AN INTERESTING, if forgotten, fact concerning the beginnings of the personnel movement in this country is that labor or personnel turnover figured heavily in bringing the attention of management to the need for specialization in the executive function of personnel administration. After a depression period of large-scale unemployment in 1912 and during a period of labor scarcity in 1917, the Third Conference of Employment Managers met in Philadelphia and devoted their entire conference to the problem of turnover. In the introduction to the report of the proceedings, Commissioner of Labor Statistics Royal Meeker indicated the vital connection between the study of turnover and the beginning of the personnel movement: