under expert advice, to co‐operate with constituted authority in effecting their repression. The policy of the Society is directed by a representative Council, and, the Society being thus established on an authoritative basis, cannot fail to become a powerful and valuable organisation if adequately and generously supported by the public. The governing body of the Society is constituted as follows:—

In the Annual Report of the General Purposes Committee of the Middlesex County Council for the year ending March 31, 1909, it is stated that inquiries were made as to the action taken under the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops Orders of 1885 and 1899 by the thirty‐six district councils in the county, the object of such action being the detection of cows suffering from tuberculosis of the udder. It might be thought that by this time the necessity for putting these orders into force had been thoroughly proved. The Royal Commission on Tuberculosis made a definite statement to the effect that milk derived from tuberculous cattle is one of the principal causes of tubercular disease in the human subject, and, apparently there seems to be some disposition on the part of local authorities to make tuberculosis notifiable. The Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, which came into force at the beginning of 1909, require that all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis are to be notified to the sanitary authority if the patients are receiving treatment from the Poor Law medical officers. Large sums are spent every year throughout the country on the upkeep of sanatoria with the object of curing cases of tubercle, if possible, but, in any case, of alleviating the sufferings of those afflicted with tuberculosis. On all sides, in fact, it is now recognised that the most energetic measures are necessary in order to combat this terrible disease. It appears from the figures given in the Report referred to that in twenty‐three out of the thirty‐six districts. “No veterinary examinations of cows were made on behalf of the local authorities!” The statement is not made the subject of comment, but we hardly think that the county authorities can regard the results of their enquiry as satisfactory. The Report was apparently presented to the County Council on July 22 last, so that up to that time, at least, it would seem that these twenty‐three districts, in a county with about one million inhabitants, are governed, so far as sanitary matters go, by people who consider themselves qualified to hold opinions diametrically opposed to those held by experts and based on the best scientific evidence at present available.