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+Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Book of Business Etiquette
+
+Author: Nella Henney
+
+Release Date: October 13, 2007 [EBook #23025]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETIQUETTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Marcia Brooks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images from the Home Economics
+Archive: Research, Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann
+Library, Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_The Book of_
+BUSINESS ETIQUETTE
+
+
+
+
+_The Book of_
+Business Etiquette
+
+Garden City      New York
+Doubleday, Page & Company
+1922
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
+AT
+THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
+
+_First Edition_
+
+
+
+
+RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
+(AS BEFITS AN AUTHOR)
+
+TO
+THREE BUSINESS MEN
+
+
+
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+
+It would be a pleasure to call over by name and thank individually the
+business men and the business organizations that so graciously furnished
+the material upon which this little book is based. But the author feels
+that some of them will not agree with all the statements made and the
+inferences drawn, and for this reason is unable to do better than give
+this meager return for a service which was by no means meager.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+CHAPTER                                  PAGE
+
+   I. THE AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN             1
+
+  II. THE VALUE OF COURTESY                17
+
+ III. PUTTING COURTESY INTO BUSINESS       40
+
+  IV. PERSONALITY                          70
+
+   V. TABLE MANNERS                        94
+
+  VI. TELEPHONES AND FRONT DOORS          108
+
+ VII. TRAVELING AND SELLING               130
+
+VIII. THE BUSINESS OF WRITING             153
+
+  IX. MORALS AND MANNERS                  183
+
+
+PART II
+
+   X. "BIG BUSINESS"                      209
+
+  XI. IN A DEPARTMENT STORE               242
+
+ XII. A WHILE WITH A TRAVELING MAN        250
+
+XIII. TABLES FOR TWO OR MORE              268
+
+ XIV. LADIES FIRST?                       279
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Please note that the book does not credit an
+author. The Library of Congress lists Nella Henney as the author.]
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETIQUETTE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN
+
+
+The business man is the national hero of America, as native to the soil
+and as typical of the country as baseball or Broadway or big
+advertising. He is an interesting figure, picturesque and not unlovable,
+not so dashing perhaps as a knight in armor or a soldier in uniform, but
+he is not without the noble (and ignoble) qualities which have
+characterized the tribe of man since the world began. America, in common
+with other countries, has had distinguished statesmen and soldiers,
+authors and artists--and they have not all gone to their graves
+unhonored and unsung--but the hero story which belongs to her and to no
+one else is the story of the business man.
+
+Nearly always it has had its beginning in humble surroundings, with a
+little boy born in a log cabin in the woods, in a wretched shanty at
+the edge of a field, in a crowded tenement section or in the slums of a
+foreign city, who studied and worked by daylight and firelight while he
+made his living blacking boots or selling papers until he found the
+trail by which he could climb to what we are pleased to call success.
+Measured by the standards of Greece and Rome or the Middle Ages, when
+practically the only form of achievement worth mentioning was fighting
+to kill, his career has not been a romantic one. It has had to do not
+with dragons and banners and trumpets, but with stockyards and oil
+fields, with railroads, sewer systems, heat, light, and water plants,
+telephones, cotton, corn, ten-cent stores and--we might as well make a
+clean breast of it--chewing gum.
+
+We have no desire to crown the business man with a halo, though judging
+from their magazines and from the stories which they write of their own
+lives, they are almost without spot or blemish. Most of them seem not
+even to have had faults to overcome. They were born perfect. Now the
+truth is that the methods of accomplishment which the American business
+man has used have not always been above reproach and still are not. At
+the same time it would not be hard to prove that he--and here we are
+speaking of the average--with all his faults and failings (and they are
+many), with all his virtues (and he is not without them), is superior in
+character to the business men of other times in other countries. This
+without boasting. It would be a great pity if he were not.
+
+Without trying to settle the question as to whether he is good or bad
+(and he really can be pigeon-holed no better than any one else) we have
+to accept this: He is the biggest factor in the American commonwealth
+to-day. It follows then, naturally, that what he thinks and feels will
+color and probably dominate the ideas and the ideals of the rest of the
+country. Numbers of our magazines--and they are as good an index as we
+have to the feeling of the general public--are given over completely to
+the service or the entertainment of business men (the T. B. M.) and an
+astonishing amount of space is devoted to them in most of the others.
+
+It may be, and as a matter of fact constantly is, debated whether all
+this is good for the country or not. We shall not go into that. It has
+certainly been good for business, and in considering the men who have
+developed our industries we have to take them, and maybe it is just as
+well, as they are and not as we think they ought to be.
+
+There was a time when the farmer was the principal citizen. And the
+politician ingratiated himself with the people by declaring that he too
+had split rails and followed the plow, had harvested grain and had
+suffered from wet spells and dry spells, low prices, dull seasons,
+hunger and hardship. This is still a pretty sure way to win out, but
+there are others. If he can refer feelingly to the days when he worked
+and sweated in a coal mine, in a printing shop, a cotton, wool, or silk
+mill, steel or motor plant, he can hold his own with the ex-farmer's
+boy. We have become a nation of business men. Even the "dirt" farmer has
+become a business man--he has learned that he not only has to produce,
+he must find a market for his product.
+
+In comparing the business man of the present with the business man of
+the past we must remember that he is living in a more difficult world.
+Life was comparatively simple when men dressed in skins and ate roots
+and had their homes in scattered caves. They felt no need for a code of
+conduct because they felt no need for one another. They depended not on
+humanity but on nature, and perhaps human brotherhood would never have
+come to have a meaning if nature had not proved treacherous. She gave
+them berries and bananas, sunshine and soft breezes, but she gave them
+trouble also in the shape of wild beasts, and savages, terrible
+droughts, winds, and floods. In order to fight against these enemies,
+strength was necessary, and when primitive men discovered that two were
+worth twice as much as one they began to join forces. This was the
+beginning of civilization and of politeness. It rose out of the oldest
+instinct in the world--self-preservation.
+
+When men first organized into groups the units were small, a mere
+handful of people under a chief, but gradually they became larger and
+larger until the nations of to-day have grown into a sort of world
+community composed of separate countries, each one supreme in its own
+domain, but at the same time bound to the others by economic ties
+stronger than sentimental or political ones could ever be. People are
+now more dependent on one another than they have ever been before, and
+the need for confidence is greater. We cannot depend upon one another
+unless we can trust one another.
+
+The American community is in many respects the most complex the world
+has ever seen, and the hardest to manage. In other countries the manners
+have been the natural result of the national development. The strong who
+had risen to the top in the struggle for existence formed themselves
+into a group. The weak who stayed at the bottom fell into another, and
+the bulk of the populace, which, then as now, came somewhere in between,
+fell into a third or was divided according to standards of its own.
+Custom solidified the groups into classes which became so strengthened
+by years of usage that even when formal distinctions were broken down
+the barriers were still too solid for a man who was born into a certain
+group to climb very easily into the one above him. Custom also dictated
+what was expected of the several classes. Each must be gracious to those
+below and deferential to those above. The king, because he was king,
+must be regal. The nobility must, _noblesse oblige_, be magnificent, and
+as for the rest of the people, it did not matter much so long as they
+worked hard and stayed quiet. There were upheavals, of course, and now
+and then a slave with a braver heart and a stouter spirit than his
+companions incited them to rebellion. His head was chopped off for his
+pains and he was promptly forgotten. The majority of the people for
+thousands of years honestly believed that this was the only orderly
+basis upon which society could be organized.
+
+Nebulous ideas of a brotherhood, in which each man was to have an equal
+chance with every other, burned brightly for a little while in various
+parts of the world at different times, and flickered out. They broke
+forth with the fury of an explosion in France during the Revolution and
+in Russia during the Red Terror. They have smoldered quietly in some
+places and had just begun to break through with a steady, even flame.
+But America struck the match and gathered the wood to start her own
+fire. She is the first country in the world which was founded especially
+to promote individual freedom and the brotherhood of mankind. She had,
+to change the figure slightly, a blue-print to start with and she has
+been building ever since.
+
+Her material came from the eastern hemisphere. The nations there at the
+time when the United States was settled were at different stages of
+their development. Some were vigorous with youth, some were in the
+height of their glory, and some were dying because the descendants of
+the men who had made them great were futile and incapable. These nations
+were different in race and religion, in thought, language, traditions,
+and temperament. When they were not quarreling with each other, they
+were busy with domestic squabbles. They had kept this up for centuries
+and were at it when the settlers landed at Jamestown and later when the
+_Mayflower_ came to Plymouth Rock. Yet, with a cheerful disregard of
+the past and an almost sublime hope in the future they expected to live
+happily ever after they crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Needless to add,
+they did not.
+
+Accident of place cannot change a man's color (though it may bleach it a
+shade lighter or tan it a shade darker), nor his religion nor any of the
+other racial and inherent qualities which are the result of slow
+centuries of development. And the same elements which made men fight in
+the old countries set them against each other in the new. Most of the
+antagonisms were and are the result of prejudices, foolish narrow
+prejudices, which, nevertheless, must be beaten down before we can
+expect genuine courtesy.
+
+Further complications arose, and are still arising, from the fact that
+we did not all get here at the same time. Those who came first have
+inevitably and almost unconsciously formulated their own system of
+manners. Wherever there is community life and a certain amount of
+leisure there is a standard of cultivated behavior. And America, young
+as she is, has already accumulated traditions of her own.
+
+It is beyond doubt that the men who came over in the early days were, as
+a rule, better timber than the ones who come now. They came to live and
+die, if necessary, for a religious or a political principle, for
+adventure, or like the debtors in Oglethorpe's colony in Georgia, to
+wipe clean the slate of the past and begin life again. To-day they come
+to make money or because they think they will find life easier here than
+it was where they were. And one of the chief reasons for the discontent
+and unrest (and, incidentally, rudeness) which prevails among them is
+that they find it hard. We are speaking in general terms. There are
+glorious exceptions.
+
+The sturdy virtues of the pioneers did not include politeness. They
+never do. So long as there is an animal fear of existence man cannot
+think of minor elegances. He cannot live by bread alone, but he cannot
+live at all without it. Bread must come first. And the Pilgrim Father
+was too busy learning how to wring a living from the forbidding rocks of
+New England with one hand while he fought off the Indians with the other
+to give much time to tea parties and luncheons. Nowhere in America
+except in the South, where the leisurely life of the plantations gave
+opportunity for it, was any great attention paid to formal courtesy. But
+everywhere, as soon as the country had been tamed and prosperity began
+to peep over the horizon, the pioneers began to grow polite. They had
+time for it.
+
+What we must remember--and this is a reason, not an excuse, for bad
+manners--is that these new people coming into the country, the
+present-day immigrants, are pioneers, and that the life is not an easy
+one whether it is lived among a wilderness of trees and beasts in a
+forest or a wilderness of men and buildings in a city. The average
+American brings a good many charges against the foreigner--some of them
+justified, for much of the "back-wash" of Europe and Asia has drifted
+into our harbor--but he must remember this: Whatever his opinion of the
+immigrant may be the fault is ours--he came into this country under the
+sanction of our laws. And he is entitled to fair and courteous treatment
+from every citizen who lives under the folds of the American flag.
+
+The heterogeneous mixture which makes up our population is a serious
+obstacle (but not an insuperable one) in the way of courtesy, but there
+is another even greater. The first is America's problem. The second
+belongs to the world.
+
+Material progress has raced so far ahead of mental and spiritual
+progress that the world itself is a good many years in advance of the
+people who are living in it. Our statesmen ride to Washington in
+automobiles and sleeping cars, but they are not vastly preferable to
+those who went there in stagecoaches and on horseback. In other words,
+there has been considerably more improvement in the vehicles which fill
+our highways than there has been in the people who ride in them.
+
+The average man--who is, when all is said and done, the most important
+person in the state--has stood still while the currents of science and
+invention have swept past him. He has watched the work of the world pass
+into the keeping of machines, shining miracles of steel and electricity,
+and has forgot himself in worshipping them. Now he is beginning to
+realize that it is much easier to make a perfect machine than it is to
+find a perfect man to put behind it, and that man himself, even at his
+worst (and that is pretty bad) is worth more than anything else in the
+scheme of created things.
+
+This tremendous change in environment resulting from the overwhelming
+domination of machinery has brought about a corresponding change in
+manners. For manners consist, in the main, of adapting oneself to one's
+surroundings. And the story of courtesy is the story of evolution.
+
+It is interesting to run some of our conventions back to their origin.
+Nearly every one of them grew out of a practical desire for lessening
+friction or making life pleasanter. The first gesture of courtesy was,
+no doubt, some form of greeting by which one man could know another as a
+friend and not an enemy. They carried weapons then as habitually as they
+carry watches to-day and used them as frequently, so that when a man
+approached his neighbor to talk about the prospects of the sugar or
+berry crop he held out his right hand, which was the weapon hand, as a
+sign of peace. This eventually became the handshake. Raising one's hat
+is a relic of the days of chivalry when knights wore helmets which they
+removed when they came into the house, both because they were more
+comfortable without them and because it showed their respect for the
+ladies, whom it was their duty to serve. And nearly every other ceremony
+which has lasted was based on common sense. "Etiquette," as Dr. Brown
+has said, "with all its littlenesses and niceties, is founded upon a
+central idea of right and wrong."
+
+The word "courtesy" itself did not come into the language until late
+(etiquette came even later) and then it was used to describe the polite
+practices at court. It was wholly divorced from any idea of character,
+and the most fastidious gentlemen were sometimes the most complete
+scoundrels. Even the authors of books of etiquette were men of great
+superficial elegance whose moral standards were scandalously low. One of
+them, an Italian, was banished from court for having published an
+indecent poem and wrote his treatise on polite behavior while he was
+living in enforced retirement in his villa outside the city. It was
+translated for the edification of the young men of England and France
+and served as a standard for several generations. Another, an
+Englishman, spent the later years of his life writing letters to his
+illegitimate son, telling him exactly how to conduct himself in the
+courtly (and more or less corrupt) circles to which his noble rank
+entitled him. The letters were bound into a fat, dreary volume which
+still sits on the dust-covered shelves of many a library, and the name
+of the author has become a synonym for exquisite manners. Influential as
+he was in his own time, however, neither he nor any of the others of the
+early arbiters of elegance could set himself up as a dictator of what is
+polite to American men, of no matter what class, and get by with it. Not
+very far by, at any rate.
+
+It is impossible now to separate courtesy and character. Politeness is a
+fundamental, not a superficial, thing. It is the golden rule translated
+into terms of conduct. It is not a white-wash which, if laid on thick
+enough, will cover every defect. It is a clear varnish which shows the
+texture and grain of the wood beneath. In the ideal democracy the ideal
+citizen is the man who is not only incapable of doing an ungallant or an
+ungracious thing, but is equally incapable of doing an unmanly one.
+There is no use lamenting the spacious days of long ago. Wishing for
+them will not bring them back. Our problem is to put the principles of
+courtesy into practice even in this hurried and hectic Twentieth Century
+of ours. And since the business man is in numbers, and perhaps in power
+also, the most consequential person in the country, it is of most
+importance that he should have a high standard of behavior, a high
+standard of civility, which includes not only courtesy but everything
+which has to do with good citizenship.
+
+We have no desire for candy-box courtesy. It should be made of sterner
+stuff. Nor do we care for the sort which made the polite Frenchman say,
+"Excusez-moi" when he stabbed his adversary. We can scarcely hope just
+yet to attain to the magnificent calm which enabled Marie Antoinette to
+say, "I'm sorry. I did not do it on purpose," when she stepped on the
+foot of her executioner as they stood together on the scaffold, or Lord
+Chesterfield, gentleman to the very end, to say, "Give Dayrolles a
+chair" when his physician came into the room in which he lay dying. But
+we do want something that will enable us to live together in the world
+with a minimum degree of friction.
+
+The best of us get on one another's nerves, even under ordinary
+conditions, and it takes infinite pains and self-control to get through
+a trying day in a busy office without striking sparks somewhere. If
+there is a secret of success, and some of the advertisements seem trying
+to persuade us that it is all secret, it is the ability to work
+efficiently and pleasantly with other people. The business man never
+works alone. He is caught in the clutches of civilization and there is
+no escape. He is like a man climbing a mountain tied to a lot of other
+men climbing the same mountain. What each one does affects all the
+others.
+
+We do not want our people to devote themselves entirely to the art of
+being agreeable. If we could conceive of a world where everybody was
+perfectly polite and smiling all the time we should hardly like to live
+in it. It is human nature not to like perfection, and most of us, if
+brought face to face with that model of behavior, Mr. Turveydrop, who
+spent his life serving as a pattern of deportment, would sympathize
+with the delightful old lady who looked at him in the full flower of
+his glory and cried viciously (but under her breath) "I could bite you!"
+
+When Pope Benedict XI sent a messenger to Giotto for a sample of his
+work the great artist drew a perfect circle with one sweep of his arm
+and gave it to the boy. Before his death Giotto executed many marvelous
+works of art, not one of them perfect, not even the magnificent bell
+tower at Florence, but all of them infinitely greater than the circle.
+It is better, whether one is working with bricks or souls, to build
+nobly than to build perfectly.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE VALUE OF COURTESY
+
+
+Every progressive business man will agree with the successful Western
+manufacturer who says that "courtesy can pay larger dividends in
+proportion to the effort expended than any other of the many human
+characteristics which might be classed as Instruments of
+Accomplishment." But this was not always true. In the beginning "big
+business" assumed an arrogant, high-handed attitude toward the public
+and rode rough-shod over its feelings and rights whenever possible. This
+was especially the case among the big monopolies and public service
+corporations, and much of the antagonism against the railroads to-day is
+the result of the methods they used when they first began to lay tracks
+and carry passengers. Nor was this sort of thing limited to the large
+concerns. Small business consisted many times of trickery executed
+according to David Harum's motto of "Do unto the other feller as he
+would like to do unto you, but do him fust." The public is a
+long-suffering body and the business man is a hard-headed one, but
+after a while the public began to realize that it was not necessary to
+put up with gross rudeness and the business man began to realize that a
+policy of pleasantness was much better than the "treat 'em rough" idea
+upon which he had been acting. He deserves no special credit for it. It
+was as simple and as obvious a thing as putting up an umbrella when it
+is raining.
+
+People knew, long before this enlightened era of ours, that politeness
+had value. In one of the oldest books of good manners in the English
+language a man with "an eye to the main chance" advised his pupils to
+cultivate honesty, gentleness, propriety, and deportment because they
+paid. But it has not been until recently that business men as a whole
+have realized that courtesy is a practical asset to them. Business
+cannot be separated from money and there is no use to try. Men work that
+they may live. And the reason they have begun to develop and exploit
+courtesy is that they have discovered that it makes for better work and
+better living. Success, they have learned, in spite of the conspicuous
+wealth of several magnates who got their money by questionable means,
+depends upon good will and good will depends upon the square deal
+courteously given.
+
+The time is within the memory of living men, and very young men at that,
+when the idea of putting courtesy into business dealings sprang up, but
+it has taken hold remarkably. When the Hudson Tubes were opened not
+quite a decade and a half ago Mr. McAdoo inaugurated what was at that
+time an almost revolutionary policy. He took the motto, "The Public be
+Pleased," instead of the one made famous by Mr. Vanderbilt, and posted
+it all about, had pamphlets distributed, and made a speech on courtesy
+in railroad management and elsewhere. Since that time, not altogether
+because of the precedent which had been established, but because people
+were beginning to realize that with this new element creeping into
+business the old régime had to die because it could not compete with it,
+there have been all sorts of courtesy campaigns among railroad and bus
+companies, and even among post office and banking employees, to mention
+only two of the groups notorious for haughty and arrogant behavior. The
+effects of a big telephone company have been so strenuous and so well
+planned and executed that they are reserved for discussion in another
+chapter.
+
+Mr. McAdoo tells a number of charming stories which grew out of the
+Hudson Tubes experiment. One day during a political convention when he
+was standing in the lobby of a hotel in a certain city a jeweler came
+over to him after a slight moment of hesitation, gave him one of his
+cards and said, "Mr. McAdoo, I owe you a great debt of gratitude. For
+that," he added, pointing to "The Public be Pleased" engraved in small
+letters on the card just above his name. "I was in New York the day the
+tunnel was opened," he continued, "and I heard your speech, and said to
+myself that it might be a pretty good idea to try that in the jewelry
+trade. And would you believe it, my profits during the first year were
+more than fifty per cent bigger than they were the year before?" And we
+venture to add that the jeweler was more than twice as happy and that it
+was not altogether because there was more money in his coffers.
+
+Mr. McAdoo is a man with whom courtesy is not merely a policy: it is a
+habit as well. He places it next to integrity of character as a
+qualification for a business man, and he carries it into every part of
+his personal activity, as the statesmen and elevator boys, waiters and
+financiers, politicians and stenographers with whom he has come into
+contact can testify. "I never have a secretary," he says, "who is not
+courteous, no matter what his other qualifications may be." During the
+past few years Mr. McAdoo has been placed in a position to be sought
+after by all kinds of people, and in nearly every instance he has given
+an interview to whoever has asked for it. "I have always felt," we quote
+him again, "that a public servant should be as accessible to the public
+as possible." Courtesy with him, as with any one else who makes it a
+habit, has a cumulative effect. The effect cannot always be traced as in
+the case of the jeweler or in the story given below in which money plays
+a very negligible part, but it is always there.
+
+On one occasion--this was when he was president of the Hudson
+Railroad--Mr. McAdoo was on his way up to the Adirondacks when the train
+broke down. It was ill provided for such a catastrophe, there was no
+dining car, only a small buffet, and the wait was a long and trying one.
+When Mr. McAdoo after several hours went back to the buffet to see if he
+could get a cup of coffee and some rolls he found the conductor almost
+swamped by irate passengers who blamed him, in the way that passengers
+will, for something that was no more his fault than theirs. The
+conductor glanced up when Mr. McAdoo came in, expecting him to break
+into an explosion of indignation, but Mr. McAdoo said, "Well, you have
+troubles enough already without my adding to them."
+
+The conductor stepped out of the group. "What did you want, sir?" he
+asked.
+
+"Why, nothing, now," Mr. McAdoo responded. "I did want a cup of coffee,
+but never mind about it."
+
+"Come into the smoker here," the conductor said. "Wait a minute."
+
+The conductor disappeared and came back in a few minutes with coffee,
+bread, and butter. Mr. McAdoo thanked him warmly, gave him his card and
+told him that if he ever thought he could do anything for him to let him
+know. The conductor looked at the card.
+
+"Are you the president of the Hudson Railroad?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, maybe there's something you can do for me now. There are two men
+out here who say they are going to report me for what happened this
+morning. You know how things have been, and if they do, I wish you would
+write to headquarters and explain. I'm in line for promotion and you
+know what a black mark means in a case like that."
+
+Mr. McAdoo assured him that he would write if it became necessary. The
+men were bluffing, however, and the complaint was never sent in.
+Apparently the incident was closed.
+
+Several years later Mr. McAdoo's son was coming down from the
+Adirondacks when he lost his Pullman ticket. He did not discover the
+fact until he got to the station, and then he had no money and no time
+to get any by wire before the train left. He went to the conductor,
+explained his dilemma, and told him that if he would allow him to ride
+down to the city his father, who was to meet him at the Grand Central
+station, would pay him for the ticket. The conductor liked the
+youngster--perhaps because there was something about him that reminded
+him of his father, for as chance would have it, the conductor was the
+same one who had brought Mr. McAdoo the coffee and bread in the smoking
+car so many months before.
+
+"Who is your father?" he asked.
+
+"Mr. McAdoo."
+
+"President of the Hudson Railroad?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Boy, you can have the train!"
+
+So far as monetary value of courtesy is concerned we might recount
+hundreds of instances where a single act of politeness brought in
+thousands of dollars. Only the other morning the papers carried the
+story of a man who thirty years ago went into a tailor's shop with a
+ragged tear in his trousers and begged the tailor to mend it and to
+trust him for the payment which amounted to fifty cents. The tailor
+agreed cheerfully enough and the man went his way, entered business and
+made a fortune. He died recently and left the tailor fifty thousand
+dollars. Not long before that there was a story of an old woman who came
+to New York to visit her nephew--it was to be a surprise--and lost her
+bearings so completely when she got into the station that she was about
+ready to turn around and go back home when a very polite young man
+noticed her bewilderment. He offered his services, called a taxi and
+deposited her in front of her nephew's door in half an hour. She took
+his name and address and a few days later he received a check large
+enough to enable him to enter the Columbia Law School. A banker is fond
+of telling the story of an old fellow who came into his bank one day in
+a suit of black so old that it had taken on a sickly greenish tinge. He
+fell into the hands of a polite clerk who answered all his
+questions--and there were a great many of them--clearly, patiently, and
+courteously. The old man went away but came back in a day or so with
+$300,000 which he placed on deposit. "I did have some doubts," he said,
+"but this young man settled them all." Word of it went to people in
+authority and the clerk was promoted.
+
+Now it is pleasant to know that these good people were rewarded as they
+deserved to be. We would be very happy if we could promise a like reward
+to every one who is similarly kind, but it is no use. The little words
+of love and the little deeds of kindness go often without recompense so
+far as we can see, except that they happify the world, but that in
+itself is no small return.
+
+Courtesy pays in dollars and cents but its value goes far beyond that.
+It is the chief element in building good will--we are speaking now of
+courtesy as an outgrowth of character--and good will is to a firm what
+honor is to a man. He can lose everything else but so long as he keeps
+his honor he has something to build with. In the same way a business can
+lose all its material assets and can replace them with insurance money
+or something else, but if it loses its good will it will find in ninety
+cases out of a hundred that it is gone forever and that the business
+itself has become so weakened that there is nothing left but to
+reorganize it completely and blot out the old institution altogether.
+
+One must not make the mistake of believing that good will can be built
+on courtesy alone. Courtesy must be backed up by something more solid.
+An excellent comparison to show the relation that good manners bear to
+uprightness and integrity of character was drawn a number of years ago
+by a famous Italian prelate. We shall paraphrase the quaint English of
+the original translator. "Just as men do commonly fear beasts that are
+cruel and wild," he says, "and have no manner of fear of little ones
+such as gnats and flies, and yet because of the continual nuisance which
+they find them, complain more of these than they do of the other: so
+most men hate the unmannerly and untaught as much as they do the wicked,
+and more. There is no doubt that he who wishes to live, not in solitary
+and desert places, like a hermit, but in fellowship with men, and in
+populous cities, will find it a very necessary thing, to have skill to
+put himself forth comely and seemly in his fashions, gestures, and
+manners: the lack of which do make other virtues lame."
+
+Granting dependability of character, courtesy is the next finest
+business builder an organization can have. One of the largest trust
+companies in the world was built up on this hypothesis. A good many
+years ago the man who is responsible for its growth was cashier in a
+"busted" bank in a small city. The situation was a desperate one, for
+the bank could not do anything more for its customers than it was
+already doing. It could not give them more interest on their money and
+most of its other functions were mechanical. The young cashier began to
+wonder why people went to one bank in preference to another and in his
+own mind drew a comparison between the banking and the clothing
+business. He always went to the haberdasher who treated him best. Other
+men he knew did the same thing. Would not the same principle work in a
+bank? Would not people come to the place which gave them the best
+service? He decided to try it. Not only would they give efficient
+service, they would give it pleasantly. It was their last card but it
+was a trump. It won. The bank began to prosper. People who were annoyed
+by rude, brusque, or indifferent treatment in other banks came to this
+one. The cashier was raised to a position of importance and in an
+incredibly short time was made president of a trust company in New York.
+He carried with him exactly the same principle that had worked so well
+in the little bank and the result in the big one was exactly the same.
+
+In a leaflet which is in circulation among the employees at this
+institution there are these paragraphs:
+
+     We ask you to remember:
+
+     That our customers _can_ get along without us.
+
+     (There are in Greater New York nearly one hundred banks and trust
+     companies, every one of them actively seeking business.)
+
+     We _cannot_ get along without our customers.
+
+     A connection which, perhaps, it has taken us several months to
+     establish, can be terminated by one careless or discourteous act.
+
+     Our customers are asked to maintain balances of certain
+     proportions. If they wish to borrow money, they must deposit
+     collateral. They must repay loans when they mature; or arrange
+     for their extension.
+
+     If a bank errs, it must err on the side of safety, for the money
+     it loans is not its own money but the money of its depositors. We
+     (and every other bank and trust company) operate almost entirely
+     on money which our customers have deposited with us. The least we
+     can do, then, is to serve them courteously. They really are our
+     employers.
+
+     Ours is a semi-public institution.
+
+     Every day, men try to interest us in matters with which we have
+     no concern. It is our duty to tell these men, very courteously,
+     why their proposals do not appeal to us. But they are entitled to
+     a hearing. It may be that they are not in a position to benefit
+     us, and never will be. But almost every man can harm us, if he
+     tries to do so. And a pleasantly expressed declination invariably
+     makes a better impression than a favor grudgingly granted. We ask
+     you, then, to remember that our growth--and your
+     opportunities--depend not only upon the friends we make, but _the
+     enemies we do not make_.
+
+     Remember names and faces. Do something, say something that will
+     bring home to those who do business with us the fact that the
+     Blank Trust Company is a very human institution--that it wants
+     the good will of every man and woman in the country.
+
+That is the kind of courtesy which has builded this particular
+organization. It is a pleasure to visit it to-day because of the spirit
+of coöperation which animates it. They have done away with the elaborate
+spy systems in use in so many banks, although they keep the management
+well enough in hand to be able to fasten the blame for mistakes upon the
+right person. The employees work with one another and with the
+president, whom they adore. It is, as a matter of fact, largely the
+influence of the personality of the president filtering down through the
+ranks which has made possible the phenomenal success which the
+institution has enjoyed during the past few years, another proof of the
+fact that every institution--and Emerson was speaking of great
+institutions when he said it--"is the lengthened shadow of one man."
+
+Banks have almost a peculiar problem. Money is a mighty power, and to
+the average person there is something very awesome about the place where
+it is kept. Mr. Stephen Leacock is not the only man who ever went into a
+bank with a funny little guilty feeling even when he had money in it.
+When one is in this frame of mind it takes very little on the part of
+the clerk to make him believe that he has been treated rudely. Bank
+clerks are notoriously haughty, but the fault is often as much in the
+person on the outside as in the one on the inside of the bars,
+especially when he has come in to draw out money which he knows he
+should not, such as his savings bank account, for instance. The other
+day a young man went into a savings bank to draw out all of his money
+for a purpose which he knew was extravagant although he had persuaded
+himself that it was not. Throughout the whole time he was in the bank he
+was treated with perfect courtesy, but in spite of it he came out
+growling about "the dirty look the paying teller gave him!"
+
+It is not only in the first contact that civility is important. Eternal
+vigilance is the price of success as well as of liberty. Another
+incident from the banking business illustrates this. Several years ago a
+bank which had been steadily losing customers called in a publicity
+expert to build up trade for them. The man organized a splendid campaign
+and things started off with a flourish. People began to come in most
+gratifying numbers. But they did not stay. An investigation conducted
+by the publicity man disclosed the fact that they had been driven away
+by negligent and discourteous service. He went to the president of the
+bank and told him that he was wasting money building up advertising so
+long as his bank maintained its present attitude toward the public. The
+president was a man of practical sense. There was a general clearing up,
+those who were past reform were discharged and those who stayed were
+given careful training in what good breeding meant and there was no more
+trouble. Advertising will bring in a customer but it takes courtesy to
+keep him.
+
+Business, like nearly everything else, is easier to tear down than to
+build up, and one of the most devastating instruments of destruction is
+discourtesy. A contact which has taken years to build can be broken off
+by one snippy letter, one pert answer, or one discourteous response over
+the telephone. Even collection letters, no matter how long overdue the
+accounts are, bring in more returns when they are written with tact and
+diplomacy than when these two qualities are omitted. If you insult a man
+who owes you money he feels that the only way he can get even is not to
+pay you, and in most cases, he can justify himself for not doing it.
+
+Within the organization itself a courteous attitude on the part of the
+men in positions of authority toward those beneath them is of immense
+importance. Sap rises from the bottom, and a business has arrived at the
+point of stagnation when the men at the top refuse to listen to or help
+those around them. It is, as a rule, however, not the veteran in
+commercial affairs but the fledgling who causes most trouble by his bad
+manners. Young men, especially young men who have been fortunate in
+securing material advantages, too many times look upon the world as an
+accident placed here for their personal enjoyment. It never takes long
+in business to relieve their minds of this delusion, but they sometimes
+accomplish a tremendous amount of damage before it happens. For a pert,
+know-it-all manner coupled with the inefficiency which is almost
+inseparable from a total lack of experience is not likely to make
+personal contacts pleasant. Every young man worth his salt believes that
+he can reform the world, but every old man who has lived in it knows
+that it cannot be done. Somewhere half way between they meet and say,
+"We'll keep working at it just the same," and then business begins to
+pick up. But reaching the meeting ground takes tolerance and patience
+and infinite politeness from both sides.
+
+"It is the grossest sort of incivility," the quotation is not exact,
+for we do not remember the source, "to be contemptuous of any kind of
+knowledge." And herein lies the difficulty between the hard-headed
+business man of twenty years' experience and the youngster upon whose
+diploma the ink has not yet dried. "Ignorance," declares a man who has
+spent his life in trying to draw capital and labor together and has
+succeeded in hundreds of factories, "is the cause of all trouble." And a
+lack of understanding, which is a form of ignorance, is the cause of
+nearly all discourtesy.
+
+So long as there is discourtesy in the world there must be protection
+against it, and the best, cheapest, and easiest means of protection is
+courtesy itself. Boats which are in constant danger of being run into,
+such as the tug and ferry boats in a busy harbor, are fitted out with
+buffers or fenders which are as much a part of their equipment as the
+smokestack, and in many cases, as necessary. Ocean liners carry fenders
+to be thrown over the side when there is need for them, but this
+naturally is not as often as in more crowded waters. A single boat on a
+deserted sea with nothing but sea-gulls and flying fish in sight cannot
+damage any one besides herself. But the moment she enters a harbor she
+has to take into account every other vessel in it from the _Aquitania_
+to the flat-bottomed row-boat with only one man in it. It is a
+remarkable fact that most of the boats that are injured or sunk by
+collision are damaged by vessels much smaller than themselves. Most of
+these accidents (this statement is given on the authority of an able
+seaman) could have been prevented by the use of a fender thrown over the
+side at the proper moment. Politeness is like this. It is the finest
+shock absorber in the world, as essential from an economic point of view
+as it is pleasant from a social one. In business there is no royal
+isolation. We are all ferry boats. We need our shock absorbers every
+minute of the day.
+
+No boat has a right to run into another, but they do it just the same,
+and a shock absorber is worth all the curses the captain and the crew
+can pronounce, however righteous their indignation toward the offending
+vessel. Sometimes politeness is better than justice.
+
+Most of the causes of irritation during the course of a business day are
+too petty to bother about. Many of them could be ignored and a good many
+more could be laughed at. A sense of humor and a sense of proportion
+would do away with ninety per cent of all the wrangling in the world.
+Some one has said, and not without truth, that a highly developed sense
+of humor would have prevented the World War. Too many people use
+sledge-hammers when tack hammers would do just as well. They belong in
+the same company with William Jay whose immortal epitaph bears these
+words:
+
+    Here lies the body of William Jay
+    Who died maintaining his right of way.
+    He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
+    But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.
+
+Courtesy is restful. A nervous frenzy of energy throughout the day
+leaves one at sunset as exhausted as a punctured balloon. The fussy
+little fellow who fancies himself rushed to death, who has no time to
+talk with anybody, who cannot be polite to his stenographer and his
+messenger boys because he is in such a terrible hurry, is dissipating
+his energy into something that does not matter and using up the vitality
+which should go into his work. He is very like the engine which
+President Lincoln was so fond of telling about which used so much steam
+in blowing its whistle that every time it did it it had to stop.
+
+The Orientals manage things better than we do. "We tried hurrying two
+thousand years ago," a banker in Constantinople said to a tired American
+business man, "and found that it did not pay. So we gave it up." There
+is always time to be polite, and though it sounds like a contradiction,
+there will be more time to spare if one devotes a part of his day to
+courtesy.
+
+But there is danger in too much courtesy. Every virtue becomes a vice if
+it is carried too far, and frank rudeness is better than servility or
+hypocrisy. Commercial greed, there is no other name for it, leads a firm
+to adopt some such idiotic motto as "the customer is always right." No
+organization could ever live up to such a policy, and the principle back
+of it is undemocratic, un-American, unsound and untrue. The customer is
+not always right and the employer in a big (or little) concern who
+places girls (department stores are the chief sinners in this) on the
+front line of approach with any such instructions is a menace to
+self-respecting business. America does not want a serving class with a
+"king-can-do-no-wrong" attitude toward the public. Business is service,
+not servility, and courtesy works both ways. There is no more sense in
+business proclaiming that the customer is always right than there would
+be in a customer declaring that business is always right, and no more
+truth.
+
+No good business man will argue with a customer, or anybody else, not
+only because it is bad policy to do so, but because his self-respect
+will not allow it. He will give and require from his employees
+courteous treatment toward his customers, and when doubt arises he will
+give them (the customers) the benefit of it. And he will always remember
+that he is dealing with an intelligent human being. The customer has a
+right to expect a firm to supply him with reliable commodities and to do
+it pleasantly, but he has no right to expect it to prostrate itself at
+his feet in order to retain his trade, however large that trade may be.
+
+Too little has been said about courtesy on the part of the customer and
+the public--that great headless mass of unrelated particles. Business is
+service, we say, and the master is the public, the hardest one in the
+world to serve. Each one of us speaks with more or less pitying contempt
+of the public, forgetting that we ourselves are the public and that the
+sum total of the good breeding, intelligence, and character of the
+public can be no greater than that of the individuals who make it up.
+
+"Sid," of the _American Magazine_, says that he once asked the manager
+of a circus which group of his employees he had most trouble keeping.
+Quite unexpectedly the man replied, "The attendants. They get
+'sucker-sore' and after that they are no good." This is how it happens.
+The wild man from Borneo is placed in a cage with a placard attached
+bearing in big letters the legend "The Wild Man from Borneo." An old
+farmer comes to the circus, looks at the wild man from Borneo in his
+cage, reads the placard, looks at the attendant, "Is this the wild man
+from Borneo?" he asks. No human being can stand an unlimited amount of
+this sort of thing, and the attendant, after he has explained some
+hundred thousand or so times that this really is the wild man from
+Borneo begins to lose his zest for it and to answer snappishly and
+sarcastically. An infinite supply of courtesy would, of course, be a
+priceless asset to him, but does not this work both ways? What right
+have people to bother other people with perfectly foolish and imbecile
+questions? Is there any one who cannot sympathize with a "sucker-sore"
+attendant? And with the people who are stationed about for the purpose
+of answering questions almost anywhere? There are not many of us who at
+one time and another have not had the feeling that we were on the wrong
+train even after we had asked the man who sold us the ticket, the man
+who punched it at the gate, the guard who was standing near the
+entrance, and the guard who was standing near the train, the porter, the
+conductor, and the news-butcher if it was the right one and have had an
+affirmative answer from every one of them. How many times can a man be
+expected to answer such a question with a smile? For those who are
+exposed to "suckers" the best advice is to be as gentle with them as
+possible, to grit your teeth and hold your temper even when the
+ninety-thousandth man comes through to ask if this is the right train.
+For the "suckers" themselves there are only two words of advice. They
+include all the rest: Stop it.
+
+It is impossible to tell what the value of courtesy is. Perhaps some day
+the people who have learned to measure our minds will be able to tell us
+just what a smile is worth. Maybe they can tell us also what Spring is
+worth, and what happiness is worth. Meanwhile we do not know. We only
+know that they are infinitely precious.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PUTTING COURTESY INTO BUSINESS
+
+
+We talk a great deal about gentlemen and about democracy and a good many
+other words which describe noble conceptions without a very clear idea
+of what they mean. The biggest mistake we make is in thinking of them as
+something stationary like a monument carved in granite or a stone set
+upon a hill, when the truth is that they are living ideas subject to the
+change and growth of all living things. No man has ever yet become a
+perfect gentleman because as his mind has developed his conception of
+what a gentleman is has enlarged, just as no country has ever become a
+perfect democracy because each new idea of freedom has led to broader
+ideas of freedom. It is very much like walking through a tunnel. At
+first there is only darkness, and then a tiny pin point of light ahead
+which grows wider and wider as one advances toward it until, finally, he
+stands out in the open with the world before him. There is no end to
+life, and none to human development, at least none that can be conceived
+of by the finite mind of man.
+
+There are hundreds of definitions of a gentleman, none of them
+altogether satisfactory. Cardinal Newman says it is almost enough to say
+that he is one who never gives pain. "They be the men," runs an old
+chronicle, "whom their race and bloud, or at the least, their virtues,
+do make noble and knowne." Barrow declares that they are the men lifted
+above the vulgar crowd by two qualities: courage and courtesy. The
+Century Dictionary, which is as good an authority as any, says, "A
+gentleman is a man of good breeding, courtesy, and kindness; hence, a
+man distinguished for fine sense of honor, strict regard for his
+obligations, and consideration for the rights and feelings of others."
+And this is a good enough working standard for anybody. The Dictionary
+is careful to make--and this is important--a gentleman not one who
+conforms to an outward and conventional standard, but one who follows an
+inward and personal ideal.
+
+Of late days there has been a great deal of attention paid to making
+gentlemen of business men and putting courtesy into all the
+ramifications of business. Without doubt the chief reason for it is the
+fact that business men themselves have discovered that it pays. One
+restaurant frankly adopted the motto, "Courtesy Pays," and had it all
+fixed up with gilt letters and framed and hung it near the front door,
+and a number of other places have exactly the same policy for exactly
+the same reason though they do not all proclaim the fact so boldly. It
+is not the loftiest motive in the world but it is an intelligent one,
+and it is better for a man to be polite because he hopes to win success
+that way than for him not to be polite at all.
+
+Human conduct, even at its best, is not always inspired by the highest
+possible motives. Not even the religions which men have followed have
+been able to accomplish this. Most of them have held out the hope of
+heavenly reward in payment for goodness here on earth and countless
+millions of men (and women, too, for that matter) have kept in the
+straight and narrow path because they were afraid to step out of it. It
+may be that they were, intrinsically, no better men than the ones who
+trod the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire, but they were much
+easier to live with. And the man who is courteous, who is a gentleman,
+whatever his motives, is a more agreeable citizen than the one who is
+not.
+
+Now how--this is our problem--does one go about making a gentleman?
+Environment plays, comparatively speaking, a very small part. "The
+appellation of gentleman," this is from a gentleman of the Seventeenth
+Century, "is not to be affixed to a man's circumstances, but to his
+behavior in them." It is extremely doubtful if courtesy can be taught by
+rule. It is more a matter of atmosphere, and an instinct "for the better
+side of things and the cleaner surfaces of life." And yet, heredity,
+training, and environment all enter into the process.
+
+It is a polite and pleasant fiction that courtesy is innate and not
+acquired, and we hear a great deal about the "born lady" and the "born
+gentleman." They are both myths. Babies are not polite, and the "king
+upon 'is throne with 'is crown upon 'is 'ead" has had, if he is a
+gentleman, life-long training in the art of being one. There is still in
+existence a very interesting outline which was given by Queen Victoria
+and Prince Albert to their oldest son, the Prince of Wales, on his
+seventeenth birthday. It contained a careful summary of what was
+expected of him as a Christian gentleman and included such items as
+dress, appearance, deportment, relations with other people, and ability
+to acquit himself well in whatever company he happened to be thrown.
+
+The King and Queen, although they were probably unaware of the fact,
+were acting upon the advice of an authority on good manners at court a
+number of years before their time. "Indeed," says the old manuscript,
+"from seven to seventeen young gentlemen commonly are carefully enough
+brought up: but from seventeen to seven-and-twenty (the most dangerous
+time of all a man's life, and the most slippery to stay well in) they
+have commonly the rein of all license in their own hand, and specially
+such as do live in the court." If we bring the sentence up to date, and
+it is as true now as it was then, we may substitute "business" for
+"court." Business men as well as courtiers find the ages between
+seventeen and seven-and-twenty "the most slippery to stay well in" for
+it is during these years that they are establishing themselves in the
+commercial world. As a general thing, but it is wise to remember that
+there is no rule to which there are not exceptions, by the time a man is
+twenty-seven his habits are formed and it is too late to acquire new
+ones.
+
+Most children undergo a painstaking and more or less painful course of
+instruction in good manners and know by the time they are men and women
+what should be done whether they do it or not. Our social code is not a
+complicated one, and there is no excuse except for the youngsters who
+have just growed up like Topsy or have been brought up by jerks like
+Pip. It is, without doubt, easier to be polite among people who are
+naturally courteous than among those who snap and snarl at one another,
+but it is a mistake to place too much emphasis on this part of it. Too
+many men--business men, at that--have come up out of the mire for us to
+be able to offer elaborate apologies for those who have stayed in it.
+The background is of minor importance. A cockroach is a cockroach
+anywhere you put him.
+
+It is easy to envy the men who have had superior advantages, and many a
+man feels that if he had another's chance he, too, might have become a
+great gentleman. It is an idle speculation. His own opportunities are
+the only ones any man can attend to, and if he is sensible he will take
+quick advantage of those that come, not in dreams, but in reality, and
+will remember what a very sagacious English statesman said about matters
+of even graver import: "It makes no difference where you are going.
+You've got to start from where you are."
+
+The lack of early training is a handicap but not a formidable one,
+especially to a business man. As the Spaniards say, there is little
+curiosity about the pedigree of a good man. And no man needs to be
+ashamed of his origin. The president of a firm would naturally be
+interested in the ancestry of a young man who came to ask him for the
+hand of his daughter, but if the man has come to sell a bill of goods he
+does not care a snap. In discussions of the social evil it is often said
+that every child has a right to be well born, but Robert Louis Stevenson
+saw more deeply and spoke more truly when he said, "We are all nobly
+born; fortunate those who know it; blessed those who remember."
+
+The finest Gentleman the world has ever seen was born some two thousand
+years ago to the wife of a carpenter in Bethlehem and spent most of His
+time among fishermen, tax-collectors, cripples, lepers, and outcasts of
+various sorts; and yet in the entire record of His short and troubled
+life there is not one mention of an ungraceful or an ungainly action. He
+was careful to observe even the trivialities of social life. Mary and
+Martha were quarreling before dinner. He quieted them with a few
+gracious words. The people at the marriage feast at Cana were worried
+because they had only water to drink. He touched it and gave them wine.
+The multitude who came to hear Him were tired, footsore, and hungry. He
+asked them to be seated and gave them food. He dined with the
+Pharisees, He talked with the women of Samaria, He comforted Mary
+Magdalen, and He washed the feet of His disciples. He was beset and
+harassed by a thousand rude and unmannerly questions, but not once did
+He return an impatient answer. Surely these things are godlike and
+divine whatever one may believe about the relation of Jesus Christ to
+God, the Father.
+
+It has been said that every man should choose a gentleman for his
+father. He should also choose a gentleman for his employer.
+Unfortunately he often has no more option in the one than he has in the
+other. Very few of us get exactly what we want. But however this may be,
+a gentleman at the head of a concern is a priceless asset. The
+atmosphere of most business houses is determined by the man at the top.
+His character filters down through the ranks. If he is a
+rough-and-tumble sort of person the office is likely to be that kind of
+place; if he is quiet and mannerly the chances are that the office will
+be quiet and mannerly. If he is a gentleman everybody in the place will
+know it and will feel the effects of it. "I am always glad John was with
+Mr. Blank his first year in business," said a mother speaking of her
+son. Mr. Blank was a man who had a life-long reputation for being as
+straight as a shingle and as clean as a hound's tooth, every inch a
+gentleman.
+
+"How do you account for the fact that you have come to place so much
+emphasis on courtesy?" a business man was asked one day as he sat in his
+upholstered office with great windows opening out on the New York
+harbor. He thought for a moment, and his mind went back to the little
+Georgia village where he was born and brought up. "My father was a
+gentleman," he answered. "I remember when I was a boy he used to be
+careful about such trifles as this. 'Now, Jim,' he would say, 'when you
+stop on the sidewalk don't stop in the middle of it. Stand aside so you
+won't be in anybody's way.' And even now," the man smiled, "I never stop
+on the sidewalk without stepping to one side so as to be out of the
+way."
+
+The life of a young person is plastic, easy to take impressions, strong
+to retain them. And the "old man" or the "governor," whether he is
+father, friend, or employer, or all three, has infinitely more influence
+than either he or the young man realizes. At the same time it is
+perfectly true that young people do not believe what older ones tell
+them about life. They have to try it out for themselves. One generation
+does not begin where the other left off. Each one of us begins at the
+beginning, and the world, with all that it holds, is as wonderful
+(though slightly different, to be sure) and as new to the child who is
+born into it to-day as it was to Adam on the first morning after it was
+created.
+
+It is almost tragic that so many young men take the tenor of their lives
+from that of their employers, especially if the latter have been
+successful. This places a terrific responsibility upon the employer
+which does not, however, shift it from the employee. His part in
+business or in life--and this is true of all of us--is what he makes it,
+great or small. And the most important thing is for him to have a
+personal ideal of what he thinks best and hold to it. He cannot get it
+from the outside.
+
+"Courtesy is not one of the company's rules," wrote the manager of a
+large organization which has been very successful in handling men and
+making money. "It is a tradition, an instinct. It is an attribute of the
+general tone, of the dominating influence of the management in all its
+relations. It is a part of the general tone, the honor, the integrity of
+the company. For three generations it has been looked upon as an
+inheritance to be preserved and kept irreproachable. Employees are drawn
+into this influence by the very simple process of their own
+development. Those who find themselves in harmony with the character of
+the company or who deliberately put themselves in tune, progress. Those
+who do not, cannot, for long, do congenial or acceptable service." This
+is the statement from the manager of a firm that is widely known for
+courteous dealing. Their standard is now established. It is a part of
+the atmosphere, and their chief problem is to get men who will fit into
+it.
+
+An employer does not judge a man on an abstract basis. He takes him
+because he thinks he will be useful to his business. This is why most
+places like to get men when they are young. They are easier to train.
+
+Every one likes good material to work with, and employers are no
+exception. They take the best they can find, and the higher the standard
+of the firm the greater the care expended in choosing the employees.
+"Whenever we find a good man," said the manager of a big trust company,
+"we take him on. We may not have a place for him at the time but we keep
+him until we find one."
+
+Except during times of stress such as that brought about by the war when
+the soldiers were at the front, no business house hires people
+indiscriminately. They know, as the Chinese have it, that rotten wood
+cannot be carved. "It is our opinion," we quote from another manager,
+"that courtesy cannot be pounded into a person who lacks proper social
+basis. In other words, there are some people who would be boorish under
+any circumstances. Our first and chief step toward courtesy is to
+exercise care in selecting our employees. We weigh carefully each
+applicant for a sales position and try to visualize his probable
+deportment as our representative, and unless he gives promise of being a
+fit representative we do not employ him."
+
+But it is not enough to take a man into a business organization. Every
+newcomer must be broken in. Sometimes this is done by means of formal
+training, sometimes it consists merely of giving him an idea of what is
+expected of him and letting him work out his own salvation. Granting
+that he is already familiar with the work in a general way, and that he
+is intelligent and resourceful, he ought to be able to adapt himself
+without a great deal of instruction from above. All of this depends upon
+the kind of work which is to be done.
+
+Nearly every employer exercises more caution in selecting the man who is
+to meet the public than any other. It is through him that the
+all-important first impression is made, and a man who is rude or
+discourteous, or who, for any reason, rubs people the wrong way, simply
+will not do. He may have many virtues but unless they are apparent they
+are for the time being of little service.
+
+Most salesmen have to go to school. Their work consists largely of the
+study of one of the most difficult subjects in the catalogue: human
+psychology. They must know why men do what they do and how to make them
+do what they, the salesmen, want them to do. They must be able to handle
+the most delicate situations courteously and without friction. It takes
+the tact of a diplomat, the nerve of a trapeze performer, the physical
+strength of a prize fighter, the optimism of William J. Bryan or of
+Pollyanna, and the wisdom of Solomon. Not many men are born with this
+combination of qualities.
+
+The best training schools base their teaching on character and common
+sense. One very remarkable organization, which has at its head an
+astonishingly buoyant and optimistic--and, it is hardly necessary to
+add, successful--man, teaches that character is nine-tenths of success
+in salesmanship and technique is only one-tenth. They study technique
+and character along with it, in a scientific way, like the students in
+a biological laboratory who examine specimens. Their prospects are their
+subjects, and while they do not actually bring them into the
+consultation room, they hold experience meetings and tell the stories of
+their successful and unsuccessful contacts. The meetings are held at the
+end of the day, when the men are all tired and many of them are
+depressed and discouraged. They are opened with songs, "My Old Kentucky
+Home," "Old Black Joe," "Sweet Adeline," and the other good old familiar
+favorites that make one think of home and mother and school days and
+happiness. One or two catchy popular songs are introduced, and the men
+sing or hum or whistle or divide into groups and do all three with all
+their might. It is irresistible. Fifteen or twenty minutes of it can
+wipe out the sourest memory of the day's business, and trivial
+irritations sink to their proper place in the scheme of things. The
+little speeches follow, and the men clap and cheer for the ones who have
+done good work and try to make an intelligent diagnosis of the cases of
+the ones who have not. When the leader talks he sometimes recounts his
+early experiences--he, like most good salesmanagers, was once on the
+road himself--and if he is in an inspirational mood, gives a sound talk
+on the principle back of the golden rule. The spirit of coöperation
+throughout the institution is amazing and the morale is something any
+group of workers might well envy them.
+
+Most business houses recognize their responsibilities toward the young
+people that they hire. Well-organized concerns build up from within. The
+heads of the departments are for the most part men who have received
+their training in the institution, and they take as much pains in
+selecting their office boys as they do in selecting any other group, for
+it is in them that they see the future heads and assistant heads of the
+departments. In hiring office boys "cleanness, good manners, good
+physique, mental agility, and good habits are primary requisites,"
+according to Mr. J. Ogden Armour in the _American Magazine_.
+
+In one of the oldest banks in New York each boy who enters is given a
+few days' intensive training by a gentleman chosen for the purpose. The
+instructor stresses the fundamentals of character and, above all things,
+common sense. Courtesy is rarely discussed as a separate quality but
+simple instructions are given about not going in front of a person when
+there is room to go around him, not pushing into an elevator ahead of
+every one else, not speaking to a man at a desk until he has signified
+that he is ready, and about sustaining quiet and orderly behavior
+everywhere. The atmosphere in the bank is the kind that encourages
+gentlemanly conduct and the new boys either fall in with it or else get
+out and go somewhere else.
+
+It takes more patience on the part of the youngsters in the financial
+district than it does in most other places, for the men there work under
+high tension and are often cross, worried, nervous, and irritable, and
+as a result are, many times, without intending it, unjust. The
+discipline is severe, and the boy would not be human if he did not
+resent it. But the youngster who is quick to fly off the handle will
+find himself sadly handicapped, however brilliant he may be, in the race
+with boys who can keep their tempers in the face of an injury.
+
+Three boys out of the hundreds who have passed through the training
+school in the bank of which we were speaking have been discharged for
+acts of discourtesy. One flipped a rubber clip across a platform and hit
+one of the officials in the eye, one refused to stay after hours to
+finish some work he had neglected during the day, and one was
+impertinent. All three could have stayed if each had used a little
+common sense, and all three could have stayed if each act had not been
+a fair indication of his general attitude toward his work.
+
+One of the most difficult organizations to manage and one against which
+the charge of discourtesy is frequently brought is the department store.
+Yet a distinguished Englishwoman visiting here--it takes a woman to
+judge these things--said, "I had always been told that people in New
+York were in such a hurry that, although well-meaning enough, they were
+inclined to appear somewhat rude to strangers. I have found it to be
+just the reverse. During my first strolls in the streets, in the shops,
+and elsewhere, I have found everybody most courteous. Your stores, I may
+say, are the finest I have ever seen, not excepting those of Paris.
+Their displays are remarkable. Their spaciousness impressed me greatly.
+Even at a crowded time it was not difficult to move about. In London,
+where our shops are mostly cramped and old-fashioned, it would be
+impossible for such large numbers of people to find admittance."
+
+The tribute is a very nice one. For a long time the department stores
+have realized the difficulties under which they labor and have been
+making efforts to overcome them. They have formed associations by which
+they study each other's methods, and most of them have very highly
+organized systems of training and management. One big department store
+carries on courtesy drives. Talks are given, posters are exhibited, and
+prizes are offered for the most courteous clerks in the store. "We know
+that it is not fair to give prizes," the personnel manager says,
+"because it is impossible to tell really which clerks are the most
+courteous, but it stimulates interest and effort throughout the
+organization and the effects last after the drive is over."
+
+One big department store which is favorably known among a large
+clientèle for courteous handling of customers depends upon its
+atmosphere to an enormous extent, but it realizes that atmosphere does
+not come by chance, that it has to be created. They have arranged it so
+that each clerk has time to serve each customer who enters without the
+nervous hurry which is the cause of so much rudeness. The salesclerks
+who come into the institution are given two weeks' training in the
+mechanical end of their work, the ways of recording sales, methods of
+approach, and so on, as well as in the spirit of coöperation and
+service. By the time the clerk is placed behind the counter he or she
+can conduct a sale courteously and with despatch, but there is never a
+time when the head of the department is not ready and willing to be
+consulted about extraordinary situations which may arise.
+
+It is during the rush seasons such as the three or four weeks which
+precede Christmas that courtesy is put to the severest test, and the
+store described in the paragraph above bears up under it nobly. It did
+not wait until Christmas to begin teaching courtesy. It had tried to
+make it a habit, but last year several weeks before the holidays it
+issued a bulletin to its employees to remind them of certain things that
+would make the Christmas shopping less nerve-racking. The first
+paragraph was headed HEALTH. It ran as follows:
+
+"If you want to be really merry at Christmas time, it will be well to
+bear in mind during this busy month at least these few 'health savers':
+
+"Every night try to get eight good hours of sleep.
+
+"All day try to keep an even temper and a ready smile.
+
+"Remember that five minutes lost in the morning means additional
+pressure all day long.
+
+"Try to make your extra effort a steady one--not allowing yourself to
+get excited and rushed so that you make careless mistakes.
+
+"Try to eat regularly three good nourishing meals, relaxing completely
+while you are at the table and for a little while afterward.
+
+"Breathe deeply, and as often as you can, good fresh air--it cures
+weariness.
+
+"And don't forget that a brisk walk, a sensible dinner, an hour's
+relaxation, and then a hot bath before retiring, make a refreshing end
+for one business day and a splendid preparation for the next."
+
+There were six other paragraphs in the bulletin. One asked the
+salesclerks to take the greatest care in complying with a customer's
+request to send gift purchases without the price tags. Another asked
+them to pay strictest attention to getting the right addresses, and most
+of the others were taken up with suggestions for ways to avoid
+congestion by using a bank of elevators somewhat less conveniently
+located than the others, by limiting their personal telephone calls to
+those which were absolutely necessary, and so on. In both tone and
+content the bulletin was an excellent one. It first considered the
+employees and then the customers. There was no condescension in the way
+it was written and there was no "bunk" about what was in it. But the
+bulletin was only a small part of an effort that never stops.
+
+The purpose of the store is, to quote from its own statement, "to
+render honest, prompt, courteous and complete service to customers" and
+the qualities by which they measure their employees are as follows:
+
+     Health
+     Loyalty
+     Coöperation
+     Initiative
+     Industry
+     Accuracy
+     Thoroughness
+     Responsibility
+     Knowledge
+
+Courtesy is not included in the list but it is unnecessary. If these
+qualities are developed courtesy will come of its own accord. It is
+worth noting that health comes first in the list. To a business man, or
+indeed to any other, it is one of the most precious possessions in the
+world, and is the best of backgrounds upon which to embroider the flower
+of courtesy.
+
+Every employer who has had any experience knows the value of a contented
+workman, and does what he can to make and keep him so by paying him
+adequate wages, and providing comfortable, sanitary, and pleasant
+working conditions. Contentment is, however, more an attitude of mind
+than a result of external circumstances. Happiness is who, not where,
+you are. We do not mean by this that a workman should be wholly
+satisfied and without ambition or that he should face the world with a
+permanent grin, but that he should to the best of his ability follow
+that wonderful motto of Roosevelt's, "Do what you can where you are with
+what you have." No man can control circumstances; not even the braggart
+Napoleon, who declared that he made circumstances, could control them to
+the end; and no man can shape them to suit exactly his own purposes, but
+every man can meet them bravely as a gentleman should.
+
+Most big business concerns supply rest rooms, eating places, recreation
+camps, and all manner of comforts for their employees, and most of them
+maintain welfare departments. No business house under heaven could take
+the place of a home, but where the home influence is bad the best
+counterfoil is a wholesome atmosphere in which to work. Recently an
+institution advertising for help, instead of asking what the applicant
+could do for it, pictured and described what it could do for the
+applicant. The result was that they got a high-class group of people to
+make their selection from, and their attitude was one which invited the
+newcomers to do their best.
+
+Factory owners are paying a good deal of attention to the appearance of
+their buildings. Many of them have moved out into the country so as to
+provide more healthful surroundings for work. Numbers of modern factory
+buildings are very beautiful to look at, trim white buildings set in
+close-cut lawns with tennis courts and swimming pools not far away, red
+brick buildings covered with ivy, sand-colored ones with roses climbing
+over them, and others like the one famous for its thousand windows,
+rather more comfortable than lovely. In our big cities there are office
+buildings that look like cathedrals, railroad stations that look like
+temples, and traffic bridges that look (from a distance) like fairy
+arches leading into the land of dreams. They are not all like this. We
+wish they were. But it is to the credit of the American business man
+that he has put at least a part of his life and work into the building
+of beautiful things. The influence which comes from them is, like nearly
+all potent influences, an unconscious one, but it makes for happiness
+and contentment.
+
+The problem of keeping the employees contented is somewhat different in
+every place. House organs, picnics, dances, recreation parks,
+sanitariums in the country and so on can be utilized by "big business,"
+but the spirit which animates them is the same as that which makes the
+grocery man at Hicksville Centre give his delivery boy an afternoon off
+when the baseball team comes to town. The spirit of courtesy is
+everywhere the same, but it must be kept in mind that the end of
+business is production, production takes work, and that play is
+introduced in order that the work may be better. This is true whether we
+are looking at the matter from the point of view of the employer or of
+the employee. What is to the interest of one--this is gaining slow but
+sure recognition--is to the interest of the other.
+
+Certain kinds of mechanical work are very trying because of their
+monotony. The work must be done, however, and in well-ordered places it
+is arranged so that the worker has brief periods of rest at regular
+intervals or so that he is shifted from one kind of activity to another.
+It is poor economy to wear out men. In the old days before the power of
+steam or electricity had been discovered, boats were propelled by slaves
+who were kept below decks chained to their seats, and watched by an
+overseer who forced them to continue rowing long after they had reached
+the point of exhaustion. The galley slave sat always on the same side of
+the boat and after a few years his body became so twisted and warped
+that he was no good for anything else, and pretty soon was not even good
+for that. Then he was thrown into the discard--most of them died before
+they got this far along--and the owner of the boat had to look out for
+more men. Something like this happens to the soul of a man who is bound
+to dreary, monotonous work without relief or any outlet for growth. It
+is deadening to him, to his work, and to his employer. The far-sighted
+employer knows it. The masters of slaves learned it many years ago. The
+chain which binds the servant to the master binds the master to the
+servant. And the fastening is as secure at one end as it is at the
+other.
+
+Too strict supervision--slave-driving--is fatal to courtesy. The places
+which have intricate spy systems to watch their employees are the ones
+where there is most rudeness and trickery. The clerk who is hectored,
+nagged, spied upon, suspected and scolded by some hireling brought in
+for that purpose or by the head of the firm himself cannot be expected
+to give "a smile with every purchase and a thank you for every goodbye."
+The training of employees never stops, but it is something that should
+be placed very largely in their own hands. After a certain point
+supervision should be unnecessary.
+
+Most places hate to discharge a man. Labor turnover is too expensive.
+Most of them try to place their men in the positions for which they are
+best suited. It is easier to take a round peg out of a square hole and
+put it into a round one than it is to send out for another assortment of
+pegs. Men are transferred from sales departments to accounting
+departments, are taken off the road and brought into the home office,
+and are shifted about in various ways until they fit. If a man shows
+that "he has it in him" he is given every chance to succeed. "There is
+only one thing we drop a man for right off," says an employment manager
+in a place which has in its service several thousand people of both
+sexes, "and that is for saying something out of the way to one of our
+girls."
+
+This same manager tells the story of a boy he hired and put into a
+department which had been so badly managed that there were a number of
+loose ends to be tied up. The boy threw himself into his work, cleared
+up things, and found himself in a "soft snap" without a great deal to
+do. He happened not to be the kind of person who can be satisfied with a
+soft snap, and he became so restive and unhappy that he was recommended
+for discharge. This brought him back to the head of the employment
+bureau. He, instead of throwing the young man out, asked that he be
+given a second trial in a department where the loose ends could not be
+cleaned up. It was a place where there was always plenty of work to do,
+and the young man has been happy and has been doing satisfactory work
+ever since.
+
+The house in which this happened is always generous toward the mistakes
+of its employees if the mistakes do not occur too persistently and too
+frequently. In one instance a boy made three successive errors in
+figures in as many days. He was slated for discharge but sent first
+before the employment manager. As they talked the latter noticed that
+the boy leaned forward with a strained expression on his face. Thinking
+perhaps he was slightly deaf, he lowered his voice, but the boy
+understood every word he said. Then he noticed that there was a tiny red
+ridge across his nose as if he were accustomed to wearing glasses,
+although he did not have them on, and when he asked about it he
+discovered that the boy had broken his glasses a few days before, and
+that he had not had them fixed because he did not have money enough.
+
+"Why didn't you tell us about it?" the employment manager asked.
+
+"It was not your fault that I broke them," the boy replied. "It was up
+to me," an independent answer which in itself indicates how much worth
+while it was to keep him.
+
+The manager gave him money enough to have the glasses mended, the next
+day the boy was back at work, and there was no more trouble.
+
+An employee in the same organization unintentionally did something which
+hurt the president of the firm a great deal. But when he went to him and
+apologized (it takes a man to admit that he is wrong and apologize for
+it) the president sent him back to his desk, "It's all right, boy," he
+said, "I know you care. That's enough."
+
+In a big department store in New England there was a girl a few years
+back with an alert mind, an assertive personality, and a tremendous fund
+of energy. She was in the habit of giving constructive suggestions to
+the heads of the departments in which she worked, and because of her
+youth and manner, they resented it. "I took her into my office," the
+manager said. "I'm the only one she can be impertinent to there and I
+don't mind it. It is a bad manifestation of a good quality, and in time
+the disagreeable part of it will wear off. She will make an excellent
+business woman."
+
+"If a man finds fault with a boy without explaining the cause to him,"
+we are quoting here from an executive in a highly successful Middle
+Western firm, "I won't fire the boy, I fire the man. We have not a
+square inch of space in this organization for the man who criticizes a
+subordinate without telling him how to do better." Unless the plan of
+management is big enough to include every one from the oldest saint to
+the youngest sinner it is no good. Business built on oppression and
+cut-throat competition, whether the competition is between employer and
+employee or between rival firms, is war, and war, industrial or
+political, is still what General Sherman called it some years ago.
+
+We hold no brief for paternalism. We have no patience with it. All that
+we want is a spirit of fairness and coöperation which will give every
+man a chance to make good on his own account. This spirit inevitably
+flowers into courtesy. In every place courtesy should be, of course, so
+thoroughly a part of the surroundings that it is accepted like air or
+sunshine without comment. But it is not, and never has been except in
+old civilizations where manners have ripened and mellowed under the
+beneficent influence of time. Our traditions here--speaking of the
+country as a whole--are still in the making, but we have at least got
+far enough along to realize that it is not only worth while to do things
+that are good, but, as an old author has it, to do them with a good
+grace. It cannot be accomplished overnight. Courtesy is not like a
+fungous growth springing up in a few hours in the decayed parts of a
+tree; it is like that within the tree itself which gives lustre to the
+leaves and a beautiful surface to the whole. It takes time to develop
+it--time and patience--but it is worth waiting for.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+PERSONALITY
+
+
+All that makes a man who he is and not someone else is called
+personality. It is the sum total of his qualities, a thing inborn, but
+including besides such externals as dress, manner, and appearance. It is
+either a tremendous asset or a terrific liability, and so important that
+certain schools which purport to teach success in business declare that
+it is everything. Which is just as foolish as saying that it is nothing.
+
+One of these success-before-you-wake-to-morrow-morning schools of
+business instruction dismisses the fact which has remained true through
+three thousand years of change, namely, that there is no short cut to
+success, as a myth, and even goes so far as to say that it is almost
+impossible to achieve success to-day by working for it. E. H. Harriman
+they give as an example of a man who did no work but won success by
+smoking cigars while other men built railroads for him, quoting a joking
+remark of his to prove a serious point, when, as a matter of fact, Mr.
+Harriman was one of the large number of American business men who have
+literally worked themselves to death. Foch said that he won the war by
+smoking his pipe, but does any one believe that the great commander won
+the war by not working? What he meant was that he won the war by
+thinking, and the worn face, which seemed almost twice as old when the
+conflict was over, showed how hard that work was.
+
+It is so impossible for a false doctrine to stand on its own feet that
+the spread-eagle advertisement of this school contradicts itself long
+before it gets to the "Sign here and mail to-day" coupon. "The first
+time you try to swim," shouts the advertisement, "for instance, you
+sink; and the first time you try to ride a bicycle you fall off. But the
+ability to do these things was born in you. And shortly you can both
+swim and ride. Then you wonder why you could not always do these things.
+They seem so absurdly simple." It may be that there are people who have
+learned to swim and to ride a bicycle by sitting in a chair and
+cultivating certain inherent qualities but we have never heard of them.
+Everybody that we ever knew worked and worked hard swimming and riding
+before they learned. The only way to learn to do a job is to do it, and
+the only way to succeed is to work. Any school or any person who says
+that "the most important thing for you to do is not to work, but first
+to find the short road to success. After that you may safely work all
+you like--but as a matter of fact, you won't have to work very hard," is
+a liar and a menace to the country and to business.
+
+But the value of personality is not to be under-estimated. "Nature,"
+says Thackeray somewhere in "The Virginians," "has written a letter of
+credit upon some men's faces, which is honored almost wherever
+presented. Harry Warrington's [Harry Warrington was the hero who brought
+about this observation] countenance was so stamped in his youth. His
+eyes were so bright, his cheeks so red and healthy, his look so frank
+and open, that almost all who beheld him, nay, even those who cheated
+him, trusted him." It was the "letter of credit" stamped upon the face
+of Roosevelt, pledge of the character which lay behind it, which made
+him the idol of the American people.
+
+Personality is hard to analyze and harder still to acquire. The usual
+advice given to one who is trying to cultivate a pleasing manner and
+address is "Be natural," but this cannot be taken too literally. Most of
+us find it perfectly natural to be cross and disagreeable under trying
+circumstances. It would be natural for a man to cry out profane words
+when a woman grinds down on his corn but it would not be polite. It was
+natural for Uriah Heep to wriggle like an eel, but that did not make it
+any the less detestable. It was natural, considering the past history of
+Germany and the system under which he was educated, for the Kaiser to
+want to be lord of the world, but that did not make it any the less
+horrible.
+
+Another bromidic piece of advice is "Be perfectly frank and sincere."
+But this, too, has its limits. Some people pride themselves on saying
+exactly what they think. Usually they are brutal, insensitive, wholly
+incapable of sympathetic understanding of any one else, and cursed,
+besides, with a colossal vanity. A man may determine to tell nothing but
+the truth, but this does not make it necessary for him to tell the whole
+truth, especially when it will hurt the feelings or the reputation of
+some one else. No man has a right to impose his opinions and prejudices,
+his sufferings and agonies, on other people. It is the part of a coward
+to whine.
+
+And yet a man must be himself, must be natural and sincere. Roosevelt
+could no more have adopted the academic manner of Wilson than Wilson
+could have adopted the boyish manner of Roosevelt. Lincoln could no
+more have adopted the courtly grace of Washington than Washington could
+have adopted the rugged simplicity of Lincoln. Nor would such
+transformations be desirable even if they were possible. The world would
+be a very dreary place if we were all cut by the same pattern.
+
+A number of years ago in an upstate town in New York there was a shoe
+store which had been built up by the engaging personality of the man who
+owned it. He had worked his way up from a tiny shoe shop in New Jersey
+where, as a boy, he made shoes by hand before there were factories for
+the purpose, and he had always kept in close touch with the business
+even after he owned a large establishment and had a number of men
+working under him. He stayed in the shop, greeted his customers as they
+came in, and many times waited on them himself.
+
+When he retired from active business he sold out to a man exactly his
+opposite in temperament, as good a man, so far as character went, as
+himself, but very quiet and taciturn. A woman who had always patronized
+the shop and was a friend of them both came to him soon after the
+transfer was made and said, "Now, Mr. Tillis, the reason this place has
+prospered so is on account of the personality of Mr. Kilbourne. His
+shoes are good but people can get good shoes at other places. They come
+here because of Mr. Kilbourne. They like him, and if you are not careful
+they will stop coming now that he is gone. You've got to smile and show
+them you are glad to see them."
+
+Mr. Tillis felt that the woman was telling the truth. He decided that he
+would stay in the shop and greet each customer with a gladsome smile and
+make himself generally pleasant and agreeable. The next day he was
+fitting a shoe on a woman who was also an old customer and a friend of
+both men. He was smiling in his best manner and congratulating himself
+that he was doing very well when the woman abruptly took her foot off
+the stand. "What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
+
+Some years later he told Mr. Kilbourne about it. "I decided then that
+there was no use in me trying to be you. You had been yourself, and I
+made up my mind that I'd be myself."
+
+And that is, after all, the only rule that can be given. Be yourself,
+but be very sure that it is your best self.
+
+It is personality which permits one man to do a thing that another would
+be shot for. What is charming in this man is disgusting in that. What is
+a smile with one becomes a smirk with another. What makes one succeed
+will cause another to fail. It is personality that opens the doors of
+opportunity. It cannot, alone, keep them open, but it is worth a good
+deal to get inside.
+
+We were interested to observe the methods used by three young men who
+were looking for jobs, not one of whom would probably have succeeded if
+he had used the tactics of either of the others.
+
+The first wanted to talk with the biggest executive in a large
+organization. He had fought his way through the ranks until he had got
+as far as the man's secretary. "Mr. So-and-So does not see people who
+want jobs," said that young lady.
+
+"I don't want a job," he prevaricated mildly, "I want to talk to him."
+
+The girl let him in.
+
+"Mr. So-and-So," he said, "I don't want a job. I want advice."
+
+His manner was so ingenuous and charming, his earnestness so glowing,
+that the man at the desk listened while he talked, and then talked a
+while himself, and ended by giving the young man the position (as well
+as the advice) that he wanted. But if he had been less attractive
+personally and the older man had been shrewd enough to see through the
+ruse (or perhaps he did see through it but made the proper discount for
+it) or had been opposed to trick methods, the scheme might not have
+worked so well.
+
+The most universal weakness of intellect lies in the part of the brain
+which listens to flattery. Very few people like compliments laid on with
+a trowel, but no man can resist the honest admiration of another if it
+seems sincere. And since it is the sort of thing that one likes almost
+above all else he often takes the false coin for the true.
+
+The second young man met the rebuff so familiar to young men looking for
+their first job, "We want men with experience."
+
+"That's what everybody says," the boy answered, "but what I want to know
+is how we are going to get that experience if you don't give us a
+chance."
+
+The older man sympathized, but had no place for the other and told him
+so.
+
+"What would you do if you were I?" the young man asked as he turned to
+leave. The other grinned. "Why, I'd work for a firm for a week for
+nothing," he said, "and show them that they could not get along without
+me."
+
+The boy stopped. "All right," he said, "let me work for you a week."
+
+The older man had not expected this but he gave the youngster a chance
+and he made good.
+
+The third young man had reached the point of desperation. He had been
+out of a job several weeks. He had been trying to get one all that time
+and had not succeeded. He walked into the employment bureau of a certain
+concern and said, "I want a job. I want a good job. Not some dinky
+little place filing letters or picking up chips. If you've got an
+executive position where there is plenty of work and plenty of
+responsibility, I want it." They asked him a few questions about what he
+had been doing and a few more about what he thought he could do, and
+ended by giving him a desk and an office.
+
+It would be foolish to advise any one to follow any of these plans. Each
+man must work out his own method, all the better if it is an original
+one. Most business men like a simple approach without any flourishes.
+"It is astonishing," says one man whose income runs to six figures, "how
+many things one can get just by asking for them." The best reporter in
+America says that he has always found the direct method of approach
+better than any other. None is infallible but this has the highest
+percentage of success.
+
+So far as personal appearance is concerned--and this is one of the most
+important elements in the fashioning of personality--the greatest
+variations are not due to intrinsic differences in character, nor to
+differences of feature or form, but to the use and disuse of the
+bathtub. More sharp than the distinction between labor and capital or
+between socialism and despotism is that between the people who bathe
+daily and those who go to the tub only on Saturday night or less often.
+The people with whom personal cleanliness is a habit find dirt, grime,
+and sweat revolting. To them "the great unwashed" are repulsive.
+
+"When you teach a man to bathe," says John Leitch in his book on
+"Industrial Democracy," "you do more than merely teach him to cleanse
+his body. You introduce him to a new kind of life and create in him a
+desire for better living."
+
+The month before he began his wonderful work at Tuskegee, Booker
+Washington spent visiting the Negro families in the part of Alabama
+where he was to teach. "One of the saddest things I saw during the month
+of travel which I have described," he writes in his autobiography, "was
+a young man, who had attended some high school, sitting down in a
+one-room cabin, with grease on his clothing, filth all around him, and
+weeds in the yard and garden, engaged in studying a French grammar."
+
+Farther on he writes, "It has been interesting to note the effect that
+the use of the tooth-brush has had in bringing about a higher degree of
+civilization among the students. With few exceptions, I have noticed
+that, if we can get a student to the point where, when the first or
+second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own motion buys another, I have
+not been disappointed in the future of that individual. Absolute
+cleanliness of the body has been insisted upon from the first."
+
+Cleanliness is an attribute of civilization. We find it amusing to read
+that three or four hundred years ago bathing for pleasure was unknown,
+that when soap was first invented it was used only for washing clothes,
+and that even so late as the Seventeenth Century an author compiling a
+book of rules for the gentleman of that day advises him to wash his
+hands every day and his face almost as often! In the monasteries bathing
+was permitted only to invalids and the very old. Perfume was used
+copiously, and filth and squalor abounded. This even in royal circles.
+Among the common people conditions were unspeakable.
+
+To-day a gentleman bathes and shaves every day. He keeps his hair
+brushed, his finger nails immaculate (or as clean as the kind of work
+which he does permits), his linen is always clean and his shoes are
+polished. He is not over-fastidious about his clothes, but he has
+respect enough for himself as well as for the people among whom he lives
+to want to present as agreeable an appearance as possible. "Dress,"
+wrote Lord Chesterfield to his son, "is a very foolish thing, and yet it
+is a very foolish thing for a man not to be well-dressed, according to
+his rank and way of life.... The difference in this case between a man
+of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and
+the man of sense laughs at it, and at the same time knows he must not
+neglect it."
+
+It is a cheap device for a man to trick himself out with lodge pins and
+fraternity symbols, rings, and badges in the hope that they will open
+doors for him. Highly ornamental jewelry of any kind is inappropriate.
+Not many men can offset a heavy gold watch chain stretched full length
+across their bosoms, not many can live down a turquoise ring set with
+pearls, and very few can bear the handicap of a bright gold front tooth.
+Artists, alone, may gratify their taste for velvet jackets,
+Tam-o'-Shanters, and Windsor ties, but the privilege is denied business
+men. Eccentricity of dress usually indicates eccentricity of temper, and
+we do not want temperamental business men. It is hard enough to get
+along with authors and artists and musicians. The business man who is
+wise wears conventional clothes of substantial material in conservative
+colors. Good sense and good taste demand it.
+
+The time has passed when uncouthness of dress and manner can be taken as
+a pledge of honesty and good faith. The President of the United States
+to-day is a well-dressed, well-groomed man, and no one thinks any the
+less of him for it. Men no longer regard creased trousers, nicely tied
+cravats, well-chosen collars, and harmonious color combinations as signs
+of sissiness, snobbishness, or weak-mindedness.
+
+Formal dinners and other ceremonious functions require evening dress. It
+is the custom, as the Orientals say; and for the sake of other people
+present if not for his own, a man should undergo the discomfort, if he
+finds it a discomfort, and many men do, of conforming to it. Holiday
+attire gives a happy note of festivity which might otherwise be lacking.
+It is quite possible to point to a number of men who have succeeded in
+business who were wholly indifferent to matters of dress. But it does
+not prove anything. Men rise by their strength, not by their weakness.
+Some men wait until after they have become rich or famous to become
+negligent of their personal appearance. But it is well to remember that
+"if Socrates and Aristippus have done aught against custom or good
+manner, let not a man think he can do the same: for they obtained this
+license by their great and excellent good parts."
+
+A well-dressed man is so comfortably dressed that he is not conscious of
+his clothes and so inconspicuously dressed that no one else is conscious
+of them.
+
+In a good many instances it is not his own dress which bothers a
+business man so much as it is that of some one else--his stenographer,
+for instance. Men do not have quite so much opportunity to make
+themselves ridiculous as women. Their conventions of dress are stricter,
+and, as a rule, they can express their love of color and ornamentation
+only in their choice of ties and socks. Girls have practically no
+restrictions except what happens to be the style at the moment, and a
+young girl untrained in selecting and combining colors and lines, and
+making money for the first time in her life, is more likely than not to
+make herself look more like a Christmas tree than a lily of the field.
+
+The big department stores which employ hundreds of girls to meet and
+serve their customers have settled the problem for themselves by
+requiring the girls to wear uniforms. The uniform is very simple; often
+a certain color during working hours is prescribed, but the girls are
+permitted to choose their own styles. Other places have women who look
+after the welfare of the girls and prevent them from laying themselves
+open to misunderstanding by the way they dress. Large organizations can
+afford to have a special person to take care of such matters, but in a
+small office the problem is different.
+
+Of course, a man can always dismiss a girl who dresses foolishly or
+carelessly, but this is sneaking away from a problem instead of facing
+it. High-class offices have comparatively little trouble this way. In
+the first place, they do not attract the frivolous, light-headed, or
+"tough" girls; in the second place, if such girls come, the atmosphere
+in which they work either makes them conform to the standards of the
+office or leave and go somewhere else. If a girl in his office dresses
+in a way that he considers inappropriate, a man may tactfully suggest
+that something simpler would be more dignified and more in keeping with
+business ideals and traditions. But, oh, he must be careful! On no
+subject is one so sensitive as on his personal appearance, and women,
+perhaps, more so than men.
+
+There is a limit to how far an employer should go in dictating the
+manner of his employees' dress. When the head of a big Western
+department store declared that he would discharge all the girls who
+bobbed their hair, most of us felt that he had gone a bit too far, even
+while we saw the logic of his position. While it is the only sensible
+way in the world for a woman to wear her hair the majority of people
+have not yet come to think so. To the average person, especially to Mrs.
+Grundy, who is really the most valuable customer a department store has,
+the impression given by bobbed hair is one of frivolity or eccentricity.
+The impression given the customer as she enters a store is a most
+important item; the head of the store knew it, and therefore he placed
+the ban on bobbed hair. Whichever side we take in this particular case
+this is true: The business woman should give, like the business man, an
+impression of dependability, and she cannot do it if her appearance is
+abnormal, or if her mind is divided between how she is looking and what
+she is doing.
+
+It is almost funny that we let the faults and mannerisms of other people
+affect us to such an extent. They are nothing to us, and yet a man can
+work himself into a perfect frenzy of temper merely by looking at or
+talking to another who has a fidgety way of moving about, a dainty
+manner of using his hands, or a general demean--or that is delicate and
+ladylike. Men like what the magazines call "a red-blooded, two-fisted,
+he-man." But the world is big enough to accommodate us all whether the
+blood in our veins is red or blue, and it is perfectly silly for a man
+to throw himself into a rage over some harmless creature who happens to
+exasperate him simply because he is alive.
+
+It is an altogether different matter when it is a question of one man
+taking liberties with another. Most people object to the physical
+nearness of others. It is the thing that makes the New York subways
+during the rush hours such a horror. It is not pleasant to have a person
+so near that his breath is against your face, and there are not many men
+who enjoy being slapped on the back, punched in the ribs, or held fast
+by a buttonhole or a coat lapel. A safe rule is never to touch another
+person. He may resent it.
+
+The garrulous or impertinent talker is almost as objectionable as the
+hail-fellow-well-met, slap-on-the-back fellow. Charles Dickens has a
+record of this kind of American in the book which he wrote after his
+visit in this country: "Every button in his clothes said, 'Eh, what's
+that? Did you speak? Say that again, will you?' He was always wide
+awake, always restless; always thirsting for answers; perpetually
+seeking and never finding....
+
+"I wore a fur great-coat at that time, and before we were well clear of
+the wharf, he questioned me concerning it, and its price, and where I
+bought it, and when, and what fur it was, and what it weighed, and what
+it cost. Then he took notice of my watch, and asked me what _that_ cost,
+and whether it was a French watch, and where I got it, and how I got it,
+and whether I bought it or had it given me, and how it went and where
+the keyhole was, and when I wound it, every night or every morning, and
+whether I ever forgot to wind it at all, and if I did, what then? Where
+I had been to last, and where I was going next, and where I was going
+after that, and had I seen the President, and what did he say, and what
+did I say, and what did he say when I had said that? Eh? Lor' now! Do
+tell!"
+
+This sort of curiosity is harmless enough, but exasperating, and so
+childish that one hates to rebuke the person who is asking the foolish
+questions. There is another kind which is perhaps worse--the man who
+asks intrusive questions about how much salary another is getting, how
+old he is (men are as sensitive on this subject as women) and so on and
+on. It is perfectly legitimate to refuse to answer any question to
+which one does not wish to reply. Every man has a right to mental
+privacy even when he is denied, as he is in so many modern offices, any
+other kind of privacy.
+
+A loud or boisterous person is objectionable. Many times this is through
+carelessness, but sometimes, as when a man recounts the story of his
+dinner with Mr. Brown, who is a national figure, in a voice so loud that
+all the people in the car or room or whatever place he happens to be in,
+can hear him, it is deliberate. The careless person is the one who
+discusses personalities aloud in elevators, on the train, and in all
+manner of public places. Exchanging gossip is a pretty low form of
+indoor sport and exchanging it aloud so that everybody can hear makes it
+worse than ever. Names should never be mentioned in a conversation in a
+place where strangers can overhear, especially if the connection is an
+unpleasant one. Private opinions should never be aired in public places
+(except from a platform).
+
+The highly argumentative or aggressive person is another common type of
+nuisance. He usually raises his voice, thus drowning out the possibility
+of interruption, and talks with so much noise and so many vigorous
+gestures that he seems to try to make up for his lack of intellect by
+an excess of tumult. Arguments have never yet convinced anybody of the
+truth, and it is a very unpleasant method to try. Most arguments are
+about religion or politics and even if they were settled nothing would
+be accomplished. In the Middle Ages men used to debate about the number
+of angels that could stand on the point of a pin. Hours and hours were
+wasted and learned scholars were brought into the discussion, which was
+carried forward as seriously as if it were a debate between the merits
+of the Republican and Democratic parties. Suppose they had settled it.
+Would it have mattered?
+
+One of the most offensive public plagues is the man who leaves a trail
+of untidiness behind him. No book of etiquette, not even a book of
+business etiquette, could counsel eating on the streets in spite of the
+historic and inspiring example of Mr. Benjamin Franklin walking down the
+streets of Philadelphia with a loaf of bread under each arm while he
+munched from a third which he held in his hand. One can forgive a man,
+however, if he, feeling the need of nourishment, eats a bar of chocolate
+if he takes great care to put the wrappings somewhere out of the way. No
+man with any civic pride will scatter peanut hulls, cigarette boxes,
+chocolate wrappings, raisin boxes, and other debris along the streets,
+in the cars, on the stairs, and even on the floors of office buildings.
+Garbage cans and waste-baskets were made to take care of these things.
+
+Tidiness is worth more to a business man than most of them realize. In
+the first place it gives a favorable impression to a person coming in
+from the outside, and, in the second place, it helps those on the inside
+to keep things straight. Folders for correspondence, card indexes,
+memorandum files and other similar devices are essential to the orderly
+transaction of business.
+
+Keeping ashes and scraps of paper off the floor may seem trifles, but
+such trifles go far toward making the atmosphere, which is another word
+for personality, of an office. Some men have secretaries who take care
+of their desks and papers and supervise the janitor who cleans the
+floors and windows, but those who do not, find that they can manage
+better when they have a place to put things and put them there.
+
+Nothing has more to do with making a gentleman than a courteous and
+considerate attitude toward women. In business a man should show
+practically the same deference toward a woman that he does in society.
+Any man can be polite to a woman he is anxious to please, the girl he
+loves, for instance, but it takes a gentleman to be polite to every
+woman, especially to those who work for him, those over whom he
+exercises authority.
+
+It is unnecessary for a man to rise every time one of the girls in his
+office enters his private audience room, but he should always rise to
+receive a visitor, whether it is a man or woman, and should ask the
+visitor to be seated before he sits down himself. In witheringly hot
+weather a man may go without his coat even if his entire office force
+consists of girls, but he should never receive a guest in his shirt
+sleeves. He should listen deferentially to what the visitor has to say,
+but if she becomes too voluble or threatens to stay too long or if there
+is other business waiting for him, he may (if he can) cut short her
+conversation. When she is ready to go he should rise and conduct her to
+the door or to the elevator, as the case may be, and ring the bell for
+her. He cannot, of course, do this if his visitors are frequent, if
+their calls are about matters of trifling importance, or if he is
+working under high pressure.
+
+We once had an English visitor here in America who thought our manners
+were outrageously bad, but there was one point on which we won a perfect
+score. "Any lady," he said, "may travel alone, from one end of the
+United States to the other, and be certain of the most courteous and
+considerate treatment everywhere. Nor did I ever once, on any occasion,
+anywhere, during my rambles in America, see a woman exposed to the
+slightest act of rudeness, incivility, or even inattention." Conditions
+have changed since then. Women had not left their homes to go into
+offices and factories, but unless we can hold to the standard described
+by the Englishman, the change has not been for the better, for any of
+the people concerned.
+
+Since the Victorian era our ideas of what constitutes an act of rudeness
+have been modified. Then it would have been unthinkable that a woman
+should remain standing in a coach while men were seated. Now it is
+possible for a man to keep his place while a woman swings from a strap
+and defend himself on the grounds that he has worked harder during the
+day than she (how he knows is more than we can say), and that he has
+just as much right (which is certainly true) as any one else. Yet it is
+a gracious and a chivalrous act for a man to offer a woman his place on
+a car, and it is very gratifying to see that hundreds of them, even in
+the cities, where life goes at its swiftest pace and people live always
+in a hurry, surrender their seats in favor of the women who, like
+themselves, are going to work. Old people, afflicted people, men and
+women who are carrying children in their arms, and other people who
+obviously need to sit down are nearly always given precedence over the
+rest of us. This is, of course, as it should be.
+
+But the heart of what constitutes courtesy has not changed and never
+will. It is exactly what it was on that day nearly four hundred years
+ago when Sir Philip Sidney, mortally wounded on the field of Zutphen,
+gave his last drop of water to the dying soldier who lay near him and
+said, "Thy need is greater than mine."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+TABLE MANNERS
+
+
+In the old books of etiquette in the chapter on table manners the
+authors used to state that it was not polite to butter your bread with
+your thumb, to rub your greasy fingers on the bread you were about to
+eat, or to rise from the table with a toothpick in your mouth like a
+bird that is about to build her nest. We have never seen any one butter
+his bread with his thumb, but----
+
+There are in the United States nearly five million people who can
+neither read nor write. We have no statistics but we venture to say
+there are as many who eat with their knives. There are people among
+us--and they are not all immigrants in the slum districts or Negroes in
+the poorer sections of the South--who do not know what a napkin is, who
+think the proper way to eat an egg is to hold it in the hand like a
+piece of candy, and bite it, the egg having previously been fried on
+both sides until it is as stiff and as hard as a piece of bristol board,
+who would not recognize a salad if they saw one, and who have never
+heard of after-dinner coffee.
+
+Very few of them are people of wealth, but an astonishing number of
+successful business men were born into such conditions. They had no
+training in how to handle a knife and fork and they probably never read
+a book of etiquette, but they had one faculty, which is highly developed
+in nearly every person who lifts himself above the crowd, and that is
+observation.
+
+In addition to this a young man is very fortunate, especially if his way
+of life is cast among people whose manners are different from those to
+which he has been accustomed, if he has a friend whom he can consult,
+not only about table manners but about matters of graver import as well.
+And he should not be embarrassed to ask questions. The disgrace, if
+disgrace it could be called, lies only in ignorance.
+
+A number of years ago a young man who was the prospective heir to a
+fortune--this charming story is in Charles Dickens's wonderful novel,
+"Great Expectations"--went up to London for the express purpose of
+learning to be a gentleman. It fell about that almost as soon as he
+arrived he was thrown into the company of a delightful youth who had
+already attained the minor graces of polite society. Very much in
+earnest about what he had set out to do, and blessed besides with a
+goodish bit of common sense, he explained his situation to Herbert, for
+that was the other boy's name, mentioned the fact that he had been
+brought up by a blacksmith in a country place, that he knew practically
+nothing of the ways of politeness, and that he would take it as a great
+kindness if Herbert would give him a hint whenever he saw him at a loss
+or going wrong.
+
+"'With pleasure,' said he, 'though I venture to prophesy that you'll
+want very few hints.'"
+
+They went in to dinner together, a regular feast of a dinner it seemed
+to the ex-blacksmith's apprentice, and after a while began to talk about
+the benefactress who, they believed, had made it possible.
+
+"'Let me introduce the topic,' began Herbert, who had been watching
+Pip's table manners for some little time, 'by mentioning that in London
+it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth--for fear of
+accidents--and that while the fork is reserved for that use it is not
+put further in than necessary. It is scarcely worth mentioning, only
+it's as well to do as other people do. Also, the spoon is not generally
+used over-hand but under. This has two advantages. You get at your mouth
+better (which after all is the object), and you save a good deal of the
+attitude of opening oysters on the part of the right elbow.'
+
+"He offered these suggestions (said Pip) in such a lively way, that we
+both laughed and I scarcely blushed."
+
+The conversation and the dinner continued and the friendship grew apace.
+Presently Herbert broke off to observe that "society as a body does not
+expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying one's glass, as
+to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's nose."
+
+"I had been doing this," Pip confessed, "in an excess of attention to
+his recital. I thanked him, and apologized. He said, 'Not at all,' and
+resumed."
+
+This was written many years ago but neither in life nor in literature is
+there a more beautiful example of perfect courtesy than that given by
+Herbert Pocket when he took the blacksmith's boy in hand and began his
+education in the art of being a gentleman. Not only was he at perfect
+ease himself but--and this is the important point--he put the
+blacksmith's boy at ease.
+
+It is worth remarking, by way of parenthesis, that Herbert's father was
+a gentleman. "It is a principle of his," declared the boy, "that no man
+who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began,
+a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of
+the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will
+express itself."
+
+The American table service is not complicated. Any intelligent person
+who knows the points covered by Herbert Pocket, who knows that one
+should not cut up all of his meat at the same time but mouthful by
+mouthful as he needs it, that it is not customary to butter a whole
+slice of bread at once nor to plaster cheese over the entire upper
+surface of a cracker, can by a dint of watching how other people do it
+find his way without embarrassment through even the most elaborate array
+of table implements. The easiest way to acquire good table manners (or
+good manners of any other kind, as far as that goes) is to form the
+habit of observing how the people who manage these things most
+gracefully go about it. It is best to begin early. To use one of David
+Harum's expressive maxims, "Ev'ry hoss c'n do a thing better 'n' spryer
+if he's ben broke to it as a colt."
+
+Eating should be, and, as a matter of fact, is, when one follows his
+usual custom, an unconscious process like the mechanical part of reading
+or writing. It is only when he is trying to be a bit more formal or
+fastidious than is habitual with him that a man gets tangled, so to
+speak, in the tines of his fork.
+
+Cooking is one of the fine arts. Poets, painters, sculptors, musicians,
+and millionaires have always paid tribute to it as such--and so is
+dining. Like a great many other arts it was first developed among royal
+circles, and there was a time when the king resented the idea of a
+commoner being able to dine with grace and elegance. Since then it has
+become democratized, and now there are no restrictions except those
+which a man places about himself. And there is no earthly (or heavenly)
+reason why a man should not eat in the way which society has established
+as correct, and a good many reasons why he should.
+
+Physicians--and this is the strongest argument we know--might advance
+their plea on the grounds of good health. In this case we find, as we do
+in a number of others, that what good manners declares should be done is
+heartily endorsed at the same time by good sense. It is only among
+people of blunted sensibilities that nice table manners count for
+nothing; for
+
+    There's no reproach among swine, d'you see,
+        For being a bit of a swine.
+
+Among business men it is often perplexing to know whom and when to
+invite. Generally speaking, the older man or the man with the superior
+position takes the initiative, but there are an infinite number of
+exceptions. Generally speaking, also, the man who is resident in a place
+entertains the one who is visiting, but there are infinite exceptions to
+this as well, especially in the case of traveling salesman. All courtesy
+is mutual, and it is almost obligatory upon the salesman who has been
+entertained to return the courtesy in kind. Such invitations should be
+tendered after a transaction is completed rather than before. The burden
+of table courtesy falls upon the man who is selling rather than the one
+who is buying, probably because he is the one to whom the obvious profit
+accrues.
+
+Social affairs among the wives of business men which grow out of the
+business relations of their husbands follow the same rules as almost any
+other social affairs. Nearly always it is the wife of the man with the
+higher position who issues the first invitation, and it is permissible
+for her to invite a woman whom she does not know personally if she is
+the wife of a business friend of her husband.
+
+The biggest hindrance to the establishment of good manners among
+business men is the everlasting hurry in which they (and all the rest of
+us) live. There must first of all be leisure, not perhaps to the extent
+advocated by a delightful literary gentleman of having three hours for
+lunch every day, but time enough to sit down and relax. Thousands of
+business men dash out to lunch--bad manners are at their worst in the
+middle of the day--as if they were stopping off at a railroad junction
+with twenty minutes to catch a train and had used ten of them checking
+baggage. And they do not always do it because they are in a hurry. They
+have so thoroughly developed the habit of living in a frenzied rush that
+even when they have time to spare they cannot slow down.
+
+Pleasant surroundings are desirable. It is much easier to dine in a
+quiet spacious room where the linen is white and the china is thin, the
+silver is genuine silver, and the service is irreproachable, than in a
+crowded restaurant where thick dishes rattle down on white-tiled tables
+from the steaming arms of the flurried waitress, where there is no
+linen, but only flimsy paper napkins (which either go fluttering to the
+floor or else form themselves into damp wads on the table), where the
+patrons eat ravenously and untidily, and where the atmosphere is dense
+with the fumes of soup and cigarettes. But luxury in eating is expensive
+and most of us must, perforce, go to the white-tiled places. And the art
+of dining is not a question of what one has to eat--it may be beans or
+truffles--or where one eats it--from a tin bucket or a mahogany
+table--it all depends upon _how_; and the man who can eat in a
+"hash-house," an "arm-chair joint," a "beanerie," a cafeteria, a
+three-minute doughnut stand or any of the other quick-lunch places in as
+mannerly a way as if he were dining in a hotel _de luxe_ has, we think,
+a pretty fair claim to the title of gentleman.
+
+The responsibility for a dinner lies with the host. If his guest has had
+the same social training that he has or is accustomed to better things
+he will have comparatively little trouble. All he can do is to give him
+the best within his means _without apology_. We like to present
+ourselves in the best possible light (it is only human) and for this
+reason often carry our friends to places we cannot afford. This imposes
+upon them the necessity of returning the dinner in kind, and the vicious
+circle swings around, each person in it grinding his teeth with rage but
+not able to find his way out. Entertaining is all right so long as it is
+a useful adjunct to business, but when it becomes a burden in itself it
+is time to call a halt.
+
+Smoking during and immediately after a meal is very pleasing to the man
+who likes tobacco, but if he has a guest (man or woman) who objects to
+the smell of it he must wait until later. On the other hand if his guest
+likes to smoke and he does not he should insist upon his doing so. It is
+a trifling thing but politeness consists largely of yielding gracefully
+in trifles.
+
+Old-fashioned gentlemen held it discourteous to mention money at table,
+but in this degenerate age no subject is taboo except those that would
+be taboo in any decent society. Obviously when men meet to talk over
+business they cannot leave money out of the discussion. In a number of
+firms the executives have lunch together, meeting in a group for perhaps
+the only time during the day. It helps immeasurably to coördinate
+effort, but it sometimes fails to make the lunch hour the restful break
+in the middle of the day which it should be. It is generally much more
+fun and of much more benefit to swap fish stories and hunting yarns than
+to go over the details of the work in the publicity department or to
+formulate the plans for handling the Smith and Smith proposition.
+Momentous questions should be thrust aside until later, and the talk
+should be--well, _talk_, not arguing, quarreling, or scandal-mongering.
+The subject does not greatly matter except that it should be something
+in which all of the people at the table are interested. Whistler was
+once asked what he would do if he were out at dinner and the
+conversation turned to the Mexican War, and some one asked him the date
+of a certain battle. "Do?" he replied. "Why, I would refuse to associate
+with people who could talk of such things at dinner!"
+
+Polite society has always placed a high value on table manners, but it
+is only recently that they have come to play so large a part in
+business. Some one has said that you cannot mix business and friendship.
+It would be nearer the truth to say that you cannot separate them. More
+and more it is becoming the habit to transact affairs over the table,
+and a very pleasant thing it is, too. Aside from the coziness and warmth
+which comes from breaking bread together one is free from the
+interruptions and noise of the office, and many a commercial
+acquaintance has ripened into a friend and many a business connection
+has been cemented into something stronger through the genial influence
+of something good to eat and drink. It is, of course, a mistake to
+depend too much upon one's social gifts. They are very pleasant and
+helpful but the work of the world is done in offices, not on golf links
+or in dining rooms. We have little patience with the man who sets his
+nose to the grindstone and does not take it away until death comes in
+between, but we have just as little with the man who has never touched
+the grindstone.
+
+Stories go the rounds of executives who choose their subordinates by
+asking them out to lunch and watching the way they eat. One man always
+calls for celery and judges his applicant by what he does with it. If he
+eats only the tender parts the executive decides that he is extravagant,
+at least with other people's money, but if he eats the whole stalk,
+green leaves and all, he feels sure that he has before him a man of
+economy, common sense, and good judgment! The story does not say what
+happens when the young man refuses celery altogether. Another uses
+cherry pie as his standard and judges the young man by what he does with
+the pits. There are three ways to dispose of them. They may be lowered
+from the mouth with the spoon, they may be allowed to drop unaided, or
+they may be swallowed. The last course is not recommended. The first is
+the only one that will land a job. But tests like this work both ways
+and one is rather inclined to congratulate the young men who were turned
+down than those who were accepted.
+
+All this aside, an employer does want to know something about the table
+manners of an employee who is to meet and dine with his customers. An
+excellent salesman may be able to convince a man of good breeding and
+wide social training if he tucks his napkin into his bosom, drinks his
+soup with a noise, and eats his meat with his knife, but the chances are
+against it.
+
+A man who is interested heart and soul in one thing will think in terms
+of it, will have it constantly in his mind and on the tip of his tongue.
+But the man of one subject, whatever that subject may be, is a bore. It
+is right that a man should live in his work, but he must also live
+outside of it. One of the most tragic chapters in the history of
+American life is the one which tells of the millions and millions of men
+who became so immersed in business affairs that they lost sight of
+everything else. The four walls of the narrow house which in the end
+closes around us all could not more completely have cut them off from
+the light of day. It is a long procession and it has not ended--that
+line of men passing single file like convicts down the long gray vaults
+of business, business, business, with never a thought for the stars or
+the moon or books or trees or flowers or music or life or love--nothing
+but what casts a shadow over that dismal corridor.
+
+    These are dead men with no thought
+    Of things that are not sold or bought.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    In their bodies there is breath,
+    But their souls are steeped in death.
+
+It is not a cheerful picture to contemplate (and it seems a good long
+way away from table manners), but the men who form it are more to be
+pitied than blamed. They are blind.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+TELEPHONES AND FRONT DOORS
+
+
+"If the outside of a place is not all right," says a man who spends the
+greater part of his time visiting business houses and talking with
+business men, "the chances are that it is not worth while to go inside."
+
+There are three ways of getting inside: by letter (which has a chapter
+to itself), by the front door, and by telephone. And there are more
+complaints against the telephone way than either or both the others,
+which is perfectly natural, since it is the most difficult to manage. In
+the first place, it requires good behavior from three people at the same
+time, and that is a good deal to expect. Secondly, they cannot see one
+another--they are like blind people talking together--and no one of them
+can do his part unless the other two do theirs. In the third place, the
+instrument is a lifeless thing, and when something goes wrong with it it
+rouses the helpless fury inspired by all inanimate objects which
+interfere with our comfort--like intermittent alarm clocks, collar
+buttons that roll under the furniture, and flivvers that go dead without
+reason in the middle of country roads. In each case whatever one does
+has no effect. The alarm clock continues to ring (unless one gets out of
+bed to shut it off, which is worse than letting it ring), the collar
+button remains hid in the darkest part of the room, the flivver remains
+stuck in the muddiest part of the road, and the telephone is worst of
+all, for the source of the trouble is usually several miles away and
+there is no means of getting at it.
+
+The telephone is a nuisance--no one denies it--but it is a necessity
+also--no one denies that, either--and one of the greatest conveniences
+in an age of great conveniences. Some of the disagreeable features
+connected with it cannot be done away with but must be accepted with as
+much tranquility as we can master, like the terrific noise which an
+aëroplane makes or the trail of smoke and cinders which a railway train
+leaves behind. The one who is calling, for instance, cannot know that he
+is the tenth or eleventh person who has called the man at the other end
+of the wire in rapid succession, that his desk is piled high with
+correspondence which must be looked over, signed, and sent out before
+noon, that the advertising department is waiting for him to O. K. their
+plans for a campaign which should have been launched the week before,
+that an important visitor is sitting in the library growing more
+impatient every minute, and that his temper has been filed down to the
+quick by an assortment of petty worries. (Of course, no office should be
+run like this, but it sometimes happens in the best of them.)
+
+Some one has said that we are all like islands shouting at each other
+across a sea of misunderstanding, and this was long before telephones
+were thought of. It is hard enough to make other people understand what
+we mean, even with the help of facial expression and gestures, and over
+the wire the difficulty is increased a hundred fold. For telephoning
+rests upon a delicate adjustment between human beings by means of a
+mechanical apparatus, and it takes clear thinking, patience, and
+courtesy to bring it about.
+
+The telephone company began its career some few years ago unhampered by
+the traditions to which the earlier corporations were slave, the old
+"public be damned" idea. Their arbitrary methods had brought them to
+grief, and the new concern, with a commendable regard for the lessons
+taught by the experience of others, inaugurated a policy of usefulness,
+service, and courtesy. The inside history of the telephone is one of
+constant watchfulness, careful management, and continuous improvement;
+and every improvement has meant better service to the public. (We are
+not trying to advertise the telephone company. We realize that it has
+been guilty, like every other business, of manifold sins.)
+
+Even the fact that there is a telephone girl instead of a telephone boy
+is due to the alertness and good business sense of the company. To put a
+boy before a switchboard and expect him not to pull it apart to see how
+it was made; or to place him in a position to entertain himself by
+connecting the wrong parties and listening to the impolite names they
+called each other and expect him not to do it, would be expecting the
+laws of nature to reverse themselves. The telephone company tried
+it--for a while. They discovered, besides, that a boy will not "take"
+what a girl will. It makes no difference what goes wrong with a
+connection, the subscriber blames the operator when many times the
+operator, especially the one he is talking to, has had nothing to do
+with it. The girls have learned to hold their tempers (not always, but
+most of the time), but when boys had charge of the switchboards and the
+man at the end of the wire yelled, "You cut me off!" and the youngster
+had not, he denied it hotly: "You're a liar! I didn't!" The subscriber
+would not stand for this, angry words flew back and forth, and more than
+once the indignant young operator located the subscriber (not a very
+difficult thing for him to do) and went around to settle things in
+person. Words were not always the only weapons used.
+
+If this had continued the telephone would never have become a public
+utility. People would have looked upon it as an ingenious device but not
+of universal practical value. As it is, good salesmanship and efficient
+service first elevated a plaything to a luxury and then reduced the
+luxury to a necessity. And it was possible not only because the
+mechanism itself is a miraculous thing but because it has had back of it
+an intelligent human organization working together as a unit.
+
+We say this deliberately, knowing that the reader will think of the
+times when the trouble he has had in getting the number he wanted has
+made him think there was not a thimbleful of intelligence among all of
+the people associated with the entire telephone company. But considering
+the body of employees as a whole the standard of courteous and competent
+service is extraordinarily high. The public is impatient and prone to
+remember bad connections instead of good ones. It is ignorant also and
+has very small conception of what a girl at central is doing. And it is
+quick to blame her for faults of its own.
+
+One of the worst features of telephone service is the fact that when one
+is angry or exasperated he seldom quarrels with the right person. Some
+time ago a man was waked in the middle of the night by the ringing of
+the telephone bell. He got out of bed to answer it and discovered that
+the man was trying to get another number. He went back to bed and to
+sleep. The telephone bell rang again, and again he got out of bed to
+answer it. It was the same man trying to get the same number. He went to
+bed and back to sleep. The telephone bell rang the third time, he got
+out of bed again and answered it again and found that it was still the
+same man trying to get the same number! "I wasn't very polite the third
+time," he confessed when he told about it. But the poor fellow at the
+other end of the wire probably had just as touching a story to tell, for
+unless it had been very important for him to get the number he would
+hardly have been so persistent. The girl at the switchboard may have had
+a story of her own, but what it was is one of those things which, as
+Lord Dundreary used to say, nobody can find out.
+
+The girls who enter the service of the New York Telephone Company (and
+the same thing is true in the other branches of the telephone service,
+especially in big cities where there are large groups to work with) are
+carefully selected by an employment bureau and sent to a school where
+they are thoroughly grounded in the mechanical part of their work and
+the ideals for which the company stands. They are not placed on a
+regular switchboard until they have proved themselves efficient on the
+dummy switchboard, and then it is with instructions to be courteous
+though the heavens fall (though they do not express it exactly that
+way). "It is the best place in the world to learn self-control," one of
+the operators declares, and any one who has ever watched them at work
+will add, "Concentration, also." One of the most remarkable sights in
+New York is a central exchange where a hundred or more girls are working
+at lightning speed, undisturbed by the low murmur around them, intent
+only on the switchboard in front of them, making something like five
+hundred connections a minute.
+
+They are a wonderfully level-headed group, these telephone girls,
+wonderfully unlike their clinging-vine Victorian grandmothers. They do
+not know how to cling. If a man telephones that he has been shot, the
+girl who receives the call does not faint. She sends him a doctor
+instead and takes the next call almost without the loss of a second. If
+a woman wants a policeman to get some burglars out of the house, she
+sends her one; if some one telephones that a house is burning, she calls
+out the fire department--and goes straight on with her work. Now and
+then something spectacular happens to bring the splendid courage of the
+girls at the switchboards to the attention of the public, such as the
+magnificent service they gave from the exchange located a few feet from
+Wall Street on the day of the explosion, but ordinarily it passes, like
+most of the other good things in life, without comment.
+
+The New York Telephone Company tries to keep its girls healthy and
+happy. At regular intervals they are given rest periods. Attractive
+rooms are prepared for them, tastefully furnished, well-lighted, and
+filled with comfortable chairs, good books, and magazines. Substantial
+meals are supplied in the middle of the day at a nominal charge. Special
+entertainments are planned from time to time, and best of all, the play
+time is kept absolutely distinct from the work time, a condition which
+makes for happiness as well as usefulness.
+
+The girls are not perfect, they are not infallible. And they are only a
+third part of a telephone call. They work under difficulties at a task
+which is not an easy one, and their efficiency does not rest with them
+alone but with the people whom they serve as well.
+
+A telephone call begins with the subscriber. Very few people understand
+the intricate system of cable and dynamos, vacuum tubes, coil racks,
+storage batteries, transmitters and generators which enable them to talk
+from a distance, and a good many could not understand them even if they
+were explained. Fortunately it is not necessary that they should. The
+subscriber's part is very simple.
+
+He should first make sure that he is calling the right number. In New
+York City alone, forty-eight thousand wrong numbers are asked for every
+day by subscribers who have not consulted the telephone directory first,
+or who have unconsciously transposed the digits in a number. For
+example, a number such as 6454 can easily be changed to 6544. The
+telephone directory is a safe guide, much more so than an old letter or
+bill head or an uncertain memory. Information may be called if the
+number is not in the directory, but one should be definite even with
+her. She cannot supply the number of Mr. What-you-may-call-it or of Mr.
+Thing-um-a-bob or of Mr. Smith who lives down near the railroad station,
+and she cannot give the telephone number of a house which has no
+telephone in it. She has no right to answer irrelevant questions; is, in
+fact, prohibited from doing so. Her business is to furnish numbers and
+she cannot do it efficiently if she is expected also to explain why a
+cat has whiskers, how to preserve string beans by drying them, what time
+it is, what time the train leaves for Wakefield, or what kind of
+connection can be made at Jones's Junction.
+
+In calling a number the name of the exchange should be given first. The
+number itself should be called with a slight pause between the hundreds
+and the tens, thus, "Watkins--pause--five, nine--pause--hundred" for
+"Watkins 5900" or "Murray Hill--pause--four, two--pause--six, three" for
+"Murray Hill 4263." The reason for this is that the switchboard before
+which the operator sits is honeycombed with tiny holes arranged in
+sections of one hundred each. Each section is numbered and each of the
+holes within it is the termination of a subscriber's line. In locating
+"Watkins 5900" the girl first finds the section labelled "59" and then
+the "00" hole in that section, and if the "59" is given first she has
+found it by the time the subscriber has finished calling the number.
+
+The number should be pronounced slowly and distinctly.
+
+When the operator repeats it the subscriber should acknowledge it, and
+if she repeats it incorrectly, should stop her and give her the number
+again. And he should always remember, however difficult it may be to
+make her understand, that he is talking to a girl, a human being, and
+that the chances are ten to one that the poor connection is not her
+fault.
+
+To recall the operator in case the wrong person is connected it is only
+necessary to move the receiver hook slowly up and down. She may not be
+able to attend to the recall at once but jiggling the hook angrily up
+and down will not get her any sooner. In fact, the more furious the
+subscriber becomes the less the girl knows about it, for the tiny signal
+light fails to register except when the hook is moved slowly; or if the
+switchboard is one where the operator is signalled by a little disk
+which falls over a blank space the disk fails to move down but remains
+quivering almost imperceptibly in its usual position.
+
+After he has placed a call a man should wait at the telephone or near it
+until the connection is made. Too many men have a way of giving their
+secretaries a number to send through and then wandering off somewhere
+out of sight so that when the person is finally connected he has to wait
+several minutes while the secretary locates the man who started the
+call. It is the acme of discourtesy to keep any one waiting in this
+manner. It implies that your time is much more valuable than his, which
+may be true, but it is hardly gracious to shout it in so brazen a
+fashion.
+
+It has been estimated that in New York City alone, more than a full
+business year is lost over the telephone every day between sunrise and
+sunset. There are 3,800,000 completed connections made every day. Out of
+each hundred, six show a delay of a minute or more before the person
+called answers. In each day this amounts to a delay of 228,000
+connections. Two hundred and twenty-eight thousand minutes (and
+sometimes the delay amounts to much more than a minute) is the
+equivalent of 475 days of eight hours each, or as the gentleman who
+compiled these interesting statistics has it, a business year and a
+third with all the Sundays and holidays intact. In the course of a year
+it amounts to more than all the business days that have elapsed since
+Columbus discovered America!
+
+It may be argued that we would be better off if we lost more than a year
+every day and did all our work at more leisurely pace. This may be, but
+the time to rest is not when the telephone bell is ringing.
+
+The telephone on a business man's desk should always be facing him and
+it should not be tricked out with any of the patent devices except those
+sanctioned by the company. Most of them lessen instead of increase
+efficiency. A woman in her home where calls are infrequent may hide her
+telephone behind a lacquered screen or cover it with pink taffeta
+ruffles, but in a business office it is best to make no attempts to
+beautify it. It is when it is unadorned that the ugly little instrument
+gives its best service.
+
+There should always be a pad and pencil at hand so that the message (if
+there is one) can be taken down without delay. The person at the other
+end probably has not time (and certainly has not inclination) to wait
+until you have fumbled through the papers on your desk and the rubbish
+in the drawers to locate something to write on and something to write
+with.
+
+"Hello" is a useless and obsolescent form of response in business
+offices. The name of the firm, of the department, or of the man
+himself, or of all three, according to circumstances, should be given.
+When there is a private operator to take care of the calls she answers
+with the name of the firm, Blank and Blank. If the person at the other
+end of the wire says, "I want the Advertising department," she connects
+them and the man there answers with "Advertising department." The other
+then may ask for the manager, in which case the manager answers with his
+name. It is easy to grow impatient under all these relays, but a
+complicated connection involving half a dozen people before the right
+one is reached can be accomplished in less than a minute if each person
+sends it straight through without stopping to exchange a number of
+"Helloes" like a group of Swiss yodelers, or to ask a lot of unnecessary
+questions.
+
+It is not necessary to scream over the telephone. The mouth should be
+held close to the transmitter and the words should be spoken carefully.
+In an open office where there are no partitions between the desks one
+should take especial pains to keep his voice modulated. One person
+angrily spluttering over the telephone can paralyze the work of all the
+people within a radius of fifty feet. If it were a necessary evil we
+could make ourselves grow accustomed to it. But it is not. And there is
+already enough unavoidable wear and tear during the course of a business
+day without adding this.
+
+"_Hello, what do you want?_" is no way to answer a call. No decent
+person would speak even to a beggar at his door in this way and the
+visitor over the telephone, whoever he is, is entitled to a cordial
+greeting. _The voice with the smile wins._
+
+An amusing story is told of a man in Washington who was waked one
+evening about eleven o'clock by the telephone bell. At first he swore
+that he would not answer it but his wife insisted that it might be
+something very important, and finally, outraged and angry, he blundered
+through the dark across the room and into the hall, jerked down the
+receiver and yelled, "Hello!" His wife, who was listening tensely for
+whatever ill news might be forthcoming, was perfectly amazed to hear him
+saying in the next breath, in the most dulcet tones he had ever used,
+"Oh, how do you do, I'm _so_ glad you called. Oh, delightful. Charmed.
+I'm sure she will be, too. Thank you. Yes, indeed. So good of you.
+_Good_-bye." It was the wife of the President of the United States
+asking him and his wife to dinner at the White House.
+
+If the person calling is given the wrong department he should be
+courteously transferred to the right one. Courteously, and not with a
+brusque, "You've got the wrong party" or "I'm not the man you want" but
+with "Just a minute, please, and I'll give you Mr. Miller."
+
+The time when people are rudest over the telephone is when some one
+breaks in on the wire. It might be just as well to remember that people
+do not interrupt intentionally, and the intruder is probably as
+disconcerted as the man he has interrupted. If he had inadvertently
+opened the wrong door in a business office the man inside would not have
+yelled, "Get out of here," but over the telephone he will shriek, "Get
+off the wire" in a tone he would hardly use to drive the cow out of a
+cabbage patch.
+
+In an effort to secure better manners among their subscribers the
+telephone company has asked them to try to visualize the person at the
+other end of the wire and to imagine that they are talking face to face.
+Many times a man will say things over the telephone--rude, profane,
+angry, insulting things, which he would not dream of saying if he were
+actually before the man he is talking to. And to make it worse he is
+often so angry that he does not give the other a chance to explain his
+side of it, at least not until he has said all that he has to say, and
+even then he not infrequently slams the receiver down on the hook as
+soon as he has finished!
+
+Listening on a wire passes over from the field of courtesy into that of
+ethics. On party lines in the country it is not considered a heinous
+offense to eavesdrop over the telephone, but the conversation there is
+for the most part harmless neighborhood gossip and it does not matter
+greatly who hears it. In business it is different. But it is practically
+impossible for any one except the operator to overhear a conversation
+except by accident, and it is a misdemeanor punishable by law for her to
+give a message to any one other than the person for whom it was
+intended.
+
+In every office there should be a large enough mechanical equipment
+manned by an efficient staff to take care of the telephone traffic
+without delay. "The line is busy" given in answer to a call three or
+four times will send the person who is calling to some other place to
+have his wants looked after.
+
+Few places appreciate the tremendous volume of business that comes in by
+way of telephone or the possibilities which it offers to increase
+business opportunities. They are as short-sighted as the department
+store which, a good many years ago, when telephones were new, had them
+installed but took them out after a few weeks because the clerks were
+kept so busy taking orders over them that they did not have time to
+attend to the customers who came into the store!
+
+Another important vantage point which, like the telephone, suffers from
+neglect is the reception desk. Millions of dollars' worth of business is
+lost every year and perfect sandstorms and cyclones of animosity are
+generated because business men have not yet learned the great value of
+having the right kind of person to receive visitors. To the strangers
+who come--and among the idlers and swindlers and beggars who assail
+every successful business house are potential good friends and
+customers--this person represents the firm,--is, for the time being, the
+firm itself.
+
+It is very childish for a man to turn away from a reception desk because
+he does not like the manner of the person behind it, but business men,
+sensible ones at that, do it every day. Pleasant connections of years'
+standing are sometimes broken off and valuable business propositions are
+carried to rival concerns because of indifferent or insolent treatment
+at the front door. Only a short time ago an advertising agency lost a
+contract for which it had been working two years on account of the way
+the girl at the door received the man who came to place it. He dropped
+in without previous appointment and was met by a blonde young lady with
+highly tinted cheeks who tilted herself forward on the heels of her
+French pumps and pertly inquired what he wanted. He told her. "Mr. Hunt
+isn't in." "When will he be back?" "I don't know," and she swung around
+on the impossible heels. The man deliberated a moment and then swung
+around on his heels (which were very flat and sensible) and carried the
+contract to another agency. Instances of this kind might be multiplied.
+Some business men would have persisted until they got what they wanted
+from the young lady. Others would have angrily reported her to the head
+of her office, but the majority would have acted as this man did.
+
+Most men (and women), whether they are in business or not, do not
+underestimate their own importance and they like to feel that the rest
+of the world does not either. They do not like to be kept waiting; they
+like to be received with a nice deference, not haughtily; they do not
+like to be sent to the wrong department; and they love (and so do we
+all) talking to important people. Realizing this, banks and trust
+companies and other big organizations have had to appoint nearly as many
+vice-presidents as there were second-lieutenants during the war to take
+care of their self-important visitors. Even those whose time is not
+worth ten cents (a number of them are women) like to be treated as if it
+were worth a great deal. It is, for the most part, an innocent desire
+which does no one any special harm, and any business that sets out to
+serve the public (and there is no other kind) has to take into account
+all the caprices of human vanity. We cannot get away from it. Benjamin
+Franklin placed humility among the virtues he wished to cultivate, but
+after a time declared it impossible. "For," he said, "if I overcame
+pride I would be proud of my humility."
+
+Courtesy is the first requirement of the business host or hostess and
+after that, intelligence. Some business houses make the mistake of
+putting back of the reception desk a girl who has proved herself too
+dull-witted to serve anywhere else. The smiling idiot with which this
+country (and others) so abounds may be harmless and even useful if she
+is kept busy behind the lines, but, placed out where she is a buffer
+between the house and the outside world, she is a positive affliction.
+She may be pleasant enough, but the caller who comes for information and
+can get nothing but a smile will go away feeling about as cheerful as if
+he had stuck his hand into a jar of honey when he was a mile or so away
+from soap, water, and towel.
+
+A litter of office boys sprawling untidily over the desks and chairs in
+the reception room is as bad, and a snappy young lady of the "Now see
+here, kid" variety is worse.
+
+The position is not an easy one, especially in places where there is a
+constant influx of miscellaneous callers, and it is hardly fair to ask a
+young girl to fill it. In England they use elderly men and in a number
+of offices over here, too. Their age and manner automatically protect
+them (and incidentally their firms) from many undesirables that a boy or
+girl in the same position would have considerable difficulty in
+handling. And they lend the place an air of dignity and reserve quite
+impossible with a youngster.
+
+In some offices, especially in those where large amounts of money are
+stored or handled, there are door men in uniform and often plain clothes
+huskies near the entrances to protect the people (and the money) on the
+inside from cranks and crooks and criminals. In others, a physician's
+office, for instance, or any small office where the people who are
+likely to come are of the gentler sort, a young girl with a pleasing
+manner will do just as well as and perhaps better than any one else. In
+big companies where there are many departments, it is customary to
+maintain a regular bureau of information to which the caller who is not
+sure whom or what he wants is first directed, but the majority of
+businesses have only one person who is delegated to receive the people
+who come and either direct them to the person they want to see or turn
+them aside.
+
+Most of them must be turned aside. If the stage managers in New York
+interviewed all the girls who want to see them, they would have no time
+left for anything else, and the same thing is true of nearly every man
+who is prominent in business or in some other way. (Charlie Chaplin
+received 73,000 letters during the first three days he was in England.
+Suppose he had personally read each of them!) Hundreds of people must be
+turned away, but every person who approaches a firm either to get
+something from it or to give something to it has a right to attention.
