ABILITY AND OPPORTUNITY
SIR,—Considering the calibre of your contributors and the knowledge of your readers as exhibited by their letters, it is with some diffidence that I, being probably one of a few amongst your readers who is a foreman in an engineering factory, write to you. In The Spectator of January loth under the hiding Production in News of the Week, your statement: "First-class managerial ability is scarce, and again the supply cannot be increased quickly " made me smile. My experience has led me to the view, that the field from which managerial personnel is selected is all too narrow, and that a considerable amount of all degrees of managerial talent slips through the fingers of employers. To give only one instance: Trade unions, from branches upwards, are managed by people often not having had the advantage of a first-class education, but their talent has, somehow, been overlooked by their employers. Not all trade union officials possess managerial ability, but a large number do exhibit qualities of leadership, organising ability, and skill in discussion, which their employers miss or ignore.—Yours faithfully, L. LEONARD. 37 The Ridgeway, Erdington, Birmingham, 23.
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