+Men are in business to work, not to entertain, and they must protect
+themselves. But the people who are turned away must be turned away
+courteously, and the business house which has found some one who can do
+it has cause to rise and give thanks.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+TRAVELING AND SELLING
+
+
+The etiquette of traveling includes very few points not covered by the
+general laws of good behavior. Keeping one's place in line before the
+ticket window, having money ready and moving aside as quickly as
+possible instead of lingering to converse with the ticket-seller about
+train schedules and divers other interesting subjects are primary rules.
+It is permissible to make sure that the train is the right one before
+getting on it, but it is unnecessary to do it more than half a dozen
+times. When the sign over the gate says "Train for Bellevue" it probably
+_is_ the train for Bellevue, and when the guard at the gate repeats that
+it is the train for Bellevue the chances are that he is telling the
+truth.
+
+An experienced traveler usually carries very little baggage. A lot of
+suitcases and grips are bothersome, not only to the one who has charge
+of them, but also to those who are cramped into small quarters because
+of them. A traveler may make himself as comfortable as he likes so long
+as it is not at the expense of the other passengers. If they object to
+an open window the window must stay down. Lounging over a seat is bad
+form, especially if there is some one else in it. So is prowling from
+one end of the car to the other. Besides, it makes some people nervous.
+Snoring is impolite and so is talking in one's sleep, but they are
+beyond remedy. Talking with the person in the berth above or below is
+not, however, and is much more disturbing than the noise of the train.
+Forgetting the number of one's berth and blundering into the wrong place
+is a serious breach of good manners in a sleeping car, and it is
+extremely severe on timid persons who have gone to bed with visions
+before their minds of the man who was murdered in lower ten and the
+woman who brought her husband's corpse from Florida in the same berth
+with her.
+
+Among men, "picking up" acquaintances on a train or boat is allowable if
+it comes about in a natural way, but there are men who object to it.
+Many business men do not discontinue their work because they are
+traveling. Portable typewriters, secretaries, the telegraph and other
+means of swift communication have made it possible for them to
+accomplish almost as much as if they were in the office back home. Such
+men do not like to be interrupted, and if a garrulous or an intrusive
+person approaches it is within the bounds of courtesy to turn him aside.
+Generally, however, there is a comradery of the road, a sort of good
+fellowship among voyagers which lets down ordinary bars, and the men who
+like to rest as they travel find it highly diverting and interesting to
+talk with other men from various parts of the country. This holds true
+in hotels, especially in the commercial hotels, where traveling men
+foregather to meet their customers and transact their business, and in
+hotels in small places where the possibilities for amusement are limited
+and the people have to depend on one another for entertainment. But
+there are limits. No man should ever thrust himself upon another and it
+is almost an iron clad rule that he should never "pick up" women
+acquaintances when traveling. It is permissible to talk with them, but
+not to annoy them with personal attentions nor to place them under
+obligation by paying their bills. If a man and a woman who are traveling
+on the same train fall into conversation and go into the dining car
+together, each one should pay his or her own check, or if he insists
+upon paying at the table she should insist upon settling afterwards. In
+hotels also this is essentially true.
+
+Hotels are judged more by the people who come to them than by anything
+else. The guests indicate the quality of the service, and for this
+reason, most hotels prefer that they be gentlemen. There is an
+atmosphere about a first-class hotel that frightens away second-rate
+people. Most places have standards and many a man has been turned away
+even when there was an empty room because the management did not like
+his looks.
+
+Tipping is one of the most vexatious petty problems with which a
+traveler is confronted. It is an undemocratic custom which every
+sensible man deplores but sees no way around. Waiters, porters, and
+other functionaries who are in positions to receive tips draw very small
+salaries, if any. They depend upon the generosity of the public they
+serve. The system may be all wrong (we believe it is) but it means bread
+and butter to those who live by it, and it is only just, as matters are
+now arranged, for the traveler to pay. It is foolish to tip
+extravagantly or to tip every pirate who performs even the most trifling
+service, but a small fee, especially if the service has been good, is a
+courtesy not to be forgotten.
+
+Tipping originally grew out of kindness. The knight who had received
+special attention at the hands of his squire expressed his gratitude by
+a special reward. The word "gratuity" itself indicates that the little
+gift was once simply a spontaneous act of thoughtfulness. It has
+degenerated into a perfunctory habit, but it should not be so. Excellent
+service deserves a recompense just as slip-shod service does not. And no
+one has a right to spoil a waiter (or any one else) by tipping him for
+inefficient work. In hotels and restaurants the standard fee is ten per
+cent of the bill.
+
+Regular travelling of any kind even under favorable circumstances is a
+great wear and tear on the disposition. Commuters who go in and out of
+town every day are a notoriously hag-ridden lot, and the men who go on
+the road are not much better. But there is one enormous difference. It
+is the privilege of the commuter to growl as much as he likes about the
+discomforts of the road and the stupidity of the men who make up the
+time tables, but travelling men--we are speaking of salesmen
+especially--can never indulge in the luxury of a grouch. One of the
+biggest parts of his job is to keep cheerful all the time and that in
+itself is no small task. (Try it and see.) A farmer can wear a frown as
+heavy as a summer thunder cloud and the potatoes will grow just the
+same; a mechanic can swear at the automobile he is putting into shape
+(a very impolite thing to do even when there is no one but the machine
+to hear), and the bolts and screws will hold just as fast; a lawyer can
+knit his brows over his brief case and come to his solution just as
+quickly as if he sat grinning at it, but the salesman must smile, smile,
+smile. The season may be dull, the crops may be bad, there may be
+strikes, lockouts, depressions and deflations, unemployment--it makes no
+difference--he must keep cheerful. It is the courtesy of salesmanship,
+and it is this quality more than any other that makes selling a young
+man's job--we do not mean in years, but in spirit--an old one could not
+stand it.
+
+In the good old days when the country was young and everybody, from all
+accounts we can gather, was happy, salesmen in the present sense of the
+term were almost unknown. There were peddlers, characters as picturesque
+as gipsies, who travelled about the country preying chiefly on the
+farmers. Often they spent the night--hotel accommodations were few and
+houses were far apart--and entertained the family with lively tales of
+life on the road. Next morning they gave the children trifling presents,
+swindled the farmer out of several dollars and made themselves generally
+agreeable. The farmer took it all in good part and looked forward with
+pleasure to the next visit. The peddlers came in pairs then, like
+snakes, but they were for the most part welcome and there was genuine
+regret when they became things of the past like top-buggies and Prince
+Albert coats.
+
+After the peddler came the drummer, a rough, noisy chap, as his name
+indicates, harmless enough, but economically not much more significant
+than the peddler. He stayed in the business district where he was
+tolerated with good-natured indulgence. He was less objectionable than
+the man who followed him, the agent. He was (and is) a house-to-house
+and office-to-office canvasser and a general nuisance. He sold
+everything from books to life insurance, from patent potato peelers to
+opera glasses. He still survives, but not in large numbers, for his
+work, like that of the peddler and the drummer, has been swallowed up by
+the salesman.
+
+The rewards which modern salesmanship holds out to those who succeed at
+it are so large that the field has attracted all kinds of men, highly
+efficient ones who love the game for its own sake, grossly incompetent
+ones who, having failed at something else, have decided to try this, and
+adventurers who believe they see in it a chance to get rich quick. The
+teachers of salesmanship tell us that we are all selling something,
+even when there is no visible product. The worker, according to them, is
+selling his services just as the salesman is selling goods. It may be
+true, but we all could not (and it is a blessing) go out and sell things
+in the ordinary sense in which we use the word. Some of us have to be
+producers. But the salesman's work is important. We do not discredit it.
+
+Salesmanship is built on faith. A man must believe in his product and
+then must make other people believe in it as firmly as he does. So
+devoted are some salesmen to their work that it is difficult to tell
+whether they consider their calling a trade, a profession, a science, or
+a religion. Sometimes it is all four. Sometimes it goes beyond them and
+becomes a kind of mesmerism in which the salesman uses a sort of
+hypnotic process (which is simply the result of being over-anxious to
+sell) to persuade the prospect that he cannot wait another day before
+buying the particular article that the salesman is distributing. The
+article may be stocks and bonds, wash cloths, soap, or hair nets. It
+makes no difference, but he must be filled with enthusiasm and must be
+able to pass it along. And this very virtue which is the foundation of
+successful salesmanship is likely to lead the salesman into gross
+rudeness. For the man who is selling is so eager and so earnest that he
+forgets that the man who is buying may have his own ideas on the
+subject.
+
+The first step in salesmanship is to acquire a thorough knowledge of the
+product. The next is to gain access to the man who is to buy it. This is
+not always easy. Business men have been annoyed so much by agents that
+they have had to erect barriers, in many instances almost impenetrable
+ones. It is especially difficult in big cities where the pressure is
+heavy, but most worth while business men have learned the value of
+contact with the world outside and are willing to give almost any man an
+interview if he can show a valid reason why he should have it. Whether
+he gets a second interview or not depends upon how he handled the first
+one.
+
+There are many ways of getting into an office. A salesman usually stands
+a much better chance if he writes ahead for an appointment. It is much
+more courteous to ask a man when he wants to see you than to drop in on
+him casually and trust to luck that the time is not inopportune. Some
+salesmen are afraid to write because they think the knowledge of what
+they have to sell will prejudice the prospect against it. At the same
+time they feel that if they can only get a chance to talk to him a few
+minutes they can over-ride the prejudice. A salesman may come into an
+office without letting the man know what his purpose is (though it is
+best to begin with cards on the table) but he will not come in (unless
+he is a crook) under false pretenses.
+
+The friends of a salesman can sometimes be very useful to him in
+presenting him to valuable prospects, and when they feel that the
+meeting will result in mutual benefit they are glad to do it. Sometimes
+the friend will give a letter or a card of introduction. Sometimes he
+will telephone or speak for an appointment. It is best when these come
+unsolicited, though it is permissible to ask for them. No man should
+depend upon the help of his friends. A salesman should be able to stand
+on his own feet, and if he and his product together do not form a strong
+enough combination to break down all obstructions there is something
+wrong with one or the other of them.
+
+The best card of admission at the door of a business office is a
+pleasing personal appearance coupled with a calm and assured manner.
+This is a universal standard of measuring a man's character and calibre.
+Until we have heard him speak we judge him by the way he looks. It is a
+dangerous practice, as the proverb warns us, but the percentage of hits
+is high enough to make us continue to use it.
+
+A favorite device with a certain cheap type of salesman is to give his
+name to the girl at the entrance desk and ask her to tell Mr. Brown that
+Mr. Green has sent Mr. Smith to call. The Mr. Green is entirely
+fictitious, but since Mr. Brown has several business acquaintances of
+that name, he interrupts his work and comes out to see Mr. Smith and
+discovers that he is a life insurance agent who thinks that if he can
+once get inside he can "put it across." Most business men have no use
+for such practices and rarely allow the salesmen who employ them to stay
+in their offices any longer than it takes to get them out. Besides, the
+salesman places himself under a handicap to begin with. He will find it
+pretty hard to convince the man in the office that he is not dishonest
+about his goods just as he is about himself. He is the greatest enemy of
+his profession. And he makes the work of every one else engaged in it
+infinitely harder. It is something every business and profession has to
+fight against--the dishonest grafter who is using it as a means of
+swindling society.
+
+Most salesmen give their names at the entrance desk instead of
+presenting their cards. Psychologists and experience have taught them
+that the card is distracting and that even if the interview is granted
+it is harder to get the attention of the other man if he has a card to
+twiddle between his fingers. It is more conventional to send in a card
+(a good card is a letter of introduction in itself) but if the salesman
+finds it a handicap, however slight, he should by all means dispense
+with it. If the card is cheap or flashy or offensive in any way it
+arouses prejudice against the man who bears it before he has had a
+chance to present his case in person. The business card may be the same
+as the personal card, simply a bit of pasteboard bearing the name and
+perhaps the address, or it may be larger than the ordinary personal card
+and bear the name of the firm for which the salesman is working, and in
+addition, if it is a very simple design, the trademark of the firm.
+
+Whether to rise when a caller enters and shake hands is a question to be
+settled by each person according to the way he likes best. It is
+certainly more gracious to rise and ask him to be seated before resuming
+one's own place. But promiscuous handshaking is an American habit which
+Europeans as a rule frown upon and in which a number of Americans do not
+indulge, for they like the grasp of their hand to mean something more
+than a careless greeting and reserve it for their friends. In any case,
+the caller should not be the first to extend his hand.
+
+If a man is accustomed to see a great number of people he will find it
+too much of a strain on his vitality to shake hands with them all.
+Roosevelt used to surprise strangers with the laxness of his grasp, but
+the Colonel had learned to conserve his strength in small things so that
+he might give it to great ones. The President of the United States has
+more than once in the course of the history of our country come to the
+end of the day with his hands bleeding from the number of times people
+have pressed it during the day. Now the President ought to be willing to
+give his life for his country, but he ought not to be required to give
+it in this way. It probably meant a great deal to each one of the people
+in the throng to be able to say, "I once shook hands with the
+President," but how much more it would have meant if each one of them
+could have said, "One day I helped my President," even if the help was
+so small an act of thoughtfulness as forbearing to shake his hand.
+
+But to get back to salesmen: Some of them have a way, especially the
+over-zealous ones, of getting as close to the prospect as is physically
+possible. They place their papers or their brief cases on the desk
+before which the prospect is sitting, hitch their chairs up as close as
+they can, and talk with their breath in his face. No one likes this and
+it is only a rude and thoughtless salesman who is guilty of it. One man
+who had been vexed by it over and over again had the visitor's chair
+nailed to the floor in his office some little distance from his own. And
+he never had a caller who didn't try to move it nearer to him!
+
+For years it has been the habit for business men to receive their
+callers at their desks, but lately there has been a turning away from
+this. The desk is usually littered with papers and letters which the
+caller can hardly help reading, and there are constant interruptions
+from the telephone and the other members of the office. For these
+reasons a number of business men are going out to see their callers
+instead of bringing them in to see them, a practice which is much more
+cordial than the other if one can afford the time for it. One big
+business house abolished its large reception room and built in a number
+of smaller ones instead. In this way each visitor has privacy and there
+is a feeling of hospitality and coziness about the little room which the
+bigger one failed to give. Each room was fitted up with comfortable
+chairs, books, and magazines so that if the caller had to wait he would
+have the means of entertaining himself.
+
+Once a man agrees to see a salesman or other visitor he should give, in
+so far as it is possible, his full attention to him. It is better to
+refuse an audience altogether than to give it grudgingly. A prominent
+man cannot possibly see all of the people, salesmen and whatnot, who
+want to talk with him or he would have no time left to keep himself
+prominent. A busy man has to protect himself against the cranks and
+idlers who try to gain access to him, and most men have to have devices
+by which they can rid themselves of objectionable or tiresome callers.
+One man who has a constant stream of visitors has only one chair in his
+office, and he sits in it. Another never allows a visitor to enter his
+office, but goes to the outer reception room and stands while he talks.
+One man stands up as a signal that the interview is at an end. Another
+begins to fumble with the papers on his desk, and the salesman does not
+live who is not familiar with the man who must hurry out to lunch or who
+has only five minutes to catch a train. One man has his secretary or his
+office boy interrupt him after a visitor has been in as much as ten
+minutes, to tell him that Mr. So-and-So is waiting outside. Another
+rises to his feet and walks slowly toward the door, the salesman
+following, until he has maneuvered him out. If the salesman is a man of
+sense none of these devices will be necessary. He knows that a courteous
+and prompt departure helps his cause much more than an annoying
+persistence, and the man who stays after his prospect's mind has lost
+every interest except to get him out of the way is lacking in one of the
+fundamentals of social good manners as well as business good manners.
+Rarely, perhaps never, does he succeed. For the successful salesman is
+the one who can put himself into his prospect's place and let him know
+that he has made a study of his needs and is there to help him.
+
+Carefully prepared approaches and memorized speeches are worth much to
+the beginner, but an agility in adapting himself is much more important.
+Ludendorff failed to get to Paris because his original plan was upset
+and he could not think quickly enough to rally the German army and
+attack from a different angle. Most salesmen have to talk to men who are
+continually interrupted to attend to something else. And most business
+men know what they want, or think they do, and when they ask a direct
+question they want a direct answer. Many a young salesman has ruined
+himself so far as his career was concerned because he went out with
+instructions to keep the interview in his hands and every time the man
+he was "selling" asked a question he passed airily over it and kept
+stubbornly on the road he had mapped out for himself. The salesman
+cannot think in theoretical terms; he must think concretely and from the
+point of view of the man he is trying to convince. As one very excellent
+salesman has put it, he must get the prospect's own story and tell it to
+him in different words, and if he can actually show him a way to
+decrease expenses or to increase output he will win not only his
+attention, but his heart as well.
+
+The salesman must be absorbed in his commodity, but not to the exclusion
+of the man he is trying to "sell." A beginner of this type went into a
+man's office some time ago and rattled off a speech he had memorized
+about some charts. The man listened until he came to the end--the boy
+was talking so rapidly and excitedly that it would have been hard to
+interrupt him except by shouting at him--and then quietly told him that
+he had not been able to understand a word of what he had said. "You have
+not been talking to me," he explained. "You have been talking at me."
+
+Another salesman of the same general kind went into the office of a busy
+lawyer one morning recently in a building which happened to be owned by
+the lawyer.
+
+"I am going to give you some books," he announced.
+
+The lawyer asked him what they were, but the salesman refused to be
+diverted before he had led up to the dramatic moment in his carefully
+planned speech at which he thought it best to mention the name of the
+books. He went through the whole of his canvass and then thrust a paper
+under the lawyer's face with "Sign here" above the dotted line.
+
+"I thought you were going to give them to me," the lawyer said.
+
+The salesman began to explain that of course he could not give him the
+books outright and so on and on and on--everybody has heard this part of
+his speech. The lawyer laughed and the salesman lost his temper. Very
+angry, he started out of the room. Near the door which opened into the
+hall was another door which opened into a closet that contained a shelf
+which was a little more than five feet high. The salesman opened this
+door by mistake and struck his head smartly against the shelf. This made
+him angrier than ever. He jerked the other door open and slammed it
+behind him with a crash that nearly broke the glass out. This was more
+than the lawyer could stand. He sprang up and started in pursuit of the
+salesman, who by this time was on his way into another office in the
+same building. The lawyer asked him where he was going. The salesman
+told him.
+
+"Not in my building," the lawyer said. "I can't have the men who have
+offices here disturbed by people who act like this. Now go on," he added
+kindly but firmly, "and let's forget that you ever came here."
+
+And the salesman went.
+
+Salesmanship is service, and the man who persuades another to buy
+something he knows he does not want, does not need, and cannot use, is a
+scoundrel. "Good salesmanship," and this is the only sort that any
+self-respecting man will engage in, "is selling goods that won't come
+back to customers that will." It is cumulative in its effect, and the
+man who sells another something that really fills a want wins his
+eternal gratitude and friendship. He tells his friends about it, they
+come to the same salesman and the product begins almost to sell itself.
+But it takes patience and courtesy to bring it up to this point.
+
+Some salesmen kill a territory on their first trip. Bad manners can do
+it very easily. Sometimes they make themselves so objectionable that the
+customer will buy to get rid of them, especially if the purchase does
+not involve more than a dollar or two. Sometimes they carry the customer
+along so smoothly with plausible arguments that they persuade him to buy
+something that he knows he does not want. It is all right so long as the
+salesman is present, but discontent follows in his trail.
+Sometimes--stocks and bonds salesmen are guilty here--they wheedle the
+customer into buying more than he can afford, beginning on the premise
+that since their stocks are good (and the men who sell fraudulent ones
+use the same methods) a man should if he has a hundred dollars buy a
+hundred dollars' worth, if he has a million he should buy a million
+dollars' worth, if he has a home he must mortgage it, if he has an
+automobile he must sell it. No good salesman works like this. People are
+very gullible and it takes little argument to persuade them to invest
+nearly all they have in something that will make them rich in a hurry,
+but the fact that they are foolish is not quite sufficient justification
+for fooling them. Even if the stocks and bonds are all the salesman
+believes and represents them to be, no man has a right to risk his home
+or his happiness for them. A worth while salesman leaves his customer
+satisfied and comes back a year later and finds him still satisfied. And
+this sort of customer is the best advertisement and the best friend any
+business can have.
+
+Bad salesmen create violent prejudices against the firms they represent.
+For the average customer, like the average man, judges the whole of a
+thing by the part that he sees. To most of us the word Chinaman calls up
+the picture of the laundryman around the corner in spite of the fact
+that there are some three hundred million Chinamen in the world engaged
+in other occupations. Salesmen who are consumed with their own
+importance do their firms more harm than good. They usually are men in
+positions too big for them (they may not be very big at that) and are
+for the most part of not much more real consequence than the gnat which
+sat on the tip of the bull's horn and cried, "See what a dust I raise!"
+Glum and sullen salesmen--there are not many of them--are of little
+genuine value to their firms. It is not true that when you weep you weep
+alone. Gloomy moods are as contagious as pleasant ones, and a happy man
+radiates happiness.
+
+It is not easy to look pleasant when one's nerves are bruised from
+miscellaneous contacts with all sorts of people, but it is an actual
+fact that assuming the gestures of a mood will often induce the mood
+itself. The man who forces himself to _look_ cheerful (we are not
+talking about the one who takes on an idiotic grin) may find himself
+after a while beginning to _feel_ cheerful. After he has greeted the
+elevator boy with a smile (it may be a very crooked one) and the hotel
+clerk and the waitress and the bootblack and the paper boy he is likely
+to find that the smile has straightened out into a genuine one. It does
+not always work--it is like counting to a hundred when one is angry--but
+it is worth trying.
+
+Salesmen find their greatest difficulties among people of little
+education. It is the people with fewest ideas that cling to them most
+tenaciously. Scholars and scientists and business men who have learned
+to employ scientific methods are constantly watching for something new.
+They welcome new discoveries and new ideas, but the man in the backwoods
+of ignorance has a fence around the limits of his mind and it is hard
+for anything to get inside it. He is open to conviction, but like the
+Scotsman, he would like to see the person who could "convict" him. It is
+hard work to get a new idea into the mind of a man who is encased in a
+shell of ignorance or prejudice, but the salesman is worse than
+bad-mannered who lets another man, whoever he is, know that he thinks
+his religion is no good, that his political party is rotten, that his
+country is not worth a cancelled postage stamp, and that the people of
+his race are "frogs," "square-heads," "dagos," "wops," or "kikes."
+
+Salesmen who are themselves courteous usually meet with courtesy. The
+people who move graciously through life find comparatively little
+rudeness in the world. And a good salesman is courteous to all men
+alike. With him overalls command as much respect as broadcloth. It
+pays--not only in money, but in other things that are worth more.
+
+A salesman should be especially careful of his attitude toward the
+representatives of rival houses and their products. His eagerness to
+advance his own cause should never lead him into belittling them. He
+need not go out of his way to praise them nor should he speak of them
+insincerely in glowing terms; but an honest word of commendation shows
+that he is not afraid of his rivals in spite of the fact that they too
+have excellent goods, and when it is impossible to speak well of them it
+is best to stay silent.
+
+It is not hard to see why business men spend so much time and effort in
+selecting their salesmen. They know that one who is ill-mannered or
+offensive in any way indicates either a lack of breeding or a lack of
+judgment on the part of the parent concern. And one is about as bad as
+the other.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE BUSINESS OF WRITING
+
+
+Half the business letters which are written should never be written at
+all, and of the other half so many are incomplete or incoherent that a
+transaction which could be finished and filed away in two letters
+frequently requires six or eight.
+
+A good letter is the result of clear thinking and careful planning. In
+the case of the sales-letter it sometimes takes several weeks to write
+one, but for ordinary correspondence a few minutes is usually all that
+is necessary. The length of time does not matter--it is the sort of
+letter which is produced at the end of it.
+
+Books of commercial correspondence give a number of rules and standards
+by which a letter can be measured. But all rules of thumb are dangerous,
+and there are only two items which are essential. The others are
+valuable only as they contribute to them. The letter must succeed in
+getting its idea across and it must build up good will for its firm. And
+the best one is the one which accomplishes this most courteously and
+most completely in the briefest space of time (and paper).
+
+There should be a reason back of every letter if it is only to say
+"Thank you" to a customer. Too much of our national energy goes up in
+waste effort, in aimless advertising, worthless salesmanship,
+ineffective letter writing, and in a thousand and one other ways. A lot
+of it is hammered out on the typewriters transcribing perfectly useless
+letters to paper which might really be worth something if it were given
+over to a different purpose.
+
+A good letter never attracts the mind of the reader to itself as a thing
+apart from its contents. Last year a publishing house sent out a hundred
+test letters advertising one of their books. Three answers came back,
+none of them ordering the book, but all three praising the letter. One
+was from a teacher of commercial English who declared that he was going
+to use it as a model in his classes, and the other two congratulated the
+firm on having so excellent a correspondent. The physical make-up of the
+letter was attractive, it was written by a college graduate and couched
+in clear, correct, and colorful English. And yet it was no good. No
+_letter and no advertisement is any good which calls attention to itself
+instead of the message it is trying to deliver_.
+
+There is not much room for individuality in the make-up of a letter.
+Custom has standardized it, and startling variations from the
+conventional format indicates freakishness rather than originality. They
+are like that astonishing gentleman who walks up Fifth Avenue on the
+coldest mornings in the year, bareheaded, coatless, sockless, clad in
+white flannels and tennis slippers. He attracts attention, but he makes
+us shiver.
+
+Plain white paper of good quality is always in good taste. Certain
+dull-tinted papers are not bad, but gaudy colors, flashy designs, and
+ornate letter heads are taboo in all high types of business. Simple
+headings giving explicit and useful information are best. The name and
+address of the firm (and "New York" or "Chicago" is not sufficient in
+spite of the fact that a good many places go into no more detail than
+this), the cable address if it has one, the telephone number and the
+trademark if it is an inconspicuous one (there is a difference between
+_conspicuous_ and _distinctive_) are all that any business house needs.
+
+Hotels are often pictured on their own stationery in a way that is
+anything but modest, but there is a very good reason for it. The first
+thing most people want to know about a hotel is what sort of looking
+place it is. All right, here you are. Some factories, especially those
+that are proud of their appearance, carry their own picture on their
+stationery. There is nothing to say against it, but one of the most
+beautiful factories in America has on its letter head only the name of
+the firm, the address, and a small trademark engraved in black.
+Sometimes a picture, in a sales letter, for instance, supplements the
+written matter in a most effective way. And whenever any kind of device
+is really helpful it should by all means be used, subject only to the
+limits of good taste.
+
+It is more practical in business to use standard size envelopes. If
+window envelopes are used the window should be clear, the paper white or
+nearly so, and the typewritten address a good honest black. The
+enclosure should fit snugly and should be placed so that the address is
+in plain view without having to be jiggled around in the envelope first.
+A letter passes through the hands of several postal clerks before it
+reaches the person to whom it is addressed, and if each one of them has
+to stop to play with it awhile an appreciable amount of time is lost,
+not to mention the strain it puts on their respective tempers. The paper
+of which an envelope is made should always be opaque enough to conceal
+the contents of the letter.
+
+Practically all business letters are typewritten. Occasionally a "Help
+Wanted" advertisement requests that the answer be in the applicant's own
+handwriting, but even this is rare. In most places the typing is taken
+care of by girls who have been trained for the purpose, but most young
+girls just entering business are highly irresponsible, and it is
+necessary for the men and women who dictate the letters to know what
+constitutes a pleasing make-up so that they can point out the flaws and
+give suggestions for doing away with them.
+
+The letter should be arranged symmetrically on the page with ample
+margins all around. Nothing but experience in copying her own notes will
+teach a stenographer to estimate them correctly so that she will not
+have to rewrite badly placed letters. It is a little point, but an
+important one.
+
+Each subject considered in a letter should be treated in a separate
+paragraph, and each paragraph should be set off from the others by a
+wider space than that between the lines, double space between the
+paragraphs when there is single space between the lines, triple space
+between the paragraphs when there is a double space between the lines,
+and so on.
+
+A business letter should handle only one subject. Two letters should be
+dispatched if two subjects are to be covered. This enables the house
+receiving the letter to file it so that it can be found when it is
+needed.
+
+When a letter is addressed to an individual it is better to begin "Dear
+Mr. Brown" or "My dear Mr. Brown" than "Dear Sir" or "My dear Sir."
+"Gentlemen" or "Ladies" is sometime used in salutation when a letter is
+addressed to a group. "Dear Friend" is permissible in general letters
+sent out to persons of both sexes. Honorary titles should be used in the
+address when they take the place of "Mr.," such titles as Reverend,
+Doctor, Honorable (abbreviated to Rev., Dr., Hon.,) and the like. Titles
+should not be dropped except in the case of personal letters.
+
+Special care should be taken with the outside address. State
+abbreviations should be used sparingly when there is a chance of
+confusion as in the case of Ga., Va., La., and Pa. "City" is not
+sufficient and should never be used. Nor should the name of the state
+ever be omitted even when the letter is addressed to some other point in
+the same state, as from New York to Brooklyn. And postage should be
+complete. A letter on which there is two cents due has placed itself
+under a pretty severe handicap before it is opened.
+
+It is astonishing how many letters go out every day unsigned, lacking
+enclosures, carrying the wrong addresses, bearing insufficient postage,
+and showing other evidences of carelessness and thoughtlessness. In a
+town in New England last year one of the specialty shops received at
+Christmas time twenty different lots of money--money orders, stamps, and
+cash--by mail, not one of which bore the slightest clue to the identity
+of the sender. Countless times during the year this happens in every
+mail order house.
+
+The initials of the dictator and of the stenographer in the lower
+left-hand corner of a letter serve not only to identify the carbon, but
+often to place the letter itself if it has gone out without signature.
+The signature should be legible, or if the one who writes it enjoys
+making flourishes he may do so if he will have the name neatly typed
+either just below the name or just above it. It should be written in ink
+(black or blue ink), not in pencil or colored crayon, and it should be
+blotted before the page is folded. The dictator himself should sign the
+letter whenever possible. "Dictated but not read" bears the mark of
+discourtesy and sometimes brings back a letter with "Received but not
+read" written across it. When it is necessary to leave the office before
+signing his letters, a business man should deputize his stenographer to
+do it, in which case she writes his name in full with her initials just
+below it. A better plan is to have another person take care of the
+entire letter, beginning it something like, "Since Mr. Blake is away
+from the office to-day he has asked me to let you know----"
+
+The complimentary close to a business letter should be "Yours truly,"
+"Yours sincerely" or something of the kind, and not "Yours cordially,"
+"Yours faithfully" or "Yours gratefully" unless the circumstances
+warrant it.
+
+In writing a letter as a part of a large organization one should use
+"We" instead of "I." A firm acts collectively, no one except the
+president has a right to the pronoun of the first person, and he (if he
+is wise) seldom avails himself of it. If the matter is so near personal
+as to make "We" somewhat ridiculous "I" should, of course, be used
+instead. But one should be consistent. If "I" is used at the beginning
+it should be continued throughout.
+
+Similarly a letter should be addressed to a firm rather than to a
+person, for if the person happens to be absent some one else can then
+take charge of it. But the address should also include the name of the
+addressee (whenever possible) or "Advertising Manager," "Personnel
+Manager" or whatever the designation of his position may be. The name
+may be placed in the lower left-hand corner of the letter "Attention Mr.
+Green" or "Attention Advertising Manager," and it may also be placed
+just above the salutation inside the letter. Sometimes the subject of
+the letter is indicated in the same way, _Re Montana shipment_, _Re
+Smythe manuscript_, etc. These lines may be typed in red or in capital
+letters so as to catch the attention of the reader at once. If a letter
+is more than two pages long this line is often added to the succeeding
+pages, a very convenient device, for letters are sometimes misplaced in
+the files and this helps to locate them.
+
+A business letter should never be longer than necessary. If three lines
+are enough it is absurd to use more, especially if the letter is going
+to a firm which handles a big correspondence. Some one has said with
+more truth than exaggeration that no man south of Fourteenth Street in
+New York reads a letter more than three lines long. But there is danger
+that the too brief letter will sound brusque. Mail order houses which
+serve the small towns and the rural districts say that, all other things
+being equal, it is the long sales letter which brings in the best
+results. Farmers have more leisure and they are quite willing to read
+long letters _if_ (and this _if_ is worth taking note of) they are
+interesting.
+
+All unnecessary words and all stilted phrases should be stripped from a
+letter. "Replying to your esteemed favor," "Yours of the 11th inst. to
+hand, contents noted," "Yours of the 24th ult. received. In reply would
+say," "Awaiting a favorable reply," "We beg to remain" are dead weights.
+"Prox" might be added to the list, and "In reply to same." "Per diem"
+and other Latin expressions should likewise be thrown into the discard.
+"As per our agreement of the 17th" should give place to "According to
+our agreement of the 17th," and, wherever possible, simplified
+expression should be employed. Legal phraseology should be restricted to
+the profession to which it belongs. Wills, deeds, and other documents
+likely to be haled into court need "whereas's" and "wherefores" and
+"said's" and "same's" without end, but ordinary business letters do not.
+It is perfectly possible to express oneself clearly in the language of
+conversation (which is also the language of business) without burying
+the meaning in tiresome verbiage. And yet reputable business houses
+every day send out letters which are almost ridiculous because of the
+stiff and pompous way they are written.
+
+The following letter was sent recently by one of the oldest furniture
+houses in America:
+
+     DEAR MADAM:
+
+     Herewith please find receipt for full payment of your bill.
+     Please accept our thanks for same.
+
+     Relative to the commission due Mrs. Robinson would say that if
+     she will call at our office at her convenience we shall be glad
+     to pay same to her.
+
+     Thanking you for past favors, we beg to remain,
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+Contrast that with this:
+
+     DEAR MRS. BROWN:
+
+     We are returning herewith your receipted bill. Thank you very
+     much.
+
+     If you will have Mrs. Robinson call at our office at her
+     convenience we shall take pleasure in paying her the commission
+     due her.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+Here is another letter so typical of the kind that carelessness
+produces:
+
+     DEAR SIR:
+
+     I have your letter of the 27th inst. and I have forwarded it to
+     Mr. Stubbs and will see him in a few days and talk the matter
+     over.
+
+     I remain
+     Yours sincerely,
+
+Would it not have been just as easy to write:
+
+     DEAR MR. THOMPSON:
+
+     Thank you for your letter of the 27th. I have forwarded it to Mr.
+     Stubbs and will see him in a few days to talk the matter over.
+
+     Your sincerely,
+
+In the preparation of this volume a letter of inquiry was sent out to a
+number of representative business houses all over the country. It was a
+pleasure to read the excellent replies that came in response to it. One
+letter reached its destination in the midst of a strike, but the
+publicity manager of the firm sent a cordial answer, which began:
+
+     Your very courteous letter to Mr. Jennings came at a time when
+     his mind is pretty well occupied with thoughts concerning the
+     employment situation in our various plants.
+
+     We shall endeavor, therefore, to give you such information as
+     comes to mind with regard to matters undertaken by the company
+     which have contributed to the standard of courtesy which exists
+     in the departments here.
+
+We select another at random:
+
+     It pleases us very much to know that our company has been
+     described to you as one which practises courtesy in business. We
+     should like nothing better than to have all our employees live up
+     to the reputation credited to them by Mr. Haight.
+
+     As for our methods of obtaining it----
+
+Contrast these two excellent beginnings with (and this one is authentic,
+too):
+
+     In reply to yours of the 6th inst. relative to what part courtesy
+     plays in business and office management would say that it is very
+     important.
+
+Routine letters must be standardized--a house must conserve its own time
+as well as that of its customers--but a routine letter must never be
+used unless it adequately covers the situation. There is no excuse for a
+poor routine letter, for there is plenty of time to think it out, and
+there is no excuse for sending a routine letter when it does not
+thoroughly answer the correspondent's question. The man who is answering
+a letter must put himself in the place of the one who wrote it.
+
+This is a fair sample of what happens when a letter is written by a
+person who either has no imagination at all, or does not use what he
+has.
+
+A woman who had just moved to New York lost the key to her apartment and
+wrote to her landlord for another. This answer came:
+
+     Replying to your letter, will say am sorry but it is not the
+     custom of the landlord to furnish more than one key for an
+     apartment. Should the tenant lose or misplace the key it is up to
+     them to replace same.
+
+The woman felt a justifiable sense of irritation. She was new to the
+city and thought she was taking the most direct method of replacing
+"same." Perhaps she should have known better, but she did not. Buying a
+key is not so simple as buying a box of matches and to a newcomer it is
+a matter of some little difficulty. She was at least entitled to a bit
+more information and to more courteous treatment than is shown in the
+letter signed by his landlordly hand. She went to see him and found him
+most suave and polite (which was his habit face to face with a woman).
+He explained the heavy expense of furnishing careless tenants with new
+keys (which she understood perfectly to begin with) and was most
+apologetic when he discovered that she had intended all the time to pay
+for it. It would have been just as easy for him in the beginning to
+write:
+
+     I am sorry that I cannot send you a key, but we have had so many
+     similar requests that we have had to discontinue complying with
+     them.
+
+     You will find an excellent locksmith at 45 West 119 St. His
+     telephone number is Main 3480.
+
+Or:
+
+     I am sending you the key herewith. There is a nominal charge for
+     it which will be added to your bill at the end of the month. I
+     hope it will reach you safely. It is a nuisance to be without
+     one.
+
+Imagination is indispensable to good letter writing, but it is going
+rather far when one sends thanks in advance for a favor which he expects
+to be conferred. Even those who take pleasure in granting favors like to
+feel that they do so of their own free will. It takes away the pleasure
+of doing it when some one asks a favor and then assumes the thing done.
+Royalty alone are so highly privileged as to have simply to voice their
+wishes to have them complied with, and royalty has gone out of fashion.
+
+At one point in their journey all the travellers in "Pilgrim's Progress"
+exchanged burdens, but they did not go far before each one begged to
+have back his original load. That is what would happen if the man who
+dictates a letter were to exchange places with his stenographer. Each
+would then appreciate the position of the other, and if they were once
+in a while to make the transfer in their minds (imagination in business
+again) they would come nearer the sympathetic understanding that is the
+basis of good teamwork.
+
+The responsibility for a letter is divided between them, and it is
+important that the circumstances under which it is written should be
+favorable. The girl should be placed in a comfortable position so that
+she can hear without difficulty. The dictator should not smoke whether
+she objects to it or not. He should have in mind what he wants to say
+before he begins speaking, and then he should pronounce his words evenly
+and distinctly. He should not bang on the desk with his fist, flourish
+his arms in the air, talk in rhetorical rushes with long pauses between
+the phrases, or raise his voice to a thunderous pitch and then let it
+sink to a cooing murmur. These things have not the slightest effect on
+the typewritten page, and they make it very hard for the girl to take
+correct notes. No one should write a letter while he is angry, or if he
+writes it (and it is sometimes a relief to write a scorching letter) he
+should not mail it.
+
+It is said that Roosevelt used to write very angry letters to people who
+deserved them, drawing liberally upon his very expressive supply of
+abusive words for the occasion. Each time his secretary quietly stopped
+the letter. Each time the Colonel came in the day after and asked if the
+letter had been sent. Each time the secretary said, "No, that one did
+not get off." And each time the Colonel exclaimed, "Good! We won't send
+it!" It came to be a regular part of the day's routine.
+
+Inexperienced dictators will find it good practice to have their
+stenographers read back their letters so they can recast awkward
+sentences and make other improvements. It can usually be discontinued
+after a while, for dictating, like nearly everything else, becomes
+easier with habit.
+
+A considerate man will show special forbearance in breaking in a new
+girl. Different voices are hard to grow accustomed to, and a girl who is
+perfectly capable of taking dictation from one man will find it very
+difficult to follow another until she has grown used to the sound of his
+voice. It is like learning a foreign language. The pupil understands his
+teacher, but he does not understand any one else until he has got "the
+hang of it."
+
+The training of a good stenographer does not end when she leaves school.
+She should be able not only to take down and transcribe notes neatly and
+correctly. She should be able to spell and punctuate correctly and to
+make the minor changes in phrasing and diction that so often can make a
+good letter of a poor one. The most fatal disease that can overtake a
+stenographer (or any one else) is the habit of slavishly following a
+routine.
+
+"Many young fellows," this is from Henry Ford, "especially those
+employed in offices, fall into a routine way of doing their work that
+eventually makes it become like a treadmill. They do not get a broad
+view of the entire business. Sometimes that is the fault of the
+employer, but that does not excuse the young man. Those who command
+attention are the ones who are actually pushing the boss.... It pays to
+be ahead of your immediate job, and to do more than that for which you
+are paid. A mere clock watcher never gets anywhere. Forget the clock and
+become absorbed in your job. Learn to love it."
+
+The position of secretary is a responsible one. Frequently she knows
+almost as much about his business as her employer himself (and sometimes
+even more). He depends upon her quite as much as she depends upon him,
+though in a somewhat different way. It takes personal effort together
+with native ability to raise any one to a position of importance, but
+personal effort often needs supplementing, and many business houses have
+taken special measures to help their employees to become good
+correspondents.
+
+In some places there are supervisors who give talks and discuss the
+actual letters, good ones and bad, which have been written. They go over
+the carbons and hold conferences with the correspondents who need help.
+In other places courtesy campaigns for a higher standard of
+correspondence are held, while in others the matter is placed in the
+hands of the heads of the various departments, acting on the assumption
+that these heads are men of experience and ability or they would never
+have attained the position they hold.
+
+The president of a bank which has branches in London and Paris and other
+big foreign cities used every now and then to stop the boy who was
+carrying a basket of carbons to the file clerk and look them over. If he
+found a letter he did not like, or one that he did like a great deal, he
+sent for the person who wrote it and talked with him. It was not
+necessary for him to go over the letters often. The fact that the people
+in the office knew that it was likely to happen kept them on the alert
+and nearly every letter that left the organization was better because
+the person who wrote it knew that the man at the head was interested in
+it and that there was a strong chance that he might see it.
+
+What is effective in one place may not be so in another. Each house must
+work out its own system. But one thing must be understood in the
+beginning, and that is that the spirit of courtesy must first abide in
+the home office before the people who work there can hope to send it
+out through the mail.
+
+Roughly speaking there are eight types of business letters which nearly
+every business man at one time or another has to write or to consider.
+
+The first is the letter of _application_. The applicant should state
+simply his qualifications for the place he wants. He should not make an
+appeal to sympathy (sob stuff) nor should he beg or cringe. He should
+not demand a certain salary, though he may state what salary he would
+like, and he should not say "Salary no object." It would probably not be
+true. There are comparatively few people with whom money is no object.
+If it is the first time the applicant has ever tried for a position he
+should say so; if not, he should give his reason for leaving his last
+place. It should not be a long letter. A direct statement of the
+essential facts (age, education, experiences, etc.) is all that is
+necessary.
+
+Many times the letter of application is accompanied by, or calls for, a
+letter of _recommendation_.
+
+No man should allow himself to recommend another for qualities which he
+knows he does not possess. If he is asked for a recommendation he should
+speak as favorably of the person under consideration as he honestly
+can, and if his opinion of him is disapproving he should give it with
+reservations.
+
+At one time during the cleaning up of Panama there was considerable talk
+about displacing General Gorgas and a committee waited on Roosevelt to
+suggest another man for the job. He listened and then asked them to get
+a letter about him from Dr. William H. Welsh of Johns Hopkins. Dr. Welsh
+wrote a letter praising the man very highly, but ended by saying that
+while it was true that he would be a good man for the place, he did not
+think he would be as good as the one they already had--General Gorgas.
+The Colonel acted upon the letter confident (because he had great faith
+in Dr. Welsh) that he was taking the wise course, which subsequent
+events proved it to be. "Would to heaven," he said, "that every one
+would write such honest letters of recommendation!"
+
+The general letter of recommendation beginning "To whom it may concern"
+is rarely given now. It has little weight. Usually a man waits until he
+has applied for a position and then gives the name of his reference, the
+person to whom he is applying writes to the one to whom he has been
+referred, and the entire correspondence is carried on between these two.
+In this way the letter of recommendation can be sincere, something
+almost impossible in the open letter. It is needless to add that all
+such correspondence should be confidential.
+
+The letter of _introduction_ is, in a measure, a letter of
+recommendation. The one who writes it stands sponsor for the one who
+bears it. It should make no extravagant claims for the one who is
+introduced. He should simply be given a chance to make good on his own
+responsibility. But it should give the reason for the presentation and
+suggest a way of following it up that will result in mutual pleasure or
+benefit. It should be in an unsealed envelope and the envelope should
+bear, in addition to the address, the words, "Introducing Mr. Blank" on
+the lower left-hand corner. This does away with an embarrassing moment
+when the letter is presented in person and enables the host to greet his
+guest by name and ask him to be seated while he reads it.
+
+Letters of introduction should not be given promiscuously. Some men
+permit themselves to be persuaded into giving letters of introduction to
+people who are absolute nuisances (it is hard to refuse any one who asks
+for this sort of letter, but often kindest for all concerned) and then
+they send in secret another letter explaining how the first one came
+about. This really throws the burden on the person who least of all
+ought to bear it, the innocent man whom the first one wanted to meet. No
+letter of presentation is justified unless there is good reason behind
+it, such, as for instance, in the following:
+
+     This is Mr. Franklin B. Nesbitt. He has been in Texas for several
+     months studying economic conditions, and I believe can give you
+     some valuable information which has resulted from his research
+     there. He is a man upon whom you can rely. I have known him for
+     years, and I am sure that whatever he tells you will be
+     trustworthy.
+
+It is a common practice for a business man to give his personal card
+with "Introducing Mr. Mills" or "Introducing Mr. Mills of Howard and
+Powell Motor Co." written across it to a man whom he wishes to introduce
+to another. This enables him to get an interview. What he does with it
+rests entirely with him.
+
+_Sales letters_ are a highly specialized group given over, for the most
+part, to experts. Their most common fault is overstatement or
+patronizing. The advertisements inserted in trade papers and the letters
+sent out to the "trade" are often so condescendingly written that they
+infuriate the men to whom they are addressed. It is safer to assume that
+the man you are writing to is an intelligent human being. It is better
+to overestimate his mentality than to underestimate it, and it is better
+to "talk" to him in the letter than to "write" to him.
+
+Sales letters are, as a rule, general, not personal, and yet the best
+ones have the personal touch. The letter is a silent salesman whose
+function is to anticipate the needs of its customers and offer to supply
+them. In this as in any other kind of salesmanship it is the spirit
+which counts for most, and the spirit of genuine helpfulness (mutual
+helpfulness) gives pulling power to almost any letter. The one which
+presents a special offer on special terms specially arranged for the
+benefit of the customer wins out almost every time, provided, of course,
+that the offer is worth presenting. There is no use in declaring that
+all of the benefit is to the subscriber. It would be very foolish if it
+were actually true. Once a man went into a haberdashery to buy a coat.
+The shop owner unctuously declared that he was not making a cent of
+profit, was selling it for less than it cost him, and so on and on. The
+man walked out. "I'll go somewhere where they have sense enough to make
+a profit," he said.
+
+A sales letter should never be sent out to a large group of people
+without first having been tried out on a smaller one. In this way the
+letter can be tested and improvements made before the whole campaign is
+launched. The results in the small group are a pretty fair indication of
+what they will be in the large one, and a tremendous amount of time and
+money can be saved by studying the letter carefully to see where it has
+failed before sending it out to make an even bigger failure.
+
+On the face of things it seems that an _order letter_ would be an easy
+one to write, but the mail order houses have another story to tell.
+Order blanks should be used wherever possible. They have been carefully
+made and have blank spaces for the filling in of answers to the
+questions that are asked. In an order letter one should state exactly
+what he wants, how he wants it sent, and how he intends to pay for it.
+If the order consists of several items, each one should be listed
+separately. If they are ordered from a catalogue they should be
+identified with the catalogue description by mention of their names,
+their numbers and prices. One should state whether he is sending check,
+money, stamps, or money order, but he should not say "Enclosed please
+find."
+
+The commonest form of _letter of acknowledgment_ is sent in answer to an
+order letter. If there is to be the least delay in filling the order
+the letter acknowledging it should say so and should give the reason for
+it, but even when the order is filled promptly (if it is a large or a
+comparatively large one) the letter of acknowledgment should be sent.
+Then if anything goes wrong it is easier to trace than when the customer
+has no record except the copy of his order letter. The letter of
+acknowledgment should simply thank the customer and assure him of prompt
+and efficient service.
+
+Complaints should be acknowledged immediately. If there is to be a delay
+while an investigation is made, the letter of acknowledgment should
+simply state the fact and beg indulgence until it is finished.
+Complaints should _always_ receive careful and courteous attention. Most
+of them are justified, and even those that are not had something to
+begin on.
+
+The _letter of complaint_ should never be written hastily or angrily. It
+should go directly to the root of the trouble and should state as nearly
+as possible when and where and how it came about. One should be
+especially careful about placing the blame or charging to an individual
+what was really the fault of an unfortunate train of circumstances. The
+tone should never be sharp, no matter how just the complaint. "Please"
+goes further than "Now, see here."
+
+_Collection letters_ are hardest to write. They should appeal to a man's
+sense of honor first of all. It is a cheap (and ineffective) method to
+beg him to pay because you need the money, and rarely brings any
+reaction except rousing in his mind a contempt for you. The first letter
+in a series (and the series often includes as many as six or eight)
+should be simply a reminder. Drastic measures should not be taken until
+they are necessary, and at no time should the letters become abrupt or
+insulting. In the first place, it is ungentlemanly to write such
+letters, in the second it antagonizes the debtor, and if he gets angry
+enough he feels that it is hardly an obligation to pay the money; that
+it will "serve 'em right" if he does not do it.
+
+Advertising is a sort of letter writing. Each advertisement is a letter
+set before the public or some part of the public in the hope that it
+will be answered by the right person. It enters into an over-crowded
+field and if it is to attract attention it must be vivid, unusual, and
+convincing. Increasingly--and there is cause to be thankful for
+this--exaggerated statements are being forced to disappear. In the first
+place the ballyhoo advertisers have shouted the public deaf. They no
+longer believe. In the second place advertisers themselves have waked to
+the menace of the irresponsible and dishonest people who are
+advertising and are taking legal measures to safeguard the honor of the
+profession.
+
+One of the most successful advertisers of modern times was a man who
+carried the idea of service into everything he did. For a while he had
+charge of soliciting advertising for automobile trucks for a certain
+magazine. Instead of going at it blindly he made a careful study of the
+map of the United States and marked off the areas where automobile
+trucks were used, where they could be used, and where they should be
+used, and sent it to the manufacturers along with a statement of the
+circulation of the magazine and the advantages of reaching the public
+through it. The result was that the magazine got more advertising from
+the manufacturers than it could possibly handle. It is very gratifying
+to know that this man succeeded extraordinarily as an advertiser, for
+not once during his long career did he ever try to "put one over" on the
+public or on anybody else.
+
+No advertisement should be impertinent or importunate. During the war
+there was a splendid poster bearing a picture of Uncle Sam looking
+straight into your eyes and pointing his finger straight into your face
+as he said, "Young man, your country needs you!" The poster was
+excellent from every point of view, but since the war, real estate
+companies, barber shops, restaurants and whatnot have used posters
+bearing the pictures of men pointing their fingers straight at you
+saying, "There is a home at Blankville for you," "Watch out to use
+Baker's Best," and "You're next!" After all, Uncle Sam is the only
+person who has a right to point his finger at you in any such manner and
+say, "I need you." And besides, there is the moral side of it. Imitation
+is the sincerest flattery, but the dividing line between it and
+dishonesty is not always clear. And the law cannot every time prosecute
+the offender, for there is a kind of cleverness that enables a man to
+pilfer the ideas of another and recast them just sufficiently to "get
+by." It would be very stupid for a man not to profit by the experience
+of other men, but there is a vast difference between intelligent
+adaptation of ideas and stealing them. This is more a question of morals
+than of manners, for the crime--and it is a crime--is usually
+deliberate, while most breaches of manners are unintentional and due to
+either carelessness or ignorance.
+
+House memoranda are letters among the various people who are working
+there. They should be brief, above all things, and clear, but never at
+the sacrifice of courtesy. Titles should not be dropped and nicknames
+should not be used although initials may be. Memoranda should never be
+personal unless they are sent confidentially. An open memorandum should
+never contain anything that cannot be read by every one without
+reflecting unfavorably upon any one. And it is wise to keep in mind--no
+matter what you are writing--that the written record is permanent.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+MORALS AND MANNERS
+
+
+It has become a habit of late years for people to argue at great length
+about right and wrong, and what with complexes and psycho-analysis and
+what with this and that, they have almost come to the conclusion that
+there is no right and wrong. Man, so they have decided, is a frail and
+tender being completely at the mercy of the traits he has inherited from
+his ancestors and those he has acquired from his neighbors. What he does
+is simply the result of the combination of circumstances that have made
+him what he is. There is some truth in it, of course, but what there is
+is no bigger than a mustard seed, and all the volumes that have been
+written about it, all the sermons that have been preached upon it, and
+all the miles of space that have been devoted to it in the newspapers
+and magazines have not served to increase it. Most of us never give any
+one else credit for our achievements and there is no more reason for
+giving them blame for our failures. A gentleman is "lord of his own
+actions." He balances his own account, and whether there is a debit or a
+credit is a matter squarely up to him.
+
+The pivot upon which all right-thinking conduct involving relations with
+other people turns is the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men
+should do to you, do ye even so to them." It is to the moral what the
+sun is to the physical world, and just as we have never made full use of
+the heat and light which we derive from the sun but could not live
+without that which we do use, so we have never realized more than a
+small part of the possibilities of the Golden Rule, but at the same time
+could not get along together in the world without the meagre part of it
+that we do make use of. The principle is older than the Christian Era,
+older than the sequoias of California, older than the Pyramids, older
+than Chinese civilization. It is the most precious abstract truth that
+man has yet discovered. It contains the germ of all that has been said
+and written about human brotherhood and all that has been done toward
+making it an accomplished fact. And if to-morrow it were to vanish from
+the earth we should miss it almost, if not quite, as much as we should
+the sun if it were to go hurtling off into space so far away that we
+could neither see nor feel it. In the one case there would be no life
+at all on earth, in the other there would be none worth living.
+
+The Golden Rule amounts to no more than putting yourself into another
+person's place. It is not always easy to do. Half of the people in the
+United States have very little idea of what the lives of the other half
+are like and have no special interest in knowing.
+
+"What," we asked the manager of a bookshop which caters to a large
+high-grade clientèle, "do you find your greatest trouble?"
+
+"Lack of imagination on the part of our customers," he answered
+promptly, "a total inability to put themselves into our place, to
+realize that we have our lives to live just as they have theirs. If we
+haven't a book in stock they want to know why. If we don't drop
+everything to attend to them they want to know why. If anything goes
+wrong they want to know why, but they won't listen to explanations and
+won't accept them when they do. They simply can't see our side of it.
+And they make such unreasonable demands. Why, last year during the
+Christmas rush when the shop was fairly jammed to the door and we were
+all in a perfect frenzy trying to wait on them all, a man called up to
+know if his wife was here!"
+
+It is not always easy to see life, or even a small section of life,
+from another person's point of view. A man very often thinks housework
+practically no work at all (the drudgery of it he has never realized
+because he has never had to do it) and a woman very often underestimates
+the wear and tear and strain of working in an office and getting a
+living out of it in competition with hundreds of other men. Marie
+Antoinette had no conception of what it meant when the French people
+cried for bread. It seemed impossible to her that a person could
+actually be hungry. "Why, give them cake!" she exclaimed. It may be
+pretty hard for a man who is making $10,000 a year to sympathize with
+the stenographer he hires for $600 or $700 a year, or for her to see his
+side of things. But it is not impossible.
+
+Very few of us could honestly go as far as the novelist who recently
+advocated the motto: "My neighbor is perfect" or the governor who set
+aside a day for the people in his state to put it into practice. We
+happen to know that our neighbors are, like ourselves, astonishing
+compounds of vice and virtue in whom any number of improvements might be
+made. It is not necessary to think them perfect, only to remember that
+each one of us, each one of them, is entitled to life, liberty, and the
+pursuit of happiness. In other words, that every man has a right to a
+square deal.
+
+In the ancient world there were four cardinal virtues: justice,
+prudence, temperance, and discretion. In the modern world of business
+there are only two. Others may follow, but these two must come first.
+Justice, we mean, and kindness. No man was ever really a gentleman who
+was not just and kind, and we think it would be almost impossible for
+one who is, whatever his minor shortcomings may be, not to be a
+gentleman. Just to his employees (or to his employer), to his customers,
+to his friends, to himself, and this justice always tempered with
+kindness, the one quality giving the firmness necessary in dealing with
+people, the other the gentleness which is no less necessary.
+
+In the first place, and this is one of the corner stones of justice,
+industrial life must be made safe for the worker. And it is a job in
+which he has as large a part as the man who hires him. Under present
+conditions one workman out of every eight is injured during the year and
+the accident is as often his fault as it is that of his employer. In
+some instances efficient safety devices are not provided, in others they
+are not made use of.
+
+Special kinds of work, such as that in which the laborer is exposed to
+poisonous fumes, to sand blasts, dangerous chemicals or mineral dusts,
+need special protective devices and men with sense enough to use them.
+The employer cannot do his share unless the worker does his, and the
+worker is too quick to take a chance. The apprentice is usually cautious
+enough, but the old hand grows unwary. Ninety-nine times he thrusts his
+arm in among belts whirling at lightning speed and escapes, but the
+hundredth time the arm is caught and mangled. And there is nothing to
+blame but his own carelessness.
+
+
+WHO AM I?
+
+I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
+
+I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
+
+I am more deadly than bullets, and I have wrecked more homes than the
+mightiest of siege guns.
+
+I steal, in the United States, alone, over $300,000,000 each year.
+
+I spare no one, and I find my victims among the rich and poor alike, the
+young and old, the strong and weak. Widows and orphans know me.
+
+I loom up to such proportions that I cast my shadow over every field of
+labor, from the turning of the grindstone to the moving of every
+railroad train.
+
+I massacre thousands upon thousands of wage earners a year.
+
+I lurk in unseen places and do most of my work silently. You are warned
+against me but you heed not.
+
+I am relentless.
+
+I am everywhere--in the house, on the streets, in the factory, at the
+railroad crossings, and on the sea.
+
+I bring sickness, degradation and death, and yet few seek to avoid me.
+
+I destroy, crush or maim; I give nothing but take all.
+
+I am your worst enemy.
+
+
+I AM CARELESSNESS
+
+Any kind of carelessness which results in injury (or is likely to result
+in it), whether the injury is mental or physical, is criminal. No plea
+can justify building a theatre which cannot stand a snowstorm, a school
+which cannot give a maximum of safety to the children who are in it, a
+factory which does not provide comfortable working conditions for the
+people employed there, or allowing any unsafe building or part of a
+building to stand.
+
+There is a factory (this story is true) which places the lives of the
+majority of its employees in jeopardy twice a day. There are two sets of
+elevators, one at the front of the building for the executives and their
+secretaries and visitors, one at the rear for the rank and file of the
+employees. Since there are several hundred of the latter the advantages
+of the division are too obvious to need discussion. We have no quarrel
+with it. But the apparatus upon which the elevators in the rear run is
+so old and so rotten and so rusty that there is constant danger of its
+breaking down. Three times already there have been serious accidents.
+The men who are hired to operate the cars rarely stay more than a week
+or so. Protests have been sent in but nothing has been done. The
+management knows what the conditions are but they have never stopped to
+realize the horror of it. It is not that they value a few dollars more
+than they do human life, but that they simply do not stop to think or to
+imagine what it would be like to have to ride in the ramshackle elevator
+themselves. In the offices of this factory there is an atmosphere of
+courtesy and good breeding far beyond the ordinary--in justice to the
+people there it must be said that they do not know the conditions in the
+rear, but the management does. And the management is polite in most of
+its dealings, both with its employees and outside, but polish laid over
+a cancerous growth like this is not courtesy.
+
+There are three essentials for good work: _good lighting_ (it must be
+remembered that a light that is too glaring is as bad as one that is too
+dim), _fresh air_ (air that is hot and damp or dry and dusty is not
+fresh), and _cleanliness_ (clean workrooms--and workers--clean drinking
+water with individual drinking cups, and in places where the work is
+unusually dirty, plenty of clean water for bathing purposes.)
+
+In the matter of salaries--economically one of the most important
+questions in the world--the employer should pay, not as little, but as
+much as he can afford. No man has a right to hire a girl (or a boy
+either) at less than a living wage and expect her to live on it. The
+pitiless publicity which was given the evil of hiring girls at
+starvation wages some years ago (in particular through the short stories
+of O. Henry, "the little shop-girl's knight" which, according to Colonel
+Roosevelt, suggested all the reforms which he undertook in behalf of the
+working girls of New York) did much in the way of reform, but there is
+much yet to be done.
+
+Money has been called the root of all evil. It is not money, but greed.
+Greed and thoughtlessness. Sir James Barrie says stupidity and
+jealousy, but both these might be included under thoughtlessness. Men
+who are generous almost to a fault when a case of individual need is
+brought before them will hire girls at less than any one could exist on
+in decency. When they meet these same girls in the hall or when they
+come directly into contact with them in their work they may be polite
+enough, but their politeness is not worth a tinker's curse. Justice must
+come first. Only if the employer pays a fair day's wage can he expect a
+fair day's work. "Even then," he protests, "I can't get it." And this
+is, unfortunately, in large measure true. As Kipling said some few years
+ago, and it still holds,
+
+    From forge and farm and mine and bench
+      Deck, altar, outpost lone--
+    Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench,
+      Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne--
+    Creation's cry goes up on high
+      From age to cheated age:
+    "Send us the men who do the work
+      For which they draw the wage."
+
+"I can't even get them here on time," the employer's wail continues. The
+employee may respond that the employer is not there, but this has
+nothing to do with it. Most people are paid to get to their work at a
+certain hour. They have a daily appointment with their business at a
+specified time. It is wise and honorable to keep it. Tardiness is a
+habit, and, like most others, considerably harder to break than to form,
+but punctuality also is a habit, not quite so easy to establish as
+tardiness because it is based on strength while the other is based on
+weakness. Most of us hate to get up in the morning, but it is good
+discipline for the soul, and we have the words of poets as well as of
+business men that
+
+    Early to bed and early to rise
+    Is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.
+
+Time is one of the most valuable of commodities. More people are
+discharged for coming in late than for any other reason, not excepting
+(we believe this no exaggeration) "lay-offs" during dull seasons.
+Slipping out before the regular time and soldiering on the job fall into
+the same classification with tardiness. Such practices the employee too
+often looks upon as a smart way of getting around authority, blithely
+ignoring the fact which has so many times been called to our attention:
+that what a man does to a job is not half so important as what the job
+does to him. The material loss which comes from it is the least of its
+harms.
+
+All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but he is duller yet if he
+tries to mix them. Intense concentration during working hours followed
+by complete rest is the only way to make a contented workman, and it is
+the happy workman (just as it is the happy warrior), in spite of all
+that is said about divine discontent, who counts for most both to
+himself and to his community. There is a gladness about earnest eager
+work which is hard to find in anything else. "I know what pleasure is,"
+declared Robert Louis Stevenson, "because I have done good work."
+
+Gossiping, idling, smoking, writing personal letters during working
+hours (these usually on the firm's stationery), and a thousand and one
+other petty acts of dishonesty are ruinous, not so much to the house
+which tolerates them (because it cannot help itself) as to the person
+who commits them. Telephones are the cause of a good deal of disturbance
+during business hours in places where employees spend an appreciable
+amount of time on personal calls. In some organizations they are
+prohibited altogether; but in most they are allowed if not carried to
+excess. It is not business people who need education in this so much as
+their friends who have never been in business and seem unable to realize
+that personal calls are not only annoying, but time-killing and
+distracting.
+
+Part of the unrest and unhappiness among employees is due to the fact
+that vast numbers of them are working not at what they want to do but at
+what they have to do, marking time until they can get something better.
+It is very commendable for a man to be constantly watching out to
+improve himself, but it does not in the meanwhile excuse him from doing
+his best at the job for which he is drawing pay. It is dishonest. It is
+unsportsmanlike. It is unmanly.
+
+The question of salary is, from whatever angle it is approached, a
+delicate one. "My experience is," observed David Harum, "that most men's
+hearts is located ruther closter to their britchis pockets than they are
+to their vest pockets." It is a tender subject, and one that causes more
+trouble than almost any other in the world. Employees who are trusted
+with the payroll should not divulge figures and employees who are on the
+payroll should not discuss and compare salaries. Jones cannot understand
+why Brown gets more than he does when he knows that Brown's work is not
+so good, Brown cannot see why Smith gets as much as he does when he is
+out two or three days in the week, and Smith cannot see why he has not
+been made an executive after all the years he has worked in the place.
+There are many sides to the matter of salary adjustment and they all
+have to be taken into consideration. And the petty jealousies that
+employees arouse by matching salaries against one another only serve to
+make a complex problem more difficult.
+
+There is only one base upon which a man should rest his plea for an
+increase in salary, and that is good work. The fact that he has a family
+dependent upon him, that he is ill or hard up may be ample reason for
+giving him financial help or offering him a loan, but it is no reason
+why his salary should be increased unless his work deserves it.
+Paternalism is more unfair than most systems of reward, and the man who
+comes whimpering with a tale of hard luck is usually (but not always)
+not worth coddling. Years of experience, even though they stretch out to
+three score and ten, are not in themselves sufficient argument for
+promotion. Sometimes the mere fact that a man has been content to stay
+in one place year after year shows that he has too little initiative to
+rise in that particular kind of work and is too timid to try something
+else.
+
+Another big cause of trouble among men working in the same organization
+is rigid class distinction. When a man hires others to work _for_ him he
+invites discontent; when he hires them to work _with_ him there may be
+dissatisfaction, but the chances of it are lessened. A business well
+knit together is like any other group, an army or a football team, bound
+into a unit to achieve a result. At its best each person in it feels a
+responsibility toward each one of the others; each realizes that who a
+man is is not half so important as what he does, and that
+
+    ... the game is more than the player of the game
+           And the ship is more than the crew,
+
+or, as another poet with a Kiplingesque turn of mind and phrase has it,
+
+    It is not the guns or armament
+      Or the money they can pay.
+    It's the close coöperation
+      That makes them win the day.
+    It is not the individual
+      Or the army as a whole,
+    But the everlastin' team work
+      Of every blooming soul.
+
+Each man is directly responsible to his immediate superior. He should
+never, unless the circumstances are unusual, go over his head and he
+should never do so without letting him know. It should be impossible,
+and is, in a well-organized house, for men coming from the outside to
+appeal over a member of a firm. Responsible men should be placed in the
+contact positions and their responsibility should be respected. Salesmen
+are warned not to bother with the little fellow but to go straight to
+the head of a firm. Like most general advice, it is dangerous to put
+into universal practice. The heads of most firms have men to take care
+of visitors, and in a good many instances, the salesman helps his cause
+by going to the proper subordinate in the first place. It is all very
+well to go to the head of a firm but to do it at the expense of the
+dignity of one of the smaller executives is doubtful business policy and
+doubtful ethics.
+
+"Passing the buck" is a gentle vice practised in certain loosely hung
+together concerns. It is a strong temptation to shift the accountability
+for a mistake to the shoulders of the person on the step below, but it
+is to be remembered that temptations, like obstacles, are things to be
+overcome. The "buck," as has been pointed out, always passes down and
+not up, a fact which makes a detestable practice all the more odious.
+One of the first laws of knighthood was to defend the weak and to
+protect the poor and helpless; it still holds, though knighthood has
+passed out of existence; and the creature (he is not even good red
+herring) who blames some one else for a fault of his, or allows him to
+take the blame, is beneath contempt.
+
+When a mistake has been made and the responsibility fixed on the right
+person the penalty may be inflicted. If it is a scolding or a "bawling
+out" it should be done quietly. Good managers do not shout their
+reprimands. They do not need to. The reproof for a fault is a matter
+between the offender and the "boss." No one else has any concern with
+it, and there is no reason why the instinct for gossip or the appetite
+for malicious reports on the part of the other employees should be
+satisfied. The world would be happier and business would be infinitely
+more harmonious if each person in it could realize that his chief aim in
+life should be to mind his own business or, at least, to let other
+people's alone.
+
+Private secretaries and other people in more or less confidential
+positions are many times tempted to give away secret information, not so
+much for the benefit of the person to whom it is given as to show how
+much they themselves are trusted. Nearly every one who holds a
+responsible business position receives items of information which are
+best not repeated, and if common sense does not teach him what should be
+kept private and what should be told, nothing will. It should not be
+necessary for the superior to preface each of his remarks with, "Now,
+this must go no further."
+
+Matters concerning salaries should always be confidential, and so should
+personal items such as health reports, character references, and so on,
+credit reports, blacklists, and other information of a similar nature.
+It is compiled for a definite purpose and for the use of a limited group
+of people. It is unethical to use it in any other way.
+
+The reason for dismissing a person from a business organization should
+be kept private, especially if it is something that reflects unfavorably
+on his character. But the reason should _always_ be given to the
+employee himself. He may not listen, and most of the men who have had
+experience in hiring and firing say that he will not, but that is his
+own responsibility. The employer has no right to let him go without
+letting him know why. And the employee should listen--it may not be his
+fault but he should check up honestly with himself and find out. The
+same thing that lost him this place may lose him another, and a good
+many times all that he can get out of being discharged is a purification
+of soul. It is a pity if he misses that.
+
+Discharging a person is a serious matter, serious from both sides, and
+it is not a thing to be done lightly. Most houses try to obviate it in
+so far as possible by hiring only the kind of people they want to keep.
+"Our efforts toward efficiency" (we quote from one manager who is
+typical of thousands) "begin at the front door. We try to eliminate the
+unfit there. We do not employ any one who happens to come along. We try
+by means of an interview and references and psychological tests to get
+the very highest type of employee." No human test is perfect, however,
+and there are times, even in the best regulated houses, when it becomes
+necessary to dismiss persons who have shown themselves unfit.
+
+It is not always a disgrace to be discharged and it is not always a step
+downward. It may be because of business depression or it may be because
+the man is a square peg in a round hole. Sometimes it is the only
+experience that will reduce a man's, especially a young man's, idea of
+his own importance to something like normal proportions, the only one
+that will clear his mind of the delusion that he is himself the only
+person who is keeping off the rocks the business for which he is
+working, in which case it is one of the best things that could have
+happened to him.
+
+A roll call of famous or successful men who were fired would take up
+several reams of paper, and it is a pretty rash personnel manager (not
+to say brutal and unfair) who will throw a man out like a rotten potato
+and declare that he is absolutely no good. Besides, he does not know.
+All that he can be sure of is that the man was not qualified for the job
+he was holding. And he should think twice before giving a man a bad name
+even if he feels certain that he deserves it. At the same time he must
+protect himself and other business men from incompetent, weak, or
+vicious employees. If after his dismissal a man sends back to his former
+employer for a recommendation, the recommendation should be as favorable
+as possible without sacrificing the truth.
+
+When a man breaks his connection with a business house, whether he does
+so voluntarily or involuntarily, his departure should be pleasant, or at
+the least dignified. It is childish to take advantage of the fact that
+you are going away to tell all of the people you have grudges against
+how you feel about them, and it is worse than a mere breach of good
+manners to abuse the house that has asked you to leave. If it has done
+some one else an injustice, talk about that all you please, but on your
+own account be silent. Even if the fault has been altogether with the
+house it does not help to call it names. Self-respect should come to the
+rescue here. This is the time when it is right to be too proud to fight.
+
+For a long time it has been held bad ethics for the members of one trade
+or profession to speak disparagingly of their competitors, and we have
+grown accustomed to say that you can judge a man by the way he speaks of
+his rivals. This has limits, however, and in some instances a mistaken
+idea of loyalty to one's calling has led to the glossing over of certain
+evils which could have been cured much earlier if they had been made
+public. It is all very well to be generous and courteous toward one's
+competitors but the finest courtesy in any business consists of doing
+whatever tends to elevate the standard of that business.
+
+Every man likes his business to be well thought of, and most businesses
+have organized for the promotion of a high standard of ethics as well as
+for the development of more efficient methods. Notable among these, to
+mention one of the most recent ones, is the Advertisers' Association.
+There was a time when the whole profession was menaced by the swindlers
+who were exploiting fraudulent schemes by means of advertising in
+magazines and newspapers, but to-day no reputable periodical will
+accept an advertisement without investigating its source and most of
+them will back up the guarantee of the advertiser that his goods are
+what he represents them to be with a guarantee of their own. No
+publication which intends to keep alive can afford a reputation of
+dishonesty, and the efforts of the publishers toward cleaning up have
+been seconded by the association to such an extent that any person or
+corporation that issues a deceptive advertisement, whether or not there
+was intent to deceive, will be prosecuted and punished.
+
+There was a time when a man could do almost anything within the law in a
+commercial transaction and excuse himself by saying "business is
+business." Happily this is no longer true. Business men have not grown
+perfect but they have raised their standards of business morality as
+high as their standards of personal morality. They have learned that
+business and life are one, that our lives cannot--and this has a number
+of disadvantages--be separated into compartments like so many tightly
+corked bottles on a shelf. We have only one vessel and whatever goes
+into it colors what is already there. And it is significant to remember
+that muddy water poured into clean water will make it muddy, but that
+clean water poured into muddy water will not make it clean. It takes
+very little ink in a pail of milk to color the whole of it, but it takes
+an enormous amount of milk to have any effect on a bottle of ink.
+
+Business men have also learned that the only way to build a business
+that will last is to lay its foundation on the Golden Rule, and many a
+man who might otherwise sidetrack the principles of integrity holds by
+them for this reason. "Honesty," declared one of the most insufferable
+prigs America ever produced, "is the best policy." He was right. Prigs
+usually are. It is only because they are so sure of it themselves that
+they irritate us.
+
+It is a fact, in spite of the difficulty Diogenes had when he took up
+his lantern and set out to find an honest man, that most people like to
+pay their way as they go, and the business men who recognize this are
+the ones who come out on top. They do not say that the customer is
+always right nor that he is perfect, but they assume that he is honest
+and trust him until he has proved himself otherwise. The biggest mail
+order house in America never questions a check. As soon as an order is
+received they fill it and attend to the check afterward. Their
+percentage of loss is extraordinarily small. Distrust begets distrust,
+and the perversity of human nature is such that even an honest man will
+be tempted to cheat if he knows another suspects him of it. The converse
+is equally true. There are, of course, exceptions. But the only rule in
+the world to which there are no exceptions is that there is no rule that
+holds good under all conditions.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+"BIG BUSINESS"
+
+
+In the preceding pages we have looked over the field of etiquette in
+business in a general way, and have come to the only conclusion
+possible, namely, that the basis of courtesy in business is common
+sense, and that whatever rules may be given must not be followed
+slavishly, but must simply be used as guide posts. In the pages which
+follow we shall go into detail and watch courtesy at work among certain
+groups and individuals.
+
+Let us take, for example, a big concern which employs a thousand or more
+people. We shall begin with the president.
+
+_President of a Big Organization._ Here is a man who bears a heavy
+responsibility. He has not only his own welfare to look after but that
+of the men and women who work _with_ (we like this word better than
+_for_) him. His first duty is to them. How can he best perform it?
+
+It is a matter of fact that few men rise to such positions who are not
+innately courteous. It is one of the qualities which enable them to
+rise. For this reason we shall take it for granted that the president
+needs no instructions. Already he has learned the great value of
+courtesy. But this does not protect him always from discourtesy in other
+people.
+
+Every man who holds a high position in a big organization is besieged
+with visitors, but no one so much as the president. He is a target for
+cranks and idlers and freaks as well as for earnest business men who
+want to help him or to get help from him. Thousands during the course of
+a year come to call on him. If he saw them all he would have to turn
+over the presidency to some one else and devote himself to entertaining
+visitors. Many of those who come ask for him when he is not at all the
+man they want to see, but they have been taught in the schools of
+salesmanship or they have read in a magazine that it never pays to
+bother with the little fellow, but that they should go straight to the
+top.
+
+Every minute of the time of the president of a big company is valuable
+(all time is valuable, as far as that goes), and it must be protected
+from the people who have no right to infringe upon it.
+
+You would think that the vice-presidents and the managers and the
+various executives would be his best protection. They are not. It is
+the person who is placed at the front door to receive visitors. We shall
+consider him next.
+
+_The Man at the Door._ As a matter of fact, this person is usually a
+girl, many times a very young and irresponsible one, because great
+numbers of business men have not yet realized the importance of the
+position. A well-poised girl or a woman who has had wide experience in
+handling people can fill the place quite as efficiently as a man, and a
+great deal more so if the man has not been chosen because he has the
+quick sympathy and ready tact so necessary in taking care of the needs
+of a miscellaneous assortment of callers.
+
+In the house we are observing the person at the door is a young man who
+began as a messenger boy, and who, because he did what he was asked to
+do cheerfully instead of sullenly, with a "Certainly, sir," and a smile
+instead of a "That's Bob's business" and a frown, was made manager of
+the messengers, and then first assistant of the man at the door, and
+later, when that man was given another position, was promoted to his
+place. The job commands a good salary and offers chances of promotion.
+The young man likes it.
+
+A visitor comes, a young salesman, let us say, who has had little
+experience. This is only the second or third time he has tried to storm
+the doors of big business. He asks at once for the president. He does
+not give his card because the school where he learned his trade
+cautioned him against doing so. (He is perfectly correct, and he would
+have been equally correct if he had given it. The more formal style is
+to send in the card.) The man at the door sees at once what kind of man
+he has to deal with.
+
+"The president is busy," he answers--a safe remark always, because if he
+is not he should be; "maybe I can do something for you."
+
+The salesman explains that he has an attachment to increase efficiency
+of typewriters. He would like to show the president how it works.
+
+"Oh, you don't want Mr. President," the host answers. "You want Mr.
+Jones. He attends to all such things for us. Will you be seated here in
+the reception room," motioning toward the door which is at one side of
+his desk, "while I find out if he is busy?"
+
+This concern is very conservative about buying new attachments and new
+machinery of any kind, but it is ever on the alert to discover means of
+increasing its output and saving its manpower. Almost any new idea is
+worth a demonstration.
+
+If the man at the desk has an intelligent messenger boy--and he should
+have--he sends him in to Mr. Jones. The boy finds Mr. Jones busy. He
+will be free in about fifteen minutes and then will be glad to see the
+salesman. The man reports to the visitor and asks if he cares to wait.
+He does. The host offers him a magazine and asks him to make himself
+comfortable while he goes back to his desk to attend to the next
+visitor.
+
+This one also wants to see the president.
+
+"The president is in conference just now," the young man replies.
+"Perhaps there is something I can do for you in the meanwhile if you
+will tell me what you want."
+
+"It's none of your business," he answers rudely. "I want the president."
+
+The chances are against a man of this sort. He may be a person the
+president wants to see, but the odds are ten to one that he is not.
+
+"I'm sorry but you cannot possibly see him now. He is busy."
+
+"When will he be free?"
+
+"It is hard to tell. These conferences sometimes last an hour or two,
+and I am sure he will not see you even then unless you tell him why you
+want to see him. He is a very busy man."
+
+The visitor sputters around a few minutes and it develops that he is
+selling insurance. The young man knows that the president will not see
+him under any circumstances. He is already heavily insured, as every
+wise man should be, and he cannot be bothered with agents who are trying
+to sell him larger policies.
+
+"I'm sorry," the young man repeats, "but I am sure there is no use in
+letting him waste your time. He is already carrying a heavy policy and
+he positively refuses to talk insurance with anyone, no matter who it
+is."
+
+This should be enough for the salesman. What the young man says is true.
+It would be a waste of his time as well as the president's. He does not
+care half so much for the salesman's time--there is no reason why he
+should--but notice how tactfully he tells him that the head of the
+organization has no time to spend with him.
+
+There is a certain rough type of salesman (we use the word salesman here
+in the broadest sense, as the salesmen themselves use it, to cover all
+the people who are trying to convince some one else that what they have
+is worth while whether it is an idea or a washing machine or a packet of
+drawings)--there is a certain rough type of salesman who tries to
+bluster his way through. He never lasts long as a salesman, though
+unfortunately he survives a good many years in various kinds of
+business. Even he must not be turned away rudely.
+
+"I'm sorry," the young man says to a person of this sort, "but the
+president has given positive orders that he must not be disturbed this
+morning. He is engaged in a very important transaction."
+
+The next man who approaches the door has an authentic claim on the
+president. It would be as great a calamity to turn him away as it would
+be to let some of the others in. He presents his card and says that he
+has an appointment. A truly courteous man, whenever possible, arranges
+an appointment beforehand. The young man takes the card, waves toward
+the reception room, and asks him to be seated while he finds out if the
+president is busy. He telephones to the secretary of the president,
+tells him who is calling, and asks if the president is ready to see him.
+If the answer is affirmative he asks if he will see him in his office or
+out in the reception room. It is much easier to get rid of a visitor
+from the entrance hall or reception room than from an inside office. If
+he says that he will see him in the reception room the girl reports to
+the visitor that he will come in a few minutes, offers him a magazine,
+and asks him to make himself at home. If the president says that he will
+see the visitor in his office the young man sends one of the messenger
+boys to usher him through the building.
+
+Now it may be that this man had no appointment with the president, but
+that he has used it as a pretext to break through. In this case, the
+secretary answers, after consulting his schedule, that the president has
+never heard of such a person and has no such appointment. A man of this
+sort is not worth a minute's consideration. He has shown himself
+dishonest at the outset with a petty contemptible dishonesty, and the
+temptation is to pitch him out on his head. But the young man says
+quietly:
+
+"His secretary says that the president has no appointment with you. I am
+afraid you have come to the wrong place. It must be some other Mr.
+Beacon."
+
+There is a note of finality in his voice which convinces the visitor
+that there is no use in going further.
+
+The next visitor is a woman who has come to have lunch with a friend of
+hers who works in the accounting department.
+
+"It is fifteen minutes before time for lunch," the young man answers. "I
+can call her now, of course, but if you would rather not disturb her,
+I'll tell her that you will wait for her in the reception room until she
+comes for you."
+
+The woman thanks him and agrees that it will be much better not to
+disturb her. The young man offers her a chair and a magazine and
+invites her to make herself comfortable.
+
+It grows monotonous in the telling for him to ask each of the visitors
+exactly the same questions (never exactly the same, of course) in the
+same cordial tone of voice and to tell them to make themselves
+comfortable in exactly the same way, but the means of attaining success
+in such a place lies in the fact that he greets each visitor as if he
+were the only one he had to attend to, and that he is, for the time
+being, at least, completely at the visitor's service. It is not so much
+what the young man says as the way he says it. "Good morning" can be
+spoken in such a way that it is an insult.
+
+_The Girl at the Telephone._ It is nerve-racking to stand at the door to
+receive callers, but it is much more so to sit at the switchboard and
+receive messages. The only point of contact is through the voice, but it
+is remarkable how much of one's personality the voice expresses. If you
+are tired your voice shows it; if you are cross your voice tells it; if
+you are worried, your voice betrays it. It is possible for one
+(everyone) to cultivate a pleasing voice. The telephone companies have
+learned this, and there is no part of her equipment upon which they
+spend more time and effort than on the voice of the telephone girl. It
+is interesting to know that their very excellent motto, "The voice with
+the smile wins" did not spring into being without thought. On the early
+bulletins this clumsy phrase was printed: "A smiling voice facilitates
+service."
+
+The girl at the telephone, even though she receives a thousand calls a
+day, must answer each one pleasantly and patiently. Some people call
+without a very clear idea of what they want, and the fact that business
+houses have so many different names for exactly the same job often makes
+it difficult for them to locate the person they are asking for, even
+when they are fairly sure who it is they want.
+
+"May I speak to your personnel manager?" comes the query over the wire
+to a girl who has never heard of a personnel manager.
+
+"I'm sorry, I did not quite hear you."
+
+The person at the other end repeats the word and the girl is sure she
+had it right the first time.
+
+"We have no personnel manager here. Maybe there is some one else who
+would do. If you will tell me what you want----"
+
+"I want a job."
+
+"Just a minute, please, I'll connect you with our employment manager."
+
+Advertising engineers, executive secretaries, and many others are old
+jobs masquerading under new names.
+
+More business men complain of the girl at the telephone than of any
+other person in business. She must, under the handicap of distance,
+accomplish exactly what the man at the door does, and must do it as
+efficiently and as courteously.
+
+No matter how angry the one who is calling becomes, no matter how
+profane he may be, no matter what he says, she must not answer back, and
+she must not slam the receiver down while he is talking. Perfect poise,
+an even temper, patience, and a pleasant voice under control--if she has
+these, and a vast number of the telephone girls have, she need not worry
+about the rules of courtesy. They will take care of themselves.
+
+The numbers that a girl in a business office has to call frequently she
+should have on a pad or card near the switchboard so that she will not
+have to look them up. Many business men ask the girl at the board to
+give them Blank and Blank or Smith and Smith instead of giving her the
+numbers of the two concerns. She then has to look them up, quite a
+difficult task when one has the headpiece on and calls coming in and
+going out every minute. To stop to look up one number often delays
+several, and it is a duty which should never devolve upon the girl
+whose business it is to send the calls through. The man who is calling,
+or his secretary, if he has one, or a person near the switchboard
+stationed there for the purpose should look up the numbers and give them
+to the operator.
+
+An efficient girl at the telephone sends numbers through as quickly as
+is humanly possible, but even then she is often scolded by nervous and
+harassed men who expect more than can really be done.
+
+Mr. Hunter has called Main 6785. It is busy. He waits. Hours pass. At
+least it seems so to him, and he grows impatient.
+
+"What's the matter with that number, Miss Fisher?"
+
+"I'm still trying, Mr. Hunter. I'll call you when they answer."
+
+The line continues busy. Mr. Hunter looks over the papers on his desk.
+His nervousness increases. He takes down the receiver again and asks
+what the trouble is. He does not get the number any more quickly this
+way, but it would be hard to convince him that he does not. The girl
+says quietly again that she is still trying. He clings to the receiver
+and in a few minutes she answers triumphantly, "Here they are," and the
+connection is made.
+
+The telephone girl in a big concern (or a little one) is constantly
+annoyed with people who have the wrong number. When it happens ten or
+twelve times in the course of a day--fortunately it is not usually so
+often--it is hard for her to keep a grip on her temper and answer
+pleasantly, "This is not the number you want," but the snappish answer
+always makes a bad situation worse, and the loss of temper which causes
+it drains the energy of the person who makes it. It is not merely the
+voice with the smile that wins; it is the disposition and temperament to
+which such a voice is the index.
+
+_The Secretary._ The next in the line of defense is the president's
+secretary. To him (and we use the masculine pronoun although this
+position, like a good many others, is often held by women even in the
+biggest organizations, where the responsibility attached to it is by no
+means small)--to him the president turns over the details of his day's
+work. He arranges the president's schedule and reminds him of the things
+he has forgotten and the things he is likely to forget. He receives all
+of his visitors by telephone first and many times disposes of their
+wants without having to connect them with the president at all. He
+receives many of the callers who are admitted by the man at the door
+and in the same way often takes care of them without disturbing the
+president. He knows more about the petty routine of the job than the
+president himself. He is accurate. He is responsible. He is patient. He
+is courteous.
+
+In order that he may be all these things it is necessary for the
+president to keep him well informed as to what he is doing and where he
+is going and what he is planning so that he can give intelligent answers
+to the people who come, so that he can keep things running smoothly when
+the president is away, so that he can answer without delay when the
+president asks whether he has a luncheon engagement on Thursday, and
+what he did with the memorandum from the circulation manager, and who is
+handling the shipping sheets.
+
+Men who have their minds on larger matters cannot keep all the details
+of their jobs in mind, but it is significant to know that most
+successful business men know with more than a fair degree of accuracy
+what these details amount to. Some secretaries feel very superior to the
+men who employ them because they can remember the date on which the
+representatives of the Gettem Company called and the employers cannot.
+The author knows a chauffeur who drives for a famous New York surgeon
+who thinks himself a much better man than the surgeon because he can
+remember the numbers of the houses where his patients and his friends
+live and the surgeon cannot. The author also knows a messenger boy who
+thinks himself a much bigger man than one of the most successful brokers
+in Wall Street because the broker sometimes gives him the same message
+twice within fifteen minutes, the second time after it has already been
+delivered.
+
+The secretary comes to the office every morning neatly clad and on time.
+The hour at which his employer comes in has nothing to do with him.
+There is a definite time at which he is expected to be at his desk. He
+is there.
+
+He opens the letters on his desk--and those addressed to the president
+come first to him--and sorts them, throwing aside the worthless
+advertising matter, saving that which may be of some interest, marking
+the letters that are to be referred to various other members of the
+house, and placing them in the memorandum basket, piling into one heap
+those that he cannot answer without first consulting the president, and
+into another those which must be answered by the president personally.
+Intimately personal letters often come mixed in with the rest of the
+mail. No man wants a secretary whom he cannot trust even with letters of
+this sort, but almost any secretary worth having will feel a certain
+amount of delicacy in opening them unless he is requested to do so. When
+these letters are from people who write often the secretary grows to
+recognize the handwriting from the outside of the envelope, and
+therefore does not need to open them. In other cases it is sometimes
+possible to distinguish a personal from a business letter. These should
+be handled according to the wishes of the man to whom they are directed.
+Many business men turn practically everything--even the settlement of
+their family affairs--over to their secretaries. It is a personal
+matter, and the secretary's part in it is to carry out the wishes of his
+employer.
+
+By the time the mail is sorted the president has come in.
+
+He rings for his secretary, telephones for him, sends a messenger for
+him, or else goes to his desk himself and asks him to come in and take
+dictation. There is no special courtesy or discourtesy in any of these
+methods. It depends on how far apart the desks are, how busy he is, and
+a number of other things. He does not yell for his secretary to come in.
+He manages to get him there quietly. It is not necessary for him to rise
+when the secretary enters (even if the secretary is a woman) though he
+may do so (and it is a very gracious thing, especially if the secretary
+is a woman) but he should greet him (or her) with a pleasant
+"Good-morning."
+
+The secretary takes his place in the comfortable chair that has been
+provided for him, with notebook and pencil in hand and at least one
+pencil in reserve. He waits for the president to begin, and listens
+closely so that he may transcribe as rapidly as he speaks. If he fails
+to understand he waits until they come to the end of a sentence before
+asking his employer to repeat. It is much better to do so then than to
+depend on puzzling it out later or coming back and asking him after he
+has forgotten what was said.
+
+Telephone interruptions and others may come during the dictation but the
+secretary waits until he is dismissed or until the pile of letters has
+disappeared.
+
+When the president has finished it is the secretary's time to begin
+talking. He consults him about the various letters upon which he needs
+his advice and makes notations in shorthand on them. He reports on the
+various calls that have come in and the house memoranda. A good
+secretary reads and digests these before turning them over to his
+employer, and in most cases gives the gist of the memorandum instead of
+the memorandum itself. It saves time.
+
+The president's secretary usually has a secretary of his own, a woman,
+let us say, or a girl whose preliminary training has been good and whose
+record for the year and a half she has been with the company has been
+excellent.
+
+She comes to her desk on time every morning as fresh as a daisy and as
+inconspicuous. The relation that she bears to the president's secretary
+is much the same as the relation that he bears to the president. She
+gets the letters that are addressed to him and sorts them in the same
+way that he does those of the president. On days when he is absent she
+takes care of all of his work, in so far as she is able, as well as her
+own.
+
+Her employer is considerate of her always. He does not make a practice
+of taking ten or fifteen minutes of her lunch hour or five or ten
+minutes overtime at the close of the day, but when there is a good
+reason why he should ask her to remain he does so, asking courteously if
+she would mind staying. If she is genuinely interested in her work--and
+this young lady is--she will stay, but if she has an even better reason
+why she should go she explains briefly that it is impossible to stay. He
+never imposes heavier burdens upon her than she can bear, but he does
+not hesitate to ask her to do whatever needs to be done, and he does it
+with a "Please" and a "Thank you," and not with a "See, here" and a
+"Say, listen to me, now." She is a very pretty and attractive girl, but
+the man she is working for is a gentleman. To him she is his secretary,
+and if he were ever in danger of forgetting it she would be quick to
+remind him. She does not go around with a chip on her shoulder all the
+time, and she talks freely with the various men around the office just
+as she does with the women and girls, but it is in an impersonal way.
+She never permits intimate attentions from her immediate employer or any
+one else.
+
+_Executives._ "Executive" is a large, loose word which rolls smoothly
+off the tongue of far too many business men to-day. Office boys begin to
+think in terms of it before they are out of knee trousers. "I could hold
+down the job," said a youngster who had hurt his hand and whose business
+was to carry a bag of mail from a suburban factory into New York, "if I
+could get some one to carry the bag." "I can do the work," say smart
+young men in the "infant twenties" (and many others--there is no age
+limit), "but I must have a man to look after the details."
+
+The way to an executive position is through details. Work, plain hard
+work, is the foundation of every enduring job, and the executive who
+thinks he can do without it has a sharp reckoning day ahead. In most
+places the executives have worked their way up slowly, and at no time
+along the way have they had that large contempt for small jobs which
+characterizes so many young men in business. They have been perfectly
+willing to do whatever came to hand.
+
+But after all this is said, the fact remains that an executive is
+successful not so much because of his own ability as because of his
+power to recognize ability in other men. He is--and this is true of
+every executive from the president down--the servant of his people in
+much the same way that the President of the United States is the servant
+of the American people. This means that he must be readily accessible to
+them, and must listen as courteously to them as if they were important
+visitors from across the sea or somewhere else.
+
+Many executives--and this was true especially during the war--have
+surrounded themselves with a tangle of red tape which has to be unwound
+every time an employee (or any one else) wants to get near enough to ask
+a question. This is absurd. Sensible men destroy elaborate plans of
+management and find they get along better without them. The Baldwin
+Locomotive Works, which has a hundred years of solid reputation behind
+it, has no management plans. "There is about the place an atmosphere of
+work, and work without frills or feathers," and this is essentially true
+of every business that is built to last. Look at the organizations
+which, because of war conditions, rose into a prosperity they had never
+enjoyed before. Most of them have collapsed, and the little men who rose
+with them (so many of them and so much too small for their jobs) have
+collapsed with them.
+
+In the big reliable concerns, and the small ones, too, the high
+executives are easily approached, especially by the members of the
+organization. In many of the open offices--and open offices have done
+much to create a feeling of comradeship among workers--the desk of the
+general manager is out on the floor with the desks of the rank and file
+of the employees with nothing to distinguish it from theirs except the
+fact that there is a bigger man behind it. A real man does not need a
+lot of elaborate decorations. They annoy him.
+
+There are two sides to this, however. Visitors from the outside are not
+the only ones who are likely to waste the time of other people, and a
+busy man has to protect himself from indoor nuisances as well as those
+that drift in from the outside. Some do it by means of secretaries, but
+a good executive needs no barrier at all between himself and his own
+men. They learn soon enough--we are speaking now of a good executive,
+remember--that there is no use in going to him unless there is some
+definite reason why they should, and that the more briefly and directly
+they present their problem the more likely they are to have it settled.
+
+When an executive receives a caller (or when any man in a business house
+receives a caller) he should _receive_ him and not merely tolerate him.
+A young advertising man who began several years ago had two very
+interesting experiences with two gruff executives in two different
+companies. Both consented to see him, both kept on writing at their
+desks after he entered and gave him scant attention throughout the
+interview. Apparently they were both successful business men. Certainly
+they both held positions that would indicate it. Yet both of them a few
+years later came to the young advertising man at different times looking
+for jobs. Needless to say neither found a place with him, not because he
+held a grudge against them, but simply because he knew what kind of men
+they were and that they could not help in the kind of business he was
+trying to build.
+
+From the beginning of the interview the host should do all he can to
+make his visitor comfortable. You see a lot in certain magazines about
+setting the visitor at a disadvantage by giving him an awkward chair,
+making him face the light and grilling him with questions. It is pure
+nonsense.
+
+It is very gracious for a man to rise to greet a caller and extend his
+hand, especially if the caller is young and ill at ease. It is
+imperative if it is an old man or a woman. He should ask the visitor to
+be seated before he sits down himself.
+
+"Well, young man, what can I do for you?" is hardly a polite way of
+opening an interview. The host should wait with a cordially receptive
+air until his guest begins, unless he is in a great hurry. Then he
+frankly tells the caller so and asks him to make his business brief.
+
+Interruptions come even in the midst of conversations with important
+visitors, but no visitor is so important as to permit neglect of one's
+employees. These should be met courteously and dispatched quickly. The
+host must always ask the pardon of the guest before turning to the
+telephone or to a messenger, and if the guest is an employee the rule is
+the same.
+
+At the conclusion of the interview the host rises and shakes hands with
+the departing visitor but does not necessarily go with him (or her) to
+the door or the elevator, as the case may be. This is an additional
+courtesy in which a busy man cannot always indulge. The essential part
+of every interview is that the visitor shall state what he wants, that
+the host shall give the best answer in his power, and then the sooner
+the visitor departs the better for all concerned.
+
+_The Rank and File._ This is the largest group in every business. It is
+the one that fluctuates most. It is the one from which the discards are
+made. It is the one from which officers are chosen. It is the one in
+which the real growth of a business takes place. And by the same token
+it is the one, generally speaking, where there is most discourtesy.
+Promotion depends upon the possession of this quality much more than
+people realize. Many a man with actual ability to hold a high position
+is not given an opportunity to do so because the men who employ him
+realize that he would antagonize those who worked under him.
+
+There are among the body of employees in every concern (even the very
+best) discontented members. In most cases, indeed, in nearly all cases
+except where there is a chronic grudge against life which is not
+affected by external circumstances, these are weeded out, and those
+with habitual grudges are weeded out along with the others or else are
+kept in minor places. Perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say
+they keep themselves there. Sometimes a subordinate feels that he is
+unfairly treated by his immediate superior. He wishes to go to the man
+above him in authority. Is it right for him to do so?
+
+It is an unwritten law that each worker shall be loyal to the head of
+his department. Suppose the head does not deserve it?
+
+There are three courses open to the worker. He can leave the job and
+find another in a different organization. He can go to the head of the
+department and state the case to him. If this should fail he may appeal
+to the man above him, but _he should never go over the head of his own
+immediate superior without first telling him that he intends to do it_.
+
+This is an important rule. It holds whether one has a grievance to
+present or a suggestion. Constructive plans should first be talked over
+with one's immediate superior, and with his approval carried to the next
+man, or he may carry them himself. If this superior is the sort of man
+with whom you are constantly at loggerheads, you had much better get out
+and get a place somewhere else. And if you find that continually you
+are in hot water with the men who have authority over you, you may be
+very sure that the fault is not altogether theirs.
+
+Subordinates usually have an idea that the heads of their departments
+leave all of the work to them. Well, as a matter of fact, they do leave
+a large part of it. If they did not they would have no excuse for having
+subordinates. The reward of good work is more work. This is less of a
+hardship than it sounds. Sir James Barrie once quoted Dr. Johnson's
+statement that doubtless the Lord could have made a better fruit than
+the strawberry, but that he doubtless never did, and added to it that He
+doubtless could have created something that was more fun than hard work,
+but that He doubtless never did.
+
+The subway guards in New York City say that the rush which comes just
+before five o'clock (the closing time of most of the business houses) is
+as great as the one which comes just after. They call the persons in the
+former rush the clock watchers. They have left work about fifteen
+minutes early, and to-morrow morning--business experience has taught
+this--they will come in fifteen minutes late. For the most part these
+are the discontented workers who spend "60 per cent of their time in
+doing their job, and 40 per cent in doing the boss."
+
+It has always been considered a breach of good manners to pull out one's
+watch and look at it in company. It is true in the office as well as in
+the drawing room. The clock watchers are impolite. It has also been
+considered a breach of good manners to hold a guest against his will
+against the conventional hour for his departure. The employers who
+habitually keep their employees after closing hours are equally
+impolite. It is a question of honor, too. Time is money, and the time
+grafters, whether employers or employees, are dishonest.
+
+When one employee goes over to the desk of another it is not necessary
+for the second to rise. The first should wait until the one at the desk
+looks up before speaking unless he is so absorbed in his work that he
+does not glance up after a minute or two. Then he should interrupt with
+"I beg your pardon." It makes no difference if one of the employees is a
+woman and the other is a man. Work at an office can be seriously impeded
+if every time one person goes to the desk of another the other rises. So
+many times the whole conversation covers less time than it takes to get
+out of one's chair and sit back down again. In some places subordinates
+are required to stand when a superior speaks to them, but as a general
+thing it is not necessary. In such houses it is correct to play the
+game according to the general standard and to act according to the rules
+set down by the men who are in charge of affairs.
+
+There is no person so wretched or so poor or so miserable but that he
+can find other people who are more wretched, poorer, or more miserable.
+At the same time there is no person so superior, so wealthy, or gifted
+but that he can find other people who are more superior, more wealthy,
+and more gifted. It is a part of good manners to recognize superiority
+when one finds it. Youngsters entering business can sit at the feet of
+the older men in the same business and learn a great deal. Knowledge did
+not enter the world with the present generation any more than it will
+depart from it when the present generation dies. It is just as well for
+young people to realize this. Age has much to teach them. Experience has
+much to teach them, and so have men and women of extraordinary ability.
+"I have never met a man," says a teacher of business men, "from whom I
+could not learn something." All of us are born with the capacity to
+learn. It is those who develop it who amount to something.
+
+Petty quarrels should be disregarded and grudges should be forgotten.
+This piece of advice is needed more by women in business than by men.
+Men have learned--it has taken them several thousand years--to fight and
+shake hands. They have a happy way of forgetting their squabbles--this
+is a general truth--after a little while, and two men who were yesterday
+abusing one another with hot and angry words are to-day walking together
+down the hall smiling and talking as gently as you please.
+
+_The Office Boy._ If the office boy in a big business house where much
+of the work is done at a white-hot tension--the office boy in a busy
+Wall Street office during the peak of the day's rush, for example--could
+write his intimate impressions they would make good reading.
+
+The temper of the great American business man is an uncertain quantity.
+Famous for good humor and generosity as a general thing, he is, for all
+that, at his worst moments the terror of the office boy's life. Nervous,
+worried, tired, and exasperated, he is likely to "take it out" on the
+office boy if there is no one else at hand. There is no defense for such
+conduct--even the man who is guilty would not, the next day in his
+calmer moments, defend it. Meantime, what shall the office boy do?
+
+A hot, tired man with papers fluttering over his desk, his telephone
+ringing, and three men waiting in line to talk to him about serious
+problems connected with the business, yells, "What do you want?" when
+the office boy comes to answer the bell.
+
+"You rang for me," the boy answers.
+
+"I rang half an hour ago," the man snaps.
+
+In reality he rang two minutes before. Shall the office boy remind him
+of this?
+
+Not if he values his job!
+
+Of course it is unjust, but one of the first laws of discipline is to
+learn to be composed in the face of injustice, and the first law of
+courtesy for the office boy (and other employees would do just as well
+to follow) is: Don't be too harsh with the boss!
+
+It is said that the grizzly bear, who is a very strict mother, often
+spanks her cubs when she herself has done something foolish. Julia Ellen
+Rogers tells a story of an explorer who came suddenly upon a bear with
+two cubs. He was so frightened that he stood still for a minute or two
+before he could decide which way to run. Meantime the bear, fully as
+frightened as he, turned and fled, spanking the two cubs at every jump
+in spite of the fact that each was already going as fast as its legs
+could carry it. "It was so unexpected," continues Miss Rogers, "and so
+funny to see those little bears look around reproachfully at their
+angry parent every time they felt the weight of her paw, helping them to
+hurry, that the man sat down and laughed until he cried."
+
+It was not funny to the cubs.
+
+Cases in which the office boy is maltreated are exceptional, though
+cases in which he is misunderstood are not. Most office boys have not
+one boss but many. There should always be one person from whom they
+receive their general orders and to whom they go with their troubles. (A
+youngster should have very few troubles to report. It is usually the
+worthless ones who report.)
+
+In most places the several office boys are stationed at a certain point,
+a desk or a table, with one of their number more or less in charge. The
+rule is that one person be always at the desk.
+
+All right. Six office boys. Five out on errands. One at the desk. The
+bell rings. The boy keeps his place. The bell rings again. The boy keeps
+his place. The bell rings a third time, long and insistently, but the
+youngster, with a steadfastness worthy of the boy who stood on the
+burning deck, still keeps his place.
+
+A second later an angry official bounces out and wants to know what on
+earth is the matter and declares that he will report the desk to the
+manager. Meanwhile one of the missing five has returned, and the
+youngster who had held the place so long under fire takes the message
+from the man and delivers it.
+
+If the boy should see an opening--and most business men except those
+funny little executives puffed up with their own importance are ready
+enough to listen--he may explain how it happened, but if he has to enter
+a shouting contest it is best to stay silent.
+
+The law of business courtesy--no matter how far away from this a
+discussion goes it always swings back--is the Golden Rule. The
+subordinate who feels himself neglected by the men in positions above
+him might check himself by honestly asking himself how he appears to
+those beneath him. It is interesting to know that the one who complains
+most is usually the one who is haughtiest when he enters into
+conversation with the employees, who, he thinks, are not quite worth his
+notice. He feels blighted because the president does not stop to say
+"Good-morning" in the hall, but it is beneath his dignity to say
+"Good-morning" to the girl who collects his mail or "Good-night" to the
+janitor who comes to dust his desk when the day's work is over. The
+means of attaining courtesy--and if you have it yourself you will find
+it in other people--is by watching your own actions. Teach no one but
+yourself. Worry about no one's behavior but your own. That is job enough
+for any one.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+IN A DEPARTMENT STORE
+
+
+Let us now see courtesy at work in a big department store.
+
+Mr. Hopkins has taken a morning off to do a little shopping before he
+goes away on his summer vacation. He wants to buy two shirts, a trunk, a
+toy for his baby, and a present for his wife. He is not sure what he
+wants for the wife and baby.
+
+Mr. Hopkins does not like to shop. He remembers his last expedition. A
+haberdashery had sent him a cordial letter asking him to open an
+account. He did so, but one morning later when he went in to buy a
+waistcoat the rude and inefficient service he met disgusted him so that
+he has not been back since. He knew exactly what he wanted and asked for
+it. "Oh, no," answered the smart young clerk. "You don't want that.
+People have not been wearing waistcoats like that for years. This is
+what you want," and he exhibited a different style altogether. It
+happened that Mr. Hopkins knew better than the clerk what he wanted,
+and the fact that people had not been wearing waistcoats like it made no
+difference to him. As a matter of fact, the only reason the clerk made
+the remark was that he did not have them in stock, and thought perhaps
+he could sell by substituting.
+
+There are other haberdasheries where the service is distinctly good, but
+Mr. Hopkins decides to go to a department store instead. Haberdasheries,
+however excellent, do not carry toys for one's baby nor presents for
+one's wife.
+
+Helpem's store has been warmly recommended. He will go there. It is his
+first visit.
+
+When he enters the door he is bewildered by an array of women's scarfs
+and gloves and perfume bottles, handkerchiefs and parasols, handbags,
+petticoats, knick-knacks, and whatnot. He almost loses courage and
+begins backing toward the door when he catches sight of a man in uniform
+standing near the entrance. He sees that this man is directing the tides
+of shoppers that are surging in, and approaches him.
+
+"Where can I find the trunks?"
+
+"Third floor. Elevator in the rear," the man answers briefly (but not
+gruffly). People who have to answer thousands of questions must be
+brief.
+
+As he passes down the aisle Mr. Hopkins, who is very observant, notices
+that all of the girls--most of the clerks are girls--are dressed in a
+pleasant gray. This gives an agreeable uniform tone to a large
+establishment which would break up into jarring patches of color if each
+clerk were allowed to wear whatever color happened to strike her fancy.
+Good idea, Mr. Hopkins thinks, very necessary where there are many, many
+clerks.
+
+He does not have much trouble getting the trunk. He knows pretty well
+what he wants, and the obliging salesman convinces him that the trunk
+will probably last forever by assuring him that an elephant could dance
+a jig on it and never make a dent. He asks Mr. Hopkins if he wants his
+name on it. Mr. Hopkins had not thought of it, but he does. No, upon
+second thought, he will have only his initials stenciled on in dull red,
+W. H. H. The trunk will be delivered in the afternoon and he goes away
+well satisfied.
+
+The shirts are somewhat more difficult. He is attached to a certain kind
+of collar and he likes madras shirts with little black stripes or
+figures in them. The man shows him white ones and wide striped ones and
+colored ones with the right collar, and he almost decides that the place
+does not keep madras shirts with little black figures in them, when he
+suddenly realizes that he was so intent on getting the collar that he
+forgot to say anything about the material or color. He begins again,
+tells the clerk exactly what he wants, and in a few minutes the proper
+shirts are before him and he is happy. While the clerk is folding them,
+he asks about ties. It is a good thing. Mr. Hopkins remembers that he
+has forgotten ties. They have great bargains in ties. He drifts over to
+the counter and presently has three lovely ones. One is red, and Mr.
+Hopkins resolves to be more careful than he was with the last red one.
+His wife burned it. He must keep this hidden.
+
+The ties remind him that he needs a bathrobe. An agreeable clerk sells
+him a dull figured bathrobe, comfortable and light for summer and
+guaranteed to wash, and tells him that a pajama sale is in progress
+about four counters away.
+
+When he has bought six pairs of pajamas he begins to think of the baby's
+present. Toys are on the top floor. The girl there--a wise department
+store always chooses carefully for this place--is very helpful. She asks
+about the baby, how old he is, what toys he has, what toys he has asked
+for, and so on. Mr. Hopkins tells her, and after showing him several
+ingenious mechanical contrivances, she suggests a train with a real
+track to run on. Mr. Hopkins is delighted. The girl asks if the
+youngster likes to read. He does not, but he likes to be read to. "Why
+don't you take him a book?" and in a few minutes he has the "Just-So
+Stories" tucked under his arm. As he leaves the girl smiles, "Come back
+to see us," she says.
+
+All the clerks have said this. The clerk who sold the shirts said, while
+they stood waiting for the change, that he could depend on them. They
+would not shrink and the colors would not run. "We are here in the
+city," he continued (the store was in New York), "but we have our
+regular customers just as if we were in a small town. We don't try to
+make just one sale and get by with it. We want you to come back."
+
+The girl at the toy counter tells Mr. Hopkins that there is a woman
+downstairs who will help him select something for his wife. He goes back
+to the man in uniform to locate her and finds her in a secluded booth on
+the first floor. She asks several questions about whether he would like
+china or silver, furniture or linen, but Mr. Hopkins wants to give his
+wife something personal--something she can use or wear. He has been
+married several years but not long enough to know that this is a
+dangerous thing to do, but the woman is wise. She suggests a silk
+parasol, a kimono, or a dozen handkerchiefs.
+
+Such a service as this is not possible except in very large shops, but
+in most places clerks are quick to respond with suggestions for gifts.
+There is a pleasure about buying them and selling them that does not go
+with ordinary transactions.
+
+When he buys a parasol the clerk suggests that they have a very large
+assortment of handbags, but Mr. Hopkins's day's work is done, and the
+clerk does not insist. None of the clerks in a good department store is
+insistent. They offer suggestions and stand ready to serve, but they do
+not try to impose their ideas or their goods upon the customers. Mr.
+Hopkins leaves well satisfied with himself and his purchases. He will
+come back.
+
+The trunk is delivered in the afternoon, not by the regular wagon, but
+by an express company. It is a busy season. Mr. Hopkins is still further
+delighted. These people keep their promises. And as he tips the man who
+brought it up--he had to climb three flights of stairs--the man gives
+him a card. "Here's one of the boss's cards," he says, "in case you want
+any hauling done." Without doubt the man has been instructed by the boss
+to distribute his cards, but he does it with such a grace that it seems
+to be on his own initiative.
+
+It rarely happens that a business man or woman can shop in the leisurely
+manner described above. Most of their shopping has to be done during the
+half hour after lunch or during a frantic few minutes snatched at the
+beginning or the end of the day's work. One morning Mr. Hopkins had to
+leave home without a collar because he forgot to send the dirty ones to
+the laundry (his wife was away that week) and dashed into a little shop
+to get one on the way to the office. He would have felt like murdering a
+clerk who wanted to show him something nice in the way of gloves or
+mufflers, and he would have had a hard time to restrain himself from
+violence if the clerk had started in on a eulogy of a new shipment of
+English tweeds.
+
+An intelligent clerk can usually tell when his customer is in a tearing
+hurry. It is an unpropitious time to make suggestions. The clerk must
+see things from the customer's point of view. It is permissible to
+suggest something else in place of the thing he has asked for but it is
+not good manners to make fun of it or to insist upon a substitute.
+Recently a woman wanted to buy a rug for her automobile. She knew just
+what she wanted, but the bright young clerk insisted that she wanted
+something else. She finally bought the rug, but it was in spite of the
+clerk rather than because of him. Too many salesmen kill their sales by
+thinking and talking only of their product. The customer is not half so
+interested in that as he is in himself. Good salesmanship relates the
+product to the customer, and does it in such a way that the customer is
+hardly aware of how it is done.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+A WHILE WITH A TRAVELING MAN
+
+
+_In a Big City._ We will suppose that our traveling man has his
+headquarters in some big city--New York, Chicago, San Francisco, it does
+not matter--and that he has several calls to make before he goes out on
+the road.
+
+There are two kinds of salesmen, those who make only one sale to a
+customer and those who sell something that has to be renewed
+periodically. The first sell pianos, real estate, encyclopedias, and so
+on; the second sell raw materials and supplies. The salesman whom we are
+to follow is in the second group.
+
+He has--and so have most men who do this kind of selling--a regular
+routine that he follows, adding new names to the list and deleting old
+ones as seems expedient. At this particular time he has several old
+customers to visit and one or two new prospects to investigate before he
+leaves town.
+
+It is unnecessary for him to make arrangements beforehand to gain
+access to the old customers. They know him and they are always glad to
+see him. But if there is a chance that the customer may be out of town,
+or if it is during a busy season, he telephones ahead to make sure. He
+prefers indefinite to definite appointments, especially if he has to see
+two or three people during the course of a morning or an afternoon; that
+is, he would rather have an appointment to come some time between ten
+and eleven or between three and four than to have one for exactly half
+past ten or a quarter of three. It is impossible to tell how long
+interviews will last. Sometimes when the salesman counts on staying an
+hour he is through in five minutes and sometimes when he thinks he can
+arrange things in fifteen minutes he finds himself strung up for half a
+day.
+
+The new prospects--there are three on this particular morning--he
+handles in different ways. To one he has a note of introduction from a
+mutual friend. To another he has written a letter stating why he wishes
+to call and asking when it will be convenient for him to do so. The
+third, whom he knows by reputation as a "hard customer" (in the slang
+sense of the word) who will have nothing to do with salesmen of any
+sort, he decides to approach directly, trusting to his own presence to
+get past the girl at the front door and whomsoever else stands between
+him and the man he wants to see. He does not write, because he knows
+that the man would tear up the letter and he does not telephone, because
+he knows that the man would not promise to see him and that if he were
+to call after such a telephone conversation his chances for success
+would be lessened.
+
+Our salesman is careful with his appearance. He bathes and shaves every
+morning and takes special care that his linen is clean and that his
+shoes are polished. He does not ornament himself with a lot of jewelry,
+and the material of which his suit is made is plain. He presents, if you
+should see him on the street, the appearance of a clean, solid, healthy,
+progressive American citizen. He is poised but he is not aggressive. He
+is persistent but he is not obstinate.
+
+The best public speakers, it is said, never get over a sinking feeling
+of fear during the few minutes just before time for them to speak. It
+vanishes as soon as they get to their feet or a very few minutes
+afterward, and, strange as it may seem, it is this very fear that gives
+them their power on the platform. The fact that they have the dreadful
+feeling nerves them to strenuous effort, and it is this effort that
+makes the orator. In the same way the best salesmen are those who never
+get over the fear that perhaps they have not thought out the best way
+to handle the situation ahead of them. They forget the fear as they
+begin to talk to the prospect, but the fact that it is subconsciously
+present makes the difference between the real salesman and the "dub."
+
+Did you ever get to the door of a house you were about to enter and then
+turn and walk around the block before you rang the bell? Did you ever
+walk around the block six or eight times? So have we. Especially on
+those Wednesday and Sunday evenings when we used to go calling. There
+are not many salesmen who have not had this experience and who have not,
+upon hearing that a prospect they dreaded was out, turned away from the
+door with a prayer of deep thanksgiving. All of which is by way of
+saying that selling is not an easy job.
+
+The salesman whose career we are following for a short time always has
+that little feeling of nervousness before an interview. It is deeper
+than ever when he approaches the "hard customer," and it is not lessened
+in the least degree when he finds a painted and marceled flapper at the
+door who looks at him without a word. (Incidentally, she likes his
+looks.)
+
+He takes out his card and asks her to give it to Mr. Green and say that
+he is calling.
+
+"He won't see you," the girl says.
+
+"Will you tell him, please, that I am here, all the same? Wait a
+minute."
+
+He takes the card and scribbles on it, "I want only five minutes of your
+time," and hands it to the girl again.
+
+She carries it away and presently returns saying that Mr. Green is busy
+and cannot see him.
+
+"I knew he wouldn't," she adds.
+
+"He must be very busy," the salesman says. "When shall I be most likely
+to find him free?"
+
+"He's no busier now than usual," the girl responds. "He's smoking a
+cigar and looking out the window."
+
+"Will you tell him, please, that I am coming back to-morrow at the same
+time?"
+
+The girl sees that he is very much in earnest. She respects him for his
+quiet persistence and because he has not tried to "kid" her. She would
+most likely have joined in heartily if he had, but he would never have
+got past her.
+
+She goes back into the office and returns with word that the salesman
+may come in if he will not take more than five minutes. He thanks the
+girl and goes into the office where the "hard customer" is seated. He
+does not rise, he does not say "Good morning," and he does not take the
+cigar out of his mouth, but this does not disconcert the salesman. He
+wastes no time in preliminaries, but after a brief greeting, plunges at
+once into his proposition, stating the essential points clearly and in
+terms of this man's business. He knows what the customer needs pretty
+accurately for he has taken the trouble to find out. He is not
+broadcasting. He is using line radio, and everything he says is directed
+against a single mark. The prospect is interested. He puts the cigar
+aside. The salesman concludes.
+
+"I'm sorry," he says, "but my five minutes are up. Will you let me come
+back some day when you are not so busy and tell you more about it?"
+
+"Sit where you are," the other says, and begins firing questions.
+
+Half an hour later the salesman pockets the order he wanted and makes
+ready to depart, feeling that he has found another friend. The "hard
+customer" is ashamed of his gruff reception and apologizes for it. "I've
+been so bothered with agents and drummers and traveling men that I've
+promised myself never to see another one as long as I live," he says.
+
+"I can well understand that," the salesman answers. "It is one of the
+hardest things we are up against, the fact that there are so many
+four-flushers out trying to sell things."
+
+He goes next to see the man with whom he has made an appointment by mail
+and finds that he has been called out of town on business. He talks with
+his secretary, who expresses a polite regret that they were unable to
+locate him in time to tell him that his visit would be of no use. He
+asks if there is some one else who can take charge of the matter, but
+the girl replies that all such things have to come before Mr. Thompson.
+He will not be back until next week, and by that time the salesman will
+be out on the road.
+
+"I'll have another representative of our house, Mr. Hamilton, call," he
+says. "He will write to find out when it will be convenient for him to
+come."
+
+The third man on his list is the one to whom he has the letter of
+introduction. This is one of his best prospects. That is why he took
+such pains to arm himself with the letter. He has no trouble getting
+inside. The man is very busy but he thrusts it completely aside for the
+moment. He does not have to say "Be brief." Our salesman has been in the
+game long enough to know that he must not be anything else.
+
+"Frankly," he says at the end of the talk, "I am not interested. I have
+no doubt that what you say is true. In fact, I have heard of your firm
+before and know that its reputation is good. But I buy my material, and
+have for years, from Hicks and Hicks."
+
+"It is a good reliable concern," the salesman responds, "and there is no
+reason why you should desert them. They depend upon you as much as you
+do upon them. But if they happen to be short of something you want in a
+hurry, please remember that our product is as good as theirs. You can
+depend upon it with as much certainty."
+
+"Thank you, I will," the prospect answers and the interview is over.
+
+Did the salesman act wisely? Would he have gained anything by proving
+that his house was superior to Hicks and Hicks? Not if the customer was
+worth having. This salesman never forgets that his part of the job is to
+build up business for his own firm, and not to tear down business for
+other firms. As it stands, he has in this case established a feeling of
+good will for the house he represents, and has placed it in such a light
+that if the rival concern should be afflicted with a strike or a fire or
+any of a hundred or two disasters which might lessen or suspend its
+output, the customer will probably turn to the salesman's house. And if
+Hicks and Hicks should sell out or go into bankruptcy the salesman will
+have won for his own house a steady customer of great value.
+
+_In the Sleeping Car._ The wise traveling man--and our salesman is
+wise--always engages sleeping accommodations on the train in advance.
+This time he has the lower berth in No. 9.
+
+When he comes in to take his seat he finds that a woman has the upper
+berth in the same compartment. He is reading a newspaper and she is
+reading a magazine. He says nothing until toward evening, and then he
+offers to exchange places with her. She thanks him cordially, explains
+that she was late in securing a berth and that this was all she could
+get. She is very grateful and the transfer is made.
+
+He goes into the smoking car and meets there several men who are talking
+together. He joins them and the conversation runs along pleasantly
+enough until one of the number begins to retail dirty stories. Some of
+the others try to switch him off to another subject but he is wound up
+and nothing short of a sledge hammer will stop him until he has run
+down. Our salesman has a healthy loathing for this sort of thing. He has
+a good fund of stories himself--most traveling men have--and in the
+course of his journeyings he has heard many of the kind that the
+foul-minded man in the smoking car is retailing with such delight. He
+never retells stories of that nature, and he never, when he can avoid
+it, listens to them. He knows that he cannot stop the man, but after a
+little while he gets up quietly and leaves. Another man follows him and
+the two stand on the rear platform of the train until time to go to bed.
+
+Men who are traveling together often converse without knowing one
+another's names, and it is correct that they should. Only a prig refuses
+to speak to a man on a train or a boat because he does not know his
+name. Opening conversation with a stranger is not always easy, and
+should be avoided unless it comes about in a natural way. The stranger
+may not want to converse. It is correct for a man who wishes to talk to
+another first to introduce himself. "My name is Hammond," he says, and
+the man to whom he says it responds by holding out his hand (this is the
+more gracious way, but he may omit this part of it, if he likes) and
+pronouncing his own name. The same rule holds when the travelers are
+women.
+
+Our salesman goes to bed early.
+
+Two men have the compartment across from his. They seem very much
+interested in each other, for they continue to talk after they have gone
+to bed. In order to make themselves heard they have almost to scream,
+and the raucous sound of their voices is much more disturbing than the
+sound of the wheels grinding against the rails. It is hard to sleep on a
+train even under favorable circumstances. Our salesman has a strenuous
+day ahead of him--most of his days are strenuous--and the noise is
+keeping him awake.
+
+He could throw on his bathrobe, climb down and remonstrate with the two
+men across the way. It would be correct for him to do so, but it would
+hardly be expedient. People who are thoughtless enough to be noisy late
+at night are often rude enough to be very unpleasant when any one
+interferes. The salesman has no real authority over them, but the porter
+on duty at night is supposed to see that a certain amount of peace and
+quiet is maintained. The salesman rings the bell, and when the porter
+appears, asks him if he would mind begging the two men across the aisle
+to lower their voices. The porter has had years of experience. He has
+developed a soft, pleasant way of asking people to be quiet, and in a
+few minutes the car is still except for the inevitable sound of the
+train and the snoring of an old lady near the end of the car. This last
+cannot be helped. It must be endured, and our salesman composes himself
+into a deep slumber.
+
+Dressing and undressing in a sleeping car are among the most difficult
+operations to perform gracefully. There are no rules. Most men prefer
+staying in their berths to making the attempt in the crowded dressing
+rooms. Some divide the process between the two, but no gentleman ever
+goes streaking down the aisle half-dressed. He is either fully clothed
+or else he is wrapped in a bathrobe or a dressing gown.
+
+When our salesman comes in to breakfast the next morning there is only
+one vacant place, a seat opposite a young woman at a table for two. He
+crosses over and sits down, first asking if he may do so. In
+well-managed dining cars and restaurants, the seating is taken care of
+by the head waiter. He never places a person at a table with some one
+else without asking permission of the one who is already seated. It is
+never permissible for a stranger to go to a table that is already taken
+if there is a vacant one available. The young lady bows and smiles. She
+has already sent in her order. They talk during the meal quite as if
+they had been introduced and had met by appointment instead of by
+accident. She does not introduce herself, nor does he introduce himself.
+When she has finished she asks the waiter for her bill. She pays it
+herself--our salesman has too much delicacy to offer to do so--and tips
+the waiter. Then with a nod and a smile she is gone.
+
+This salesman is a chivalrous traveler. Whenever there is an opportunity
+to render a service to a woman (or to any one else) he takes pleasure in
+doing it. He does not place women under financial obligation to him,
+however, and he is careful not to annoy them with attentions. He has
+many times found a taxi for a woman traveling alone or with children
+when they have had the same destination; he has helped women decipher
+time tables; he has carried bundles and suitcases and baskets and boxes
+for old ladies who have not yet learned in all their long, long lives
+that the way to travel is with as little, instead of with as much,
+baggage as possible; and he has helped young mothers establish
+themselves comfortably in place with their children. But he has
+never--and he has been traveling a good many years now--thrust himself
+upon a woman and he has never embarrassed one by his attentions.
+
+He does not "treat" the men whom he meets by accident during his
+travels. They often go in to meals together but each one settles his own
+bill, and when they come to the end of the journey they are without
+obligations toward one another. It is much pleasanter so.
+
+The salesman does not, as a rule, tip the porter until he leaves the
+train, and the amount that he gives then is according to what the porter
+has done for him. If he has been in the car a good many hours and if he
+has had to ask the porter for many things, such as bringing ice water at
+night, silencing objectionable travelers, bringing pillows and tables
+during the day, not to mention polishing his shoes and brushing his coat
+every morning, he is much more generous than if he had been on the car
+only a few hours and had not asked for any special service. Unless the
+trip is long he never gives more than a dollar. Twenty-five cents is the
+minimum.
+
+_By Automobile._ From an economic point of view this problem has come to
+be almost as large as the railroad problem, and the part the automobile,
+including trucks and taxis, plays in business is growing larger and
+larger every year.
+
+Motorists have a code of their own. They--when they do as they
+should--drive to the right in the United States, to the left in certain
+other countries. They take up no more of the road than is necessary, and
+they observe local traffic regulations scrupulously, not only because
+they will be fined if they do not but because it is impolite in Rome to
+do other than the Romans do. They hold out their hands to indicate that
+they are about to turn, they slow down at crossings, and they sound
+their horns as a warning signal but never for any other reason.
+
+It is often necessary for a man who is trying to sell a piece of
+property to take out to look at it the man who thinks he will buy it.
+Needless to say, it is the former who pays for the trip. Other business
+trips are arranged by groups, the benefit or pleasure which is to result
+to be shared among them. Under such conditions it is wise (and polite)
+for them to divide expenses. These matters should be arranged ahead of
+time. If one is to furnish the machine, and one the gasoline, and
+another is to pay for the lunch, it should be understood at the outset.
+
+_In a Small Town._ The salesman is now completely out of the
+metropolitan district. He is in a small town like hundreds of others
+over the United States. The hotel is very good in itself, but compared
+with the one in the city, which he has just left, it is inconvenient. He
+has better judgment than to remind the people of this. Instead, when he
+is talking to them--and he likes to talk with the people in the towns he
+is serving--he talks about what they have rather than what they have not
+and about what they can do in the future rather than what they have
+failed to do in the past. It is in this way that he discovers how he
+can best be useful to them.
+
+He likes to work at the quick pace set by the big cities but he knows it
+will not do here. He goes around to see Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter is glad
+to see him, but he has had a bad year. The crops have not been good, the
+banks have not been generous, his wife has been sick, and one of his
+children has broken a leg. The salesman listens sympathetically to this
+tale of woe, leads the conversation away from the bad year behind to the
+good year ahead, and in a little while they are eagerly discussing plans
+for business in the next month or so. The salesman shows how he can
+help, and convinces Mr. Carter that the best time to begin is right now
+and gets an order for supplies from him. It has taken the better part of
+the morning, and Mr. Carter asks him to go home with him to lunch. The
+salesman would prefer going back to the hotel, but he knows that it will
+give Mr. Carter great pleasure to have him--his invitation is
+unmistakably hearty--so he accepts.
+
+Before he came the salesman had discovered, through consulting the
+directories and by talking with friends of his who knew the town, who
+were worth going to see and who were not. Mr. Carter he had learned was
+immensely worth while and that is why he was willing to spend so much
+time with him. No salesman can afford to stop and talk with everybody
+who can give him the inside story of why business is no good. This
+salesman always finds out as much as possible about a man before he goes
+to see him. He never leaps blindly ahead when there is any way to get a
+gleam of light first.
+
+Once in South Carolina he was anxious to get a large order from a
+wealthy old man who, he felt sure, would be a regular customer if he
+could once be persuaded to buy. The old man paid no attention to what he
+was saying until he mentioned the picture of a hunting dog that hung
+above the desk. The old man's eyes kindled. This was his hobby and he
+forgot all about business while he talked about hunting, and ended by
+asking the salesman to go home with him and spend the night. The
+salesman accepted gladly, and the next morning they went rabbit hunting
+instead of going back to the office. The salesman was out of practice in
+handling a gun but it was great fun, and the upshot of it all was that
+he "landed" the order he wanted.
+
+This method is pleasant but wasteful. The salesman never uses it except
+as a last resource.
+
+Much of the success of this salesman (and of the others who are
+successful) lies in the fact that he can put himself so completely into
+the place of the man he is trying to sell. He talks in terms of that
+man's work, and he tries to sell only where he believes the sale will
+result in mutual satisfaction. He never says anything about serving
+humanity, but his life is shaped around this idea, which is, when all is
+said and done, the biggest idea that any of us can lay ourselves out to
+follow.
+
+He is working for a firm that he knows is honest--no self-respecting man
+will work for any other kind--and he wants its financial rating to stand
+solid. He does not sell to every man who wants to buy. He investigates
+his credit first, and if there is to be a delay while the investigation
+is under way he frankly tells the man so, and assures him that it is for
+his protection as well as for that of the house that is selling the
+goods. "It is a form we go through with every new customer," he says.
+"If we did not we'd find ourselves swamped with men who would not pay.
+And that would work hardship on those who do." Every business man knows
+that this is the only way in which reliable business can be carried on.
+And it is reliable business that we are interested in.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+TABLES FOR TWO OR MORE
+
+
+A young banker from Smithville is in New York. It is his first trip.
+
+You would like him if you could see him. Tall, sun-burned, clean-cut,
+well-dressed, thoroughly alive and interested in everything. He is a bit
+confused by the city but he is determined to learn everything that it
+has to teach him. He does not hesitate to ask questions but he likes to
+find out without, whenever possible.
+
+He goes into the dining room of the great hotel where he is staying, and
+for the first time in his life is confronted with an array of silver on
+both sides of his plate. At home he always has a knife, fork, and spoon
+laid together at the right of his plate, by which you can see that he
+has not lived among people who place much emphasis on having food
+daintily or correctly served. He is not exactly prepared for this. When
+he left Smithville he was thinking more of his business connections than
+of what he was going to eat, and how. He is embarrassed because, like
+every sanely balanced person, he likes to do things as they should be
+done, and not just blunder through them. There is no one he can ask
+except the waiter, and the waiter seems such a superior person that he
+is afraid to ask him (though it would have been perfectly correct for
+him to do so). He gets through the meal the best way he can and finds
+that when the ice cream is brought the only thing he has left to eat it
+with is a slender fork with a long handle and three very tiny prongs. He
+knows that he has tripped up somewhere along the line, but he asks the
+waiter to bring him a spoon (he should have asked for a fork) and goes
+ahead.
+
+The next day he is invited out to dinner with a man who has all of his
+life been accustomed to first-class hotels and restaurants and the
+dining tables of wealthy and cultured people. He is somewhat older than
+our young banker and he has had a great deal of experience in
+entertaining men who have come into the city from small towns. He is
+thoughtful, sympathetic, an excellent host. He leads the way into the
+dining room (though they stand together in such a way that it seems that
+neither is leading) and chooses a table. This nearly always means
+accepting the one the head waiter indicates, though it is quite correct
+for the host to suggest the table he would like to have.
+
+"Does this suit you?" he asks the young banker before they sit down.
+
+It suits him exactly. He says as much.
+
+"Now, what will you have to eat?"
+
+The waiter has given him a menu card, containing, so it seems to the
+young man, a million things that he might have. A dinner served in
+courses was something beyond his knowledge until the night before, and
+the dinner then was _table d'hôte_ instead of _à la carte_. He flounders
+through the card and is about ready to thrust it aside and say, "Just
+bring me some ham and eggs" when his host sees his predicament.
+
+"Blue Points are usually good at this time of the year," he says. "Shall
+we try them?"
+
+The young man has not the remotest idea what Blue Points are but he
+thinks it will be very delightful to try them.
+
+"What kind of soup do you like?" the host continues when the waiter has
+departed. "I see they have vegetable soup and consommé."
+
+The young man clutches at the familiar straw. He will have vegetable
+soup.
+
+Throughout the meal the host makes comments and suggestions and guides
+his guest through to the end, and does it so graciously that the young
+man from Smithville is not aware that he is doing it, and feels that it
+is all due to his own quick observation that he is getting along so
+well. No business man is a perfect host until he can accomplish this.
+
+Our young man knows already that one should sit up at a table and not
+lean forward or lounge back, that he should not take large mouthfuls and
+that he should not snap at his food, that he should eat without noise
+and with great cleanliness. He knows that his napkin should be unfolded
+(it should be unfolded once and not spread out) and laid across his lap,
+not tucked into his collar or the top of his vest. He knows that he
+should not eat with his knife.
+
+He has never seen a finger bowl before but he has heard of them, so that
+when one is placed before him he knows that he should dip the ends of
+his fingers into it and dry them on his napkin. He has also heard that
+toothpicks are never used by gentlemen, at least in public, and he is
+not surprised when he does not see them.
+
+He has read somewhere that when a knife or a fork is dropped to the
+floor he should not pick it up himself but should allow the waiter to do
+so, and that the waiter should be allowed to clear away the damage when
+something is upset on the table. He knows that long apologies are out
+of order anywhere, and he is not likely to say anything more than
+"Excuse me" or "I beg your pardon" if he should by a clumsy movement
+break a glass or overturn a plate of soup.
+
+But he does not know about the various knives and forks or about how
+courses are arranged, and he does not know about tips.
+
+It is correct for him to explain to his host, just as Pip did when he
+was dining for the first time with Herbert Pocket, that he is unused to
+such things and beg him to give him a few hints as they go along. But it
+is less embarrassing to consult a book of etiquette about fundamentals
+and to pick up the other knowledge by close observation.
+
+He discovers--our young friend uses both methods--that knives are laid
+at the right of the plate in the order in which they are to be used,
+beginning at the outside, and that the spoons are laid just beyond the
+knives in the same order. The butter knife (which rarely appears at
+dinner time) is usually laid across the little bread plate at the left
+of the dinner plate. Forks are placed at the left of the plate in the
+order in which they are to be used, except the oyster fork, which is
+laid across the knives or else is brought in with the oysters. The steel
+knife is for cutting meats. The flat fork with the short prongs is for
+salads. Salads are always eaten with a fork. It is sometimes not very
+easy to do, but it is the only correct way.
+
+This is the general standard, but there are deviations from it. Nothing
+but experience in dining--and a great deal of it--will teach one to know
+always what fork or what knife or what spoon to use when the table
+service is highly elaborate. The best policy for a stranger under such
+conditions is that of watchful and unobtrusive waiting.
+
+The dinners that business men choose for themselves are rarely divided
+into numerous courses. Often they have only two: meat and vegetables,
+and dessert. The regular order for a six-course dinner is: first, an
+appetizer such as oyster cocktail, grapefruit, strawberries, or
+something of the sort, followed by soup, fish, meat and vegetables,
+salad, dessert, cheese and crackers. One or more of the courses is often
+omitted.
+
+The rule for tipping is universally the same: Ten per cent of the bill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suppose the cases had been reversed and the man from the city had been
+in Smithville to take dinner with the young banker.
+
+He is not accustomed to seeing all of the food put on the table at one
+time, nor to having to use the same fork throughout the meal. But he is
+a gentleman. He adapts himself to their standard so readily that not one
+of the people at the table could tell but that he had always lived that
+way.
+
+The young banker is a gentleman, too. When his friends from the city
+come to visit him he gives them the best he has and does not apologize
+for it. He does not begin by saying, "I know you are used to having
+better things than this but I suppose you can stand it for one meal." He
+simply ushers his guest into the dining room as cordially and with as
+little affectation as if he were the paying teller of the Smithville
+bank. No one need ever apologize when he has done or given his best.
+
+It is interesting to know that the standard of our young banker is
+growing higher and higher all the time. He likes to know how the people
+who have had time to make an art of dining do it and to adapt his ways
+to theirs whenever he can.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a grave mistake for a business man to feel that he must entertain
+another to the standard to which the second is accustomed. A poor man
+who finds himself under the necessity of entertaining a rich one should
+not feel that he must do it on a grand scale if he has been so
+entertained by a rich one. Aside from the moral question involved the
+great game of bluff is too silly and vulgar a one for grown men to play.
+
+But business men play it and their wives join in. Suppose Mrs. Davis,
+whose husband is an assistant of Mr. Burke, wishes to invite Mrs. Burke
+to her home to dinner. She and Mr. Davis have been formally entertained
+in the other home, and the dinner they had there was superintended by a
+butler and carefully manipulated by two maids. Now Mrs. Davis has no
+maid, her china is very simple, and the food that she and her husband
+have, even when they entertain their friends, is plain and wholesome.
+Should she, for the great occasion, hire more beautiful china and engage
+servants? Should she draw on the savings bank for more delicate viands?
+
+To begin with, Mr. Burke knows exactly what salary Mr. Davis gets. He
+knows whether it will warrant such expenditure. Will it make him feel
+like placing more responsibility on his assistant's shoulders to see him
+living beyond his means? Is it not, after all, much better for people to
+meet face to face instead of hiding themselves behind masks? The masks
+are not pretty, and in most cases deceive only the persons who wear
+them.
+
+Men who are friends in business often like their wives to be friends as
+well. It is many times possible to bring about a meeting at the home of
+a common friend, but when this is not convenient, one of the women may
+invite the other. If the invitation is to dinner, it is not correct for
+Mr. Gardner to invite Mrs. Shandon even if he knows her and his wife
+does not. The invitation should go from Mrs. Gardner and should be
+addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Shandon. If the invitation is for tea, Mrs.
+Gardner simply invites Mrs. Shandon, and the nature of the invitation
+depends upon whether the affair is formal or informal.
+
+As to which of two women should proffer the first invitation there might
+be some discussion. Usually it is the wife of the man whose position is
+superior, if they both work for the same concern. It frequently happens
+that a man whose position in business is high is married to a woman
+whose social standing is not of corresponding importance. Perhaps such a
+man has a subordinate whose wife is a social leader. In this case which
+of the women should extend the first invitation?
+
+Most women of eminent social rank realize and appreciate the fact
+thoroughly. The social leader knows that the other woman might be
+embarrassed and hesitant about inviting her to her home. If she does
+apprehend this it is only gracious for her to extend the first
+invitation herself.
+
+In small towns the rule is for the old residents to call upon the new,
+and the wife of a business man who has recently established himself in a
+community must wait until the women who live there have called upon her
+before she begins to entertain them.
+
+In large cities where it is impossible to know everyone this rule is
+practically disregarded, and business men invite one another and ask
+their wives to do the same according to the way convenience and chance
+make most natural. Women whose husbands are longest in the employ of a
+firm, or whose husbands hold high positions, as a rule call first on the
+wives of newcomers or subordinates.
+
+It all comes to the same thing whether it is in a city or a small town
+or the country. Those who are already established in the neighborhood or
+the business extend the right hand of welcome and good fellowship to
+those who are not.
+
+In order to bring their employees together socially most big houses now
+give various entertainments such as picnics, parties, dances, and
+banquets. They are in no way different from other entertainments of the
+same kind so far as the etiquette of behavior is concerned. Formal
+dances and banquets in the evening require evening dress just the same,
+except with that very enormous group (to which most of us belong) who do
+not own evening dress. This does not mean that evening parties must be
+foregone by this group or that they should hire gala attire for the
+occasion, but simply that the men wear their business suits and the
+girls their "Sunday" dresses. It is just as correct, it is just as much
+fun, and it is infinitely wiser than giving a dollar down and a dollar a
+week for a _décolleté_ gown or a swallow-tail outfit.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+LADIES FIRST?
+
+
+Most girls who are in business are there to earn a living.
+
+It is true that an increasing number of wealthy girls who are under no
+necessity to work but who want a definite place in the economic life of
+the world are entering business every year, but the great army of
+workers is made up of those who enter business because they are driven
+into it (driven, many of them, while they are yet very young), because
+it is the only way in which they can have their own money, or because it
+is the only way in which they can raise their standard of living.
+
+The majority of business girls come from the homes of parents in
+moderate circumstances. They have had advantages--a high-school or a
+college diploma, a certificate from a business school, travel,
+specialized training--and all these they have added to their business
+capital. In many instances the opportunities they have had have not been
+brilliant, but every opportunity, however small, carries with it the
+responsibility to make the best of it. Upon these girls, since they
+outnumber the others and because they have had advantages (a high-school
+education is an enormous advantage if you are looking at it from the
+point of view of a person who wanted one but was not able to get it),
+rests the responsibility of setting the pace for others. And the
+standard of behavior for the business girl, whether she be rich or poor
+or in between, is the same.
+
+The wealthy girls who enter business deliberately are usually followed
+by the same sensible impulse that started them on their careers, and, as
+a rule, they conduct themselves with dignity and modesty. The wealthy
+girls who, through a turn of fortune have been forced into work and have
+gone unwillingly, are another matter. "The rudest girls we have," is the
+testimony of most people who have to deal with them. Conventional social
+charm and poise they may have but they are without that finer sense of
+courtesy which makes them accept whatever fate gives them and make the
+best of it. The fading splendor of the days of plenty envelops them like
+a cloud--remember that we are speaking of the unwilling ones--they lose
+themselves in self-pity, and the great fun that comes from good work
+they miss entirely.
+
+Many of the poor girls in business have never known anything but
+poverty, and their lives have been cast among people who have never
+known anything else. They have had no home training in the art of
+behavior (for the people at home did not know how to give it to them).
+No one has ever told them how to dress or act but there have never been
+lacking those to condemn them when they dressed foolishly or acted
+indiscreetly. "The silly little things," they say (and oh, how superior
+they are when they say it). Employers agree, for, after all, it is true,
+and the silly little things hold their jobs until they are married,
+until they are fired, or (and this happens frequently) until they wake
+up, and then they are promoted to something better. We cannot expect
+girls like these, who have grown up without contact with the gentler
+side of life, to begin with a high standard of behavior, but we can (and
+do) expect them, once they have been brought into touch with better
+things, to raise their standard. It is no disgrace for a girl to begin
+in ignorance and squalor; the disgrace lies in staying there.
+
+First of all, the dress of the business girl. Most of the ill-breeding
+in the world is due to ignorance. Ignorance of the laws of beauty and
+taste causes one to make a display of finery, and over-dressing is a
+mark of vulgarity whether one can afford it or not.
+
+The girl does not live--we believe this is right--who does not love
+pretty clothes. But the average girl does not have money to spend
+lavishly for them. Her salary, as a rule, is not princely, and there are
+often financial as well as moral obligations to the people at home. She
+cannot have Sunday clothes and everyday clothes. She must combine the
+two with the emphasis on the latter.
+
+A few years ago it was almost impossible to accomplish this, but
+manufacturers have recognized her needs and are now making clothes
+especially for her--plain dresses in bright colors and dark dresses with
+a happy bit of trimming here and there, neat enough to pass the
+censorship of the strictest employer, pretty enough to please the most
+exacting young girl.
+
+A woman is no longer thought eccentric if she wears low heels. The
+modern flapper is too sensible for such nonsense as French heels for
+standing all day behind the counter. Manufacturers have discovered this
+also, and are making shoes with low heels and broad toes quite as
+pleasing as the French monstrosities and infinitely more comfortable.
+
+A business girl--or any girl, for that matter--should take pains with
+her hands and her hair. Coiffures that might be appropriate in a ball
+room are out of place in an office, and heavily jeweled hands, whether
+the jewels are real or imitation, are grotesquely unsuited to office
+work. (So are dirty ones.)
+
+Hair that is glossy and tidy, hands that are clean and capable, dress
+that is trim and inconspicuous--add to these intelligence, willingness,
+good health, and good manners and there is not much left to be desired.
+
+Certain positions expose girls to the temptation of dress more than
+others. She, for instance, who all day handles lovely garments or she
+who all day poses before long mirrors in exquisite gowns that other
+women are to wear--can one expect these girls to go merrily home at
+night to a hall bedroom with a one-burner gas jet and a mournful array
+of old furniture? They have a problem that the girl in a glue factory or
+a fish cannery does not have to meet--at least not in so concrete a
+form. At the same time they have an opportunity that these other girls
+do not have, and it rests with them whether the opportunity or the
+temptation gets the upper hand.
+
+Positions in which girls are thrown into close contact with men expose
+them to temptation of another sort. It is in its most acute form when
+it brings a poor girl into more or less intimate association with a rich
+man. Once, a very long time ago, a king married a beggar maid and they
+lived happily ever after. People have not stopped writing and talking
+about it yet, although it is many centuries since it happened. It is
+true that once in a very great while a girl marries her father's
+chauffeur or her brother's valet and finds later that she has acted
+wisely; but these are rare exceptions to the general rule, for the
+result usually is unhappiness. Such marriages are always the occasion
+for big headlines in the paper, usually a double set of them, for, in
+most instances, the divorce follows within a year or so.
+
+It is a dangerous thing for a girl to receive attentions
+indiscriminately from men, especially those who drift across her horizon
+from the great world outside. It is dangerous (is it necessary to add
+that it is incorrect?) for a manicurist to accept presents from the
+millionaire whose hands she looks after. It is unwise for any girl to
+accept expensive gifts from a man who is not her fiancé.
+
+There are exceptions to this rule, as indeed to every other. At
+Christmas or at the time a ceremony or an anniversary employers
+sometimes give their secretaries or another trusted employee a
+beautiful gift, and it is within the bounds of propriety for the
+employee to accept it. Often when he has been away from the office for
+several weeks a man presents his secretary a gift to express his
+gratitude for the capable way in which she has managed affairs in his
+absence, and this gift the secretary is privileged to accept. Gifts are
+seldom presented except where the association has been a long and highly
+satisfactory one.
+
+But the girl who goes to the theatre with a man about whom she knows
+nothing except that he has the price of the tickets is running a serious
+risk. She is violating one of the most rigid principles of etiquette and
+she is skating perilously out beyond the line marked off by common
+sense. Nearly every man can, and does, if he is the right sort, present
+credentials before asking a girl if he may call or if he may escort her
+to a place of amusement. There are instances in romantic stories and in
+real life where a man and a maid have met without the help of a third
+party and have entered upon a charming friendship. They are rare, rarer
+in fact than in fiction. It is banal to say that a girl can usually
+tell. But she can, and if she has any doubt (and this is true of all her
+relations with men) she should have no doubt. She should stop where she
+is.
+
+Where men and girls work together in the same building or in buildings
+near one another they often go to the same restaurant for lunch. It is
+natural that they should sometimes sit together at the same tables. It
+is correct for a man to sit at a table where there are already only
+girls (if the girls are willing), but it is not correct for a girl to
+sit at a table where there are already only men (however willing the men
+may be). In these mixed groups each person pays for his or her own
+lunch. It is not even necessary for the man, or the men, as the case may
+be, to offer to do so, and it is a distinct breach of the rules of
+etiquette for a girl to allow a man to pay for her lunch under such
+circumstances.
+
+The only time when it is correct for a man and a girl who are associated
+together in business to have lunch, with him the host and her the guest,
+is when the engagement is made ahead of time as for any other social
+affair. On such an occasion he should be as attentive as he would in any
+other circumstances, taking care of her wraps and placing her chair if
+the waiter is not at hand to do it, suggesting dishes he thinks perhaps
+she will like, and making himself as generally useful and agreeable as
+it is possible for him to be. A point about which considerable breath is
+wasted is whether a man should enter a restaurant with the girl
+following or whether he should allow her to lead the way. It makes no
+material difference one way or the other, but usually he permits her to
+go ahead and follows closely enough behind to open the doors for her and
+to receive whatever instructions the head waiter has to offer.
+
+If a man should enter a restaurant and find a girl whom he knows already
+seated he may join her if he thinks he will be not unwelcome, but this
+does not make it incumbent upon him to pay for her lunch. He may offer
+to do it, but it is a matter that rests with the girl. If she does not
+care to develop his acquaintance she should not permit it, but if the
+two are good friends or if she feels that he is a man she would like to
+know, she may give him her check to settle along with his own. A girl is
+herself the best judge of what to do under such conditions, and if
+common sense does not show her the way out etiquette will not help.
+
+Women in business sometimes bring up perplexing questions and create
+awkward situations. Suppose a man has asked a girl several times to a
+business-social lunch and she has accepted every time. It seems that
+she should, as a man would in the same position, make some return. If
+she works for a house where there is a dining room in which checks do
+not have to be settled at the end of every meal she may do so without
+the slightest difficulty, but if she is compelled to take him to a place
+where the check must be given to the waiter or paid at the desk before
+they leave, she must look out for a different way of managing things.
+Business luncheons are usually paid for by the firm in whose interests
+they are brought about, and if the girl works for an organization where
+there are several men employed she may ask one of them to take her
+friend out to lunch. Then, even if she is not present, her social duty
+is done. The easiest way out of such a predicament, it is superfluous to
+say, is never to get into it.
+
+A girl who enters business presumably accepts the same conditions that
+men have to meet. She has no right to expect special favors because she
+is a woman. She does get a certain amount of consideration, as indeed
+she should, but she is very foolish and childish if she feels resentful
+when a busy man fails to hold open a door for her to pass through, when
+he rushes into his office ahead of her, or when he cuts short an
+interview when she has said only half of what she had on her mind.
+
+Much is said about the man who keeps his seat on a train while a woman
+stands. His defense rests upon two arguments, first, that his need is
+greater than hers (which is not true) and, second, that she does not
+appreciate it even when he does give it to her (which is not true
+either). Unfortunately, there are as many rude women in the world--and
+this statement is not made carelessly--as there are rude men, and in
+almost half the cases where a man rises to give a woman his place the
+woman sits down without even a glance toward her benefactor, as if the
+act, which is no small sacrifice on the part of a tired man, were not
+worth noticing. Every act of civility or thoughtfulness should be
+rewarded with at least a "Thank you" and a good hearty one at that.
+
+Old people, cripples, and invalids rarely fail to secure seats, however
+crowded a car may be. A man seldom offers his place to another man
+unless it is evident that the other, because of age, infirmity, or
+extreme fatigue is greatly in need of it. Well-bred girls resign their
+seats to old men, but if they refuse to accept, the girls do not insist.
+At a reunion of Confederate veterans several years ago a girl rose from
+her place on a street car to allow a feeble old man to sit down. He
+gripped the strap fiercely.
+
+"I ain't dead yet," he responded sturdily.
+
+One of the chief petty complaints brought against women is that they do
+not keep their places in line. Some of them appear to have neither
+conscience nor compunction about dashing up to a ticket window ahead of
+twenty or thirty people who are waiting for their turn. Men would do the
+same thing (so men themselves say) but they know very well that the
+other men in the line would make them regret it in short order. Two or
+three minutes is all one can save by such methods and it is not worth
+it. Even if it were more it would still not be worth it.
+
+When a woman breaks into a line it is quite permissible for the person
+behind her (whoever he or she may be) to say, "I beg your pardon, I was
+here first." This should be enough. Sometimes there is an almost
+desperate reason why one should get to a window. Many times everybody in
+the line has the same desperate reason for being in a hurry, but now and
+then in individual cases it is allowable for a woman (or a man) to ask
+for another person's place. _But only if there is a most urgent reason
+for it._ Much of courtesy is made up of petty sacrifices, and most of
+the great sacrifices are only a larger form of courtesy. It all comes
+back to Sir Philip Sidney's principle of "Thy need is greater than
+mine," but it is only extraordinary circumstances which warrant one's
+saying, "My need is greater than thine."
+
+Since the beginning of time, and before (if there was any before) women
+have done their share of the work of the world. Formerly their part of
+it centered in the home but now that machinery has taken it out of the
+home they have come out of the home too, to stand in the fields and
+factories of industry by the side of their fathers and husbands and
+brothers. Because they have recently been thrown into closer association
+in their hours of work than ever before there has sprung up a certain
+amount of strife between men and women, and a great deal is said about
+how superior men are to women and how superior women are to men. It is
+pure nonsense. If all the men in the world were put on one side of a
+scale and all the women on the other, the scale would probably stand
+perfectly still.
+
+The woman in business should never forget that she is a woman but she
+must remember that above all things she is a citizen, and that she
+herself has value and her work has value only as they contribute to her
+community and her community as it contributes to her country. Courtesy
+is one of her strongest allies, this quality which, alone, can do
+nothing, but, united to the solid virtues that make character, can move
+mountains.
+
+We have said a good deal as we came along about courtesy toward oneself
+and other people, but perhaps the most valuable of all courtesies in
+business is politeness toward one's job. It is desirable for every woman
+to be pretty, well-dressed, and well-groomed, but it is much more
+desirable for the woman in business to be able to do capable and
+efficient work. She may be ornamental but she must be useful, and while
+she is at the office her chief concern should be with her job and not
+with herself. The end of business is accomplishment, and courtesy is
+valuable because it is a means of making accomplishment easy and
+pleasant. It is this that gives us the grace to accept whatever comes,
+if not gladly, at least bravely.
+
+It is a poor workman who quarrels with his tools (or with his job), so
+the proverb says, and there are two lines of Mr. Kipling's that might be
+added. He was speaking of a king, but in a democracy we are all kings:
+
+    The wisest thing, we suppose, that a king can do for his land
+    Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under
+        his hand.
+
+And the lines are just as true when "girl" is substituted for "king" and
+the pronouns are changed accordingly.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney.
+    </title>
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+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Book of Business Etiquette
+
+Author: Nella Henney
+
+Release Date: October 13, 2007 [EBook #23025]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETIQUETTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Marcia Brooks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images from the Home Economics
+Archive: Research, Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann
+Library, Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1><i>The Book of</i><br />
+BUSINESS ETIQUETTE</h1>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;"><img src="images/p002.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt="p002" title="p002" /></div>
+<br />
+<center>COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY<br />
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY<br />
+<br />
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION<br />
+INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN<br />
+<br />
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES<br />
+AT<br />
+THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.<br />
+<br />
+<i>First Edition</i></center>
+
+<h3>
+RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED<br />
+(AS BEFITS AN AUTHOR)<br />
+<br />
+TO<br />
+THREE BUSINESS MEN<br />
+</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ACKNOWLEDGMENT" id="ACKNOWLEDGMENT"></a>ACKNOWLEDGMENT</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>It would be a pleasure to call over by name
+and thank individually the business men and
+the business organizations that so graciously
+furnished the material upon which this little
+book is based. But the author feels that some
+of them will not agree with all the statements
+made and the inferences drawn, and for this
+reason is unable to do better than give this
+meager return for a service which was by no
+means meager.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<center><a href="#ACKNOWLEDGMENT"><b>ACKNOWLEDGMENT</b></a></center>
+<br />
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Part I" width="70%">
+<tr><td align='right'>CHAPTER</td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td><h2>PART I</h2></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#I"><b>I</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The American Business Man</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#II"><b>II</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Value of Courtesy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#III"><b>III</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Putting Courtesy Into Business</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#IV"><b>IV</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Personality</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#V"><b>V</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Table Manners</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#VI"><b>VI</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Telephones and Front Doors</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#VII"><b>VII</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Traveling and Selling</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#VIII"><b>VIII</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Business of Writing</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#IX"><b>IX</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Morals and Manners</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td><h2>PART II</h2></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#X"><b>X</b></a></td><td align='left'>&ldquo;<span class="smcap">Big Business</span>&rdquo;</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#XI"><b>XI</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In a Department Store</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#XII"><b>XII</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A While With a Traveling Man</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#XIII"><b>XIII</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tables for Two Or More</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><a href="#XIV"><b>XIV</b></a></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ladies First?</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="trans-note">Transcriber's Note: Please note that the book does not credit an
+author. The Library of Congress lists Nella Henney as the author.</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<h2>PART I</h2>
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h1>THE BOOK OF<br />
+BUSINESS ETIQUETTE</h1>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h3>THE AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN</h3>
+
+<p>The business man is the national hero of
+America, as native to the soil and as typical of
+the country as baseball or Broadway or big advertising.
+He is an interesting figure, picturesque
+and not unlovable, not so dashing perhaps
+as a knight in armor or a soldier in uniform, but
+he is not without the noble (and ignoble) qualities
+which have characterized the tribe of man
+since the world began. America, in common
+with other countries, has had distinguished
+statesmen and soldiers, authors and artists&mdash;and
+they have not all gone to their graves unhonored
+and unsung&mdash;but the hero story which belongs
+to her and to no one else is the story of the
+business man.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly always it has had its beginning in humble
+surroundings, with a little boy born in a log<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+cabin in the woods, in a wretched shanty at the
+edge of a field, in a crowded tenement section or
+in the slums of a foreign city, who studied and
+worked by daylight and firelight while he made
+his living blacking boots or selling papers until
+he found the trail by which he could climb to
+what we are pleased to call success. Measured
+by the standards of Greece and Rome or the
+Middle Ages, when practically the only form of
+achievement worth mentioning was fighting to
+kill, his career has not been a romantic one. It
+has had to do not with dragons and banners and
+trumpets, but with stockyards and oil fields, with
+railroads, sewer systems, heat, light, and water
+plants, telephones, cotton, corn, ten-cent stores
+and&mdash;we might as well make a clean breast of it&mdash;chewing
+gum.</p>
+
+<p>We have no desire to crown the business man
+with a halo, though judging from their magazines
+and from the stories which they write of
+their own lives, they are almost without spot or
+blemish. Most of them seem not even to have
+had faults to overcome. They were born perfect.
+Now the truth is that the methods of accomplishment
+which the American business man
+has used have not always been above reproach
+and still are not. At the same time it would not
+be hard to prove that he&mdash;and here we are speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>ing
+of the average&mdash;with all his faults and failings
+(and they are many), with all his virtues
+(and he is not without them), is superior in character
+to the business men of other times in other
+countries. This without boasting. It would be
+a great pity if he were not.</p>
+
+<p>Without trying to settle the question as to
+whether he is good or bad (and he really can be
+pigeon-holed no better than any one else) we
+have to accept this: He is the biggest factor in
+the American commonwealth to-day. It follows
+then, naturally, that what he thinks and feels
+will color and probably dominate the ideas and
+the ideals of the rest of the country. Numbers
+of our magazines&mdash;and they are as good an index
+as we have to the feeling of the general public&mdash;are
+given over completely to the service or
+the entertainment of business men (the T. B.
+M.) and an astonishing amount of space is devoted
+to them in most of the others.</p>
+
+<p>It may be, and as a matter of fact constantly
+is, debated whether all this is good for the country
+or not. We shall not go into that. It has
+certainly been good for business, and in considering
+the men who have developed our industries
+we have to take them, and maybe it is just as
+well, as they are and not as we think they ought
+to be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a time when the farmer was the
+principal citizen. And the politician ingratiated
+himself with the people by declaring that
+he too had split rails and followed the plow,
+had harvested grain and had suffered from wet
+spells and dry spells, low prices, dull seasons,
+hunger and hardship. This is still a pretty sure
+way to win out, but there are others. If he can
+refer feelingly to the days when he worked and
+sweated in a coal mine, in a printing shop, a cotton,
+wool, or silk mill, steel or motor plant, he
+can hold his own with the ex-farmer's boy. We
+have become a nation of business men. Even
+the &ldquo;dirt&rdquo; farmer has become a business man&mdash;he
+has learned that he not only has to produce, he
+must find a market for his product.</p>
+
+<p>In comparing the business man of the present
+with the business man of the past we must remember
+that he is living in a more difficult world.
+Life was comparatively simple when men
+dressed in skins and ate roots and had their
+homes in scattered caves. They felt no need for
+a code of conduct because they felt no need for
+one another. They depended not on humanity
+but on nature, and perhaps human brotherhood
+would never have come to have a meaning if
+nature had not proved treacherous. She gave
+them berries and bananas, sunshine and soft<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+breezes, but she gave them trouble also in the
+shape of wild beasts, and savages, terrible
+droughts, winds, and floods. In order to fight
+against these enemies, strength was necessary,
+and when primitive men discovered that two
+were worth twice as much as one they began to
+join forces. This was the beginning of civilization
+and of politeness. It rose out of the oldest
+instinct in the world&mdash;self-preservation.</p>
+
+<p>When men first organized into groups the
+units were small, a mere handful of people under
+a chief, but gradually they became larger and
+larger until the nations of to-day have grown
+into a sort of world community composed of
+separate countries, each one supreme in its own
+domain, but at the same time bound to the others
+by economic ties stronger than sentimental or
+political ones could ever be. People are now
+more dependent on one another than they have
+ever been before, and the need for confidence is
+greater. We cannot depend upon one another
+unless we can trust one another.</p>
+
+<p>The American community is in many respects
+the most complex the world has ever seen, and
+the hardest to manage. In other countries the
+manners have been the natural result of the
+national development. The strong who had
+risen to the top in the struggle for existence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+formed themselves into a group. The weak who
+stayed at the bottom fell into another, and the
+bulk of the populace, which, then as now, came
+somewhere in between, fell into a third or was
+divided according to standards of its own. Custom
+solidified the groups into classes which became
+so strengthened by years of usage that even
+when formal distinctions were broken down the
+barriers were still too solid for a man who was
+born into a certain group to climb very easily
+into the one above him. Custom also dictated
+what was expected of the several classes. Each
+must be gracious to those below and deferential
+to those above. The king, because he was king,
+must be regal. The nobility must, <i>noblesse
+oblige</i>, be magnificent, and as for the rest of the
+people, it did not matter much so long as they
+worked hard and stayed quiet. There were upheavals,
+of course, and now and then a slave with
+a braver heart and a stouter spirit than his companions
+incited them to rebellion. His head was
+chopped off for his pains and he was promptly
+forgotten. The majority of the people for thousands
+of years honestly believed that this was the
+only orderly basis upon which society could be
+organized.</p>
+
+<p>Nebulous ideas of a brotherhood, in which each
+man was to have an equal chance with every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+other, burned brightly for a little while in various
+parts of the world at different times, and flickered
+out. They broke forth with the fury of an
+explosion in France during the Revolution and
+in Russia during the Red Terror. They have
+smoldered quietly in some places and had just
+begun to break through with a steady, even
+flame. But America struck the match and gathered
+the wood to start her own fire. She is the
+first country in the world which was founded especially
+to promote individual freedom and the
+brotherhood of mankind. She had, to change
+the figure slightly, a blue-print to start with and
+she has been building ever since.</p>
+
+<p>Her material came from the eastern hemisphere.
+The nations there at the time when the
+United States was settled were at different
+stages of their development. Some were vigorous
+with youth, some were in the height of their
+glory, and some were dying because the descendants
+of the men who had made them great were
+futile and incapable. These nations were different
+in race and religion, in thought, language,
+traditions, and temperament. When they were
+not quarreling with each other, they were busy
+with domestic squabbles. They had kept this
+up for centuries and were at it when the settlers
+landed at Jamestown and later when the <i>May<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>flower</i>
+came to Plymouth Rock. Yet, with a
+cheerful disregard of the past and an almost sublime
+hope in the future they expected to live happily
+ever after they crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
+Needless to add, they did not.</p>
+
+<p>Accident of place cannot change a man's
+color (though it may bleach it a shade lighter or
+tan it a shade darker), nor his religion nor any of
+the other racial and inherent qualities which are
+the result of slow centuries of development.
+And the same elements which made men fight in
+the old countries set them against each other in
+the new. Most of the antagonisms were and
+are the result of prejudices, foolish narrow prejudices,
+which, nevertheless, must be beaten
+down before we can expect genuine courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Further complications arose, and are still arising,
+from the fact that we did not all get here at
+the same time. Those who came first have inevitably
+and almost unconsciously formulated
+their own system of manners. Wherever there
+is community life and a certain amount of leisure
+there is a standard of cultivated behavior. And
+America, young as she is, has already accumulated
+traditions of her own.</p>
+
+<p>It is beyond doubt that the men who came
+over in the early days were, as a rule, better timber
+than the ones who come now. They came to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+live and die, if necessary, for a religious or a political
+principle, for adventure, or like the debtors
+in Oglethorpe's colony in Georgia, to wipe
+clean the slate of the past and begin life again.
+To-day they come to make money or because
+they think they will find life easier here than it
+was where they were. And one of the chief reasons
+for the discontent and unrest (and, incidentally,
+rudeness) which prevails among them
+is that they find it hard. We are speaking in
+general terms. There are glorious exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>The sturdy virtues of the pioneers did not include
+politeness. They never do. So long as
+there is an animal fear of existence man cannot
+think of minor elegances. He cannot live by
+bread alone, but he cannot live at all without it.
+Bread must come first. And the Pilgrim Father
+was too busy learning how to wring a living from
+the forbidding rocks of New England with one
+hand while he fought off the Indians with the
+other to give much time to tea parties and luncheons.
+Nowhere in America except in the South,
+where the leisurely life of the plantations gave
+opportunity for it, was any great attention paid
+to formal courtesy. But everywhere, as soon as
+the country had been tamed and prosperity began
+to peep over the horizon, the pioneers began
+to grow polite. They had time for it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>What we must remember&mdash;and this is a reason,
+not an excuse, for bad manners&mdash;is that these
+new people coming into the country, the present-day
+immigrants, are pioneers, and that the life
+is not an easy one whether it is lived among a
+wilderness of trees and beasts in a forest or a
+wilderness of men and buildings in a city. The
+average American brings a good many charges
+against the foreigner&mdash;some of them justified,
+for much of the &ldquo;back-wash&rdquo; of Europe and
+Asia has drifted into our harbor&mdash;but he must
+remember this: Whatever his opinion of the
+immigrant may be the fault is ours&mdash;he came
+into this country under the sanction of our laws.
+And he is entitled to fair and courteous treatment
+from every citizen who lives under the folds
+of the American flag.</p>
+
+<p>The heterogeneous mixture which makes up
+our population is a serious obstacle (but not an
+insuperable one) in the way of courtesy, but
+there is another even greater. The first is
+America's problem. The second belongs to the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Material progress has raced so far ahead of
+mental and spiritual progress that the world itself
+is a good many years in advance of the people
+who are living in it. Our statesmen ride to
+Washington in automobiles and sleeping cars,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+but they are not vastly preferable to those who
+went there in stagecoaches and on horseback.
+In other words, there has been considerably more
+improvement in the vehicles which fill our highways
+than there has been in the people who ride
+in them.</p>
+
+<p>The average man&mdash;who is, when all is said and
+done, the most important person in the state&mdash;has
+stood still while the currents of science and
+invention have swept past him. He has watched
+the work of the world pass into the keeping of
+machines, shining miracles of steel and electricity,
+and has forgot himself in worshipping them.
+Now he is beginning to realize that it is much
+easier to make a perfect machine than it is to
+find a perfect man to put behind it, and that man
+himself, even at his worst (and that is pretty
+bad) is worth more than anything else in the
+scheme of created things.</p>
+
+<p>This tremendous change in environment resulting
+from the overwhelming domination of
+machinery has brought about a corresponding
+change in manners. For manners consist, in the
+main, of adapting oneself to one's surroundings.
+And the story of courtesy is the story of evolution.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to run some of our conventions
+back to their origin. Nearly every one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+them grew out of a practical desire for lessening
+friction or making life pleasanter. The first
+gesture of courtesy was, no doubt, some form of
+greeting by which one man could know another
+as a friend and not an enemy. They carried
+weapons then as habitually as they carry watches
+to-day and used them as frequently, so that when
+a man approached his neighbor to talk about the
+prospects of the sugar or berry crop he held out
+his right hand, which was the weapon hand, as a
+sign of peace. This eventually became the handshake.
+Raising one's hat is a relic of the days
+of chivalry when knights wore helmets which
+they removed when they came into the house,
+both because they were more comfortable without
+them and because it showed their respect for
+the ladies, whom it was their duty to serve. And
+nearly every other ceremony which has lasted
+was based on common sense. &ldquo;Etiquette,&rdquo; as
+Dr. Brown has said, &ldquo;with all its littlenesses and
+niceties, is founded upon a central idea of right
+and wrong.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The word &ldquo;courtesy&rdquo; itself did not come into
+the language until late (etiquette came even
+later) and then it was used to describe the polite
+practices at court. It was wholly divorced from
+any idea of character, and the most fastidious
+gentlemen were sometimes the most complete<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+scoundrels. Even the authors of books of etiquette
+were men of great superficial elegance
+whose moral standards were scandalously low.
+One of them, an Italian, was banished from court
+for having published an indecent poem and
+wrote his treatise on polite behavior while he
+was living in enforced retirement in his villa outside
+the city. It was translated for the edification
+of the young men of England and France
+and served as a standard for several generations.
+Another, an Englishman, spent the later years of
+his life writing letters to his illegitimate son, telling
+him exactly how to conduct himself in the
+courtly (and more or less corrupt) circles to
+which his noble rank entitled him. The letters
+were bound into a fat, dreary volume which still
+sits on the dust-covered shelves of many a library,
+and the name of the author has become a synonym
+for exquisite manners. Influential as he
+was in his own time, however, neither he nor any
+of the others of the early arbiters of elegance
+could set himself up as a dictator of what is polite
+to American men, of no matter what class, and
+get by with it. Not very far by, at any rate.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible now to separate courtesy and
+character. Politeness is a fundamental, not a
+superficial, thing. It is the golden rule translated
+into terms of conduct. It is not a white-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>wash
+which, if laid on thick enough, will cover
+every defect. It is a clear varnish which shows
+the texture and grain of the wood beneath. In
+the ideal democracy the ideal citizen is the man
+who is not only incapable of doing an ungallant
+or an ungracious thing, but is equally incapable
+of doing an unmanly one. There is no use lamenting
+the spacious days of long ago. Wishing
+for them will not bring them back. Our
+problem is to put the principles of courtesy into
+practice even in this hurried and hectic Twentieth
+Century of ours. And since the business man is
+in numbers, and perhaps in power also, the most
+consequential person in the country, it is of most
+importance that he should have a high standard
+of behavior, a high standard of civility, which
+includes not only courtesy but everything which
+has to do with good citizenship.</p>
+
+<p>We have no desire for candy-box courtesy. It
+should be made of sterner stuff. Nor do we care
+for the sort which made the polite Frenchman
+say, &ldquo;Excusez-moi&rdquo; when he stabbed his adversary.
+We can scarcely hope just yet to attain
+to the magnificent calm which enabled Marie
+Antoinette to say, &ldquo;I'm sorry. I did not do it
+on purpose,&rdquo; when she stepped on the foot of her
+executioner as they stood together on the scaffold,
+or Lord Chesterfield, gentleman to the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+end, to say, &ldquo;Give Dayrolles a chair&rdquo; when his
+physician came into the room in which he lay dying.
+But we do want something that will enable
+us to live together in the world with a minimum
+degree of friction.</p>
+
+<p>The best of us get on one another's nerves,
+even under ordinary conditions, and it takes infinite
+pains and self-control to get through a trying
+day in a busy office without striking sparks
+somewhere. If there is a secret of success, and
+some of the advertisements seem trying to persuade
+us that it is all secret, it is the ability to
+work efficiently and pleasantly with other people.
+The business man never works alone. He
+is caught in the clutches of civilization and there
+is no escape. He is like a man climbing a mountain
+tied to a lot of other men climbing the same
+mountain. What each one does affects all the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>We do not want our people to devote themselves
+entirely to the art of being agreeable. If
+we could conceive of a world where everybody
+was perfectly polite and smiling all the time we
+should hardly like to live in it. It is human nature
+not to like perfection, and most of us, if
+brought face to face with that model of behavior,
+Mr. Turveydrop, who spent his life serving as a
+pattern of deportment, would sympathize with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+the delightful old lady who looked at him in the
+full flower of his glory and cried viciously (but
+under her breath) &ldquo;I could bite you!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When Pope Benedict XI sent a messenger to
+Giotto for a sample of his work the great artist
+drew a perfect circle with one sweep of his arm
+and gave it to the boy. Before his death Giotto
+executed many marvelous works of art, not one
+of them perfect, not even the magnificent bell
+tower at Florence, but all of them infinitely
+greater than the circle. It is better, whether
+one is working with bricks or souls, to build
+nobly than to build perfectly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VALUE OF COURTESY</h3>
+
+<p>Every progressive business man will agree
+with the successful Western manufacturer who
+says that &ldquo;courtesy can pay larger dividends in
+proportion to the effort expended than any other
+of the many human characteristics which might
+be classed as Instruments of Accomplishment.&rdquo;
+But this was not always true. In the beginning
+&ldquo;big business&rdquo; assumed an arrogant, high-handed
+attitude toward the public and rode
+rough-shod over its feelings and rights whenever
+possible. This was especially the case among
+the big monopolies and public service corporations,
+and much of the antagonism against the
+railroads to-day is the result of the methods they
+used when they first began to lay tracks and
+carry passengers. Nor was this sort of thing
+limited to the large concerns. Small business
+consisted many times of trickery executed according
+to David Harum's motto of &ldquo;Do unto
+the other feller as he would like to do unto
+you, but do him fust.&rdquo; The public is a long-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>suffering
+body and the business man is a hard-headed
+one, but after a while the public began to
+realize that it was not necessary to put up with
+gross rudeness and the business man began to realize
+that a policy of pleasantness was much better
+than the &ldquo;treat 'em rough&rdquo; idea upon which
+he had been acting. He deserves no special credit
+for it. It was as simple and as obvious a thing
+as putting up an umbrella when it is raining.</p>
+
+<p>People knew, long before this enlightened era
+of ours, that politeness had value. In one of the
+oldest books of good manners in the English
+language a man with &ldquo;an eye to the main chance&rdquo;
+advised his pupils to cultivate honesty, gentleness,
+propriety, and deportment because they
+paid. But it has not been until recently that
+business men as a whole have realized that courtesy
+is a practical asset to them. Business cannot
+be separated from money and there is no use
+to try. Men work that they may live. And the
+reason they have begun to develop and exploit
+courtesy is that they have discovered that it
+makes for better work and better living. Success,
+they have learned, in spite of the conspicuous
+wealth of several magnates who got their
+money by questionable means, depends upon
+good will and good will depends upon the square
+deal courteously given.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The time is within the memory of living men, and
+very young men at that, when the idea of putting
+courtesy into business dealings sprang up, but it
+has taken hold remarkably. When the Hudson
+Tubes were opened not quite a decade and a half
+ago Mr. McAdoo inaugurated what was at that
+time an almost revolutionary policy. He took
+the motto, &ldquo;The Public be Pleased,&rdquo; instead of
+the one made famous by Mr. Vanderbilt, and
+posted it all about, had pamphlets distributed,
+and made a speech on courtesy in railroad management
+and elsewhere. Since that time, not
+altogether because of the precedent which had
+been established, but because people were beginning
+to realize that with this new element creeping
+into business the old r&eacute;gime had to die because
+it could not compete with it, there have
+been all sorts of courtesy campaigns among railroad
+and bus companies, and even among post
+office and banking employees, to mention only
+two of the groups notorious for haughty and
+arrogant behavior. The effects of a big telephone
+company have been so strenuous and so
+well planned and executed that they are reserved
+for discussion in another chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. McAdoo tells a number of charming
+stories which grew out of the Hudson Tubes experiment.
+One day during a political convention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+when he was standing in the lobby of a hotel in
+a certain city a jeweler came over to him after
+a slight moment of hesitation, gave him one of
+his cards and said, &ldquo;Mr. McAdoo, I owe you a
+great debt of gratitude. For that,&rdquo; he added,
+pointing to &ldquo;The Public be Pleased&rdquo; engraved
+in small letters on the card just above his name.
+&ldquo;I was in New York the day the tunnel was
+opened,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;and I heard your speech,
+and said to myself that it might be a pretty good
+idea to try that in the jewelry trade. And would
+you believe it, my profits during the first year
+were more than fifty per cent bigger than they
+were the year before?&rdquo; And we venture to add
+that the jeweler was more than twice as happy
+and that it was not altogether because there was
+more money in his coffers.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. McAdoo is a man with whom courtesy is
+not merely a policy: it is a habit as well. He
+places it next to integrity of character as a qualification
+for a business man, and he carries it into
+every part of his personal activity, as the statesmen
+and elevator boys, waiters and financiers,
+politicians and stenographers with whom he has
+come into contact can testify. &ldquo;I never have a
+secretary,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;who is not courteous, no
+matter what his other qualifications may be.&rdquo;
+During the past few years Mr. McAdoo has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+placed in a position to be sought after by all
+kinds of people, and in nearly every instance he
+has given an interview to whoever has asked for
+it. &ldquo;I have always felt,&rdquo; we quote him again,
+&ldquo;that a public servant should be as accessible to
+the public as possible.&rdquo; Courtesy with him, as
+with any one else who makes it a habit, has a
+cumulative effect. The effect cannot always be
+traced as in the case of the jeweler or in the story
+given below in which money plays a very negligible
+part, but it is always there.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion&mdash;this was when he was president
+of the Hudson Railroad&mdash;Mr. McAdoo
+was on his way up to the Adirondacks when the
+train broke down. It was ill provided for such
+a catastrophe, there was no dining car, only a
+small buffet, and the wait was a long and trying
+one. When Mr. McAdoo after several hours
+went back to the buffet to see if he could get a
+cup of coffee and some rolls he found the conductor
+almost swamped by irate passengers who
+blamed him, in the way that passengers will, for
+something that was no more his fault than theirs.
+The conductor glanced up when Mr. McAdoo
+came in, expecting him to break into an explosion
+of indignation, but Mr. McAdoo said,
+&ldquo;Well, you have troubles enough already without
+my adding to them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conductor stepped out of the group.
+&ldquo;What did you want, sir?&rdquo; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why, nothing, now,&rdquo; Mr. McAdoo responded.
+&ldquo;I did want a cup of coffee, but never
+mind about it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Come into the smoker here,&rdquo; the conductor
+said. &ldquo;Wait a minute.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conductor disappeared and came back in
+a few minutes with coffee, bread, and butter.
+Mr. McAdoo thanked him warmly, gave him his
+card and told him that if he ever thought he
+could do anything for him to let him know. The
+conductor looked at the card.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Are you the president of the Hudson Railroad?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, maybe there's something you can do
+for me now. There are two men out here who
+say they are going to report me for what happened
+this morning. You know how things have
+been, and if they do, I wish you would write to
+headquarters and explain. I'm in line for promotion
+and you know what a black mark means
+in a case like that.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. McAdoo assured him that he would write
+if it became necessary. The men were bluffing,
+however, and the complaint was never sent in.
+Apparently the incident was closed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Several years later Mr. McAdoo's son was
+coming down from the Adirondacks when he lost
+his Pullman ticket. He did not discover the
+fact until he got to the station, and then he had
+no money and no time to get any by wire before
+the train left. He went to the conductor, explained
+his dilemma, and told him that if he
+would allow him to ride down to the city his
+father, who was to meet him at the Grand Central
+station, would pay him for the ticket. The
+conductor liked the youngster&mdash;perhaps because
+there was something about him that reminded
+him of his father, for as chance would
+have it, the conductor was the same one who
+had brought Mr. McAdoo the coffee and
+bread in the smoking car so many months
+before.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Who is your father?&rdquo; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. McAdoo.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;President of the Hudson Railroad?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Boy, you can have the train!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>So far as monetary value of courtesy is concerned
+we might recount hundreds of instances
+where a single act of politeness brought in thousands
+of dollars. Only the other morning the
+papers carried the story of a man who thirty
+years ago went into a tailor's shop with a ragged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+tear in his trousers and begged the tailor to mend
+it and to trust him for the payment which
+amounted to fifty cents. The tailor agreed
+cheerfully enough and the man went his way,
+entered business and made a fortune. He died
+recently and left the tailor fifty thousand dollars.
+Not long before that there was a story of
+an old woman who came to New York to visit
+her nephew&mdash;it was to be a surprise&mdash;and lost
+her bearings so completely when she got into the
+station that she was about ready to turn around
+and go back home when a very polite young man
+noticed her bewilderment. He offered his services,
+called a taxi and deposited her in front of
+her nephew's door in half an hour. She took his
+name and address and a few days later he received
+a check large enough to enable him to
+enter the Columbia Law School. A banker is
+fond of telling the story of an old fellow who
+came into his bank one day in a suit of black so
+old that it had taken on a sickly greenish tinge.
+He fell into the hands of a polite clerk who answered
+all his questions&mdash;and there were a great
+many of them&mdash;clearly, patiently, and courteously.
+The old man went away but came back
+in a day or so with $300,000 which he placed on
+deposit. &ldquo;I did have some doubts,&rdquo; he said,
+&ldquo;but this young man settled them all.&rdquo; Word<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+of it went to people in authority and the clerk
+was promoted.</p>
+
+<p>Now it is pleasant to know that these good
+people were rewarded as they deserved to be.
+We would be very happy if we could promise a
+like reward to every one who is similarly kind,
+but it is no use. The little words of love and the
+little deeds of kindness go often without recompense
+so far as we can see, except that they happify
+the world, but that in itself is no small
+return.</p>
+
+<p>Courtesy pays in dollars and cents but its
+value goes far beyond that. It is the chief element
+in building good will&mdash;we are speaking
+now of courtesy as an outgrowth of character&mdash;and
+good will is to a firm what honor is to a man.
+He can lose everything else but so long as he
+keeps his honor he has something to build with.
+In the same way a business can lose all its material
+assets and can replace them with insurance
+money or something else, but if it loses its good
+will it will find in ninety cases out of a hundred
+that it is gone forever and that the business itself
+has become so weakened that there is nothing
+left but to reorganize it completely and blot out
+the old institution altogether.</p>
+
+<p>One must not make the mistake of believing
+that good will can be built on courtesy alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+Courtesy must be backed up by something more
+solid. An excellent comparison to show the relation
+that good manners bear to uprightness
+and integrity of character was drawn a number
+of years ago by a famous Italian prelate. We
+shall paraphrase the quaint English of the original
+translator. &ldquo;Just as men do commonly
+fear beasts that are cruel and wild,&rdquo; he says,
+&ldquo;and have no manner of fear of little ones such
+as gnats and flies, and yet because of the continual
+nuisance which they find them, complain
+more of these than they do of the other: so most
+men hate the unmannerly and untaught as much
+as they do the wicked, and more. There is no
+doubt that he who wishes to live, not in solitary
+and desert places, like a hermit, but in fellowship
+with men, and in populous cities, will find it a
+very necessary thing, to have skill to put himself
+forth comely and seemly in his fashions, gestures,
+and manners: the lack of which do make
+other virtues lame.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Granting dependability of character, courtesy
+is the next finest business builder an organization
+can have. One of the largest trust companies
+in the world was built up on this hypothesis. A
+good many years ago the man who is responsible
+for its growth was cashier in a &ldquo;busted&rdquo; bank in
+a small city. The situation was a desperate one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+for the bank could not do anything more for its
+customers than it was already doing. It could
+not give them more interest on their money and
+most of its other functions were mechanical. The
+young cashier began to wonder why people went
+to one bank in preference to another and in his
+own mind drew a comparison between the banking
+and the clothing business. He always went
+to the haberdasher who treated him best. Other
+men he knew did the same thing. Would not
+the same principle work in a bank? Would not
+people come to the place which gave them the
+best service? He decided to try it. Not only
+would they give efficient service, they would give
+it pleasantly. It was their last card but it was
+a trump. It won. The bank began to prosper.
+People who were annoyed by rude, brusque, or
+indifferent treatment in other banks came to this
+one. The cashier was raised to a position of importance
+and in an incredibly short time was
+made president of a trust company in New York.
+He carried with him exactly the same principle
+that had worked so well in the little bank
+and the result in the big one was exactly the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>In a leaflet which is in circulation among the
+employees at this institution there are these paragraphs:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>We ask you to remember:</p>
+
+<p>That our customers <i>can</i> get along without us.</p>
+
+<p>(There are in Greater New York nearly one hundred
+banks and trust companies, every one of them actively
+seeking business.)</p>
+
+<p>We <i>cannot</i> get along without our customers.</p>
+
+<p>A connection which, perhaps, it has taken us several
+months to establish, can be terminated by one careless or
+discourteous act.</p>
+
+<p>Our customers are asked to maintain balances of certain
+proportions. If they wish to borrow money, they
+must deposit collateral. They must repay loans when they
+mature; or arrange for their extension.</p>
+
+<p>If a bank errs, it must err on the side of safety, for
+the money it loans is not its own money but the money of
+its depositors. We (and every other bank and trust company)
+operate almost entirely on money which our customers
+have deposited with us. The least we can do, then,
+is to serve them courteously. They really are our employers.</p>
+
+<p>Ours is a semi-public institution.</p>
+
+<p>Every day, men try to interest us in matters with
+which we have no concern. It is our duty to tell these
+men, very courteously, why their proposals do not appeal
+to us. But they are entitled to a hearing. It may be
+that they are not in a position to benefit us, and never will
+be. But almost every man can harm us, if he tries to do
+so. And a pleasantly expressed declination invariably
+makes a better impression than a favor grudgingly granted.
+We ask you, then, to remember that our growth&mdash;and your
+opportunities&mdash;depend not only upon the friends we make,
+but <i>the enemies we do not make</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+Remember names and faces. Do something, say something
+that will bring home to those who do business with
+us the fact that the Blank Trust Company is a very human
+institution&mdash;that it wants the good will of every man and
+woman in the country.</p></div>
+
+<p>That is the kind of courtesy which has builded
+this particular organization. It is a pleasure to
+visit it to-day because of the spirit of co&ouml;peration
+which animates it. They have done away
+with the elaborate spy systems in use in so many
+banks, although they keep the management well
+enough in hand to be able to fasten the blame for
+mistakes upon the right person. The employees
+work with one another and with the president,
+whom they adore. It is, as a matter of fact,
+largely the influence of the personality of the
+president filtering down through the ranks which
+has made possible the phenomenal success which
+the institution has enjoyed during the past few
+years, another proof of the fact that every institution&mdash;and
+Emerson was speaking of great institutions
+when he said it&mdash;&ldquo;is the lengthened
+shadow of one man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Banks have almost a peculiar problem. Money
+is a mighty power, and to the average person
+there is something very awesome about the place
+where it is kept. Mr. Stephen Leacock is not
+the only man who ever went into a bank with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+funny little guilty feeling even when he had
+money in it. When one is in this frame of mind
+it takes very little on the part of the clerk to
+make him believe that he has been treated rudely.
+Bank clerks are notoriously haughty, but the
+fault is often as much in the person on the outside
+as in the one on the inside of the bars, especially
+when he has come in to draw out money
+which he knows he should not, such as his savings
+bank account, for instance. The other day a
+young man went into a savings bank to draw
+out all of his money for a purpose which he knew
+was extravagant although he had persuaded
+himself that it was not. Throughout the whole
+time he was in the bank he was treated with perfect
+courtesy, but in spite of it he came out growling
+about &ldquo;the dirty look the paying teller gave
+him!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is not only in the first contact that civility
+is important. Eternal vigilance is the price of
+success as well as of liberty. Another incident
+from the banking business illustrates this. Several
+years ago a bank which had been steadily
+losing customers called in a publicity expert to
+build up trade for them. The man organized a
+splendid campaign and things started off with a
+flourish. People began to come in most gratifying
+numbers. But they did not stay. An<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+investigation conducted by the publicity man
+disclosed the fact that they had been driven away
+by negligent and discourteous service. He went
+to the president of the bank and told him that he
+was wasting money building up advertising so
+long as his bank maintained its present attitude
+toward the public. The president was a man
+of practical sense. There was a general clearing
+up, those who were past reform were discharged
+and those who stayed were given careful training
+in what good breeding meant and there was no
+more trouble. Advertising will bring in a customer
+but it takes courtesy to keep him.</p>
+
+<p>Business, like nearly everything else, is easier
+to tear down than to build up, and one of the
+most devastating instruments of destruction is
+discourtesy. A contact which has taken years
+to build can be broken off by one snippy letter,
+one pert answer, or one discourteous response
+over the telephone. Even collection letters, no
+matter how long overdue the accounts are, bring
+in more returns when they are written with tact
+and diplomacy than when these two qualities are
+omitted. If you insult a man who owes you
+money he feels that the only way he can get
+even is not to pay you, and in most cases, he can
+justify himself for not doing it.</p>
+
+<p>Within the organization itself a courteous at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>titude
+on the part of the men in positions of
+authority toward those beneath them is of immense
+importance. Sap rises from the bottom,
+and a business has arrived at the point of stagnation
+when the men at the top refuse to listen to or
+help those around them. It is, as a rule, however,
+not the veteran in commercial affairs but
+the fledgling who causes most trouble by his bad
+manners. Young men, especially young men
+who have been fortunate in securing material advantages,
+too many times look upon the world
+as an accident placed here for their personal enjoyment.
+It never takes long in business to relieve
+their minds of this delusion, but they sometimes
+accomplish a tremendous amount of damage
+before it happens. For a pert, know-it-all
+manner coupled with the inefficiency which is almost
+inseparable from a total lack of experience
+is not likely to make personal contacts pleasant.
+Every young man worth his salt believes that he
+can reform the world, but every old man who has
+lived in it knows that it cannot be done. Somewhere
+half way between they meet and say,
+&ldquo;We'll keep working at it just the same,&rdquo; and
+then business begins to pick up. But reaching
+the meeting ground takes tolerance and patience
+and infinite politeness from both sides.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is the grossest sort of incivility,&rdquo; the quo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>tation
+is not exact, for we do not remember the
+source, &ldquo;to be contemptuous of any kind of
+knowledge.&rdquo; And herein lies the difficulty between
+the hard-headed business man of twenty
+years' experience and the youngster upon whose
+diploma the ink has not yet dried. &ldquo;Ignorance,&rdquo;
+declares a man who has spent his life in
+trying to draw capital and labor together and
+has succeeded in hundreds of factories, &ldquo;is the
+cause of all trouble.&rdquo; And a lack of understanding,
+which is a form of ignorance, is the
+cause of nearly all discourtesy.</p>
+
+<p>So long as there is discourtesy in the world
+there must be protection against it, and the best,
+cheapest, and easiest means of protection is courtesy
+itself. Boats which are in constant danger
+of being run into, such as the tug and ferry boats
+in a busy harbor, are fitted out with buffers or
+fenders which are as much a part of their equipment
+as the smokestack, and in many cases, as
+necessary. Ocean liners carry fenders to be
+thrown over the side when there is need for them,
+but this naturally is not as often as in more
+crowded waters. A single boat on a deserted
+sea with nothing but sea-gulls and flying fish in
+sight cannot damage any one besides herself. But
+the moment she enters a harbor she has to take
+into account every other vessel in it from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+<i>Aquitania</i> to the flat-bottomed row-boat with
+only one man in it. It is a remarkable fact that
+most of the boats that are injured or sunk by
+collision are damaged by vessels much smaller
+than themselves. Most of these accidents (this
+statement is given on the authority of an able
+seaman) could have been prevented by the use of
+a fender thrown over the side at the proper moment.
+Politeness is like this. It is the finest
+shock absorber in the world, as essential from an
+economic point of view as it is pleasant from a
+social one. In business there is no royal isolation.
+We are all ferry boats. We need our
+shock absorbers every minute of the day.</p>
+
+<p>No boat has a right to run into another, but
+they do it just the same, and a shock absorber is
+worth all the curses the captain and the crew can
+pronounce, however righteous their indignation
+toward the offending vessel. Sometimes politeness
+is better than justice.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the causes of irritation during the
+course of a business day are too petty to bother
+about. Many of them could be ignored and a
+good many more could be laughed at. A sense
+of humor and a sense of proportion would do
+away with ninety per cent of all the wrangling
+in the world. Some one has said, and not without
+truth, that a highly developed sense of humor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+would have prevented the World War. Too
+many people use sledge-hammers when tack
+hammers would do just as well. They belong in
+the same company with William Jay whose immortal
+epitaph bears these words:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Here lies the body of William Jay<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who died maintaining his right of way.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He was right, dead right, as he sped along,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Courtesy is restful. A nervous frenzy of
+energy throughout the day leaves one at sunset
+as exhausted as a punctured balloon. The fussy
+little fellow who fancies himself rushed to death,
+who has no time to talk with anybody, who cannot
+be polite to his stenographer and his messenger
+boys because he is in such a terrible hurry, is
+dissipating his energy into something that does
+not matter and using up the vitality which should
+go into his work. He is very like the engine
+which President Lincoln was so fond of telling
+about which used so much steam in blowing its
+whistle that every time it did it it had to stop.</p>
+
+<p>The Orientals manage things better than we
+do. &ldquo;We tried hurrying two thousand years
+ago,&rdquo; a banker in Constantinople said to a tired
+American business man, &ldquo;and found that it did
+not pay. So we gave it up.&rdquo; There is always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+time to be polite, and though it sounds like a
+contradiction, there will be more time to spare if
+one devotes a part of his day to courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>But there is danger in too much courtesy.
+Every virtue becomes a vice if it is carried too
+far, and frank rudeness is better than servility
+or hypocrisy. Commercial greed, there is no
+other name for it, leads a firm to adopt some such
+idiotic motto as &ldquo;the customer is always right.&rdquo;
+No organization could ever live up to such a
+policy, and the principle back of it is undemocratic,
+un-American, unsound and untrue. The
+customer is not always right and the employer in
+a big (or little) concern who places girls (department
+stores are the chief sinners in this) on
+the front line of approach with any such instructions
+is a menace to self-respecting business.
+America does not want a serving class with a
+&ldquo;king-can-do-no-wrong&rdquo; attitude toward the
+public. Business is service, not servility, and
+courtesy works both ways. There is no more
+sense in business proclaiming that the customer
+is always right than there would be in a customer
+declaring that business is always right, and no
+more truth.</p>
+
+<p>No good business man will argue with a customer,
+or anybody else, not only because it is bad
+policy to do so, but because his self-respect will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+not allow it. He will give and require from his
+employees courteous treatment toward his customers,
+and when doubt arises he will give them
+(the customers) the benefit of it. And he will
+always remember that he is dealing with an intelligent
+human being. The customer has a
+right to expect a firm to supply him with reliable
+commodities and to do it pleasantly, but he has
+no right to expect it to prostrate itself at his feet
+in order to retain his trade, however large that
+trade may be.</p>
+
+<p>Too little has been said about courtesy on the
+part of the customer and the public&mdash;that great
+headless mass of unrelated particles. Business
+is service, we say, and the master is the public,
+the hardest one in the world to serve. Each one
+of us speaks with more or less pitying contempt
+of the public, forgetting that we ourselves are
+the public and that the sum total of the good
+breeding, intelligence, and character of the public
+can be no greater than that of the individuals
+who make it up.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sid,&rdquo; of the <i>American Magazine</i>, says that
+he once asked the manager of a circus which
+group of his employees he had most trouble
+keeping. Quite unexpectedly the man replied,
+&ldquo;The attendants. They get &lsquo;sucker-sore&rsquo; and
+after that they are no good.&rdquo; This is how it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+happens. The wild man from Borneo is placed
+in a cage with a placard attached bearing in big
+letters the legend &ldquo;The Wild Man from Borneo.&rdquo;
+An old farmer comes to the circus, looks
+at the wild man from Borneo in his cage, reads
+the placard, looks at the attendant, &ldquo;Is this the
+wild man from Borneo?&rdquo; he asks. No human
+being can stand an unlimited amount of this sort
+of thing, and the attendant, after he has explained
+some hundred thousand or so times that
+this really is the wild man from Borneo begins to
+lose his zest for it and to answer snappishly and
+sarcastically. An infinite supply of courtesy
+would, of course, be a priceless asset to him, but
+does not this work both ways? What right have
+people to bother other people with perfectly foolish
+and imbecile questions? Is there any one
+who cannot sympathize with a &ldquo;sucker-sore&rdquo;
+attendant? And with the people who are stationed
+about for the purpose of answering questions
+almost anywhere? There are not many of
+us who at one time and another have not had the
+feeling that we were on the wrong train even
+after we had asked the man who sold us the
+ticket, the man who punched it at the gate, the
+guard who was standing near the entrance, and
+the guard who was standing near the train, the
+porter, the conductor, and the news-butcher if it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+was the right one and have had an affirmative answer
+from every one of them. How many times
+can a man be expected to answer such a question
+with a smile? For those who are exposed to
+&ldquo;suckers&rdquo; the best advice is to be as gentle with
+them as possible, to grit your teeth and hold your
+temper even when the ninety-thousandth man
+comes through to ask if this is the right train.
+For the &ldquo;suckers&rdquo; themselves there are only two
+words of advice. They include all the rest: Stop
+it.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to tell what the value of courtesy
+is. Perhaps some day the people who have
+learned to measure our minds will be able to tell
+us just what a smile is worth. Maybe they can
+tell us also what Spring is worth, and what happiness
+is worth. Meanwhile we do not know.
+We only know that they are infinitely precious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3>PUTTING COURTESY INTO BUSINESS</h3>
+
+<p>We talk a great deal about gentlemen and
+about democracy and a good many other words
+which describe noble conceptions without a very
+clear idea of what they mean. The biggest mistake
+we make is in thinking of them as something
+stationary like a monument carved in granite or
+a stone set upon a hill, when the truth is that they
+are living ideas subject to the change and growth
+of all living things. No man has ever yet become
+a perfect gentleman because as his mind
+has developed his conception of what a gentleman
+is has enlarged, just as no country has ever
+become a perfect democracy because each new
+idea of freedom has led to broader ideas of freedom.
+It is very much like walking through a
+tunnel. At first there is only darkness, and then
+a tiny pin point of light ahead which grows wider
+and wider as one advances toward it until, finally,
+he stands out in the open with the world be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>fore
+him. There is no end to life, and none to
+human development, at least none that can be
+conceived of by the finite mind of man.</p>
+
+<p>There are hundreds of definitions of a gentleman,
+none of them altogether satisfactory. Cardinal
+Newman says it is almost enough to say
+that he is one who never gives pain. &ldquo;They be
+the men,&rdquo; runs an old chronicle, &ldquo;whom their
+race and bloud, or at the least, their virtues, do
+make noble and knowne.&rdquo; Barrow declares that
+they are the men lifted above the vulgar crowd
+by two qualities: courage and courtesy. The
+Century Dictionary, which is as good an authority
+as any, says, &ldquo;A gentleman is a man of
+good breeding, courtesy, and kindness; hence, a
+man distinguished for fine sense of honor, strict
+regard for his obligations, and consideration for
+the rights and feelings of others.&rdquo; And this is
+a good enough working standard for anybody.
+The Dictionary is careful to make&mdash;and this is
+important&mdash;a gentleman not one who conforms
+to an outward and conventional standard, but
+one who follows an inward and personal ideal.</p>
+
+<p>Of late days there has been a great deal of
+attention paid to making gentlemen of business
+men and putting courtesy into all the ramifications
+of business. Without doubt the chief reason
+for it is the fact that business men themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+have discovered that it pays. One restaurant
+frankly adopted the motto, &ldquo;Courtesy Pays,&rdquo;
+and had it all fixed up with gilt letters and
+framed and hung it near the front door, and a
+number of other places have exactly the same
+policy for exactly the same reason though they
+do not all proclaim the fact so boldly. It is not
+the loftiest motive in the world but it is an intelligent
+one, and it is better for a man to be polite
+because he hopes to win success that way than
+for him not to be polite at all.</p>
+
+<p>Human conduct, even at its best, is not always
+inspired by the highest possible motives. Not
+even the religions which men have followed have
+been able to accomplish this. Most of them have
+held out the hope of heavenly reward in payment
+for goodness here on earth and countless millions
+of men (and women, too, for that matter)
+have kept in the straight and narrow path because
+they were afraid to step out of it. It may
+be that they were, intrinsically, no better men
+than the ones who trod the primrose path to
+the everlasting bonfire, but they were much
+easier to live with. And the man who is courteous,
+who is a gentleman, whatever his motives,
+is a more agreeable citizen than the one who is
+not.</p>
+
+<p>Now how&mdash;this is our problem&mdash;does one go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+about making a gentleman? Environment plays,
+comparatively speaking, a very small part. &ldquo;The
+appellation of gentleman,&rdquo; this is from a gentleman
+of the Seventeenth Century, &ldquo;is not to be
+affixed to a man's circumstances, but to his behavior
+in them.&rdquo; It is extremely doubtful if
+courtesy can be taught by rule. It is more a
+matter of atmosphere, and an instinct &ldquo;for the
+better side of things and the cleaner surfaces of
+life.&rdquo; And yet, heredity, training, and environment
+all enter into the process.</p>
+
+<p>It is a polite and pleasant fiction that courtesy
+is innate and not acquired, and we hear a
+great deal about the &ldquo;born lady&rdquo; and the &ldquo;born
+gentleman.&rdquo; They are both myths. Babies
+are not polite, and the &ldquo;king upon 'is throne with
+'is crown upon 'is 'ead&rdquo; has had, if he is a gentleman,
+life-long training in the art of being one.
+There is still in existence a very interesting outline
+which was given by Queen Victoria and
+Prince Albert to their oldest son, the Prince of
+Wales, on his seventeenth birthday. It contained
+a careful summary of what was expected
+of him as a Christian gentleman and included
+such items as dress, appearance, deportment, relations
+with other people, and ability to acquit
+himself well in whatever company he happened
+to be thrown.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The King and Queen, although they were probably
+unaware of the fact, were acting upon the
+advice of an authority on good manners at court
+a number of years before their time. &ldquo;Indeed,&rdquo;
+says the old manuscript, &ldquo;from seven to
+seventeen young gentlemen commonly are carefully
+enough brought up: but from seventeen to
+seven-and-twenty (the most dangerous time of
+all a man's life, and the most slippery to stay
+well in) they have commonly the rein of all license
+in their own hand, and specially such as do
+live in the court.&rdquo; If we bring the sentence up
+to date, and it is as true now as it was then, we
+may substitute &ldquo;business&rdquo; for &ldquo;court.&rdquo; Business
+men as well as courtiers find the ages between
+seventeen and seven-and-twenty &ldquo;the most
+slippery to stay well in&rdquo; for it is during these
+years that they are establishing themselves in the
+commercial world. As a general thing, but it is
+wise to remember that there is no rule to which
+there are not exceptions, by the time a man is
+twenty-seven his habits are formed and it is too
+late to acquire new ones.</p>
+
+<p>Most children undergo a painstaking and
+more or less painful course of instruction in good
+manners and know by the time they are men and
+women what should be done whether they do it
+or not. Our social code is not a complicated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+one, and there is no excuse except for the youngsters
+who have just growed up like Topsy or
+have been brought up by jerks like Pip. It is,
+without doubt, easier to be polite among people
+who are naturally courteous than among those
+who snap and snarl at one another, but it is a
+mistake to place too much emphasis on this part
+of it. Too many men&mdash;business men, at that&mdash;have
+come up out of the mire for us to be able to
+offer elaborate apologies for those who have
+stayed in it. The background is of minor importance.
+A cockroach is a cockroach anywhere
+you put him.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to envy the men who have had superior
+advantages, and many a man feels that if
+he had another's chance he, too, might have become
+a great gentleman. It is an idle speculation.
+His own opportunities are the only ones
+any man can attend to, and if he is sensible he
+will take quick advantage of those that come, not
+in dreams, but in reality, and will remember what
+a very sagacious English statesman said about
+matters of even graver import: &ldquo;It makes no difference
+where you are going. You've got to
+start from where you are.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The lack of early training is a handicap but
+not a formidable one, especially to a business
+man. As the Spaniards say, there is little curi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>osity
+about the pedigree of a good man. And
+no man needs to be ashamed of his origin. The
+president of a firm would naturally be interested
+in the ancestry of a young man who came to ask
+him for the hand of his daughter, but if the man
+has come to sell a bill of goods he does not care a
+snap. In discussions of the social evil it is often
+said that every child has a right to be well born,
+but Robert Louis Stevenson saw more deeply
+and spoke more truly when he said, &ldquo;We are all
+nobly born; fortunate those who know it; blessed
+those who remember.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The finest Gentleman the world has ever seen
+was born some two thousand years ago to the
+wife of a carpenter in Bethlehem and spent most
+of His time among fishermen, tax-collectors,
+cripples, lepers, and outcasts of various sorts;
+and yet in the entire record of His short and
+troubled life there is not one mention of an ungraceful
+or an ungainly action. He was careful
+to observe even the trivialities of social life.
+Mary and Martha were quarreling before dinner.
+He quieted them with a few gracious
+words. The people at the marriage feast at
+Cana were worried because they had only water
+to drink. He touched it and gave them wine.
+The multitude who came to hear Him were tired,
+footsore, and hungry. He asked them to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+seated and gave them food. He dined with the
+Pharisees, He talked with the women of Samaria,
+He comforted Mary Magdalen, and He
+washed the feet of His disciples. He was beset
+and harassed by a thousand rude and unmannerly
+questions, but not once did He return an
+impatient answer. Surely these things are godlike
+and divine whatever one may believe about
+the relation of Jesus Christ to God, the Father.</p>
+
+<p>It has been said that every man should choose
+a gentleman for his father. He should also
+choose a gentleman for his employer. Unfortunately
+he often has no more option in the one
+than he has in the other. Very few of us get exactly
+what we want. But however this may be,
+a gentleman at the head of a concern is a priceless
+asset. The atmosphere of most business
+houses is determined by the man at the top. His
+character filters down through the ranks. If he
+is a rough-and-tumble sort of person the office is
+likely to be that kind of place; if he is quiet and
+mannerly the chances are that the office will be
+quiet and mannerly. If he is a gentleman everybody
+in the place will know it and will feel the
+effects of it. &ldquo;I am always glad John was with
+Mr. Blank his first year in business,&rdquo; said a
+mother speaking of her son. Mr. Blank was a
+man who had a life-long reputation for being as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+straight as a shingle and as clean as a hound's
+tooth, every inch a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;How do you account for the fact that you
+have come to place so much emphasis on courtesy?&rdquo;
+a business man was asked one day as he
+sat in his upholstered office with great windows
+opening out on the New York harbor. He
+thought for a moment, and his mind went back
+to the little Georgia village where he was born
+and brought up. &ldquo;My father was a gentleman,&rdquo;
+he answered. &ldquo;I remember when I was a boy
+he used to be careful about such trifles as this:
+&lsquo;Now, Jim,&rsquo; he would say, &lsquo;when you stop on the
+sidewalk don't stop in the middle of it. Stand
+aside so you won't be in anybody's way.&rsquo; And
+even now,&rdquo; the man smiled, &ldquo;I never stop on
+the sidewalk without stepping to one side so as to
+be out of the way.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The life of a young person is plastic, easy to
+take impressions, strong to retain them. And
+the &ldquo;old man&rdquo; or the &ldquo;governor,&rdquo; whether he is
+father, friend, or employer, or all three, has infinitely
+more influence than either he or the
+young man realizes. At the same time it is perfectly
+true that young people do not believe
+what older ones tell them about life. They have
+to try it out for themselves. One generation
+does not begin where the other left off. Each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+one of us begins at the beginning, and the
+world, with all that it holds, is as wonderful
+(though slightly different, to be sure) and as
+new to the child who is born into it to-day as it
+was to Adam on the first morning after it was
+created.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost tragic that so many young men
+take the tenor of their lives from that of their employers,
+especially if the latter have been successful.
+This places a terrific responsibility upon
+the employer which does not, however, shift it
+from the employee. His part in business or in
+life&mdash;and this is true of all of us&mdash;is what he
+makes it, great or small. And the most important
+thing is for him to have a personal ideal of
+what he thinks best and hold to it. He cannot
+get it from the outside.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Courtesy is not one of the company's rules,&rdquo;
+wrote the manager of a large organization which
+has been very successful in handling men and
+making money. &ldquo;It is a tradition, an instinct.
+It is an attribute of the general tone, of the dominating
+influence of the management in all its
+relations. It is a part of the general tone, the
+honor, the integrity of the company. For three
+generations it has been looked upon as an inheritance
+to be preserved and kept irreproachable.
+Employees are drawn into this influence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+by the very simple process of their own development.
+Those who find themselves in harmony
+with the character of the company or who deliberately
+put themselves in tune, progress. Those
+who do not, cannot, for long, do congenial or acceptable
+service.&rdquo; This is the statement from
+the manager of a firm that is widely known for
+courteous dealing. Their standard is now established.
+It is a part of the atmosphere, and
+their chief problem is to get men who will fit
+into it.</p>
+
+<p>An employer does not judge a man on an abstract
+basis. He takes him because he thinks he
+will be useful to his business. This is why most
+places like to get men when they are young.
+They are easier to train.</p>
+
+<p>Every one likes good material to work with,
+and employers are no exception. They take the
+best they can find, and the higher the standard
+of the firm the greater the care expended in
+choosing the employees. &ldquo;Whenever we find a
+good man,&rdquo; said the manager of a big trust company,
+&ldquo;we take him on. We may not have a
+place for him at the time but we keep him until
+we find one.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Except during times of stress such as that
+brought about by the war when the soldiers were
+at the front, no business house hires people in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>discriminately.
+They know, as the Chinese have
+it, that rotten wood cannot be carved. &ldquo;It is
+our opinion,&rdquo; we quote from another manager,
+&ldquo;that courtesy cannot be pounded into a person
+who lacks proper social basis. In other words,
+there are some people who would be boorish under
+any circumstances. Our first and chief
+step toward courtesy is to exercise care in
+selecting our employees. We weigh carefully
+each applicant for a sales position and try
+to visualize his probable deportment as our
+representative, and unless he gives promise of
+being a fit representative we do not employ
+him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But it is not enough to take a man into a business
+organization. Every newcomer must be
+broken in. Sometimes this is done by means of
+formal training, sometimes it consists merely of
+giving him an idea of what is expected of him
+and letting him work out his own salvation.
+Granting that he is already familiar with the
+work in a general way, and that he is intelligent
+and resourceful, he ought to be able to adapt
+himself without a great deal of instruction from
+above. All of this depends upon the kind of
+work which is to be done.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly every employer exercises more caution
+in selecting the man who is to meet the public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+than any other. It is through him that the all-important
+first impression is made, and a man
+who is rude or discourteous, or who, for any reason,
+rubs people the wrong way, simply will
+not do. He may have many virtues but unless
+they are apparent they are for the time being of
+little service.</p>
+
+<p>Most salesmen have to go to school. Their
+work consists largely of the study of one of the
+most difficult subjects in the catalogue: human
+psychology. They must know why men do what
+they do and how to make them do what they, the
+salesmen, want them to do. They must be able
+to handle the most delicate situations courteously
+and without friction. It takes the tact of a
+diplomat, the nerve of a trapeze performer, the
+physical strength of a prize fighter, the optimism
+of William J. Bryan or of Pollyanna, and the
+wisdom of Solomon. Not many men are born
+with this combination of qualities.</p>
+
+<p>The best training schools base their teaching
+on character and common sense. One very remarkable
+organization, which has at its head an
+astonishingly buoyant and optimistic&mdash;and, it
+is hardly necessary to add, successful&mdash;man,
+teaches that character is nine-tenths of success
+in salesmanship and technique is only one-tenth.
+They study technique and character along with it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+in a scientific way, like the students in a biological
+laboratory who examine specimens. Their
+prospects are their subjects, and while they do
+not actually bring them into the consultation
+room, they hold experience meetings and tell
+the stories of their successful and unsuccessful
+contacts. The meetings are held at the end
+of the day, when the men are all tired and
+many of them are depressed and discouraged.
+They are opened with songs, &ldquo;My Old Kentucky
+Home,&rdquo; &ldquo;Old Black Joe,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sweet Adeline,&rdquo;
+and the other good old familiar favorites
+that make one think of home and mother
+and school days and happiness. One or two
+catchy popular songs are introduced, and the
+men sing or hum or whistle or divide into groups
+and do all three with all their might. It is irresistible.
+Fifteen or twenty minutes of it can
+wipe out the sourest memory of the day's business,
+and trivial irritations sink to their proper
+place in the scheme of things. The little speeches
+follow, and the men clap and cheer for the ones
+who have done good work and try to make an intelligent
+diagnosis of the cases of the ones who
+have not. When the leader talks he sometimes
+recounts his early experiences&mdash;he, like most
+good salesmanagers, was once on the road himself&mdash;and
+if he is in an inspirational mood, gives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+a sound talk on the principle back of the golden
+rule. The spirit of co&ouml;peration throughout the institution
+is amazing and the morale is something
+any group of workers might well envy them.</p>
+
+<p>Most business houses recognize their responsibilities
+toward the young people that they hire.
+Well-organized concerns build up from within.
+The heads of the departments are for the most
+part men who have received their training in the
+institution, and they take as much pains in selecting
+their office boys as they do in selecting
+any other group, for it is in them that they see
+the future heads and assistant heads of the departments.
+In hiring office boys &ldquo;cleanness,
+good manners, good physique, mental agility,
+and good habits are primary requisites,&rdquo; according
+to Mr. J. Ogden Armour in the <i>American
+Magazine</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the oldest banks in New York each
+boy who enters is given a few days' intensive
+training by a gentleman chosen for the purpose.
+The instructor stresses the fundamentals of
+character and, above all things, common sense.
+Courtesy is rarely discussed as a separate quality
+but simple instructions are given about not going
+in front of a person when there is room to go
+around him, not pushing into an elevator ahead
+of every one else, not speaking to a man at a desk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+until he has signified that he is ready, and about
+sustaining quiet and orderly behavior everywhere.
+The atmosphere in the bank is the kind
+that encourages gentlemanly conduct and the
+new boys either fall in with it or else get out and
+go somewhere else.</p>
+
+<p>It takes more patience on the part of the
+youngsters in the financial district than it does
+in most other places, for the men there work
+under high tension and are often cross, worried,
+nervous, and irritable, and as a result are, many
+times, without intending it, unjust. The discipline
+is severe, and the boy would not be human
+if he did not resent it. But the youngster who
+is quick to fly off the handle will find himself
+sadly handicapped, however brilliant he may be,
+in the race with boys who can keep their tempers
+in the face of an injury.</p>
+
+<p>Three boys out of the hundreds who have
+passed through the training school in the bank
+of which we were speaking have been discharged
+for acts of discourtesy. One flipped a rubber
+clip across a platform and hit one of the officials
+in the eye, one refused to stay after hours to finish
+some work he had neglected during the day,
+and one was impertinent. All three could have
+stayed if each had used a little common sense,
+and all three could have stayed if each act had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+not been a fair indication of his general attitude
+toward his work.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most difficult organizations to manage
+and one against which the charge of discourtesy
+is frequently brought is the department
+store. Yet a distinguished Englishwoman visiting
+here&mdash;it takes a woman to judge these things&mdash;said,
+&ldquo;I had always been told that people in
+New York were in such a hurry that, although
+well-meaning enough, they were inclined to appear
+somewhat rude to strangers. I have found
+it to be just the reverse. During my first strolls
+in the streets, in the shops, and elsewhere, I have
+found everybody most courteous. Your stores,
+I may say, are the finest I have ever seen, not excepting
+those of Paris. Their displays are remarkable.
+Their spaciousness impressed me
+greatly. Even at a crowded time it was not difficult
+to move about. In London, where our
+shops are mostly cramped and old-fashioned, it
+would be impossible for such large numbers of
+people to find admittance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The tribute is a very nice one. For a long
+time the department stores have realized the difficulties
+under which they labor and have been
+making efforts to overcome them. They have
+formed associations by which they study each
+other's methods, and most of them have very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+highly organized systems of training and management.
+One big department store carries on
+courtesy drives. Talks are given, posters are
+exhibited, and prizes are offered for the most
+courteous clerks in the store. &ldquo;We know that
+it is not fair to give prizes,&rdquo; the personnel manager
+says, &ldquo;because it is impossible to tell really
+which clerks are the most courteous, but it stimulates
+interest and effort throughout the organization
+and the effects last after the drive is
+over.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>One big department store which is favorably
+known among a large client&egrave;le for courteous
+handling of customers depends upon its atmosphere
+to an enormous extent, but it realizes that
+atmosphere does not come by chance, that it has
+to be created. They have arranged it so that
+each clerk has time to serve each customer who
+enters without the nervous hurry which is the
+cause of so much rudeness. The salesclerks who
+come into the institution are given two weeks'
+training in the mechanical end of their work, the
+ways of recording sales, methods of approach,
+and so on, as well as in the spirit of co&ouml;peration
+and service. By the time the clerk is placed behind
+the counter he or she can conduct a sale
+courteously and with despatch, but there is never
+a time when the head of the department is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+ready and willing to be consulted about extraordinary
+situations which may arise.</p>
+
+<p>It is during the rush seasons such as the three
+or four weeks which precede Christmas that courtesy
+is put to the severest test, and the store described
+in the paragraph above bears up under
+it nobly. It did not wait until Christmas to begin
+teaching courtesy. It had tried to make it
+a habit, but last year several weeks before the
+holidays it issued a bulletin to its employees to
+remind them of certain things that would make
+the Christmas shopping less nerve-racking. The
+first paragraph was headed <span class="smcap">HEALTH</span>. It ran as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If you want to be really merry at Christmas
+time, it will be well to bear in mind during
+this busy month at least these few &lsquo;health
+savers&rsquo;:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Every night try to get eight good hours of
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;All day try to keep an even temper and a
+ready smile.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Remember that five minutes lost in the morning
+means additional pressure all day long.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Try to make your extra effort a steady one&mdash;not
+allowing yourself to get excited and rushed
+so that you make careless mistakes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Try to eat regularly three good nourishing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+meals, relaxing completely while you are at the
+table and for a little while afterward.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Breathe deeply, and as often as you can, good
+fresh air&mdash;it cures weariness.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;And don't forget that a brisk walk, a sensible
+dinner, an hour's relaxation, and then a hot
+bath before retiring, make a refreshing end for
+one business day and a splendid preparation for
+the next.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There were six other paragraphs in the bulletin.
+One asked the salesclerks to take the greatest
+care in complying with a customer's request
+to send gift purchases without the price tags.
+Another asked them to pay strictest attention to
+getting the right addresses, and most of the
+others were taken up with suggestions for ways
+to avoid congestion by using a bank of elevators
+somewhat less conveniently located than the
+others, by limiting their personal telephone calls
+to those which were absolutely necessary, and so
+on. In both tone and content the bulletin was
+an excellent one. It first considered the employees
+and then the customers. There was no
+condescension in the way it was written and there
+was no &ldquo;bunk&rdquo; about what was in it. But the
+bulletin was only a small part of an effort that
+never stops.</p>
+
+<p>The purpose of the store is, to quote from its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+own statement, &ldquo;to render honest, prompt, courteous
+and complete service to customers&rdquo; and the
+qualities by which they measure their employees
+are as follows:</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Qualities" width="60%">
+<tr><td align='left'>Health</td><td align='left'>Accuracy</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Loyalty</td><td align='left'>Thoroughness</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Co&ouml;peration</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Initiative</td><td align='left'>Responsibility</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Industry</td><td align='left'>Knowledge</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Courtesy is not included in the list but it is
+unnecessary. If these qualities are developed
+courtesy will come of its own accord. It is
+worth noting that health comes first in the list.
+To a business man, or indeed to any other, it is
+one of the most precious possessions in the world,
+and is the best of backgrounds upon which to
+embroider the flower of courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Every employer who has had any experience
+knows the value of a contented workman, and
+does what he can to make and keep him so by
+paying him adequate wages, and providing comfortable,
+sanitary, and pleasant working conditions.
+Contentment is, however, more an attitude
+of mind than a result of external circumstances.
+Happiness is who, not where, you are.
+We do not mean by this that a workman should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+be wholly satisfied and without ambition or that
+he should face the world with a permanent grin,
+but that he should to the best of his ability follow
+that wonderful motto of Roosevelt's, &ldquo;Do
+what you can where you are with what you have.&rdquo;
+No man can control circumstances; not even the
+braggart Napoleon, who declared that he made
+circumstances, could control them to the end;
+and no man can shape them to suit exactly his
+own purposes, but every man can meet them
+bravely as a gentleman should.</p>
+
+<p>Most big business concerns supply rest rooms,
+eating places, recreation camps, and all manner
+of comforts for their employees, and most of
+them maintain welfare departments. No business
+house under heaven could take the place of
+a home, but where the home influence is bad the
+best counterfoil is a wholesome atmosphere in
+which to work. Recently an institution advertising
+for help, instead of asking what the applicant
+could do for it, pictured and described what
+it could do for the applicant. The result was
+that they got a high-class group of people to
+make their selection from, and their attitude was
+one which invited the newcomers to do their best.</p>
+
+<p>Factory owners are paying a good deal of attention
+to the appearance of their buildings.
+Many of them have moved out into the country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+so as to provide more healthful surroundings for
+work. Numbers of modern factory buildings
+are very beautiful to look at, trim white buildings
+set in close-cut lawns with tennis courts and
+swimming pools not far away, red brick buildings
+covered with ivy, sand-colored ones with
+roses climbing over them, and others like the one
+famous for its thousand windows, rather more
+comfortable than lovely. In our big cities there
+are office buildings that look like cathedrals, railroad
+stations that look like temples, and traffic
+bridges that look (from a distance) like fairy
+arches leading into the land of dreams. They
+are not all like this. We wish they were. But
+it is to the credit of the American business man
+that he has put at least a part of his life and work
+into the building of beautiful things. The influence
+which comes from them is, like nearly all
+potent influences, an unconscious one, but it
+makes for happiness and contentment.</p>
+
+<p>The problem of keeping the employees contented
+is somewhat different in every place.
+House organs, picnics, dances, recreation parks,
+sanitariums in the country and so on can be utilized
+by &ldquo;big business,&rdquo; but the spirit which animates
+them is the same as that which makes the
+grocery man at Hicksville Centre give his delivery
+boy an afternoon off when the baseball team<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+comes to town. The spirit of courtesy is everywhere
+the same, but it must be kept in mind that
+the end of business is production, production
+takes work, and that play is introduced in order
+that the work may be better. This is true
+whether we are looking at the matter from the
+point of view of the employer or of the employee.
+What is to the interest of one&mdash;this is gaining
+slow but sure recognition&mdash;is to the interest of
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>Certain kinds of mechanical work are very trying
+because of their monotony. The work must
+be done, however, and in well-ordered places it is
+arranged so that the worker has brief periods of
+rest at regular intervals or so that he is shifted
+from one kind of activity to another. It is poor
+economy to wear out men. In the old days before
+the power of steam or electricity had been
+discovered, boats were propelled by slaves who
+were kept below decks chained to their seats, and
+watched by an overseer who forced them to continue
+rowing long after they had reached the
+point of exhaustion. The galley slave sat always
+on the same side of the boat and after a few
+years his body became so twisted and warped
+that he was no good for anything else, and pretty
+soon was not even good for that. Then he was
+thrown into the discard&mdash;most of them died be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>fore
+they got this far along&mdash;and the owner of
+the boat had to look out for more men. Something
+like this happens to the soul of a man who
+is bound to dreary, monotonous work without relief
+or any outlet for growth. It is deadening to
+him, to his work, and to his employer. The far-sighted
+employer knows it. The masters of
+slaves learned it many years ago. The chain
+which binds the servant to the master binds the
+master to the servant. And the fastening is as
+secure at one end as it is at the other.</p>
+
+<p>Too strict supervision&mdash;slave-driving&mdash;is fatal
+to courtesy. The places which have intricate spy
+systems to watch their employees are the ones
+where there is most rudeness and trickery. The
+clerk who is hectored, nagged, spied upon, suspected
+and scolded by some hireling brought in
+for that purpose or by the head of the firm himself
+cannot be expected to give &ldquo;a smile with
+every purchase and a thank you for every goodbye.&rdquo;
+The training of employees never stops,
+but it is something that should be placed very
+largely in their own hands. After a certain point
+supervision should be unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>Most places hate to discharge a man. Labor
+turnover is too expensive. Most of them try to
+place their men in the positions for which they
+are best suited. It is easier to take a round peg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+out of a square hole and put it into a round one
+than it is to send out for another assortment of
+pegs. Men are transferred from sales departments
+to accounting departments, are taken off
+the road and brought into the home office, and are
+shifted about in various ways until they fit. If
+a man shows that &ldquo;he has it in him&rdquo; he is given
+every chance to succeed. &ldquo;There is only one
+thing we drop a man for right off,&rdquo; says an employment
+manager in a place which has in its
+service several thousand people of both sexes,
+&ldquo;and that is for saying something out of the way
+to one of our girls.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This same manager tells the story of a boy he
+hired and put into a department which had been
+so badly managed that there were a number of
+loose ends to be tied up. The boy threw himself
+into his work, cleared up things, and found himself
+in a &ldquo;soft snap&rdquo; without a great deal to do.
+He happened not to be the kind of person who
+can be satisfied with a soft snap, and he became
+so restive and unhappy that he was recommended
+for discharge. This brought him back
+to the head of the employment bureau. He, instead
+of throwing the young man out, asked that
+he be given a second trial in a department where
+the loose ends could not be cleaned up. It
+was a place where there was always plenty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+work to do, and the young man has been happy
+and has been doing satisfactory work ever
+since.</p>
+
+<p>The house in which this happened is always
+generous toward the mistakes of its employees
+if the mistakes do not occur too persistently and
+too frequently. In one instance a boy made
+three successive errors in figures in as many days.
+He was slated for discharge but sent first before
+the employment manager. As they talked the
+latter noticed that the boy leaned forward with
+a strained expression on his face. Thinking perhaps
+he was slightly deaf, he lowered his voice,
+but the boy understood every word he said. Then
+he noticed that there was a tiny red ridge across
+his nose as if he were accustomed to wearing
+glasses, although he did not have them on, and
+when he asked about it he discovered that the
+boy had broken his glasses a few days before,
+and that he had not had them fixed because he
+did not have money enough.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Why didn't you tell us about it?&rdquo; the employment
+manager asked.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It was not your fault that I broke them,&rdquo;
+the boy replied. &ldquo;It was up to me,&rdquo; an independent
+answer which in itself indicates how
+much worth while it was to keep him.</p>
+
+<p>The manager gave him money enough to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+the glasses mended, the next day the boy was
+back at work, and there was no more trouble.</p>
+
+<p>An employee in the same organization unintentionally
+did something which hurt the president
+of the firm a great deal. But when he went to
+him and apologized (it takes a man to admit
+that he is wrong and apologize for it) the president
+sent him back to his desk, &ldquo;It's all
+right, boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I know you care. That's
+enough.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In a big department store in New England
+there was a girl a few years back with an alert
+mind, an assertive personality, and a tremendous
+fund of energy. She was in the habit of giving
+constructive suggestions to the heads of the departments
+in which she worked, and because of
+her youth and manner, they resented it. &ldquo;I
+took her into my office,&rdquo; the manager said.
+&ldquo;I'm the only one she can be impertinent to there
+and I don't mind it. It is a bad manifestation
+of a good quality, and in time the disagreeable
+part of it will wear off. She will make an excellent
+business woman.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If a man finds fault with a boy without explaining
+the cause to him,&rdquo; we are quoting here
+from an executive in a highly successful Middle
+Western firm, &ldquo;I won't fire the boy, I fire the
+man. We have not a square inch of space in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+this organization for the man who criticizes a
+subordinate without telling him how to do better.&rdquo;
+Unless the plan of management is big
+enough to include every one from the oldest saint
+to the youngest sinner it is no good. Business
+built on oppression and cut-throat competition,
+whether the competition is between employer and
+employee or between rival firms, is war, and war,
+industrial or political, is still what General Sherman
+called it some years ago.</p>
+
+<p>We hold no brief for paternalism. We have
+no patience with it. All that we want is a spirit
+of fairness and co&ouml;peration which will give every
+man a chance to make good on his own account.
+This spirit inevitably flowers into courtesy. In
+every place courtesy should be, of course, so
+thoroughly a part of the surroundings that it is
+accepted like air or sunshine without comment.
+But it is not, and never has been except in old
+civilizations where manners have ripened and
+mellowed under the beneficent influence of time.
+Our traditions here&mdash;speaking of the country as
+a whole&mdash;are still in the making, but we have at
+least got far enough along to realize that it is
+not only worth while to do things that are good,
+but, as an old author has it, to do them with a
+good grace. It cannot be accomplished overnight.
+Courtesy is not like a fungous growth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+springing up in a few hours in the decayed parts
+of a tree; it is like that within the tree itself which
+gives lustre to the leaves and a beautiful surface
+to the whole. It takes time to develop it&mdash;time
+and patience&mdash;but it is worth waiting for.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3>PERSONALITY</h3>
+
+<p>All that makes a man who he is and not
+someone else is called personality. It is the sum
+total of his qualities, a thing inborn, but including
+besides such externals as dress, manner, and
+appearance. It is either a tremendous asset or
+a terrific liability, and so important that certain
+schools which purport to teach success in business
+declare that it is everything. Which is just
+as foolish as saying that it is nothing.</p>
+
+<p>One of these success-before-you-wake-to-morrow-morning
+schools of business instruction dismisses
+the fact which has remained true through
+three thousand years of change, namely, that
+there is no short cut to success, as a myth, and
+even goes so far as to say that it is almost impossible
+to achieve success to-day by working for it.
+E. H. Harriman they give as an example of a
+man who did no work but won success by smoking
+cigars while other men built railroads for him,
+quoting a joking remark of his to prove a serious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+point, when, as a matter of fact, Mr. Harriman
+was one of the large number of American business
+men who have literally worked themselves to
+death. Foch said that he won the war by smoking
+his pipe, but does any one believe that the
+great commander won the war by not working?
+What he meant was that he won the war by
+thinking, and the worn face, which seemed almost
+twice as old when the conflict was over,
+showed how hard that work was.</p>
+
+<p>It is so impossible for a false doctrine to stand
+on its own feet that the spread-eagle advertisement
+of this school contradicts itself long before
+it gets to the &ldquo;Sign here and mail to-day&rdquo; coupon.
+&ldquo;The first time you try to swim,&rdquo; shouts
+the advertisement, &ldquo;for instance, you sink; and
+the first time you try to ride a bicycle you fall
+off. But the ability to do these things was born
+in you. And shortly you can both swim and
+ride. Then you wonder why you could not always
+do these things. They seem so absurdly
+simple.&rdquo; It may be that there are people who
+have learned to swim and to ride a bicycle by sitting
+in a chair and cultivating certain inherent
+qualities but we have never heard of them. Everybody
+that we ever knew worked and worked
+hard swimming and riding before they learned.
+The only way to learn to do a job is to do it, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+the only way to succeed is to work. Any school
+or any person who says that &ldquo;the most important
+thing for you to do is not to work, but first to
+find the short road to success. After that you
+may safely work all you like&mdash;but as a matter of
+fact, you won't have to work very hard,&rdquo; is a liar
+and a menace to the country and to business.</p>
+
+<p>But the value of personality is not to be under-estimated.
+&ldquo;Nature,&rdquo; says Thackeray somewhere
+in &ldquo;The Virginians,&rdquo; &ldquo;has written a letter
+of credit upon some men's faces, which is honored
+almost wherever presented. Harry Warrington's
+[Harry Warrington was the hero who
+brought about this observation] countenance
+was so stamped in his youth. His eyes were so
+bright, his cheeks so red and healthy, his look so
+frank and open, that almost all who beheld him,
+nay, even those who cheated him, trusted him.&rdquo;
+It was the &ldquo;letter of credit&rdquo; stamped upon the
+face of Roosevelt, pledge of the character which
+lay behind it, which made him the idol of the
+American people.</p>
+
+<p>Personality is hard to analyze and harder still
+to acquire. The usual advice given to one who
+is trying to cultivate a pleasing manner and address
+is &ldquo;Be natural,&rdquo; but this cannot be taken
+too literally. Most of us find it perfectly natural
+to be cross and disagreeable under trying cir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>cumstances.
+It would be natural for a man to
+cry out profane words when a woman grinds
+down on his corn but it would not be polite. It
+was natural for Uriah Heep to wriggle like an
+eel, but that did not make it any the less detestable.
+It was natural, considering the past history
+of Germany and the system under which he
+was educated, for the Kaiser to want to be lord
+of the world, but that did not make it any the less
+horrible.</p>
+
+<p>Another bromidic piece of advice is &ldquo;Be perfectly
+frank and sincere.&rdquo; But this, too, has its
+limits. Some people pride themselves on saying
+exactly what they think. Usually they are brutal,
+insensitive, wholly incapable of sympathetic
+understanding of any one else, and cursed, besides,
+with a colossal vanity. A man may determine
+to tell nothing but the truth, but this does
+not make it necessary for him to tell the whole
+truth, especially when it will hurt the feelings or
+the reputation of some one else. No man has a
+right to impose his opinions and prejudices, his
+sufferings and agonies, on other people. It is
+the part of a coward to whine.</p>
+
+<p>And yet a man must be himself, must be natural
+and sincere. Roosevelt could no more have
+adopted the academic manner of Wilson than
+Wilson could have adopted the boyish manner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+of Roosevelt. Lincoln could no more have
+adopted the courtly grace of Washington than
+Washington could have adopted the rugged simplicity
+of Lincoln. Nor would such transformations
+be desirable even if they were possible. The
+world would be a very dreary place if we were
+all cut by the same pattern.</p>
+
+<p>A number of years ago in an upstate town in
+New York there was a shoe store which had been
+built up by the engaging personality of the man
+who owned it. He had worked his way up from
+a tiny shoe shop in New Jersey where, as a boy,
+he made shoes by hand before there were factories
+for the purpose, and he had always kept in
+close touch with the business even after he owned
+a large establishment and had a number of men
+working under him. He stayed in the shop,
+greeted his customers as they came in, and many
+times waited on them himself.</p>
+
+<p>When he retired from active business he sold
+out to a man exactly his opposite in temperament,
+as good a man, so far as character went,
+as himself, but very quiet and taciturn. A woman
+who had always patronized the shop and
+was a friend of them both came to him soon after
+the transfer was made and said, &ldquo;Now, Mr. Tillis,
+the reason this place has prospered so is on
+account of the personality of Mr. Kilbourne.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+His shoes are good but people can get good
+shoes at other places. They come here because
+of Mr. Kilbourne. They like him, and if you
+are not careful they will stop coming now that he
+is gone. You've got to smile and show them
+you are glad to see them.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tillis felt that the woman was telling the
+truth. He decided that he would stay in the
+shop and greet each customer with a gladsome
+smile and make himself generally pleasant and
+agreeable. The next day he was fitting a shoe on
+a woman who was also an old customer and a
+friend of both men. He was smiling in his best
+manner and congratulating himself that he was
+doing very well when the woman abruptly took
+her foot off the stand. &ldquo;What are you laughing
+at?&rdquo; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Some years later he told Mr. Kilbourne about
+it. &ldquo;I decided then that there was no use in me
+trying to be you. You had been yourself, and I
+made up my mind that I'd be myself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And that is, after all, the only rule that can
+be given. Be yourself, but be very sure that it
+is your best self.</p>
+
+<p>It is personality which permits one man to do
+a thing that another would be shot for. What
+is charming in this man is disgusting in that.
+What is a smile with one becomes a smirk with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+another. What makes one succeed will cause
+another to fail. It is personality that opens the
+doors of opportunity. It cannot, alone, keep
+them open, but it is worth a good deal to get
+inside.</p>
+
+<p>We were interested to observe the methods
+used by three young men who were looking for
+jobs, not one of whom would probably have succeeded
+if he had used the tactics of either of the
+others.</p>
+
+<p>The first wanted to talk with the biggest executive
+in a large organization. He had fought his
+way through the ranks until he had got as far as
+the man's secretary. &ldquo;Mr. So-and-So does not
+see people who want jobs,&rdquo; said that young lady.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I don't want a job,&rdquo; he prevaricated mildly,
+&ldquo;I want to talk to him.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The girl let him in.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. So-and-So,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I don't want a
+job. I want advice.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His manner was so ingenuous and charming,
+his earnestness so glowing, that the man at the
+desk listened while he talked, and then talked a
+while himself, and ended by giving the young
+man the position (as well as the advice) that he
+wanted. But if he had been less attractive personally
+and the older man had been shrewd
+enough to see through the ruse (or perhaps he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+did see through it but made the proper discount
+for it) or had been opposed to trick methods, the
+scheme might not have worked so well.</p>
+
+<p>The most universal weakness of intellect lies
+in the part of the brain which listens to flattery.
+Very few people like compliments laid on with a
+trowel, but no man can resist the honest admiration
+of another if it seems sincere. And since it
+is the sort of thing that one likes almost above all
+else he often takes the false coin for the true.</p>
+
+<p>The second young man met the rebuff so familiar
+to young men looking for their first job,
+&ldquo;We want men with experience.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;That's what everybody says,&rdquo; the boy answered,
+&ldquo;but what I want to know is how we are
+going to get that experience if you don't give us
+a chance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The older man sympathized, but had no place
+for the other and told him so.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What would you do if you were I?&rdquo; the
+young man asked as he turned to leave. The
+other grinned. &ldquo;Why, I'd work for a firm for
+a week for nothing,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and show them
+that they could not get along without me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The boy stopped. &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;let
+me work for you a week.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The older man had not expected this but he
+gave the youngster a chance and he made good.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The third young man had reached the point of
+desperation. He had been out of a job several
+weeks. He had been trying to get one all that
+time and had not succeeded. He walked into
+the employment bureau of a certain concern and
+said, &ldquo;I want a job. I want a good job. Not
+some dinky little place filing letters or picking
+up chips. If you've got an executive position
+where there is plenty of work and plenty of responsibility,
+I want it.&rdquo; They asked him a few
+questions about what he had been doing and a
+few more about what he thought he could do, and
+ended by giving him a desk and an office.</p>
+
+<p>It would be foolish to advise any one to follow
+any of these plans. Each man must work out
+his own method, all the better if it is an original
+one. Most business men like a simple approach
+without any flourishes. &ldquo;It is astonishing,&rdquo; says
+one man whose income runs to six figures, &ldquo;how
+many things one can get just by asking for
+them.&rdquo; The best reporter in America says that
+he has always found the direct method of approach
+better than any other. None is infallible
+but this has the highest percentage of success.</p>
+
+<p>So far as personal appearance is concerned&mdash;and
+this is one of the most important elements
+in the fashioning of personality&mdash;the greatest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+variations are not due to intrinsic differences in
+character, nor to differences of feature or form,
+but to the use and disuse of the bathtub. More
+sharp than the distinction between labor and
+capital or between socialism and despotism is
+that between the people who bathe daily and
+those who go to the tub only on Saturday night
+or less often. The people with whom personal
+cleanliness is a habit find dirt, grime, and sweat
+revolting. To them &ldquo;the great unwashed&rdquo; are
+repulsive.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When you teach a man to bathe,&rdquo; says John
+Leitch in his book on &ldquo;Industrial Democracy,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;you do more than merely teach him to cleanse
+his body. You introduce him to a new kind of
+life and create in him a desire for better living.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The month before he began his wonderful
+work at Tuskegee, Booker Washington spent
+visiting the Negro families in the part of Alabama
+where he was to teach. &ldquo;One of the saddest
+things I saw during the month of travel
+which I have described,&rdquo; he writes in his autobiography,
+&ldquo;was a young man, who had attended
+some high school, sitting down in a one-room
+cabin, with grease on his clothing, filth all around
+him, and weeds in the yard and garden, engaged
+in studying a French grammar.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Farther on he writes, &ldquo;It has been interest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>ing
+to note the effect that the use of the tooth-brush
+has had in bringing about a higher degree
+of civilization among the students. With few
+exceptions, I have noticed that, if we can get
+a student to the point where, when the first or
+second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own motion
+buys another, I have not been disappointed
+in the future of that individual. Absolute cleanliness
+of the body has been insisted upon from
+the first.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Cleanliness is an attribute of civilization. We
+find it amusing to read that three or four hundred
+years ago bathing for pleasure was unknown,
+that when soap was first invented it was
+used only for washing clothes, and that even so
+late as the Seventeenth Century an author compiling
+a book of rules for the gentleman of that
+day advises him to wash his hands every day and
+his face almost as often! In the monasteries
+bathing was permitted only to invalids and the
+very old. Perfume was used copiously, and
+filth and squalor abounded. This even in royal
+circles. Among the common people conditions
+were unspeakable.</p>
+
+<p>To-day a gentleman bathes and shaves every
+day. He keeps his hair brushed, his finger nails
+immaculate (or as clean as the kind of work
+which he does permits), his linen is always clean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+and his shoes are polished. He is not over-fastidious
+about his clothes, but he has respect
+enough for himself as well as for the people
+among whom he lives to want to present as agreeable
+an appearance as possible. &ldquo;Dress,&rdquo; wrote
+Lord Chesterfield to his son, &ldquo;is a very foolish
+thing, and yet it is a very foolish thing for a man
+not to be well-dressed, according to his rank and
+way of life.... The difference in this case
+between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop
+values himself upon his dress; and the man of
+sense laughs at it, and at the same time knows he
+must not neglect it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is a cheap device for a man to trick himself
+out with lodge pins and fraternity symbols, rings,
+and badges in the hope that they will open doors
+for him. Highly ornamental jewelry of any
+kind is inappropriate. Not many men can offset
+a heavy gold watch chain stretched full length
+across their bosoms, not many can live down a
+turquoise ring set with pearls, and very few can
+bear the handicap of a bright gold front tooth.
+Artists, alone, may gratify their taste for velvet
+jackets, Tam-o'-Shanters, and Windsor ties,
+but the privilege is denied business men. Eccentricity
+of dress usually indicates eccentricity
+of temper, and we do not want temperamental
+business men. It is hard enough to get along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+with authors and artists and musicians. The
+business man who is wise wears conventional
+clothes of substantial material in conservative
+colors. Good sense and good taste demand it.</p>
+
+<p>The time has passed when uncouthness of
+dress and manner can be taken as a pledge of
+honesty and good faith. The President of the
+United States to-day is a well-dressed, well-groomed
+man, and no one thinks any the less of
+him for it. Men no longer regard creased trousers,
+nicely tied cravats, well-chosen collars,
+and harmonious color combinations as signs of
+sissiness, snobbishness, or weak-mindedness.</p>
+
+<p>Formal dinners and other ceremonious functions
+require evening dress. It is the custom,
+as the Orientals say; and for the sake of other
+people present if not for his own, a man should
+undergo the discomfort, if he finds it a discomfort,
+and many men do, of conforming to it.
+Holiday attire gives a happy note of festivity
+which might otherwise be lacking. It is quite
+possible to point to a number of men who have
+succeeded in business who were wholly indifferent
+to matters of dress. But it does not prove
+anything. Men rise by their strength, not by
+their weakness. Some men wait until after they
+have become rich or famous to become negligent
+of their personal appearance. But it is well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+to remember that &ldquo;if Socrates and Aristippus
+have done aught against custom or good manner,
+let not a man think he can do the same: for they
+obtained this license by their great and excellent
+good parts.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>A well-dressed man is so comfortably dressed
+that he is not conscious of his clothes and so inconspicuously
+dressed that no one else is conscious
+of them.</p>
+
+<p>In a good many instances it is not his own
+dress which bothers a business man so much as
+it is that of some one else&mdash;his stenographer, for
+instance. Men do not have quite so much opportunity
+to make themselves ridiculous as women.
+Their conventions of dress are stricter,
+and, as a rule, they can express their love of
+color and ornamentation only in their choice of
+ties and socks. Girls have practically no restrictions
+except what happens to be the style at
+the moment, and a young girl untrained in selecting
+and combining colors and lines, and making
+money for the first time in her life, is more
+likely than not to make herself look more like a
+Christmas tree than a lily of the field.</p>
+
+<p>The big department stores which employ hundreds
+of girls to meet and serve their customers
+have settled the problem for themselves by requiring
+the girls to wear uniforms. The uni<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>form
+is very simple; often a certain color during
+working hours is prescribed, but the girls are
+permitted to choose their own styles. Other
+places have women who look after the welfare
+of the girls and prevent them from laying themselves
+open to misunderstanding by the way they
+dress. Large organizations can afford to have
+a special person to take care of such matters, but
+in a small office the problem is different.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, a man can always dismiss a girl
+who dresses foolishly or carelessly, but this is
+sneaking away from a problem instead of facing
+it. High-class offices have comparatively
+little trouble this way. In the first place, they
+do not attract the frivolous, light-headed, or
+&ldquo;tough&rdquo; girls; in the second place, if such girls
+come, the atmosphere in which they work either
+makes them conform to the standards of the office
+or leave and go somewhere else. If a girl in
+his office dresses in a way that he considers inappropriate,
+a man may tactfully suggest that
+something simpler would be more dignified and
+more in keeping with business ideals and traditions.
+But, oh, he must be careful! On no subject
+is one so sensitive as on his personal appearance,
+and women, perhaps, more so than men.</p>
+
+<p>There is a limit to how far an employer should
+go in dictating the manner of his employees'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+dress. When the head of a big Western department
+store declared that he would discharge all
+the girls who bobbed their hair, most of us felt
+that he had gone a bit too far, even while we saw
+the logic of his position. While it is the only
+sensible way in the world for a woman to wear
+her hair the majority of people have not yet
+come to think so. To the average person, especially
+to Mrs. Grundy, who is really the most
+valuable customer a department store has, the
+impression given by bobbed hair is one of frivolity
+or eccentricity. The impression given the
+customer as she enters a store is a most important
+item; the head of the store knew it, and therefore
+he placed the ban on bobbed hair. Whichever
+side we take in this particular case this is
+true: The business woman should give, like the
+business man, an impression of dependability,
+and she cannot do it if her appearance is abnormal,
+or if her mind is divided between how she is
+looking and what she is doing.</p>
+
+<p>It is almost funny that we let the faults and
+mannerisms of other people affect us to such an
+extent. They are nothing to us, and yet a man
+can work himself into a perfect frenzy of temper
+merely by looking at or talking to another who
+has a fidgety way of moving about, a dainty
+manner of using his hands, or a general demean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>&mdash;or
+that is delicate and ladylike. Men like what
+the magazines call &ldquo;a red-blooded, two-fisted, he-man.&rdquo;
+But the world is big enough to accommodate
+us all whether the blood in our veins is
+red or blue, and it is perfectly silly for a man to
+throw himself into a rage over some harmless
+creature who happens to exasperate him simply
+because he is alive.</p>
+
+<p>It is an altogether different matter when it is
+a question of one man taking liberties with another.
+Most people object to the physical nearness
+of others. It is the thing that makes the
+New York subways during the rush hours such
+a horror. It is not pleasant to have a person so
+near that his breath is against your face, and
+there are not many men who enjoy being slapped
+on the back, punched in the ribs, or held fast by
+a buttonhole or a coat lapel. A safe rule is
+never to touch another person. He may resent
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The garrulous or impertinent talker is almost
+as objectionable as the hail-fellow-well-met, slap-on-the-back
+fellow. Charles Dickens has a record
+of this kind of American in the book which
+he wrote after his visit in this country: &ldquo;Every
+button in his clothes said, &lsquo;Eh, what's that? Did
+you speak? Say that again, will you?&rsquo; He was
+always wide awake, always restless; always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+thirsting for answers; perpetually seeking and
+never finding....</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I wore a fur great-coat at that time, and before
+we were well clear of the wharf, he questioned
+me concerning it, and its price, and where
+I bought it, and when, and what fur it was, and
+what it weighed, and what it cost. Then he
+took notice of my watch, and asked me what <i>that</i>
+cost, and whether it was a French watch, and
+where I got it, and how I got it, and whether I
+bought it or had it given me, and how it went and
+where the keyhole was, and when I wound it,
+every night or every morning, and whether I
+ever forgot to wind it at all, and if I did, what
+then? Where I had been to last, and where I
+was going next, and where I was going after
+that, and had I seen the President, and what did
+he say, and what did I say, and what did he say
+when I had said that? Eh? Lor' now! Do
+tell!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This sort of curiosity is harmless enough, but
+exasperating, and so childish that one hates to rebuke
+the person who is asking the foolish questions.
+There is another kind which is perhaps
+worse&mdash;the man who asks intrusive questions
+about how much salary another is getting, how
+old he is (men are as sensitive on this subject as
+women) and so on and on. It is perfectly le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>gitimate
+to refuse to answer any question to
+which one does not wish to reply. Every man
+has a right to mental privacy even when he is denied,
+as he is in so many modern offices, any other
+kind of privacy.</p>
+
+<p>A loud or boisterous person is objectionable.
+Many times this is through carelessness, but
+sometimes, as when a man recounts the story of
+his dinner with Mr. Brown, who is a national figure,
+in a voice so loud that all the people in the
+car or room or whatever place he happens to be
+in, can hear him, it is deliberate. The careless
+person is the one who discusses personalities
+aloud in elevators, on the train, and in all manner
+of public places. Exchanging gossip is a pretty
+low form of indoor sport and exchanging it aloud
+so that everybody can hear makes it worse than
+ever. Names should never be mentioned in a
+conversation in a place where strangers can overhear,
+especially if the connection is an unpleasant
+one. Private opinions should never be aired
+in public places (except from a platform).</p>
+
+<p>The highly argumentative or aggressive person
+is another common type of nuisance. He
+usually raises his voice, thus drowning out the
+possibility of interruption, and talks with so
+much noise and so many vigorous gestures that
+he seems to try to make up for his lack of intel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>lect
+by an excess of tumult. Arguments have
+never yet convinced anybody of the truth, and it
+is a very unpleasant method to try. Most arguments
+are about religion or politics and even if
+they were settled nothing would be accomplished.
+In the Middle Ages men used to debate about
+the number of angels that could stand on the
+point of a pin. Hours and hours were wasted
+and learned scholars were brought into the discussion,
+which was carried forward as seriously
+as if it were a debate between the merits of the
+Republican and Democratic parties. Suppose
+they had settled it. Would it have mattered?</p>
+
+<p>One of the most offensive public plagues is the
+man who leaves a trail of untidiness behind him.
+No book of etiquette, not even a book of business
+etiquette, could counsel eating on the streets in
+spite of the historic and inspiring example of Mr.
+Benjamin Franklin walking down the streets of
+Philadelphia with a loaf of bread under each arm
+while he munched from a third which he held in
+his hand. One can forgive a man, however, if
+he, feeling the need of nourishment, eats a bar of
+chocolate if he takes great care to put the wrappings
+somewhere out of the way. No man with
+any civic pride will scatter peanut hulls, cigarette
+boxes, chocolate wrappings, raisin boxes,
+and other debris along the streets, in the cars, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+the stairs, and even on the floors of office buildings.
+Garbage cans and waste-baskets were
+made to take care of these things.</p>
+
+<p>Tidiness is worth more to a business man than
+most of them realize. In the first place it gives
+a favorable impression to a person coming in
+from the outside, and, in the second place, it
+helps those on the inside to keep things straight.
+Folders for correspondence, card indexes, memorandum
+files and other similar devices are essential
+to the orderly transaction of business.</p>
+
+<p>Keeping ashes and scraps of paper off the
+floor may seem trifles, but such trifles go far toward
+making the atmosphere, which is another
+word for personality, of an office. Some men
+have secretaries who take care of their desks and
+papers and supervise the janitor who cleans the
+floors and windows, but those who do not, find
+that they can manage better when they have a
+place to put things and put them there.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing has more to do with making a gentleman
+than a courteous and considerate attitude
+toward women. In business a man should show
+practically the same deference toward a woman
+that he does in society. Any man can be polite
+to a woman he is anxious to please, the girl he
+loves, for instance, but it takes a gentleman to be
+polite to every woman, especially to those who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+work for him, those over whom he exercises authority.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary for a man to rise every time
+one of the girls in his office enters his private
+audience room, but he should always rise to receive
+a visitor, whether it is a man or woman, and
+should ask the visitor to be seated before he sits
+down himself. In witheringly hot weather a
+man may go without his coat even if his entire
+office force consists of girls, but he should never
+receive a guest in his shirt sleeves. He should
+listen deferentially to what the visitor has to say,
+but if she becomes too voluble or threatens to
+stay too long or if there is other business waiting
+for him, he may (if he can) cut short her conversation.
+When she is ready to go he should rise
+and conduct her to the door or to the elevator, as
+the case may be, and ring the bell for her. He
+cannot, of course, do this if his visitors are frequent,
+if their calls are about matters of trifling
+importance, or if he is working under high pressure.</p>
+
+<p>We once had an English visitor here in America
+who thought our manners were outrageously
+bad, but there was one point on which we won a
+perfect score. &ldquo;Any lady,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;may travel
+alone, from one end of the United States to the
+other, and be certain of the most courteous and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+considerate treatment everywhere. Nor did I
+ever once, on any occasion, anywhere, during my
+rambles in America, see a woman exposed to the
+slightest act of rudeness, incivility, or even inattention.&rdquo;
+Conditions have changed since then.
+Women had not left their homes to go into
+offices and factories, but unless we can hold to
+the standard described by the Englishman, the
+change has not been for the better, for any of the
+people concerned.</p>
+
+<p>Since the Victorian era our ideas of what constitutes
+an act of rudeness have been modified.
+Then it would have been unthinkable that a woman
+should remain standing in a coach while men
+were seated. Now it is possible for a man to
+keep his place while a woman swings from a
+strap and defend himself on the grounds that he
+has worked harder during the day than she (how
+he knows is more than we can say), and that he
+has just as much right (which is certainly true)
+as any one else. Yet it is a gracious and a chivalrous
+act for a man to offer a woman his place
+on a car, and it is very gratifying to see that hundreds
+of them, even in the cities, where life goes
+at its swiftest pace and people live always in a
+hurry, surrender their seats in favor of the women
+who, like themselves, are going to work.
+Old people, afflicted people, men and women who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+are carrying children in their arms, and other
+people who obviously need to sit down are nearly
+always given precedence over the rest of us.
+This is, of course, as it should be.</p>
+
+<p>But the heart of what constitutes courtesy has
+not changed and never will. It is exactly what
+it was on that day nearly four hundred years ago
+when Sir Philip Sidney, mortally wounded on
+the field of Zutphen, gave his last drop of water
+to the dying soldier who lay near him and said,
+&ldquo;Thy need is greater than mine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+<h3>TABLE MANNERS</h3>
+
+<p>In the old books of etiquette in the chapter
+on table manners the authors used to state that
+it was not polite to butter your bread with your
+thumb, to rub your greasy fingers on the bread
+you were about to eat, or to rise from the table
+with a toothpick in your mouth like a bird that
+is about to build her nest. We have never seen
+any one butter his bread with his thumb, but&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There are in the United States nearly five million
+people who can neither read nor write. We
+have no statistics but we venture to say there are
+as many who eat with their knives. There are
+people among us&mdash;and they are not all immigrants
+in the slum districts or Negroes in the
+poorer sections of the South&mdash;who do not know
+what a napkin is, who think the proper way to
+eat an egg is to hold it in the hand like a piece of
+candy, and bite it, the egg having previously
+been fried on both sides until it is as stiff and as
+hard as a piece of bristol board, who would not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+recognize a salad if they saw one, and who have
+never heard of after-dinner coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Very few of them are people of wealth, but an
+astonishing number of successful business men
+were born into such conditions. They had no
+training in how to handle a knife and fork and
+they probably never read a book of etiquette, but
+they had one faculty, which is highly developed
+in nearly every person who lifts himself above
+the crowd, and that is observation.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to this a young man is very fortunate,
+especially if his way of life is cast among
+people whose manners are different from those
+to which he has been accustomed, if he has a
+friend whom he can consult, not only about table
+manners but about matters of graver import as
+well. And he should not be embarrassed to ask
+questions. The disgrace, if disgrace it could be
+called, lies only in ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>A number of years ago a young man who was
+the prospective heir to a fortune&mdash;this charming
+story is in Charles Dickens's wonderful novel,
+&ldquo;Great Expectations&rdquo;&mdash;went up to London for
+the express purpose of learning to be a gentleman.
+It fell about that almost as soon as he arrived
+he was thrown into the company of a delightful
+youth who had already attained the minor
+graces of polite society. Very much in earn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>est
+about what he had set out to do, and blessed
+besides with a goodish bit of common sense, he
+explained his situation to Herbert, for that was
+the other boy's name, mentioned the fact that he
+had been brought up by a blacksmith in a country
+place, that he knew practically nothing of the
+ways of politeness, and that he would take it as
+a great kindness if Herbert would give him a
+hint whenever he saw him at a loss or going
+wrong.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said he, &lsquo;though I venture
+to prophesy that you'll want very few hints.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>They went in to dinner together, a regular
+feast of a dinner it seemed to the ex-blacksmith's
+apprentice, and after a while began to talk about
+the benefactress who, they believed, had made it
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;Let me introduce the topic,&rsquo; began Herbert,
+who had been watching Pip's table manners
+for some little time, &lsquo;by mentioning that in London
+it is not the custom to put the knife in the
+mouth&mdash;for fear of accidents&mdash;and that while
+the fork is reserved for that use it is not put further
+in than necessary. It is scarcely worth mentioning,
+only it's as well to do as other people do.
+Also, the spoon is not generally used over-hand
+but under. This has two advantages. You get
+at your mouth better (which after all is the ob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>ject),
+and you save a good deal of the attitude
+of opening oysters on the part of the right elbow.&rsquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He offered these suggestions (said Pip) in
+such a lively way, that we both laughed and I
+scarcely blushed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The conversation and the dinner continued
+and the friendship grew apace. Presently Herbert
+broke off to observe that &ldquo;society as a body
+does not expect one to be so strictly conscientious
+in emptying one's glass, as to turn it bottom upwards
+with the rim on one's nose.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I had been doing this,&rdquo; Pip confessed, &ldquo;in an
+excess of attention to his recital. I thanked him,
+and apologized. He said, &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; and resumed.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This was written many years ago but neither
+in life nor in literature is there a more beautiful
+example of perfect courtesy than that given by
+Herbert Pocket when he took the blacksmith's
+boy in hand and began his education in the art of
+being a gentleman. Not only was he at perfect
+ease himself but&mdash;and this is the important point&mdash;he
+put the blacksmith's boy at ease.</p>
+
+<p>It is worth remarking, by way of parenthesis,
+that Herbert's father was a gentleman. &ldquo;It is
+a principle of his,&rdquo; declared the boy, &ldquo;that no
+man who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+was, since the world began, a true gentleman in
+manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain
+of the wood; and that the more varnish you put
+on, the more the grain will express itself.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The American table service is not complicated.
+Any intelligent person who knows the
+points covered by Herbert Pocket, who knows
+that one should not cut up all of his meat at the
+same time but mouthful by mouthful as he needs
+it, that it is not customary to butter a whole slice
+of bread at once nor to plaster cheese over the entire
+upper surface of a cracker, can by a dint of
+watching how other people do it find his way
+without embarrassment through even the most
+elaborate array of table implements. The easiest
+way to acquire good table manners (or good
+manners of any other kind, as far as that goes)
+is to form the habit of observing how the people
+who manage these things most gracefully go
+about it. It is best to begin early. To use one
+of David Harum's expressive maxims, &ldquo;Ev'ry
+hoss c'n do a thing better 'n' spryer if he's ben
+broke to it as a colt.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Eating should be, and, as a matter of fact, is,
+when one follows his usual custom, an unconscious
+process like the mechanical part of reading
+or writing. It is only when he is trying to be
+a bit more formal or fastidious than is habitual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+with him that a man gets tangled, so to speak, in
+the tines of his fork.</p>
+
+<p>Cooking is one of the fine arts. Poets, painters,
+sculptors, musicians, and millionaires have always
+paid tribute to it as such&mdash;and so is dining.
+Like a great many other arts it was first developed
+among royal circles, and there was a time
+when the king resented the idea of a commoner
+being able to dine with grace and elegance. Since
+then it has become democratized, and now there
+are no restrictions except those which a man
+places about himself. And there is no earthly
+(or heavenly) reason why a man should not eat
+in the way which society has established as correct,
+and a good many reasons why he should.</p>
+
+<p>Physicians&mdash;and this is the strongest argument
+we know&mdash;might advance their plea on the
+grounds of good health. In this case we find,
+as we do in a number of others, that what good
+manners declares should be done is heartily endorsed
+at the same time by good sense. It is
+only among people of blunted sensibilities that
+nice table manners count for nothing; for</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There's no reproach among swine, d'you see,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For being a bit of a swine.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Among business men it is often perplexing to
+know whom and when to invite. Generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+speaking, the older man or the man with the superior
+position takes the initiative, but there are
+an infinite number of exceptions. Generally
+speaking, also, the man who is resident in a place
+entertains the one who is visiting, but there are
+infinite exceptions to this as well, especially in
+the case of traveling salesman. All courtesy is
+mutual, and it is almost obligatory upon the
+salesman who has been entertained to return the
+courtesy in kind. Such invitations should be
+tendered after a transaction is completed rather
+than before. The burden of table courtesy falls
+upon the man who is selling rather than the one
+who is buying, probably because he is the one
+to whom the obvious profit accrues.</p>
+
+<p>Social affairs among the wives of business
+men which grow out of the business relations of
+their husbands follow the same rules as almost
+any other social affairs. Nearly always it is the
+wife of the man with the higher position who issues
+the first invitation, and it is permissible for
+her to invite a woman whom she does not know
+personally if she is the wife of a business friend
+of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>The biggest hindrance to the establishment of
+good manners among business men is the everlasting
+hurry in which they (and all the rest of
+us) live. There must first of all be leisure, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+perhaps to the extent advocated by a delightful
+literary gentleman of having three hours for
+lunch every day, but time enough to sit down and
+relax. Thousands of business men dash out to
+lunch&mdash;bad manners are at their worst in the
+middle of the day&mdash;as if they were stopping off
+at a railroad junction with twenty minutes to
+catch a train and had used ten of them checking
+baggage. And they do not always do it because
+they are in a hurry. They have so thoroughly
+developed the habit of living in a frenzied rush
+that even when they have time to spare they cannot
+slow down.</p>
+
+<p>Pleasant surroundings are desirable. It is
+much easier to dine in a quiet spacious room
+where the linen is white and the china is thin, the
+silver is genuine silver, and the service is irreproachable,
+than in a crowded restaurant where
+thick dishes rattle down on white-tiled tables
+from the steaming arms of the flurried waitress,
+where there is no linen, but only flimsy paper
+napkins (which either go fluttering to the floor
+or else form themselves into damp wads on the
+table), where the patrons eat ravenously and untidily,
+and where the atmosphere is dense with
+the fumes of soup and cigarettes. But luxury in
+eating is expensive and most of us must, perforce,
+go to the white-tiled places. And the art of din<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>ing
+is not a question of what one has to eat&mdash;it
+may be beans or truffles&mdash;or where one eats it&mdash;from
+a tin bucket or a mahogany table&mdash;it all
+depends upon <i>how</i>; and the man who can eat in
+a &ldquo;hash-house,&rdquo; an &ldquo;arm-chair joint,&rdquo; a &ldquo;beanerie,&rdquo;
+a cafeteria, a three-minute doughnut
+stand or any of the other quick-lunch places in as
+mannerly a way as if he were dining in a hotel
+<i>de luxe</i> has, we think, a pretty fair claim to the
+title of gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>The responsibility for a dinner lies with the
+host. If his guest has had the same social training
+that he has or is accustomed to better things
+he will have comparatively little trouble. All he
+can do is to give him the best within his means
+<i>without apology</i>. We like to present ourselves
+in the best possible light (it is only human) and
+for this reason often carry our friends to places
+we cannot afford. This imposes upon them the
+necessity of returning the dinner in kind, and
+the vicious circle swings around, each person in
+it grinding his teeth with rage but not able to
+find his way out. Entertaining is all right so
+long as it is a useful adjunct to business, but
+when it becomes a burden in itself it is time to
+call a halt.</p>
+
+<p>Smoking during and immediately after a meal
+is very pleasing to the man who likes tobacco, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+if he has a guest (man or woman) who objects to
+the smell of it he must wait until later. On the
+other hand if his guest likes to smoke and he does
+not he should insist upon his doing so. It is
+a trifling thing but politeness consists largely
+of yielding gracefully in trifles.</p>
+
+<p>Old-fashioned gentlemen held it discourteous
+to mention money at table, but in this degenerate
+age no subject is taboo except those that
+would be taboo in any decent society. Obviously
+when men meet to talk over business they
+cannot leave money out of the discussion. In a
+number of firms the executives have lunch together,
+meeting in a group for perhaps the only
+time during the day. It helps immeasurably to
+co&ouml;rdinate effort, but it sometimes fails to make
+the lunch hour the restful break in the middle of
+the day which it should be. It is generally much
+more fun and of much more benefit to swap fish
+stories and hunting yarns than to go over the details
+of the work in the publicity department or
+to formulate the plans for handling the Smith
+and Smith proposition. Momentous questions
+should be thrust aside until later, and the talk
+should be&mdash;well, <i>talk</i>, not arguing, quarreling,
+or scandal-mongering. The subject does not
+greatly matter except that it should be something
+in which all of the people at the table are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+interested. Whistler was once asked what he
+would do if he were out at dinner and the conversation
+turned to the Mexican War, and some one
+asked him the date of a certain battle. &ldquo;Do?&rdquo;
+he replied. &ldquo;Why, I would refuse to associate
+with people who could talk of such things at
+dinner!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Polite society has always placed a high value
+on table manners, but it is only recently that they
+have come to play so large a part in business.
+Some one has said that you cannot mix business
+and friendship. It would be nearer the truth
+to say that you cannot separate them. More
+and more it is becoming the habit to transact affairs
+over the table, and a very pleasant thing it
+is, too. Aside from the coziness and warmth
+which comes from breaking bread together one is
+free from the interruptions and noise of the office,
+and many a commercial acquaintance has
+ripened into a friend and many a business connection
+has been cemented into something
+stronger through the genial influence of something
+good to eat and drink. It is, of course, a
+mistake to depend too much upon one's social
+gifts. They are very pleasant and helpful but
+the work of the world is done in offices, not on
+golf links or in dining rooms. We have little
+patience with the man who sets his nose to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+grindstone and does not take it away until death
+comes in between, but we have just as little with
+the man who has never touched the grindstone.</p>
+
+<p>Stories go the rounds of executives who choose
+their subordinates by asking them out to lunch
+and watching the way they eat. One man always
+calls for celery and judges his applicant by
+what he does with it. If he eats only the tender
+parts the executive decides that he is extravagant,
+at least with other people's money, but if
+he eats the whole stalk, green leaves and all, he
+feels sure that he has before him a man of economy,
+common sense, and good judgment! The
+story does not say what happens when the young
+man refuses celery altogether. Another uses
+cherry pie as his standard and judges the young
+man by what he does with the pits. There are
+three ways to dispose of them. They may be
+lowered from the mouth with the spoon, they
+may be allowed to drop unaided, or they may be
+swallowed. The last course is not recommended.
+The first is the only one that will land a job.
+But tests like this work both ways and one is
+rather inclined to congratulate the young men
+who were turned down than those who were accepted.</p>
+
+<p>All this aside, an employer does want to know
+something about the table manners of an em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>ployee
+who is to meet and dine with his customers.
+An excellent salesman may be able to convince
+a man of good breeding and wide social
+training if he tucks his napkin into his bosom,
+drinks his soup with a noise, and eats his
+meat with his knife, but the chances are against
+it.</p>
+
+<p>A man who is interested heart and soul in one
+thing will think in terms of it, will have it constantly
+in his mind and on the tip of his tongue.
+But the man of one subject, whatever that subject
+may be, is a bore. It is right that a man
+should live in his work, but he must also live outside
+of it. One of the most tragic chapters in
+the history of American life is the one which
+tells of the millions and millions of men who became
+so immersed in business affairs that they
+lost sight of everything else. The four walls
+of the narrow house which in the end closes
+around us all could not more completely have
+cut them off from the light of day. It is a long
+procession and it has not ended&mdash;that line of
+men passing single file like convicts down the
+long gray vaults of business, business, business,
+with never a thought for the stars or the moon
+or books or trees or flowers or music or life or
+love&mdash;nothing but what casts a shadow over
+that dismal corridor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">These are dead men with no thought<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of things that are not sold or bought.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">* * * * *<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In their bodies there is breath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But their souls are steeped in death.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is not a cheerful picture to contemplate
+(and it seems a good long way away from table
+manners), but the men who form it are more to
+be pitied than blamed. They are blind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>TELEPHONES AND FRONT DOORS</h3>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If the outside of a place is not all right,&rdquo;
+says a man who spends the greater part of his
+time visiting business houses and talking with
+business men, &ldquo;the chances are that it is not
+worth while to go inside.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There are three ways of getting inside: by
+letter (which has a chapter to itself), by the
+front door, and by telephone. And there are
+more complaints against the telephone way than
+either or both the others, which is perfectly
+natural, since it is the most difficult to manage.
+In the first place, it requires good behavior from
+three people at the same time, and that is a
+good deal to expect. Secondly, they cannot see
+one another&mdash;they are like blind people talking
+together&mdash;and no one of them can do his
+part unless the other two do theirs. In the
+third place, the instrument is a lifeless thing,
+and when something goes wrong with it it rouses
+the helpless fury inspired by all inanimate ob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>jects
+which interfere with our comfort&mdash;like
+intermittent alarm clocks, collar buttons that
+roll under the furniture, and flivvers that go
+dead without reason in the middle of country
+roads. In each case whatever one does has no
+effect. The alarm clock continues to ring (unless
+one gets out of bed to shut it off, which is
+worse than letting it ring), the collar button remains
+hid in the darkest part of the room, the
+flivver remains stuck in the muddiest part of the
+road, and the telephone is worst of all, for the
+source of the trouble is usually several miles
+away and there is no means of getting at it.</p>
+
+<p>The telephone is a nuisance&mdash;no one denies
+it&mdash;but it is a necessity also&mdash;no one denies that,
+either&mdash;and one of the greatest conveniences
+in an age of great conveniences. Some of the
+disagreeable features connected with it cannot
+be done away with but must be accepted with as
+much tranquility as we can master, like the terrific
+noise which an a&euml;roplane makes or the trail of
+smoke and cinders which a railway train leaves
+behind. The one who is calling, for instance,
+cannot know that he is the tenth or eleventh
+person who has called the man at the other end
+of the wire in rapid succession, that his desk
+is piled high with correspondence which must
+be looked over, signed, and sent out before noon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+that the advertising department is waiting for
+him to O. K. their plans for a campaign which
+should have been launched the week before, that
+an important visitor is sitting in the library growing
+more impatient every minute, and that his
+temper has been filed down to the quick by an
+assortment of petty worries. (Of course, no office
+should be run like this, but it sometimes happens
+in the best of them.)</p>
+
+<p>Some one has said that we are all like islands
+shouting at each other across a sea of misunderstanding,
+and this was long before telephones
+were thought of. It is hard enough to make
+other people understand what we mean, even
+with the help of facial expression and gestures,
+and over the wire the difficulty is increased a
+hundred fold. For telephoning rests upon a
+delicate adjustment between human beings by
+means of a mechanical apparatus, and it takes
+clear thinking, patience, and courtesy to bring
+it about.</p>
+
+<p>The telephone company began its career some
+few years ago unhampered by the traditions to
+which the earlier corporations were slave, the
+old &ldquo;public be damned&rdquo; idea. Their arbitrary
+methods had brought them to grief, and the new
+concern, with a commendable regard for the lessons
+taught by the experience of others, inaugu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>rated
+a policy of usefulness, service, and courtesy.
+The inside history of the telephone is one of
+constant watchfulness, careful management, and
+continuous improvement; and every improvement
+has meant better service to the public.
+(We are not trying to advertise the telephone
+company. We realize that it has been guilty,
+like every other business, of manifold sins.)</p>
+
+<p>Even the fact that there is a telephone girl instead
+of a telephone boy is due to the alertness
+and good business sense of the company. To
+put a boy before a switchboard and expect him
+not to pull it apart to see how it was made; or
+to place him in a position to entertain himself
+by connecting the wrong parties and listening
+to the impolite names they called each other
+and expect him not to do it, would be expecting
+the laws of nature to reverse themselves. The
+telephone company tried it&mdash;for a while. They
+discovered, besides, that a boy will not &ldquo;take&rdquo;
+what a girl will. It makes no difference what
+goes wrong with a connection, the subscriber
+blames the operator when many times the operator,
+especially the one he is talking to, has had
+nothing to do with it. The girls have learned
+to hold their tempers (not always, but most of
+the time), but when boys had charge of the
+switchboards and the man at the end of the wire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+yelled, &ldquo;You cut me off!&rdquo; and the youngster
+had not, he denied it hotly: &ldquo;You're a liar! I
+didn't!&rdquo; The subscriber would not stand for
+this, angry words flew back and forth, and more
+than once the indignant young operator located
+the subscriber (not a very difficult thing for him
+to do) and went around to settle things in person.
+Words were not always the only weapons
+used.</p>
+
+<p>If this had continued the telephone would
+never have become a public utility. People would
+have looked upon it as an ingenious device but
+not of universal practical value. As it is, good
+salesmanship and efficient service first elevated
+a plaything to a luxury and then reduced the
+luxury to a necessity. And it was possible not
+only because the mechanism itself is a miraculous
+thing but because it has had back of it an intelligent
+human organization working together
+as a unit.</p>
+
+<p>We say this deliberately, knowing that the
+reader will think of the times when the trouble
+he has had in getting the number he wanted has
+made him think there was not a thimbleful of
+intelligence among all of the people associated
+with the entire telephone company. But considering
+the body of employees as a whole the
+standard of courteous and competent service is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+extraordinarily high. The public is impatient
+and prone to remember bad connections instead
+of good ones. It is ignorant also and has very
+small conception of what a girl at central is
+doing. And it is quick to blame her for faults
+of its own.</p>
+
+<p>One of the worst features of telephone service
+is the fact that when one is angry or exasperated
+he seldom quarrels with the right person.
+Some time ago a man was waked in the middle of
+the night by the ringing of the telephone bell.
+He got out of bed to answer it and discovered
+that the man was trying to get another number.
+He went back to bed and to sleep. The telephone
+bell rang again, and again he got out of
+bed to answer it. It was the same man trying
+to get the same number. He went to bed and
+back to sleep. The telephone bell rang the third
+time, he got out of bed again and answered it
+again and found that it was still the same man
+trying to get the same number! &ldquo;I wasn't very
+polite the third time,&rdquo; he confessed when he told
+about it. But the poor fellow at the other end
+of the wire probably had just as touching a story
+to tell, for unless it had been very important for
+him to get the number he would hardly have
+been so persistent. The girl at the switchboard
+may have had a story of her own, but what it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+was is one of those things which, as Lord Dundreary
+used to say, nobody can find out.</p>
+
+<p>The girls who enter the service of the New
+York Telephone Company (and the same thing
+is true in the other branches of the telephone service,
+especially in big cities where there are large
+groups to work with) are carefully selected by
+an employment bureau and sent to a school
+where they are thoroughly grounded in the mechanical
+part of their work and the ideals for
+which the company stands. They are not placed
+on a regular switchboard until they have proved
+themselves efficient on the dummy switchboard,
+and then it is with instructions to be courteous
+though the heavens fall (though they do not express
+it exactly that way). &ldquo;It is the best place
+in the world to learn self-control,&rdquo; one of the
+operators declares, and any one who has ever
+watched them at work will add, &ldquo;Concentration,
+also.&rdquo; One of the most remarkable sights in
+New York is a central exchange where a hundred
+or more girls are working at lightning
+speed, undisturbed by the low murmur around
+them, intent only on the switchboard in front of
+them, making something like five hundred connections
+a minute.</p>
+
+<p>They are a wonderfully level-headed group,
+these telephone girls, wonderfully unlike their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+clinging-vine Victorian grandmothers. They
+do not know how to cling. If a man telephones
+that he has been shot, the girl who receives the
+call does not faint. She sends him a doctor instead
+and takes the next call almost without the
+loss of a second. If a woman wants a policeman
+to get some burglars out of the house, she
+sends her one; if some one telephones that a
+house is burning, she calls out the fire department&mdash;and
+goes straight on with her work.
+Now and then something spectacular happens
+to bring the splendid courage of the girls at the
+switchboards to the attention of the public, such
+as the magnificent service they gave from the exchange
+located a few feet from Wall Street on
+the day of the explosion, but ordinarily it passes,
+like most of the other good things in life, without
+comment.</p>
+
+<p>The New York Telephone Company tries
+to keep its girls healthy and happy. At regular
+intervals they are given rest periods. Attractive
+rooms are prepared for them, tastefully
+furnished, well-lighted, and filled with comfortable
+chairs, good books, and magazines. Substantial
+meals are supplied in the middle of the
+day at a nominal charge. Special entertainments
+are planned from time to time, and best
+of all, the play time is kept absolutely distinct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+from the work time, a condition which makes
+for happiness as well as usefulness.</p>
+
+<p>The girls are not perfect, they are not infallible.
+And they are only a third part of a telephone
+call. They work under difficulties at a
+task which is not an easy one, and their efficiency
+does not rest with them alone but with the
+people whom they serve as well.</p>
+
+<p>A telephone call begins with the subscriber.
+Very few people understand the intricate system
+of cable and dynamos, vacuum tubes, coil
+racks, storage batteries, transmitters and generators
+which enable them to talk from a distance,
+and a good many could not understand them
+even if they were explained. Fortunately it
+is not necessary that they should. The subscriber's
+part is very simple.</p>
+
+<p>He should first make sure that he is calling
+the right number. In New York City alone,
+forty-eight thousand wrong numbers are asked
+for every day by subscribers who have not consulted
+the telephone directory first, or who have
+unconsciously transposed the digits in a number.
+For example, a number such as 6454 can easily
+be changed to 6544. The telephone directory is a
+safe guide, much more so than an old letter or bill
+head or an uncertain memory. Information may
+be called if the number is not in the directory, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+one should be definite even with her. She cannot
+supply the number of Mr. What-you-may-call-it
+or of Mr. Thing-um-a-bob or of Mr. Smith
+who lives down near the railroad station, and she
+cannot give the telephone number of a house
+which has no telephone in it. She has no right
+to answer irrelevant questions; is, in fact, prohibited
+from doing so. Her business is to furnish
+numbers and she cannot do it efficiently if
+she is expected also to explain why a cat has
+whiskers, how to preserve string beans by drying
+them, what time it is, what time the train leaves
+for Wakefield, or what kind of connection can be
+made at Jones's Junction.</p>
+
+<p>In calling a number the name of the exchange
+should be given first. The number itself should
+be called with a slight pause between the hundreds
+and the tens, thus, &ldquo;Watkins&mdash;pause&mdash;five,
+nine&mdash;pause&mdash;hundred&rdquo; for &ldquo;Watkins
+5900&rdquo; or &ldquo;Murray Hill&mdash;pause&mdash;four, two&mdash;pause&mdash;six,
+three&rdquo; for &ldquo;Murray Hill 4263.&rdquo;
+The reason for this is that the switchboard before
+which the operator sits is honeycombed
+with tiny holes arranged in sections of one hundred
+each. Each section is numbered and
+each of the holes within it is the termination
+of a subscriber's line. In locating &ldquo;Watkins
+5900&rdquo; the girl first finds the section labelled &ldquo;59<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>&rdquo;
+and then the &ldquo;00&rdquo; hole in that section, and if
+the &ldquo;59&rdquo; is given first she has found it by the
+time the subscriber has finished calling the number.</p>
+
+<p>The number should be pronounced slowly and
+distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>When the operator repeats it the subscriber
+should acknowledge it, and if she repeats it incorrectly,
+should stop her and give her the number
+again. And he should always remember, however
+difficult it may be to make her understand,
+that he is talking to a girl, a human being, and
+that the chances are ten to one that the poor
+connection is not her fault.</p>
+
+<p>To recall the operator in case the wrong person
+is connected it is only necessary to move the
+receiver hook slowly up and down. She may
+not be able to attend to the recall at once but
+jiggling the hook angrily up and down will not
+get her any sooner. In fact, the more furious
+the subscriber becomes the less the girl knows
+about it, for the tiny signal light fails to register
+except when the hook is moved slowly; or if the
+switchboard is one where the operator is signalled
+by a little disk which falls over a blank
+space the disk fails to move down but remains
+quivering almost imperceptibly in its usual position.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After he has placed a call a man should wait
+at the telephone or near it until the connection
+is made. Too many men have a way of giving
+their secretaries a number to send through and
+then wandering off somewhere out of sight so
+that when the person is finally connected he has
+to wait several minutes while the secretary locates
+the man who started the call. It is the
+acme of discourtesy to keep any one waiting in
+this manner. It implies that your time is much
+more valuable than his, which may be true, but
+it is hardly gracious to shout it in so brazen a
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>It has been estimated that in New York City
+alone, more than a full business year is lost over
+the telephone every day between sunrise and
+sunset. There are 3,800,000 completed connections
+made every day. Out of each hundred, six
+show a delay of a minute or more before the person
+called answers. In each day this amounts to
+a delay of 228,000 connections. Two hundred
+and twenty-eight thousand minutes (and sometimes
+the delay amounts to much more than a
+minute) is the equivalent of 475 days of eight
+hours each, or as the gentleman who compiled
+these interesting statistics has it, a business year
+and a third with all the Sundays and holidays intact.
+In the course of a year it amounts to more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+than all the business days that have elapsed
+since Columbus discovered America!</p>
+
+<p>It may be argued that we would be better off
+if we lost more than a year every day and did all
+our work at more leisurely pace. This may be,
+but the time to rest is not when the telephone bell
+is ringing.</p>
+
+<p>The telephone on a business man's desk should
+always be facing him and it should not be tricked
+out with any of the patent devices except those
+sanctioned by the company. Most of them lessen
+instead of increase efficiency. A woman
+in her home where calls are infrequent may hide
+her telephone behind a lacquered screen or cover
+it with pink taffeta ruffles, but in a business office
+it is best to make no attempts to beautify it.
+It is when it is unadorned that the ugly little
+instrument gives its best service.</p>
+
+<p>There should always be a pad and pencil at
+hand so that the message (if there is one) can
+be taken down without delay. The person at
+the other end probably has not time (and certainly
+has not inclination) to wait until you have
+fumbled through the papers on your desk and
+the rubbish in the drawers to locate something
+to write on and something to write with.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Hello&rdquo; is a useless and obsolescent form of
+response in business offices. The name of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+firm, of the department, or of the man himself, or
+of all three, according to circumstances, should be
+given. When there is a private operator to take
+care of the calls she answers with the name of
+the firm, Blank and Blank. If the person at
+the other end of the wire says, &ldquo;I want the Advertising
+department,&rdquo; she connects them and
+the man there answers with &ldquo;Advertising department.&rdquo;
+The other then may ask for the manager,
+in which case the manager answers with his
+name. It is easy to grow impatient under all
+these relays, but a complicated connection involving
+half a dozen people before the right one
+is reached can be accomplished in less than a
+minute if each person sends it straight through
+without stopping to exchange a number of &ldquo;Helloes&rdquo;
+like a group of Swiss yodelers, or to ask
+a lot of unnecessary questions.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to scream over the telephone.
+The mouth should be held close to the
+transmitter and the words should be spoken
+carefully. In an open office where there are
+no partitions between the desks one should take
+especial pains to keep his voice modulated. One
+person angrily spluttering over the telephone
+can paralyze the work of all the people within
+a radius of fifty feet. If it were a necessary evil
+we could make ourselves grow accustomed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+it. But it is not. And there is already enough
+unavoidable wear and tear during the course of
+a business day without adding this.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;<i>Hello, what do you want?</i>&rdquo; is no way to
+answer a call. No decent person would speak
+even to a beggar at his door in this way and the
+visitor over the telephone, whoever he is, is entitled
+to a cordial greeting. <i>The voice with the
+smile wins.</i></p>
+
+<p>An amusing story is told of a man in Washington
+who was waked one evening about eleven
+o'clock by the telephone bell. At first he swore
+that he would not answer it but his wife insisted
+that it might be something very important, and
+finally, outraged and angry, he blundered
+through the dark across the room and into the
+hall, jerked down the receiver and yelled,
+&ldquo;Hello!&rdquo; His wife, who was listening tensely
+for whatever ill news might be forthcoming, was
+perfectly amazed to hear him saying in the next
+breath, in the most dulcet tones he had ever used,
+&ldquo;Oh, how do you do, I'm <i>so</i> glad you called.
+Oh, delightful. Charmed. I'm sure she will
+be, too. Thank you. Yes, indeed. So good
+of you. <i>Good</i>-bye.&rdquo; It was the wife of the
+President of the United States asking him and
+his wife to dinner at the White House.</p>
+
+<p>If the person calling is given the wrong de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>partment
+he should be courteously transferred to
+the right one. Courteously, and not with a
+brusque, &ldquo;You've got the wrong party&rdquo; or &ldquo;I'm
+not the man you want&rdquo; but with &ldquo;Just a minute,
+please, and I'll give you Mr. Miller.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The time when people are rudest over the telephone
+is when some one breaks in on the wire.
+It might be just as well to remember that people
+do not interrupt intentionally, and the intruder is
+probably as disconcerted as the man he has interrupted.
+If he had inadvertently opened the
+wrong door in a business office the man inside
+would not have yelled, &ldquo;Get out of here,&rdquo; but
+over the telephone he will shriek, &ldquo;Get off the
+wire&rdquo; in a tone he would hardly use to drive the
+cow out of a cabbage patch.</p>
+
+<p>In an effort to secure better manners among
+their subscribers the telephone company has
+asked them to try to visualize the person at the
+other end of the wire and to imagine that they
+are talking face to face. Many times a man
+will say things over the telephone&mdash;rude, profane,
+angry, insulting things, which he would not
+dream of saying if he were actually before the
+man he is talking to. And to make it worse he
+is often so angry that he does not give the other
+a chance to explain his side of it, at least not until
+he has said all that he has to say, and even then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+he not infrequently slams the receiver down on
+the hook as soon as he has finished!</p>
+
+<p>Listening on a wire passes over from the field
+of courtesy into that of ethics. On party lines
+in the country it is not considered a heinous offense
+to eavesdrop over the telephone, but the
+conversation there is for the most part harmless
+neighborhood gossip and it does not matter
+greatly who hears it. In business it is different.
+But it is practically impossible for any one except
+the operator to overhear a conversation except
+by accident, and it is a misdemeanor punishable
+by law for her to give a message to
+any one other than the person for whom it was
+intended.</p>
+
+<p>In every office there should be a large enough
+mechanical equipment manned by an efficient
+staff to take care of the telephone traffic without
+delay. &ldquo;The line is busy&rdquo; given in answer to a
+call three or four times will send the person who
+is calling to some other place to have his wants
+looked after.</p>
+
+<p>Few places appreciate the tremendous volume
+of business that comes in by way of telephone or
+the possibilities which it offers to increase business
+opportunities. They are as short-sighted
+as the department store which, a good many years
+ago, when telephones were new, had them in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>stalled
+but took them out after a few weeks because
+the clerks were kept so busy taking orders
+over them that they did not have time to attend
+to the customers who came into the store!</p>
+
+<p>Another important vantage point which, like
+the telephone, suffers from neglect is the reception
+desk. Millions of dollars' worth of business
+is lost every year and perfect sandstorms
+and cyclones of animosity are generated because
+business men have not yet learned the great
+value of having the right kind of person to receive
+visitors. To the strangers who come&mdash;and
+among the idlers and swindlers and beggars who
+assail every successful business house are potential
+good friends and customers&mdash;this person
+represents the firm,&mdash;is, for the time being, the
+firm itself.</p>
+
+<p>It is very childish for a man to turn away from
+a reception desk because he does not like the manner
+of the person behind it, but business men, sensible
+ones at that, do it every day. Pleasant connections
+of years' standing are sometimes broken
+off and valuable business propositions are carried
+to rival concerns because of indifferent or insolent
+treatment at the front door. Only a short time
+ago an advertising agency lost a contract for
+which it had been working two years on account
+of the way the girl at the door received the man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+who came to place it. He dropped in without
+previous appointment and was met by a blonde
+young lady with highly tinted cheeks who tilted
+herself forward on the heels of her French pumps
+and pertly inquired what he wanted. He told
+her. &ldquo;Mr. Hunt isn't in.&rdquo; &ldquo;When will he be
+back?&rdquo; &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; and she swung around
+on the impossible heels. The man deliberated
+a moment and then swung around on his heels
+(which were very flat and sensible) and carried
+the contract to another agency. Instances of
+this kind might be multiplied. Some business
+men would have persisted until they got what
+they wanted from the young lady. Others would
+have angrily reported her to the head of her office,
+but the majority would have acted as this
+man did.</p>
+
+<p>Most men (and women), whether they are in
+business or not, do not underestimate their own
+importance and they like to feel that the rest of
+the world does not either. They do not like to
+be kept waiting; they like to be received with
+a nice deference, not haughtily; they do not like
+to be sent to the wrong department; and they
+love (and so do we all) talking to important people.
+Realizing this, banks and trust companies
+and other big organizations have had to appoint
+nearly as many vice-presidents as there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+second-lieutenants during the war to take care
+of their self-important visitors. Even those
+whose time is not worth ten cents (a number of
+them are women) like to be treated as if it were
+worth a great deal. It is, for the most part, an
+innocent desire which does no one any special
+harm, and any business that sets out to serve
+the public (and there is no other kind) has to
+take into account all the caprices of human vanity.
+We cannot get away from it. Benjamin
+Franklin placed humility among the virtues he
+wished to cultivate, but after a time declared it
+impossible. &ldquo;For,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if I overcame pride
+I would be proud of my humility.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Courtesy is the first requirement of the business
+host or hostess and after that, intelligence.
+Some business houses make the mistake of putting
+back of the reception desk a girl who has
+proved herself too dull-witted to serve anywhere
+else. The smiling idiot with which this country
+(and others) so abounds may be harmless and
+even useful if she is kept busy behind the lines,
+but, placed out where she is a buffer between the
+house and the outside world, she is a positive affliction.
+She may be pleasant enough, but the
+caller who comes for information and can get
+nothing but a smile will go away feeling about as
+cheerful as if he had stuck his hand into a jar of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+honey when he was a mile or so away from soap,
+water, and towel.</p>
+
+<p>A litter of office boys sprawling untidily over
+the desks and chairs in the reception room is as
+bad, and a snappy young lady of the &ldquo;Now see
+here, kid&rdquo; variety is worse.</p>
+
+<p>The position is not an easy one, especially in
+places where there is a constant influx of miscellaneous
+callers, and it is hardly fair to ask a
+young girl to fill it. In England they use elderly
+men and in a number of offices over here, too.
+Their age and manner automatically protect
+them (and incidentally their firms) from many
+undesirables that a boy or girl in the same position
+would have considerable difficulty in handling.
+And they lend the place an air of dignity
+and reserve quite impossible with a youngster.</p>
+
+<p>In some offices, especially in those where large
+amounts of money are stored or handled, there
+are door men in uniform and often plain clothes
+huskies near the entrances to protect the people
+(and the money) on the inside from cranks and
+crooks and criminals. In others, a physician's
+office, for instance, or any small office where the
+people who are likely to come are of the gentler
+sort, a young girl with a pleasing manner will do
+just as well as and perhaps better than any one
+else. In big companies where there are many de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>partments,
+it is customary to maintain a regular
+bureau of information to which the caller who is
+not sure whom or what he wants is first directed,
+but the majority of businesses have only one person
+who is delegated to receive the people who
+come and either direct them to the person they
+want to see or turn them aside.</p>
+
+<p>Most of them must be turned aside. If the
+stage managers in New York interviewed all the
+girls who want to see them, they would have no
+time left for anything else, and the same thing is
+true of nearly every man who is prominent in
+business or in some other way. (Charlie Chaplin
+received 73,000 letters during the first three
+days he was in England. Suppose he had personally
+read each of them!) Hundreds of people
+must be turned away, but every person who
+approaches a firm either to get something from
+it or to give something to it has a right to attention.
+Men are in business to work, not to entertain,
+and they must protect themselves. But the
+people who are turned away must be turned
+away courteously, and the business house which
+has found some one who can do it has cause to
+rise and give thanks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3>TRAVELING AND SELLING</h3>
+
+<p>The etiquette of traveling includes very few
+points not covered by the general laws of good
+behavior. Keeping one's place in line before the
+ticket window, having money ready and moving
+aside as quickly as possible instead of lingering
+to converse with the ticket-seller about train
+schedules and divers other interesting subjects
+are primary rules. It is permissible to make
+sure that the train is the right one before getting
+on it, but it is unnecessary to do it more than half
+a dozen times. When the sign over the gate
+says &ldquo;Train for Bellevue&rdquo; it probably <i>is</i> the
+train for Bellevue, and when the guard at the
+gate repeats that it is the train for Bellevue the
+chances are that he is telling the truth.</p>
+
+<p>An experienced traveler usually carries very
+little baggage. A lot of suitcases and grips are
+bothersome, not only to the one who has charge
+of them, but also to those who are cramped into
+small quarters because of them. A traveler
+may make himself as comfortable as he likes so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+long as it is not at the expense of the other passengers.
+If they object to an open window the
+window must stay down. Lounging over a seat
+is bad form, especially if there is some one else in
+it. So is prowling from one end of the car to
+the other. Besides, it makes some people nervous.
+Snoring is impolite and so is talking in
+one's sleep, but they are beyond remedy. Talking
+with the person in the berth above or below is
+not, however, and is much more disturbing than
+the noise of the train. Forgetting the number
+of one's berth and blundering into the wrong
+place is a serious breach of good manners in a
+sleeping car, and it is extremely severe on timid
+persons who have gone to bed with visions before
+their minds of the man who was murdered in
+lower ten and the woman who brought her husband's
+corpse from Florida in the same berth
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>Among men, &ldquo;picking up&rdquo; acquaintances on a
+train or boat is allowable if it comes about in a
+natural way, but there are men who object to it.
+Many business men do not discontinue their
+work because they are traveling. Portable
+typewriters, secretaries, the telegraph and other
+means of swift communication have made it possible
+for them to accomplish almost as much as
+if they were in the office back home. Such men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+do not like to be interrupted, and if a garrulous
+or an intrusive person approaches it is within the
+bounds of courtesy to turn him aside. Generally,
+however, there is a comradery of the road,
+a sort of good fellowship among voyagers which
+lets down ordinary bars, and the men who like
+to rest as they travel find it highly diverting and
+interesting to talk with other men from various
+parts of the country. This holds true in hotels,
+especially in the commercial hotels, where traveling
+men foregather to meet their customers
+and transact their business, and in hotels in small
+places where the possibilities for amusement are
+limited and the people have to depend on one
+another for entertainment. But there are limits.
+No man should ever thrust himself upon another
+and it is almost an iron clad rule that he should
+never &ldquo;pick up&rdquo; women acquaintances when
+traveling. It is permissible to talk with them,
+but not to annoy them with personal attentions
+nor to place them under obligation by paying
+their bills. If a man and a woman who are traveling
+on the same train fall into conversation and
+go into the dining car together, each one should
+pay his or her own check, or if he insists upon
+paying at the table she should insist upon settling
+afterwards. In hotels also this is essentially
+true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Hotels are judged more by the people who
+come to them than by anything else. The guests
+indicate the quality of the service, and for this
+reason, most hotels prefer that they be gentlemen.
+There is an atmosphere about a first-class
+hotel that frightens away second-rate people.
+Most places have standards and many a man has
+been turned away even when there was an empty
+room because the management did not like his
+looks.</p>
+
+<p>Tipping is one of the most vexatious petty
+problems with which a traveler is confronted.
+It is an undemocratic custom which every sensible
+man deplores but sees no way around.
+Waiters, porters, and other functionaries who
+are in positions to receive tips draw very small
+salaries, if any. They depend upon the generosity
+of the public they serve. The system may
+be all wrong (we believe it is) but it means
+bread and butter to those who live by it, and it is
+only just, as matters are now arranged, for the
+traveler to pay. It is foolish to tip extravagantly
+or to tip every pirate who performs even
+the most trifling service, but a small fee, especially
+if the service has been good, is a courtesy
+not to be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Tipping originally grew out of kindness. The
+knight who had received special attention at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+hands of his squire expressed his gratitude by a
+special reward. The word &ldquo;gratuity&rdquo; itself indicates
+that the little gift was once simply a
+spontaneous act of thoughtfulness. It has degenerated
+into a perfunctory habit, but it should
+not be so. Excellent service deserves a recompense
+just as slip-shod service does not. And
+no one has a right to spoil a waiter (or any one
+else) by tipping him for inefficient work. In
+hotels and restaurants the standard fee is ten
+per cent of the bill.</p>
+
+<p>Regular travelling of any kind even under
+favorable circumstances is a great wear and tear
+on the disposition. Commuters who go in and
+out of town every day are a notoriously hag-ridden
+lot, and the men who go on the road are
+not much better. But there is one enormous difference.
+It is the privilege of the commuter to
+growl as much as he likes about the discomforts
+of the road and the stupidity of the men who
+make up the time tables, but travelling men&mdash;we
+are speaking of salesmen especially&mdash;can never
+indulge in the luxury of a grouch. One of the
+biggest parts of his job is to keep cheerful all
+the time and that in itself is no small task. (Try
+it and see.) A farmer can wear a frown as
+heavy as a summer thunder cloud and the potatoes
+will grow just the same; a mechanic can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+swear at the automobile he is putting into shape
+(a very impolite thing to do even when there is
+no one but the machine to hear), and the bolts
+and screws will hold just as fast; a lawyer can
+knit his brows over his brief case and come to his
+solution just as quickly as if he sat grinning at
+it, but the salesman must smile, smile, smile. The
+season may be dull, the crops may be bad, there
+may be strikes, lockouts, depressions and deflations,
+unemployment&mdash;it makes no difference&mdash;he
+must keep cheerful. It is the courtesy of
+salesmanship, and it is this quality more than any
+other that makes selling a young man's job&mdash;we
+do not mean in years, but in spirit&mdash;an old
+one could not stand it.</p>
+
+<p>In the good old days when the country was
+young and everybody, from all accounts we can
+gather, was happy, salesmen in the present sense
+of the term were almost unknown. There were
+peddlers, characters as picturesque as gipsies, who
+travelled about the country preying chiefly on
+the farmers. Often they spent the night&mdash;hotel
+accommodations were few and houses were far
+apart&mdash;and entertained the family with lively
+tales of life on the road. Next morning they
+gave the children trifling presents, swindled the
+farmer out of several dollars and made themselves
+generally agreeable. The farmer took it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+all in good part and looked forward with pleasure
+to the next visit. The peddlers came in pairs
+then, like snakes, but they were for the most part
+welcome and there was genuine regret when they
+became things of the past like top-buggies and
+Prince Albert coats.</p>
+
+<p>After the peddler came the drummer, a rough,
+noisy chap, as his name indicates, harmless
+enough, but economically not much more significant
+than the peddler. He stayed in the business
+district where he was tolerated with good-natured
+indulgence. He was less objectionable than the
+man who followed him, the agent. He was (and
+is) a house-to-house and office-to-office canvasser
+and a general nuisance. He sold everything
+from books to life insurance, from patent potato
+peelers to opera glasses. He still survives, but
+not in large numbers, for his work, like that of
+the peddler and the drummer, has been swallowed
+up by the salesman.</p>
+
+<p>The rewards which modern salesmanship holds
+out to those who succeed at it are so large that
+the field has attracted all kinds of men, highly
+efficient ones who love the game for its own sake,
+grossly incompetent ones who, having failed at
+something else, have decided to try this, and adventurers
+who believe they see in it a chance to
+get rich quick. The teachers of salesmanship<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+tell us that we are all selling something, even
+when there is no visible product. The worker,
+according to them, is selling his services just as
+the salesman is selling goods. It may be true,
+but we all could not (and it is a blessing) go out
+and sell things in the ordinary sense in which we
+use the word. Some of us have to be producers.
+But the salesman's work is important. We do
+not discredit it.</p>
+
+<p>Salesmanship is built on faith. A man must
+believe in his product and then must make other
+people believe in it as firmly as he does. So devoted
+are some salesmen to their work that it is
+difficult to tell whether they consider their calling
+a trade, a profession, a science, or a religion.
+Sometimes it is all four. Sometimes it goes beyond
+them and becomes a kind of mesmerism in
+which the salesman uses a sort of hypnotic process
+(which is simply the result of being over-anxious
+to sell) to persuade the prospect that he
+cannot wait another day before buying the particular
+article that the salesman is distributing.
+The article may be stocks and bonds, wash cloths,
+soap, or hair nets. It makes no difference, but
+he must be filled with enthusiasm and must be
+able to pass it along. And this very virtue which
+is the foundation of successful salesmanship is
+likely to lead the salesman into gross rudeness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+For the man who is selling is so eager and so
+earnest that he forgets that the man who is buying
+may have his own ideas on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The first step in salesmanship is to acquire a
+thorough knowledge of the product. The next
+is to gain access to the man who is to buy it. This
+is not always easy. Business men have been
+annoyed so much by agents that they have had to
+erect barriers, in many instances almost impenetrable
+ones. It is especially difficult in big
+cities where the pressure is heavy, but most worth
+while business men have learned the value of
+contact with the world outside and are willing to
+give almost any man an interview if he can show
+a valid reason why he should have it. Whether
+he gets a second interview or not depends upon
+how he handled the first one.</p>
+
+<p>There are many ways of getting into an office.
+A salesman usually stands a much better chance
+if he writes ahead for an appointment. It is
+much more courteous to ask a man when he
+wants to see you than to drop in on him casually
+and trust to luck that the time is not inopportune.
+Some salesmen are afraid to write because
+they think the knowledge of what they
+have to sell will prejudice the prospect against
+it. At the same time they feel that if they can
+only get a chance to talk to him a few minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+they can over-ride the prejudice. A salesman
+may come into an office without letting the man
+know what his purpose is (though it is best to
+begin with cards on the table) but he will not
+come in (unless he is a crook) under false pretenses.</p>
+
+<p>The friends of a salesman can sometimes be
+very useful to him in presenting him to valuable
+prospects, and when they feel that the meeting
+will result in mutual benefit they are glad to do
+it. Sometimes the friend will give a letter or
+a card of introduction. Sometimes he will telephone
+or speak for an appointment. It is best
+when these come unsolicited, though it is permissible
+to ask for them. No man should depend
+upon the help of his friends. A salesman should
+be able to stand on his own feet, and if he and his
+product together do not form a strong enough
+combination to break down all obstructions there
+is something wrong with one or the other of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The best card of admission at the door of a
+business office is a pleasing personal appearance
+coupled with a calm and assured manner. This
+is a universal standard of measuring a man's
+character and calibre. Until we have heard him
+speak we judge him by the way he looks. It is
+a dangerous practice, as the proverb warns us,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+but the percentage of hits is high enough to make
+us continue to use it.</p>
+
+<p>A favorite device with a certain cheap type of
+salesman is to give his name to the girl at the entrance
+desk and ask her to tell Mr. Brown that
+Mr. Green has sent Mr. Smith to call. The Mr.
+Green is entirely fictitious, but since Mr. Brown
+has several business acquaintances of that name,
+he interrupts his work and comes out to see Mr.
+Smith and discovers that he is a life insurance
+agent who thinks that if he can once get inside
+he can &ldquo;put it across.&rdquo; Most business men have
+no use for such practices and rarely allow the
+salesmen who employ them to stay in their offices
+any longer than it takes to get them out. Besides,
+the salesman places himself under a handicap
+to begin with. He will find it pretty hard
+to convince the man in the office that he is not
+dishonest about his goods just as he is about himself.
+He is the greatest enemy of his profession.
+And he makes the work of every one else engaged
+in it infinitely harder. It is something
+every business and profession has to fight against&mdash;the
+dishonest grafter who is using it as a means
+of swindling society.</p>
+
+<p>Most salesmen give their names at the entrance
+desk instead of presenting their cards.
+Psychologists and experience have taught them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+that the card is distracting and that even if the
+interview is granted it is harder to get the attention
+of the other man if he has a card to twiddle
+between his fingers. It is more conventional to
+send in a card (a good card is a letter of introduction
+in itself) but if the salesman finds it a
+handicap, however slight, he should by all means
+dispense with it. If the card is cheap or flashy
+or offensive in any way it arouses prejudice
+against the man who bears it before he has had a
+chance to present his case in person. The business
+card may be the same as the personal card,
+simply a bit of pasteboard bearing the name and
+perhaps the address, or it may be larger than the
+ordinary personal card and bear the name of the
+firm for which the salesman is working, and in
+addition, if it is a very simple design, the trademark
+of the firm.</p>
+
+<p>Whether to rise when a caller enters and shake
+hands is a question to be settled by each person
+according to the way he likes best. It is certainly
+more gracious to rise and ask him to be
+seated before resuming one's own place. But
+promiscuous handshaking is an American habit
+which Europeans as a rule frown upon and in
+which a number of Americans do not indulge,
+for they like the grasp of their hand to mean
+something more than a careless greeting and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+reserve it for their friends. In any case, the
+caller should not be the first to extend his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>If a man is accustomed to see a great number
+of people he will find it too much of a strain on
+his vitality to shake hands with them all. Roosevelt
+used to surprise strangers with the laxness
+of his grasp, but the Colonel had learned to conserve
+his strength in small things so that he
+might give it to great ones. The President of
+the United States has more than once in the
+course of the history of our country come to the
+end of the day with his hands bleeding from the
+number of times people have pressed it during
+the day. Now the President ought to be willing
+to give his life for his country, but he ought
+not to be required to give it in this way. It
+probably meant a great deal to each one of the
+people in the throng to be able to say, &ldquo;I once
+shook hands with the President,&rdquo; but how much
+more it would have meant if each one of them
+could have said, &ldquo;One day I helped my President,&rdquo;
+even if the help was so small an act of
+thoughtfulness as forbearing to shake his hand.</p>
+
+<p>But to get back to salesmen: Some of them
+have a way, especially the over-zealous ones, of
+getting as close to the prospect as is physically
+possible. They place their papers or their brief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+cases on the desk before which the prospect is
+sitting, hitch their chairs up as close as they can,
+and talk with their breath in his face. No one
+likes this and it is only a rude and thoughtless
+salesman who is guilty of it. One man who had
+been vexed by it over and over again had the
+visitor's chair nailed to the floor in his office
+some little distance from his own. And he
+never had a caller who didn't try to move it
+nearer to him!</p>
+
+<p>For years it has been the habit for business
+men to receive their callers at their desks, but
+lately there has been a turning away from this.
+The desk is usually littered with papers and letters
+which the caller can hardly help reading, and
+there are constant interruptions from the telephone
+and the other members of the office. For
+these reasons a number of business men are going
+out to see their callers instead of bringing them
+in to see them, a practice which is much more cordial
+than the other if one can afford the time for
+it. One big business house abolished its large
+reception room and built in a number of smaller
+ones instead. In this way each visitor has privacy
+and there is a feeling of hospitality and
+coziness about the little room which the bigger
+one failed to give. Each room was fitted up
+with comfortable chairs, books, and magazines so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+that if the caller had to wait he would have the
+means of entertaining himself.</p>
+
+<p>Once a man agrees to see a salesman or other
+visitor he should give, in so far as it is possible,
+his full attention to him. It is better to refuse an
+audience altogether than to give it grudgingly.
+A prominent man cannot possibly see all of the
+people, salesmen and whatnot, who want to talk
+with him or he would have no time left to keep
+himself prominent. A busy man has to protect
+himself against the cranks and idlers who try to
+gain access to him, and most men have to have
+devices by which they can rid themselves of objectionable
+or tiresome callers. One man who
+has a constant stream of visitors has only one
+chair in his office, and he sits in it. Another
+never allows a visitor to enter his office, but goes
+to the outer reception room and stands while he
+talks. One man stands up as a signal that the
+interview is at an end. Another begins to fumble
+with the papers on his desk, and the salesman
+does not live who is not familiar with the man
+who must hurry out to lunch or who has only five
+minutes to catch a train. One man has his secretary
+or his office boy interrupt him after a visitor
+has been in as much as ten minutes, to tell him
+that Mr. So-and-So is waiting outside. Another
+rises to his feet and walks slowly toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+door, the salesman following, until he has maneuvered
+him out. If the salesman is a man of sense
+none of these devices will be necessary. He knows
+that a courteous and prompt departure helps his
+cause much more than an annoying persistence,
+and the man who stays after his prospect's mind
+has lost every interest except to get him out of
+the way is lacking in one of the fundamentals of
+social good manners as well as business good
+manners. Rarely, perhaps never, does he succeed.
+For the successful salesman is the one
+who can put himself into his prospect's place and
+let him know that he has made a study of his
+needs and is there to help him.</p>
+
+<p>Carefully prepared approaches and memorized
+speeches are worth much to the beginner,
+but an agility in adapting himself is much
+more important. Ludendorff failed to get to
+Paris because his original plan was upset and he
+could not think quickly enough to rally the German
+army and attack from a different angle.
+Most salesmen have to talk to men who are continually
+interrupted to attend to something else.
+And most business men know what they want, or
+think they do, and when they ask a direct question
+they want a direct answer. Many a young
+salesman has ruined himself so far as his career
+was concerned because he went out with instruc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>tions
+to keep the interview in his hands and every
+time the man he was &ldquo;selling&rdquo; asked a question
+he passed airily over it and kept stubbornly on
+the road he had mapped out for himself. The
+salesman cannot think in theoretical terms; he
+must think concretely and from the point of view
+of the man he is trying to convince. As one very
+excellent salesman has put it, he must get the
+prospect's own story and tell it to him in different
+words, and if he can actually show him a way
+to decrease expenses or to increase output he
+will win not only his attention, but his heart as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>The salesman must be absorbed in his commodity,
+but not to the exclusion of the man he is
+trying to &ldquo;sell.&rdquo; A beginner of this type went
+into a man's office some time ago and rattled off
+a speech he had memorized about some charts.
+The man listened until he came to the end&mdash;the
+boy was talking so rapidly and excitedly that it
+would have been hard to interrupt him except by
+shouting at him&mdash;and then quietly told him that
+he had not been able to understand a word of
+what he had said. &ldquo;You have not been talking
+to me,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;You have been talking
+at me.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Another salesman of the same general kind
+went into the office of a busy lawyer one morn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>ing
+recently in a building which happened to be
+owned by the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I am going to give you some books,&rdquo; he announced.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer asked him what they were, but the
+salesman refused to be diverted before he had
+led up to the dramatic moment in his carefully
+planned speech at which he thought it best to
+mention the name of the books. He went through
+the whole of his canvass and then thrust a paper
+under the lawyer's face with &ldquo;Sign here&rdquo; above
+the dotted line.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I thought you were going to give them to
+me,&rdquo; the lawyer said.</p>
+
+<p>The salesman began to explain that of course
+he could not give him the books outright and so
+on and on and on&mdash;everybody has heard this part
+of his speech. The lawyer laughed and the salesman
+lost his temper. Very angry, he started out
+of the room. Near the door which opened into
+the hall was another door which opened into a
+closet that contained a shelf which was a little
+more than five feet high. The salesman opened
+this door by mistake and struck his head smartly
+against the shelf. This made him angrier than
+ever. He jerked the other door open and
+slammed it behind him with a crash that nearly
+broke the glass out. This was more than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+lawyer could stand. He sprang up and started
+in pursuit of the salesman, who by this time was
+on his way into another office in the same building.
+The lawyer asked him where he was going.
+The salesman told him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Not in my building,&rdquo; the lawyer said. &ldquo;I
+can't have the men who have offices here disturbed
+by people who act like this. Now go on,&rdquo;
+he added kindly but firmly, &ldquo;and let's forget that
+you ever came here.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And the salesman went.</p>
+
+<p>Salesmanship is service, and the man who persuades
+another to buy something he knows he
+does not want, does not need, and cannot use, is
+a scoundrel. &ldquo;Good salesmanship,&rdquo; and this is
+the only sort that any self-respecting man will
+engage in, &ldquo;is selling goods that won't come
+back to customers that will.&rdquo; It is cumulative
+in its effect, and the man who sells another something
+that really fills a want wins his eternal
+gratitude and friendship. He tells his friends
+about it, they come to the same salesman and the
+product begins almost to sell itself. But it takes
+patience and courtesy to bring it up to this point.</p>
+
+<p>Some salesmen kill a territory on their first
+trip. Bad manners can do it very easily. Sometimes
+they make themselves so objectionable that
+the customer will buy to get rid of them, espe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>cially
+if the purchase does not involve more than
+a dollar or two. Sometimes they carry the customer
+along so smoothly with plausible arguments
+that they persuade him to buy something
+that he knows he does not want. It is all right
+so long as the salesman is present, but discontent
+follows in his trail. Sometimes&mdash;stocks and
+bonds salesmen are guilty here&mdash;they wheedle
+the customer into buying more than he can afford,
+beginning on the premise that since their
+stocks are good (and the men who sell fraudulent
+ones use the same methods) a man should if
+he has a hundred dollars buy a hundred dollars'
+worth, if he has a million he should buy a million
+dollars' worth, if he has a home he must mortgage
+it, if he has an automobile he must sell it.
+No good salesman works like this. People are
+very gullible and it takes little argument to persuade
+them to invest nearly all they have in something
+that will make them rich in a hurry, but the
+fact that they are foolish is not quite sufficient
+justification for fooling them. Even if the
+stocks and bonds are all the salesman believes
+and represents them to be, no man has a right to
+risk his home or his happiness for them. A
+worth while salesman leaves his customer satisfied
+and comes back a year later and finds him
+still satisfied. And this sort of customer is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+best advertisement and the best friend any business
+can have.</p>
+
+<p>Bad salesmen create violent prejudices against
+the firms they represent. For the average customer,
+like the average man, judges the whole of
+a thing by the part that he sees. To most of
+us the word Chinaman calls up the picture of
+the laundryman around the corner in spite of
+the fact that there are some three hundred million
+Chinamen in the world engaged in other occupations.
+Salesmen who are consumed with
+their own importance do their firms more harm
+than good. They usually are men in positions
+too big for them (they may not be very big at
+that) and are for the most part of not much more
+real consequence than the gnat which sat on the
+tip of the bull's horn and cried, &ldquo;See what a dust
+I raise!&rdquo; Glum and sullen salesmen&mdash;there are
+not many of them&mdash;are of little genuine value to
+their firms. It is not true that when you weep
+you weep alone. Gloomy moods are as contagious
+as pleasant ones, and a happy man radiates
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to look pleasant when one's
+nerves are bruised from miscellaneous contacts
+with all sorts of people, but it is an actual fact
+that assuming the gestures of a mood will often
+induce the mood itself. The man who forces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+himself to <i>look</i> cheerful (we are not talking
+about the one who takes on an idiotic grin) may
+find himself after a while beginning to <i>feel</i>
+cheerful. After he has greeted the elevator boy
+with a smile (it may be a very crooked one) and the
+hotel clerk and the waitress and the bootblack
+and the paper boy he is likely to find that the smile
+has straightened out into a genuine one. It does
+not always work&mdash;it is like counting to a hundred
+when one is angry&mdash;but it is worth trying.</p>
+
+<p>Salesmen find their greatest difficulties among
+people of little education. It is the people with
+fewest ideas that cling to them most tenaciously.
+Scholars and scientists and business men who
+have learned to employ scientific methods are
+constantly watching for something new. They
+welcome new discoveries and new ideas, but the
+man in the backwoods of ignorance has a fence
+around the limits of his mind and it is hard for
+anything to get inside it. He is open to conviction,
+but like the Scotsman, he would like to
+see the person who could &ldquo;convict&rdquo; him. It is
+hard work to get a new idea into the mind of a
+man who is encased in a shell of ignorance or
+prejudice, but the salesman is worse than bad-mannered
+who lets another man, whoever he is,
+know that he thinks his religion is no good, that
+his political party is rotten, that his country is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+not worth a cancelled postage stamp, and that
+the people of his race are &ldquo;frogs,&rdquo; &ldquo;square-heads,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;dagos,&rdquo; &ldquo;wops,&rdquo; or &ldquo;kikes.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Salesmen who are themselves courteous usually
+meet with courtesy. The people who move
+graciously through life find comparatively little
+rudeness in the world. And a good salesman is
+courteous to all men alike. With him overalls
+command as much respect as broadcloth. It
+pays&mdash;not only in money, but in other things that
+are worth more.</p>
+
+<p>A salesman should be especially careful of his
+attitude toward the representatives of rival
+houses and their products. His eagerness to
+advance his own cause should never lead him into
+belittling them. He need not go out of his way
+to praise them nor should he speak of them insincerely
+in glowing terms; but an honest word
+of commendation shows that he is not afraid of
+his rivals in spite of the fact that they too have
+excellent goods, and when it is impossible to
+speak well of them it is best to stay silent.</p>
+
+<p>It is not hard to see why business men spend so
+much time and effort in selecting their salesmen.
+They know that one who is ill-mannered or offensive
+in any way indicates either a lack of breeding
+or a lack of judgment on the part of the parent
+concern. And one is about as bad as the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE BUSINESS OF WRITING</h3>
+
+<p>Half the business letters which are written
+should never be written at all, and of the other
+half so many are incomplete or incoherent that a
+transaction which could be finished and filed away
+in two letters frequently requires six or eight.</p>
+
+<p>A good letter is the result of clear thinking
+and careful planning. In the case of the sales-letter
+it sometimes takes several weeks to write
+one, but for ordinary correspondence a few minutes
+is usually all that is necessary. The length
+of time does not matter&mdash;it is the sort of letter
+which is produced at the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>Books of commercial correspondence give a
+number of rules and standards by which a letter
+can be measured. But all rules of thumb are
+dangerous, and there are only two items which
+are essential. The others are valuable only as
+they contribute to them. The letter must succeed
+in getting its idea across and it must build
+up good will for its firm. And the best one is
+the one which accomplishes this most courteously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+and most completely in the briefest space of
+time (and paper).</p>
+
+<p>There should be a reason back of every letter
+if it is only to say &ldquo;Thank you&rdquo; to a customer.
+Too much of our national energy goes up in
+waste effort, in aimless advertising, worthless
+salesmanship, ineffective letter writing, and in a
+thousand and one other ways. A lot of it is
+hammered out on the typewriters transcribing
+perfectly useless letters to paper which might
+really be worth something if it were given over to
+a different purpose.</p>
+
+<p>A good letter never attracts the mind of the
+reader to itself as a thing apart from its contents.
+Last year a publishing house sent out a hundred
+test letters advertising one of their books. Three
+answers came back, none of them ordering the
+book, but all three praising the letter. One was
+from a teacher of commercial English who declared
+that he was going to use it as a model in
+his classes, and the other two congratulated the
+firm on having so excellent a correspondent.
+The physical make-up of the letter was attractive,
+it was written by a college graduate and
+couched in clear, correct, and colorful English.
+And yet it was no good. No <i>letter and no advertisement
+is any good which calls attention to itself
+instead of the message it is trying to deliver</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is not much room for individuality in
+the make-up of a letter. Custom has standardized
+it, and startling variations from the conventional
+format indicates freakishness rather than
+originality. They are like that astonishing gentleman
+who walks up Fifth Avenue on the coldest
+mornings in the year, bareheaded, coatless, sockless,
+clad in white flannels and tennis slippers.
+He attracts attention, but he makes us shiver.</p>
+
+<p>Plain white paper of good quality is always in
+good taste. Certain dull-tinted papers are not
+bad, but gaudy colors, flashy designs, and ornate
+letter heads are taboo in all high types of business.
+Simple headings giving explicit and useful
+information are best. The name and address
+of the firm (and &ldquo;New York&rdquo; or &ldquo;Chicago&rdquo;
+is not sufficient in spite of the fact that a
+good many places go into no more detail than
+this), the cable address if it has one, the telephone
+number and the trademark if it is an inconspicuous
+one (there is a difference between <i>conspicuous</i>
+and <i>distinctive</i>) are all that any business
+house needs.</p>
+
+<p>Hotels are often pictured on their own stationery
+in a way that is anything but modest, but
+there is a very good reason for it. The first
+thing most people want to know about a hotel is
+what sort of looking place it is. All right, here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+you are. Some factories, especially those that
+are proud of their appearance, carry their own
+picture on their stationery. There is nothing to
+say against it, but one of the most beautiful factories
+in America has on its letter head only the
+name of the firm, the address, and a small trademark
+engraved in black. Sometimes a picture,
+in a sales letter, for instance, supplements the
+written matter in a most effective way. And
+whenever any kind of device is really helpful it
+should by all means be used, subject only to the
+limits of good taste.</p>
+
+<p>It is more practical in business to use standard
+size envelopes. If window envelopes are used
+the window should be clear, the paper white or
+nearly so, and the typewritten address a good
+honest black. The enclosure should fit snugly
+and should be placed so that the address is in
+plain view without having to be jiggled around
+in the envelope first. A letter passes through
+the hands of several postal clerks before it
+reaches the person to whom it is addressed, and
+if each one of them has to stop to play with it
+awhile an appreciable amount of time is lost, not
+to mention the strain it puts on their respective
+tempers. The paper of which an envelope is
+made should always be opaque enough to conceal
+the contents of the letter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Practically all business letters are typewritten.
+Occasionally a &ldquo;Help Wanted&rdquo; advertisement
+requests that the answer be in the applicant's
+own handwriting, but even this is rare.
+In most places the typing is taken care of by
+girls who have been trained for the purpose, but
+most young girls just entering business are
+highly irresponsible, and it is necessary for the
+men and women who dictate the letters to know
+what constitutes a pleasing make-up so that they
+can point out the flaws and give suggestions for
+doing away with them.</p>
+
+<p>The letter should be arranged symmetrically on
+the page with ample margins all around. Nothing
+but experience in copying her own notes will
+teach a stenographer to estimate them correctly
+so that she will not have to rewrite badly placed
+letters. It is a little point, but an important
+one.</p>
+
+<p>Each subject considered in a letter should be
+treated in a separate paragraph, and each paragraph
+should be set off from the others by a
+wider space than that between the lines, double
+space between the paragraphs when there is
+single space between the lines, triple space between
+the paragraphs when there is a double
+space between the lines, and so on.</p>
+
+<p>A business letter should handle only one sub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>ject.
+Two letters should be dispatched if two
+subjects are to be covered. This enables the
+house receiving the letter to file it so that it can
+be found when it is needed.</p>
+
+<p>When a letter is addressed to an individual it
+is better to begin &ldquo;Dear Mr. Brown&rdquo; or &ldquo;My
+dear Mr. Brown&rdquo; than &ldquo;Dear Sir&rdquo; or &ldquo;My dear
+Sir.&rdquo; &ldquo;Gentlemen&rdquo; or &ldquo;Ladies&rdquo; is sometime
+used in salutation when a letter is addressed to a
+group. &ldquo;Dear Friend&rdquo; is permissible in general
+letters sent out to persons of both sexes. Honorary
+titles should be used in the address when
+they take the place of &ldquo;Mr.,&rdquo; such titles as Reverend,
+Doctor, Honorable (abbreviated to Rev.,
+Dr., Hon.,) and the like. Titles should not be
+dropped except in the case of personal letters.</p>
+
+<p>Special care should be taken with the outside
+address. State abbreviations should be used
+sparingly when there is a chance of confusion as
+in the case of Ga., Va., La., and Pa. &ldquo;City&rdquo; is
+not sufficient and should never be used. Nor
+should the name of the state ever be omitted
+even when the letter is addressed to some other
+point in the same state, as from New York to
+Brooklyn. And postage should be complete.
+A letter on which there is two cents due has
+placed itself under a pretty severe handicap before
+it is opened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is astonishing how many letters go out every
+day unsigned, lacking enclosures, carrying the
+wrong addresses, bearing insufficient postage,
+and showing other evidences of carelessness and
+thoughtlessness. In a town in New England
+last year one of the specialty shops received at
+Christmas time twenty different lots of money&mdash;money
+orders, stamps, and cash&mdash;by mail, not
+one of which bore the slightest clue to the identity
+of the sender. Countless times during the
+year this happens in every mail order house.</p>
+
+<p>The initials of the dictator and of the stenographer
+in the lower left-hand corner of a letter
+serve not only to identify the carbon, but often
+to place the letter itself if it has gone out without
+signature. The signature should be legible,
+or if the one who writes it enjoys making flourishes
+he may do so if he will have the name neatly
+typed either just below the name or just above
+it. It should be written in ink (black or blue
+ink), not in pencil or colored crayon, and it
+should be blotted before the page is folded. The
+dictator himself should sign the letter whenever
+possible. &ldquo;Dictated but not read&rdquo; bears the
+mark of discourtesy and sometimes brings back
+a letter with &ldquo;Received but not read&rdquo; written
+across it. When it is necessary to leave the office
+before signing his letters, a business man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+should deputize his stenographer to do it, in
+which case she writes his name in full with her
+initials just below it. A better plan is to have
+another person take care of the entire letter, beginning
+it something like, &ldquo;Since Mr. Blake is
+away from the office to-day he has asked me to
+let you know&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The complimentary close to a business letter
+should be &ldquo;Yours truly,&rdquo; &ldquo;Yours sincerely&rdquo; or
+something of the kind, and not &ldquo;Yours cordially,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Yours faithfully&rdquo; or &ldquo;Yours gratefully&rdquo;
+unless the circumstances warrant it.</p>
+
+<p>In writing a letter as a part of a large organization
+one should use &ldquo;We&rdquo; instead of &ldquo;I.&rdquo; A
+firm acts collectively, no one except the president
+has a right to the pronoun of the first person,
+and he (if he is wise) seldom avails himself
+of it. If the matter is so near personal as to
+make &ldquo;We&rdquo; somewhat ridiculous &ldquo;I&rdquo; should, of
+course, be used instead. But one should be consistent.
+If &ldquo;I&rdquo; is used at the beginning it should
+be continued throughout.</p>
+
+<p>Similarly a letter should be addressed to a firm
+rather than to a person, for if the person happens
+to be absent some one else can then take charge of
+it. But the address should also include the name
+of the addressee (whenever possible) or &ldquo;Advertising
+Manager,&rdquo; &ldquo;Personnel Manager&rdquo; or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+whatever the designation of his position may be.
+The name may be placed in the lower left-hand
+corner of the letter &ldquo;Attention Mr. Green&rdquo; or
+&ldquo;Attention Advertising Manager,&rdquo; and it may
+also be placed just above the salutation inside the
+letter. Sometimes the subject of the letter is indicated
+in the same way, <i>Re Montana shipment</i>,
+<i>Re Smythe manuscript</i>, etc. These lines may be
+typed in red or in capital letters so as to catch the
+attention of the reader at once. If a letter is
+more than two pages long this line is often added
+to the succeeding pages, a very convenient device,
+for letters are sometimes misplaced in the
+files and this helps to locate them.</p>
+
+<p>A business letter should never be longer than
+necessary. If three lines are enough it is absurd
+to use more, especially if the letter is going
+to a firm which handles a big correspondence.
+Some one has said with more truth than exaggeration
+that no man south of Fourteenth Street
+in New York reads a letter more than three
+lines long. But there is danger that the too
+brief letter will sound brusque. Mail order
+houses which serve the small towns and the rural
+districts say that, all other things being equal, it
+is the long sales letter which brings in the best
+results. Farmers have more leisure and they
+are quite willing to read long letters <i>if</i> (and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+this <i>if</i> is worth taking note of) they are interesting.</p>
+
+<p>All unnecessary words and all stilted phrases
+should be stripped from a letter. &ldquo;Replying to
+your esteemed favor,&rdquo; &ldquo;Yours of the 11th inst.
+to hand, contents noted,&rdquo; &ldquo;Yours of the 24th
+ult. received. In reply would say,&rdquo; &ldquo;Awaiting
+a favorable reply,&rdquo; &ldquo;We beg to remain&rdquo; are dead
+weights. &ldquo;Prox&rdquo; might be added to the list,
+and &ldquo;In reply to same.&rdquo; &ldquo;Per diem&rdquo; and other
+Latin expressions should likewise be thrown into
+the discard. &ldquo;As per our agreement of the 17th&rdquo;
+should give place to &ldquo;According to our agreement
+of the 17th,&rdquo; and, wherever possible, simplified
+expression should be employed. Legal
+phraseology should be restricted to the profession
+to which it belongs. Wills, deeds, and
+other documents likely to be haled into court
+need &ldquo;whereas's&rdquo; and &ldquo;wherefores&rdquo; and &ldquo;said's&rdquo;
+and &ldquo;same's&rdquo; without end, but ordinary business
+letters do not. It is perfectly possible to
+express oneself clearly in the language of conversation
+(which is also the language of business)
+without burying the meaning in tiresome
+verbiage. And yet reputable business houses
+every day send out letters which are almost ridiculous
+because of the stiff and pompous way they
+are written.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following letter was sent recently by one
+of the oldest furniture houses in America:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Madam</span>:</p>
+
+<p>Herewith please find receipt for full payment of your
+bill. Please accept our thanks for same.</p>
+
+<p>Relative to the commission due Mrs. Robinson would
+say that if she will call at our office at her convenience we
+shall be glad to pay same to her.</p>
+
+<p>Thanking you for past favors, we beg to remain,</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;">Yours very truly,</p></div>
+
+<p>Contrast that with this:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Brown</span>:</p>
+
+<p>We are returning herewith your receipted bill. Thank
+you very much.</p>
+
+<p>If you will have Mrs. Robinson call at our office at her
+convenience we shall take pleasure in paying her the
+commission due her.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;">Yours very truly,</p></div>
+
+<p>Here is another letter so typical of the kind
+that carelessness produces:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:</p>
+
+<p>I have your letter of the 27th inst. and I have forwarded
+it to Mr. Stubbs and will see him in a few days and talk
+the matter over.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;">
+I remain<br />
+    Yours sincerely,</p></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Would it not have been just as easy to write:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Thompson</span>:</p>
+
+<p>Thank you for your letter of the 27th. I have forwarded
+it to Mr. Stubbs and will see him in a few days
+to talk the matter over.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;">Your sincerely,</p></div>
+
+<p>In the preparation of this volume a letter of
+inquiry was sent out to a number of representative
+business houses all over the country. It
+was a pleasure to read the excellent replies that
+came in response to it. One letter reached its
+destination in the midst of a strike, but the publicity
+manager of the firm sent a cordial answer,
+which began:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Your very courteous letter to Mr. Jennings came at a
+time when his mind is pretty well occupied with thoughts
+concerning the employment situation in our various plants.</p>
+
+<p>We shall endeavor, therefore, to give you such information
+as comes to mind with regard to matters undertaken by
+the company which have contributed to the standard of
+courtesy which exists in the departments here.</p></div>
+
+<p>We select another at random:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>It pleases us very much to know that our company has
+been described to you as one which practises courtesy in
+business. We should like nothing better than to have all
+our employees live up to the reputation credited to them by
+Mr. Haight.</p>
+
+<p>As for our methods of obtaining it&mdash;&mdash;</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Contrast these two excellent beginnings with
+(and this one is authentic, too):</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>In reply to yours of the 6th inst. relative to what part
+courtesy plays in business and office management would
+say that it is very important.</p></div>
+
+<p>Routine letters must be standardized&mdash;a house
+must conserve its own time as well as that of its
+customers&mdash;but a routine letter must never be
+used unless it adequately covers the situation.
+There is no excuse for a poor routine letter, for
+there is plenty of time to think it out, and there
+is no excuse for sending a routine letter when it
+does not thoroughly answer the correspondent's
+question. The man who is answering a letter
+must put himself in the place of the one who
+wrote it.</p>
+
+<p>This is a fair sample of what happens when a
+letter is written by a person who either has no
+imagination at all, or does not use what he has.</p>
+
+<p>A woman who had just moved to New York
+lost the key to her apartment and wrote to her
+landlord for another. This answer came:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Replying to your letter, will say am sorry but it is not
+the custom of the landlord to furnish more than one key
+for an apartment. Should the tenant lose or misplace the
+key it is up to them to replace same.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The woman felt a justifiable sense of irritation.
+She was new to the city and thought she
+was taking the most direct method of replacing
+&ldquo;same.&rdquo; Perhaps she should have known better,
+but she did not. Buying a key is not so simple
+as buying a box of matches and to a newcomer
+it is a matter of some little difficulty. She
+was at least entitled to a bit more information
+and to more courteous treatment than is shown
+in the letter signed by his landlordly hand. She
+went to see him and found him most suave and
+polite (which was his habit face to face with a
+woman). He explained the heavy expense of
+furnishing careless tenants with new keys (which
+she understood perfectly to begin with) and was
+most apologetic when he discovered that she had
+intended all the time to pay for it. It would
+have been just as easy for him in the beginning
+to write:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am sorry that I cannot send you a key, but we have
+had so many similar requests that we have had to discontinue
+complying with them.</p>
+
+<p>You will find an excellent locksmith at 45 West 119
+St. His telephone number is Main 3480.</p></div>
+
+<p>Or:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I am sending you the key herewith. There is a nominal
+charge for it which will be added to your bill at the end
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>of the month. I hope it will reach you safely. It is a
+nuisance to be without one.</p></div>
+
+<p>Imagination is indispensable to good letter
+writing, but it is going rather far when one sends
+thanks in advance for a favor which he expects
+to be conferred. Even those who take pleasure
+in granting favors like to feel that they do so of
+their own free will. It takes away the pleasure
+of doing it when some one asks a favor and then
+assumes the thing done. Royalty alone are so
+highly privileged as to have simply to voice their
+wishes to have them complied with, and royalty
+has gone out of fashion.</p>
+
+<p>At one point in their journey all the travellers
+in &ldquo;Pilgrim's Progress&rdquo; exchanged burdens,
+but they did not go far before each one begged to
+have back his original load. That is what would
+happen if the man who dictates a letter were to exchange
+places with his stenographer. Each would
+then appreciate the position of the other, and if
+they were once in a while to make the transfer in
+their minds (imagination in business again) they
+would come nearer the sympathetic understanding
+that is the basis of good teamwork.</p>
+
+<p>The responsibility for a letter is divided between
+them, and it is important that the circumstances
+under which it is written should be favor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>able.
+The girl should be placed in a comfortable
+position so that she can hear without
+difficulty. The dictator should not smoke whether
+she objects to it or not. He should have in mind
+what he wants to say before he begins speaking,
+and then he should pronounce his words
+evenly and distinctly. He should not bang on
+the desk with his fist, flourish his arms in the air,
+talk in rhetorical rushes with long pauses between
+the phrases, or raise his voice to a thunderous
+pitch and then let it sink to a cooing murmur.
+These things have not the slightest effect on the
+typewritten page, and they make it very hard
+for the girl to take correct notes. No one should
+write a letter while he is angry, or if he writes it
+(and it is sometimes a relief to write a scorching
+letter) he should not mail it.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that Roosevelt used to write very
+angry letters to people who deserved them, drawing
+liberally upon his very expressive supply of
+abusive words for the occasion. Each time his
+secretary quietly stopped the letter. Each time
+the Colonel came in the day after and asked if
+the letter had been sent. Each time the secretary
+said, &ldquo;No, that one did not get off.&rdquo; And
+each time the Colonel exclaimed, &ldquo;Good! We
+won't send it!&rdquo; It came to be a regular part of
+the day's routine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Inexperienced dictators will find it good practice
+to have their stenographers read back their
+letters so they can recast awkward sentences and
+make other improvements. It can usually be
+discontinued after a while, for dictating, like
+nearly everything else, becomes easier with
+habit.</p>
+
+<p>A considerate man will show special forbearance
+in breaking in a new girl. Different voices
+are hard to grow accustomed to, and a girl who is
+perfectly capable of taking dictation from one
+man will find it very difficult to follow another
+until she has grown used to the sound of his voice.
+It is like learning a foreign language. The pupil
+understands his teacher, but he does not understand
+any one else until he has got &ldquo;the hang
+of it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The training of a good stenographer does not
+end when she leaves school. She should be able
+not only to take down and transcribe notes
+neatly and correctly. She should be able to
+spell and punctuate correctly and to make the
+minor changes in phrasing and diction that so
+often can make a good letter of a poor one. The
+most fatal disease that can overtake a stenographer
+(or any one else) is the habit of slavishly
+following a routine.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Many young fellows,&rdquo; this is from Henry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+Ford, &ldquo;especially those employed in offices, fall
+into a routine way of doing their work that eventually
+makes it become like a treadmill. They
+do not get a broad view of the entire business.
+Sometimes that is the fault of the employer, but
+that does not excuse the young man. Those who
+command attention are the ones who are actually
+pushing the boss.... It pays to be ahead
+of your immediate job, and to do more than that
+for which you are paid. A mere clock watcher
+never gets anywhere. Forget the clock and
+become absorbed in your job. Learn to love
+it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The position of secretary is a responsible one.
+Frequently she knows almost as much about his
+business as her employer himself (and sometimes
+even more). He depends upon her quite as
+much as she depends upon him, though in a somewhat
+different way. It takes personal effort together
+with native ability to raise any one to a
+position of importance, but personal effort often
+needs supplementing, and many business houses
+have taken special measures to help their employees
+to become good correspondents.</p>
+
+<p>In some places there are supervisors who give
+talks and discuss the actual letters, good ones
+and bad, which have been written. They go
+over the carbons and hold conferences with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+correspondents who need help. In other places
+courtesy campaigns for a higher standard of correspondence
+are held, while in others the matter
+is placed in the hands of the heads of the various
+departments, acting on the assumption that these
+heads are men of experience and ability or they
+would never have attained the position they
+hold.</p>
+
+<p>The president of a bank which has branches in
+London and Paris and other big foreign cities
+used every now and then to stop the boy who was
+carrying a basket of carbons to the file clerk and
+look them over. If he found a letter he did not
+like, or one that he did like a great deal, he sent
+for the person who wrote it and talked with him.
+It was not necessary for him to go over the letters
+often. The fact that the people in the office
+knew that it was likely to happen kept them on
+the alert and nearly every letter that left the organization
+was better because the person who
+wrote it knew that the man at the head was interested
+in it and that there was a strong chance
+that he might see it.</p>
+
+<p>What is effective in one place may not be so in
+another. Each house must work out its own system.
+But one thing must be understood in the
+beginning, and that is that the spirit of courtesy
+must first abide in the home office before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+people who work there can hope to send it out
+through the mail.</p>
+
+<p>Roughly speaking there are eight types of
+business letters which nearly every business man
+at one time or another has to write or to consider.</p>
+
+<p>The first is the letter of <i>application</i>. The applicant
+should state simply his qualifications for
+the place he wants. He should not make an
+appeal to sympathy (sob stuff) nor should
+he beg or cringe. He should not demand a
+certain salary, though he may state what salary
+he would like, and he should not say &ldquo;Salary no
+object.&rdquo; It would probably not be true. There
+are comparatively few people with whom money
+is no object. If it is the first time the applicant
+has ever tried for a position he should say so; if
+not, he should give his reason for leaving his last
+place. It should not be a long letter. A direct
+statement of the essential facts (age, education,
+experiences, etc.) is all that is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>Many times the letter of application is accompanied
+by, or calls for, a letter of <i>recommendation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>No man should allow himself to recommend
+another for qualities which he knows he does not
+possess. If he is asked for a recommendation
+he should speak as favorably of the person under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+consideration as he honestly can, and if his opinion
+of him is disapproving he should give it with
+reservations.</p>
+
+<p>At one time during the cleaning up of Panama
+there was considerable talk about displacing
+General Gorgas and a committee waited on
+Roosevelt to suggest another man for the job.
+He listened and then asked them to get a letter
+about him from Dr. William H. Welsh of Johns
+Hopkins. Dr. Welsh wrote a letter praising
+the man very highly, but ended by saying that
+while it was true that he would be a good man for
+the place, he did not think he would be as good
+as the one they already had&mdash;General Gorgas.
+The Colonel acted upon the letter confident
+(because he had great faith in Dr. Welsh) that
+he was taking the wise course, which subsequent
+events proved it to be. &ldquo;Would to heaven,&rdquo; he
+said, &ldquo;that every one would write such honest
+letters of recommendation!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The general letter of recommendation beginning
+&ldquo;To whom it may concern&rdquo; is rarely given
+now. It has little weight. Usually a man waits
+until he has applied for a position and then gives
+the name of his reference, the person to whom he
+is applying writes to the one to whom he has
+been referred, and the entire correspondence is
+carried on between these two. In this way the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+letter of recommendation can be sincere, something
+almost impossible in the open letter. It is
+needless to add that all such correspondence
+should be confidential.</p>
+
+<p>The letter of <i>introduction</i> is, in a measure, a
+letter of recommendation. The one who writes
+it stands sponsor for the one who bears it. It
+should make no extravagant claims for the one
+who is introduced. He should simply be given
+a chance to make good on his own responsibility.
+But it should give the reason for the presentation
+and suggest a way of following it up that
+will result in mutual pleasure or benefit. It
+should be in an unsealed envelope and the envelope
+should bear, in addition to the address, the
+words, &ldquo;Introducing Mr. Blank&rdquo; on the lower
+left-hand corner. This does away with an embarrassing
+moment when the letter is presented
+in person and enables the host to greet his guest
+by name and ask him to be seated while he reads
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Letters of introduction should not be given
+promiscuously. Some men permit themselves
+to be persuaded into giving letters of introduction
+to people who are absolute nuisances (it is
+hard to refuse any one who asks for this sort of
+letter, but often kindest for all concerned) and
+then they send in secret another letter explaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+how the first one came about. This really throws
+the burden on the person who least of all ought
+to bear it, the innocent man whom the first one
+wanted to meet. No letter of presentation is
+justified unless there is good reason behind it,
+such, as for instance, in the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>This is Mr. Franklin B. Nesbitt. He has been in Texas
+for several months studying economic conditions, and I
+believe can give you some valuable information which has
+resulted from his research there. He is a man upon
+whom you can rely. I have known him for years, and I
+am sure that whatever he tells you will be trustworthy.</p></div>
+
+<p>It is a common practice for a business man to
+give his personal card with &ldquo;Introducing Mr.
+Mills&rdquo; or &ldquo;Introducing Mr. Mills of Howard
+and Powell Motor Co.&rdquo; written across it to a
+man whom he wishes to introduce to another.
+This enables him to get an interview. What he
+does with it rests entirely with him.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sales letters</i> are a highly specialized group
+given over, for the most part, to experts. Their
+most common fault is overstatement or patronizing.
+The advertisements inserted in trade papers
+and the letters sent out to the &ldquo;trade&rdquo; are
+often so condescendingly written that they infuriate
+the men to whom they are addressed. It
+is safer to assume that the man you are writing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+to is an intelligent human being. It is better to
+overestimate his mentality than to underestimate
+it, and it is better to &ldquo;talk&rdquo; to him in the
+letter than to &ldquo;write&rdquo; to him.</p>
+
+<p>Sales letters are, as a rule, general, not personal,
+and yet the best ones have the personal touch.
+The letter is a silent salesman whose function is
+to anticipate the needs of its customers and offer
+to supply them. In this as in any other kind
+of salesmanship it is the spirit which counts for
+most, and the spirit of genuine helpfulness (mutual
+helpfulness) gives pulling power to almost
+any letter. The one which presents a special
+offer on special terms specially arranged for the
+benefit of the customer wins out almost every
+time, provided, of course, that the offer is worth
+presenting. There is no use in declaring that
+all of the benefit is to the subscriber. It would
+be very foolish if it were actually true. Once a
+man went into a haberdashery to buy a coat.
+The shop owner unctuously declared that he was
+not making a cent of profit, was selling it for less
+than it cost him, and so on and on. The man
+walked out. &ldquo;I'll go somewhere where they have
+sense enough to make a profit,&rdquo; he said.</p>
+
+<p>A sales letter should never be sent out to a
+large group of people without first having been
+tried out on a smaller one. In this way the let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>ter
+can be tested and improvements made before
+the whole campaign is launched. The results
+in the small group are a pretty fair indication of
+what they will be in the large one, and a tremendous
+amount of time and money can be saved by
+studying the letter carefully to see where it has
+failed before sending it out to make an even bigger
+failure.</p>
+
+<p>On the face of things it seems that an <i>order
+letter</i> would be an easy one to write, but the mail
+order houses have another story to tell. Order
+blanks should be used wherever possible. They
+have been carefully made and have blank spaces
+for the filling in of answers to the questions
+that are asked. In an order letter one should
+state exactly what he wants, how he wants it
+sent, and how he intends to pay for it. If the
+order consists of several items, each one should
+be listed separately. If they are ordered from
+a catalogue they should be identified with the
+catalogue description by mention of their names,
+their numbers and prices. One should state
+whether he is sending check, money, stamps, or
+money order, but he should not say &ldquo;Enclosed
+please find.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The commonest form of <i>letter of acknowledgment</i>
+is sent in answer to an order letter. If
+there is to be the least delay in filling the order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>
+the letter acknowledging it should say so and
+should give the reason for it, but even when the
+order is filled promptly (if it is a large or a comparatively
+large one) the letter of acknowledgment
+should be sent. Then if anything goes
+wrong it is easier to trace than when the customer
+has no record except the copy of his
+order letter. The letter of acknowledgment
+should simply thank the customer and assure him
+of prompt and efficient service.</p>
+
+<p>Complaints should be acknowledged immediately.
+If there is to be a delay while an investigation
+is made, the letter of acknowledgment
+should simply state the fact and beg indulgence
+until it is finished. Complaints should <i>always</i>
+receive careful and courteous attention. Most of
+them are justified, and even those that are not
+had something to begin on.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>letter of complaint</i> should never be written
+hastily or angrily. It should go directly to
+the root of the trouble and should state as nearly
+as possible when and where and how it came
+about. One should be especially careful about
+placing the blame or charging to an individual
+what was really the fault of an unfortunate train
+of circumstances. The tone should never be
+sharp, no matter how just the complaint.
+&ldquo;Please&rdquo; goes further than &ldquo;Now, see here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><i>Collection letters</i> are hardest to write. They
+should appeal to a man's sense of honor first of
+all. It is a cheap (and ineffective) method to
+beg him to pay because you need the money, and
+rarely brings any reaction except rousing in his
+mind a contempt for you. The first letter in a
+series (and the series often includes as many as
+six or eight) should be simply a reminder. Drastic
+measures should not be taken until they are
+necessary, and at no time should the letters become
+abrupt or insulting. In the first place, it
+is ungentlemanly to write such letters, in the second
+it antagonizes the debtor, and if he gets
+angry enough he feels that it is hardly an obligation
+to pay the money; that it will &ldquo;serve 'em
+right&rdquo; if he does not do it.</p>
+
+<p>Advertising is a sort of letter writing. Each
+advertisement is a letter set before the public or
+some part of the public in the hope that it will
+be answered by the right person. It enters into
+an over-crowded field and if it is to attract attention
+it must be vivid, unusual, and convincing.
+Increasingly&mdash;and there is cause to be thankful
+for this&mdash;exaggerated statements are being
+forced to disappear. In the first place the ballyhoo
+advertisers have shouted the public deaf.
+They no longer believe. In the second place advertisers
+themselves have waked to the menace of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+the irresponsible and dishonest people who are
+advertising and are taking legal measures to
+safeguard the honor of the profession.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most successful advertisers of modern
+times was a man who carried the idea of service
+into everything he did. For a while he had
+charge of soliciting advertising for automobile
+trucks for a certain magazine. Instead of going
+at it blindly he made a careful study of the map
+of the United States and marked off the areas
+where automobile trucks were used, where they
+could be used, and where they should be used,
+and sent it to the manufacturers along with a
+statement of the circulation of the magazine and
+the advantages of reaching the public through
+it. The result was that the magazine got more
+advertising from the manufacturers than it could
+possibly handle. It is very gratifying to know
+that this man succeeded extraordinarily as an advertiser,
+for not once during his long career did
+he ever try to &ldquo;put one over&rdquo; on the public or on
+anybody else.</p>
+
+<p>No advertisement should be impertinent or
+importunate. During the war there was a splendid
+poster bearing a picture of Uncle Sam looking
+straight into your eyes and pointing his finger
+straight into your face as he said, &ldquo;Young
+man, your country needs you!&rdquo; The poster was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+excellent from every point of view, but since the
+war, real estate companies, barber shops, restaurants
+and whatnot have used posters bearing the
+pictures of men pointing their fingers straight at
+you saying, &ldquo;There is a home at Blankville for
+you,&rdquo; &ldquo;Watch out to use Baker's Best,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;You're next!&rdquo; After all, Uncle Sam is the
+only person who has a right to point his finger at
+you in any such manner and say, &ldquo;I need you.&rdquo;
+And besides, there is the moral side of it. Imitation
+is the sincerest flattery, but the dividing
+line between it and dishonesty is not always clear.
+And the law cannot every time prosecute the
+offender, for there is a kind of cleverness that
+enables a man to pilfer the ideas of another and
+recast them just sufficiently to &ldquo;get by.&rdquo; It
+would be very stupid for a man not to profit by
+the experience of other men, but there is a vast
+difference between intelligent adaptation of ideas
+and stealing them. This is more a question of
+morals than of manners, for the crime&mdash;and it
+is a crime&mdash;is usually deliberate, while most
+breaches of manners are unintentional and due
+to either carelessness or ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>House memoranda are letters among the
+various people who are working there. They
+should be brief, above all things, and clear, but
+never at the sacrifice of courtesy. Titles should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+not be dropped and nicknames should not be
+used although initials may be. Memoranda
+should never be personal unless they are sent confidentially.
+An open memorandum should never
+contain anything that cannot be read by every
+one without reflecting unfavorably upon any one.
+And it is wise to keep in mind&mdash;no matter what
+you are writing&mdash;that the written record is permanent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3>MORALS AND MANNERS</h3>
+
+<p>It has become a habit of late years for people
+to argue at great length about right and wrong,
+and what with complexes and psycho-analysis
+and what with this and that, they have almost
+come to the conclusion that there is no right and
+wrong. Man, so they have decided, is a frail and
+tender being completely at the mercy of the
+traits he has inherited from his ancestors and
+those he has acquired from his neighbors. What
+he does is simply the result of the combination of
+circumstances that have made him what he is.
+There is some truth in it, of course, but what
+there is is no bigger than a mustard seed, and all
+the volumes that have been written about it, all
+the sermons that have been preached upon it, and
+all the miles of space that have been devoted to
+it in the newspapers and magazines have not
+served to increase it. Most of us never give any
+one else credit for our achievements and there is
+no more reason for giving them blame for our
+failures. A gentleman is &ldquo;lord of his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+actions.&rdquo; He balances his own account, and
+whether there is a debit or a credit is a matter
+squarely up to him.</p>
+
+<p>The pivot upon which all right-thinking conduct
+involving relations with other people turns
+is the Golden Rule, &ldquo;Whatsoever ye would that
+men should do to you, do ye even so to them.&rdquo;
+It is to the moral what the sun is to the physical
+world, and just as we have never made full use
+of the heat and light which we derive from the
+sun but could not live without that which we do
+use, so we have never realized more than a small
+part of the possibilities of the Golden Rule, but at
+the same time could not get along together in the
+world without the meagre part of it that we do
+make use of. The principle is older than the
+Christian Era, older than the sequoias of California,
+older than the Pyramids, older than Chinese
+civilization. It is the most precious abstract
+truth that man has yet discovered. It contains
+the germ of all that has been said and written
+about human brotherhood and all that has been
+done toward making it an accomplished fact.
+And if to-morrow it were to vanish from the
+earth we should miss it almost, if not quite, as
+much as we should the sun if it were to go hurtling
+off into space so far away that we could neither
+see nor feel it. In the one case there would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+be no life at all on earth, in the other there would
+be none worth living.</p>
+
+<p>The Golden Rule amounts to no more than
+putting yourself into another person's place. It is
+not always easy to do. Half of the people in the
+United States have very little idea of what the
+lives of the other half are like and have no special
+interest in knowing.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What,&rdquo; we asked the manager of a bookshop
+which caters to a large high-grade client&egrave;le, &ldquo;do
+you find your greatest trouble?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Lack of imagination on the part of our customers,&rdquo;
+he answered promptly, &ldquo;a total inability
+to put themselves into our place, to realize
+that we have our lives to live just as they have
+theirs. If we haven't a book in stock they want
+to know why. If we don't drop everything to
+attend to them they want to know why. If anything
+goes wrong they want to know why, but
+they won't listen to explanations and won't accept
+them when they do. They simply can't see
+our side of it. And they make such unreasonable
+demands. Why, last year during the Christmas
+rush when the shop was fairly jammed to
+the door and we were all in a perfect frenzy trying
+to wait on them all, a man called up to know
+if his wife was here!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is not always easy to see life, or even a small<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+section of life, from another person's point of
+view. A man very often thinks housework practically
+no work at all (the drudgery of it he has
+never realized because he has never had to do it)
+and a woman very often underestimates the wear
+and tear and strain of working in an office and
+getting a living out of it in competition with hundreds
+of other men. Marie Antoinette had no
+conception of what it meant when the French
+people cried for bread. It seemed impossible to
+her that a person could actually be hungry.
+&ldquo;Why, give them cake!&rdquo; she exclaimed. It
+may be pretty hard for a man who is making
+$10,000 a year to sympathize with the stenographer
+he hires for $600 or $700 a year, or for her
+to see his side of things. But it is not impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Very few of us could honestly go as far as the
+novelist who recently advocated the motto: &ldquo;My
+neighbor is perfect&rdquo; or the governor who set
+aside a day for the people in his state to put it
+into practice. We happen to know that our
+neighbors are, like ourselves, astonishing compounds
+of vice and virtue in whom any number
+of improvements might be made. It is not necessary
+to think them perfect, only to remember
+that each one of us, each one of them, is entitled
+to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+other words, that every man has a right to a
+square deal.</p>
+
+<p>In the ancient world there were four cardinal
+virtues: justice, prudence, temperance, and discretion.
+In the modern world of business there
+are only two. Others may follow, but these two
+must come first. Justice, we mean, and kindness.
+No man was ever really a gentleman who
+was not just and kind, and we think it would be
+almost impossible for one who is, whatever his
+minor shortcomings may be, not to be a gentleman.
+Just to his employees (or to his employer),
+to his customers, to his friends, to
+himself, and this justice always tempered with
+kindness, the one quality giving the firmness necessary
+in dealing with people, the other the
+gentleness which is no less necessary.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, and this is one of the corner
+stones of justice, industrial life must be made
+safe for the worker. And it is a job in which he
+has as large a part as the man who hires him.
+Under present conditions one workman out of
+every eight is injured during the year and the
+accident is as often his fault as it is that of his
+employer. In some instances efficient safety
+devices are not provided, in others they are not
+made use of.</p>
+
+<p>Special kinds of work, such as that in which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+laborer is exposed to poisonous fumes, to sand
+blasts, dangerous chemicals or mineral dusts,
+need special protective devices and men with
+sense enough to use them. The employer cannot
+do his share unless the worker does his, and
+the worker is too quick to take a chance. The
+apprentice is usually cautious enough, but the
+old hand grows unwary. Ninety-nine times he
+thrusts his arm in among belts whirling at lightning
+speed and escapes, but the hundredth time
+the arm is caught and mangled. And there is
+nothing to blame but his own carelessness.</p>
+
+<h3>WHO AM I?</h3>
+
+<p>I am more powerful than the combined armies
+of the world.</p>
+
+<p>I have destroyed more men than all the wars
+of the nations.</p>
+
+<p>I am more deadly than bullets, and I have
+wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege
+guns.</p>
+
+<p>I steal, in the United States, alone, over
+$300,000,000 each year.</p>
+
+<p>I spare no one, and I find my victims among
+the rich and poor alike, the young and old, the
+strong and weak. Widows and orphans know me.</p>
+
+<p>I loom up to such proportions that I cast my
+shadow over every field of labor, from the turn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>ing
+of the grindstone to the moving of every railroad
+train.</p>
+
+<p>I massacre thousands upon thousands of wage
+earners a year.</p>
+
+<p>I lurk in unseen places and do most of my
+work silently. You are warned against me but
+you heed not.</p>
+
+<p>I am relentless.</p>
+
+<p>I am everywhere&mdash;in the house, on the streets,
+in the factory, at the railroad crossings, and on
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>I bring sickness, degradation and death, and
+yet few seek to avoid me.</p>
+
+<p>I destroy, crush or maim; I give nothing but
+take all.</p>
+
+<p>I am your worst enemy.</p>
+
+<h3>I AM CARELESSNESS</h3>
+
+<p>Any kind of carelessness which results in injury
+(or is likely to result in it), whether the injury
+is mental or physical, is criminal. No
+plea can justify building a theatre which cannot
+stand a snowstorm, a school which cannot give
+a maximum of safety to the children who are in
+it, a factory which does not provide comfortable
+working conditions for the people employed
+there, or allowing any unsafe building or part of
+a building to stand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is a factory (this story is true) which
+places the lives of the majority of its employees
+in jeopardy twice a day. There are two sets of
+elevators, one at the front of the building for
+the executives and their secretaries and visitors,
+one at the rear for the rank and file of the employees.
+Since there are several hundred of the
+latter the advantages of the division are too obvious
+to need discussion. We have no quarrel
+with it. But the apparatus upon which the elevators
+in the rear run is so old and so rotten and
+so rusty that there is constant danger of its
+breaking down. Three times already there have
+been serious accidents. The men who are hired
+to operate the cars rarely stay more than a week
+or so. Protests have been sent in but nothing
+has been done. The management knows what the
+conditions are but they have never stopped to
+realize the horror of it. It is not that they
+value a few dollars more than they do human life,
+but that they simply do not stop to think or to
+imagine what it would be like to have to ride in
+the ramshackle elevator themselves. In the offices
+of this factory there is an atmosphere of
+courtesy and good breeding far beyond the ordinary&mdash;in
+justice to the people there it must be
+said that they do not know the conditions in the
+rear, but the management does. And the man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>agement
+is polite in most of its dealings, both
+with its employees and outside, but polish laid
+over a cancerous growth like this is not courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>There are three essentials for good work: <i>good
+lighting</i> (it must be remembered that a light
+that is too glaring is as bad as one that is too
+dim), <i>fresh air</i> (air that is hot and damp or dry
+and dusty is not fresh), and <i>cleanliness</i> (clean
+workrooms&mdash;and workers&mdash;clean drinking water
+with individual drinking cups, and in places
+where the work is unusually dirty, plenty of
+clean water for bathing purposes.)</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of salaries&mdash;economically one of
+the most important questions in the world&mdash;the
+employer should pay, not as little, but as much
+as he can afford. No man has a right to hire a
+girl (or a boy either) at less than a living wage
+and expect her to live on it. The pitiless publicity
+which was given the evil of hiring girls at
+starvation wages some years ago (in particular
+through the short stories of O. Henry, &ldquo;the little
+shop-girl's knight&rdquo; which, according to Colonel
+Roosevelt, suggested all the reforms which he
+undertook in behalf of the working girls of New
+York) did much in the way of reform, but there
+is much yet to be done.</p>
+
+<p>Money has been called the root of all evil. It
+is not money, but greed. Greed and thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>lessness.
+Sir James Barrie says stupidity and
+jealousy, but both these might be included under
+thoughtlessness. Men who are generous almost
+to a fault when a case of individual need is
+brought before them will hire girls at less than
+any one could exist on in decency. When they
+meet these same girls in the hall or when they
+come directly into contact with them in their
+work they may be polite enough, but their politeness
+is not worth a tinker's curse. Justice must
+come first. Only if the employer pays a fair
+day's wage can he expect a fair day's work.
+&ldquo;Even then,&rdquo; he protests, &ldquo;I can't get it.&rdquo; And
+this is, unfortunately, in large measure true. As
+Kipling said some few years ago, and it still
+holds,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">From forge and farm and mine and bench<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Deck, altar, outpost lone&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Creation's cry goes up on high<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From age to cheated age:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&ldquo;Send us the men who do the work<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For which they draw the wage.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can't even get them here on time,&rdquo; the employer's
+wail continues. The employee may
+respond that the employer is not there, but this
+has nothing to do with it. Most people are paid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+to get to their work at a certain hour. They
+have a daily appointment with their business at
+a specified time. It is wise and honorable to
+keep it. Tardiness is a habit, and, like most
+others, considerably harder to break than to
+form, but punctuality also is a habit, not quite
+so easy to establish as tardiness because it is
+based on strength while the other is based on
+weakness. Most of us hate to get up in the
+morning, but it is good discipline for the soul,
+and we have the words of poets as well as of
+business men that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Early to bed and early to rise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Time is one of the most valuable of commodities.
+More people are discharged for coming in
+late than for any other reason, not excepting (we
+believe this no exaggeration) &ldquo;lay-offs&rdquo; during
+dull seasons. Slipping out before the regular
+time and soldiering on the job fall into the same
+classification with tardiness. Such practices the
+employee too often looks upon as a smart way of
+getting around authority, blithely ignoring the
+fact which has so many times been called to our
+attention: that what a man does to a job is not
+half so important as what the job does to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
+The material loss which comes from it is the least
+of its harms.</p>
+
+<p>All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,
+but he is duller yet if he tries to mix them. Intense
+concentration during working hours followed
+by complete rest is the only way to make a
+contented workman, and it is the happy workman
+(just as it is the happy warrior), in spite of
+all that is said about divine discontent, who
+counts for most both to himself and to his community.
+There is a gladness about earnest
+eager work which is hard to find in anything
+else. &ldquo;I know what pleasure is,&rdquo; declared Robert
+Louis Stevenson, &ldquo;because I have done good
+work.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gossiping, idling, smoking, writing personal
+letters during working hours (these usually on
+the firm's stationery), and a thousand and one
+other petty acts of dishonesty are ruinous, not so
+much to the house which tolerates them (because
+it cannot help itself) as to the person who commits
+them. Telephones are the cause of a good
+deal of disturbance during business hours in
+places where employees spend an appreciable
+amount of time on personal calls. In some organizations
+they are prohibited altogether; but
+in most they are allowed if not carried to excess.
+It is not business people who need education in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
+this so much as their friends who have never been
+in business and seem unable to realize that personal
+calls are not only annoying, but time-killing
+and distracting.</p>
+
+<p>Part of the unrest and unhappiness among
+employees is due to the fact that vast numbers of
+them are working not at what they want to do
+but at what they have to do, marking time until
+they can get something better. It is very commendable
+for a man to be constantly watching
+out to improve himself, but it does not in the
+meanwhile excuse him from doing his best at the
+job for which he is drawing pay. It is dishonest.
+It is unsportsmanlike. It is unmanly.</p>
+
+<p>The question of salary is, from whatever
+angle it is approached, a delicate one. &ldquo;My experience
+is,&rdquo; observed David Harum, &ldquo;that most
+men's hearts is located ruther closter to their
+britchis pockets than they are to their vest pockets.&rdquo;
+It is a tender subject, and one that causes
+more trouble than almost any other in the world.
+Employees who are trusted with the payroll
+should not divulge figures and employees who
+are on the payroll should not discuss and compare
+salaries. Jones cannot understand why
+Brown gets more than he does when he knows
+that Brown's work is not so good, Brown cannot
+see why Smith gets as much as he does when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+is out two or three days in the week, and Smith
+cannot see why he has not been made an executive
+after all the years he has worked in the place.
+There are many sides to the matter of salary adjustment
+and they all have to be taken into consideration.
+And the petty jealousies that
+employees arouse by matching salaries against
+one another only serve to make a complex problem
+more difficult.</p>
+
+<p>There is only one base upon which a man
+should rest his plea for an increase in salary, and
+that is good work. The fact that he has a family
+dependent upon him, that he is ill or hard up may
+be ample reason for giving him financial help or
+offering him a loan, but it is no reason why his
+salary should be increased unless his work deserves
+it. Paternalism is more unfair than most
+systems of reward, and the man who comes whimpering
+with a tale of hard luck is usually (but
+not always) not worth coddling. Years of experience,
+even though they stretch out to three
+score and ten, are not in themselves sufficient
+argument for promotion. Sometimes the mere
+fact that a man has been content to stay in one
+place year after year shows that he has too little
+initiative to rise in that particular kind of work
+and is too timid to try something else.</p>
+
+<p>Another big cause of trouble among men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+working in the same organization is rigid class
+distinction. When a man hires others to work
+<i>for</i> him he invites discontent; when he hires them
+to work <i>with</i> him there may be dissatisfaction,
+but the chances of it are lessened. A business
+well knit together is like any other group, an
+army or a football team, bound into a unit to
+achieve a result. At its best each person in it
+feels a responsibility toward each one of the
+others; each realizes that who a man is is not half
+so important as what he does, and that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">... the game is more than the player of the game<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And the ship is more than the crew,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>or, as another poet with a Kiplingesque turn of
+mind and phrase has it,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It is not the guns or armament<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or the money they can pay.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It's the close co&ouml;peration<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That makes them win the day.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is not the individual<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or the army as a whole,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But the everlastin' team work<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of every blooming soul.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Each man is directly responsible to his immediate
+superior. He should never, unless the
+circumstances are unusual, go over his head and
+he should never do so without letting him know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
+It should be impossible, and is, in a well-organized
+house, for men coming from the outside to
+appeal over a member of a firm. Responsible
+men should be placed in the contact positions and
+their responsibility should be respected. Salesmen
+are warned not to bother with the little
+fellow but to go straight to the head of a firm.
+Like most general advice, it is dangerous to put
+into universal practice. The heads of most
+firms have men to take care of visitors, and in
+a good many instances, the salesman helps his
+cause by going to the proper subordinate in the
+first place. It is all very well to go to the head
+of a firm but to do it at the expense of the dignity
+of one of the smaller executives is doubtful business
+policy and doubtful ethics.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Passing the buck&rdquo; is a gentle vice practised
+in certain loosely hung together concerns. It
+is a strong temptation to shift the accountability
+for a mistake to the shoulders of the person on
+the step below, but it is to be remembered that
+temptations, like obstacles, are things to be overcome.
+The &ldquo;buck,&rdquo; as has been pointed out,
+always passes down and not up, a fact which
+makes a detestable practice all the more odious.
+One of the first laws of knighthood was to defend
+the weak and to protect the poor and helpless;
+it still holds, though knighthood has passed out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+of existence; and the creature (he is not even
+good red herring) who blames some one else for a
+fault of his, or allows him to take the blame, is
+beneath contempt.</p>
+
+<p>When a mistake has been made and the responsibility
+fixed on the right person the penalty
+may be inflicted. If it is a scolding or a &ldquo;bawling
+out&rdquo; it should be done quietly. Good managers
+do not shout their reprimands. They do
+not need to. The reproof for a fault is a matter
+between the offender and the &ldquo;boss.&rdquo; No one
+else has any concern with it, and there is no
+reason why the instinct for gossip or the appetite
+for malicious reports on the part of the other
+employees should be satisfied. The world would
+be happier and business would be infinitely more
+harmonious if each person in it could realize that
+his chief aim in life should be to mind his own
+business or, at least, to let other people's alone.</p>
+
+<p>Private secretaries and other people in more
+or less confidential positions are many times
+tempted to give away secret information, not so
+much for the benefit of the person to whom it is
+given as to show how much they themselves are
+trusted. Nearly every one who holds a responsible
+business position receives items of information
+which are best not repeated, and if common
+sense does not teach him what should be kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+private and what should be told, nothing will.
+It should not be necessary for the superior to
+preface each of his remarks with, &ldquo;Now, this
+must go no further.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Matters concerning salaries should always be
+confidential, and so should personal items such
+as health reports, character references, and so
+on, credit reports, blacklists, and other information
+of a similar nature. It is compiled for a
+definite purpose and for the use of a limited
+group of people. It is unethical to use it in
+any other way.</p>
+
+<p>The reason for dismissing a person from a
+business organization should be kept private,
+especially if it is something that reflects unfavorably
+on his character. But the reason should
+<i>always</i> be given to the employee himself. He
+may not listen, and most of the men who have
+had experience in hiring and firing say that he
+will not, but that is his own responsibility. The
+employer has no right to let him go without letting
+him know why. And the employee should
+listen&mdash;it may not be his fault but he should
+check up honestly with himself and find out.
+The same thing that lost him this place may
+lose him another, and a good many times all that
+he can get out of being discharged is a purification
+of soul. It is a pity if he misses that.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Discharging a person is a serious matter, serious
+from both sides, and it is not a thing to be
+done lightly. Most houses try to obviate it in so
+far as possible by hiring only the kind of people
+they want to keep. &ldquo;Our efforts toward efficiency&rdquo;
+(we quote from one manager who is typical
+of thousands) &ldquo;begin at the front door. We
+try to eliminate the unfit there. We do not employ
+any one who happens to come along. We try
+by means of an interview and references and psychological
+tests to get the very highest type of
+employee.&rdquo; No human test is perfect, however,
+and there are times, even in the best regulated
+houses, when it becomes necessary to dismiss
+persons who have shown themselves unfit.</p>
+
+<p>It is not always a disgrace to be discharged
+and it is not always a step downward. It may
+be because of business depression or it may be
+because the man is a square peg in a round hole.
+Sometimes it is the only experience that will reduce
+a man's, especially a young man's, idea of
+his own importance to something like normal
+proportions, the only one that will clear his mind
+of the delusion that he is himself the only person
+who is keeping off the rocks the business for
+which he is working, in which case it is one of the
+best things that could have happened to him.</p>
+
+<p>A roll call of famous or successful men who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+were fired would take up several reams of paper,
+and it is a pretty rash personnel manager (not
+to say brutal and unfair) who will throw a man
+out like a rotten potato and declare that he is
+absolutely no good. Besides, he does not know.
+All that he can be sure of is that the man was
+not qualified for the job he was holding. And
+he should think twice before giving a man a
+bad name even if he feels certain that he deserves
+it. At the same time he must protect himself
+and other business men from incompetent, weak,
+or vicious employees. If after his dismissal a
+man sends back to his former employer for a
+recommendation, the recommendation should be
+as favorable as possible without sacrificing the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>When a man breaks his connection with a
+business house, whether he does so voluntarily
+or involuntarily, his departure should be pleasant,
+or at the least dignified. It is childish to
+take advantage of the fact that you are going
+away to tell all of the people you have grudges
+against how you feel about them, and it is worse
+than a mere breach of good manners to abuse
+the house that has asked you to leave. If it
+has done some one else an injustice, talk about
+that all you please, but on your own account be
+silent. Even if the fault has been altogether<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>
+with the house it does not help to call it names.
+Self-respect should come to the rescue here. This
+is the time when it is right to be too proud to
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time it has been held bad ethics for
+the members of one trade or profession to speak
+disparagingly of their competitors, and we have
+grown accustomed to say that you can judge a
+man by the way he speaks of his rivals. This
+has limits, however, and in some instances a mistaken
+idea of loyalty to one's calling has led to
+the glossing over of certain evils which could
+have been cured much earlier if they had been
+made public. It is all very well to be generous
+and courteous toward one's competitors but the
+finest courtesy in any business consists of doing
+whatever tends to elevate the standard of that
+business.</p>
+
+<p>Every man likes his business to be well thought
+of, and most businesses have organized for
+the promotion of a high standard of ethics
+as well as for the development of more efficient
+methods. Notable among these, to mention one
+of the most recent ones, is the Advertisers' Association.
+There was a time when the whole profession
+was menaced by the swindlers who were
+exploiting fraudulent schemes by means of
+advertising in magazines and newspapers, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+to-day no reputable periodical will accept an
+advertisement without investigating its source
+and most of them will back up the guarantee of
+the advertiser that his goods are what he represents
+them to be with a guarantee of their own.
+No publication which intends to keep alive can
+afford a reputation of dishonesty, and the efforts
+of the publishers toward cleaning up have been
+seconded by the association to such an extent that
+any person or corporation that issues a deceptive
+advertisement, whether or not there was intent
+to deceive, will be prosecuted and punished.</p>
+
+<p>There was a time when a man could do almost
+anything within the law in a commercial transaction
+and excuse himself by saying &ldquo;business is
+business.&rdquo; Happily this is no longer true.
+Business men have not grown perfect but they
+have raised their standards of business morality
+as high as their standards of personal morality.
+They have learned that business and life are one,
+that our lives cannot&mdash;and this has a number of
+disadvantages&mdash;be separated into compartments
+like so many tightly corked bottles on a shelf.
+We have only one vessel and whatever goes into
+it colors what is already there. And it is significant
+to remember that muddy water poured
+into clean water will make it muddy, but that
+clean water poured into muddy water will not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+make it clean. It takes very little ink in a pail
+of milk to color the whole of it, but it takes an
+enormous amount of milk to have any effect on
+a bottle of ink.</p>
+
+<p>Business men have also learned that the only
+way to build a business that will last is to lay its
+foundation on the Golden Rule, and many a man
+who might otherwise sidetrack the principles of
+integrity holds by them for this reason. &ldquo;Honesty,&rdquo;
+declared one of the most insufferable prigs
+America ever produced, &ldquo;is the best policy.&rdquo; He
+was right. Prigs usually are. It is only because
+they are so sure of it themselves that they
+irritate us.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact, in spite of the difficulty Diogenes
+had when he took up his lantern and set out to
+find an honest man, that most people like to pay
+their way as they go, and the business men who
+recognize this are the ones who come out on top.
+They do not say that the customer is always right
+nor that he is perfect, but they assume that he is
+honest and trust him until he has proved himself
+otherwise. The biggest mail order house in
+America never questions a check. As soon as
+an order is received they fill it and attend to the
+check afterward. Their percentage of loss is
+extraordinarily small. Distrust begets distrust,
+and the perversity of human nature is such that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+even an honest man will be tempted to cheat if
+he knows another suspects him of it. The converse
+is equally true. There are, of course, exceptions.
+But the only rule in the world to
+which there are no exceptions is that there is no
+rule that holds good under all conditions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<h2>PART II</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h3>&ldquo;BIG BUSINESS&rdquo;</h3>
+
+<p>In the preceding pages we have looked over
+the field of etiquette in business in a general
+way, and have come to the only conclusion possible,
+namely, that the basis of courtesy in business
+is common sense, and that whatever rules
+may be given must not be followed slavishly, but
+must simply be used as guide posts. In the
+pages which follow we shall go into detail and
+watch courtesy at work among certain groups
+and individuals.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take, for example, a big concern which
+employs a thousand or more people. We shall
+begin with the president.</p>
+
+<p><i>President of a Big Organization.</i> Here is a
+man who bears a heavy responsibility. He has
+not only his own welfare to look after but that of
+the men and women who work <i>with</i> (we like this
+word better than <i>for</i>) him. His first duty is to
+them. How can he best perform it?</p>
+
+<p>It is a matter of fact that few men rise to such
+positions who are not innately courteous. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+one of the qualities which enable them to rise.
+For this reason we shall take it for granted that
+the president needs no instructions. Already he
+has learned the great value of courtesy. But
+this does not protect him always from discourtesy
+in other people.</p>
+
+<p>Every man who holds a high position in a big
+organization is besieged with visitors, but no one
+so much as the president. He is a target for
+cranks and idlers and freaks as well as for earnest
+business men who want to help him or to get
+help from him. Thousands during the course of
+a year come to call on him. If he saw them all
+he would have to turn over the presidency to
+some one else and devote himself to entertaining
+visitors. Many of those who come ask for him
+when he is not at all the man they want to see,
+but they have been taught in the schools of salesmanship
+or they have read in a magazine that it
+never pays to bother with the little fellow, but
+that they should go straight to the top.</p>
+
+<p>Every minute of the time of the president
+of a big company is valuable (all time is valuable,
+as far as that goes), and it must be protected
+from the people who have no right to infringe
+upon it.</p>
+
+<p>You would think that the vice-presidents and
+the managers and the various executives would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+be his best protection. They are not. It is the
+person who is placed at the front door to receive
+visitors. We shall consider him next.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Man at the Door.</i> As a matter of fact,
+this person is usually a girl, many times a very
+young and irresponsible one, because great numbers
+of business men have not yet realized the importance
+of the position. A well-poised girl or
+a woman who has had wide experience in handling
+people can fill the place quite as efficiently
+as a man, and a great deal more so if the man has
+not been chosen because he has the quick sympathy
+and ready tact so necessary in taking care of
+the needs of a miscellaneous assortment of callers.</p>
+
+<p>In the house we are observing the person at
+the door is a young man who began as a messenger
+boy, and who, because he did what he was
+asked to do cheerfully instead of sullenly, with a
+&ldquo;Certainly, sir,&rdquo; and a smile instead of a &ldquo;That's
+Bob's business&rdquo; and a frown, was made manager
+of the messengers, and then first assistant of the
+man at the door, and later, when that man was
+given another position, was promoted to his
+place. The job commands a good salary and
+offers chances of promotion. The young man
+likes it.</p>
+
+<p>A visitor comes, a young salesman, let us say,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+who has had little experience. This is only the
+second or third time he has tried to storm the
+doors of big business. He asks at once for the
+president. He does not give his card because
+the school where he learned his trade cautioned
+him against doing so. (He is perfectly correct,
+and he would have been equally correct if he had
+given it. The more formal style is to send in
+the card.) The man at the door sees at once
+what kind of man he has to deal with.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The president is busy,&rdquo; he answers&mdash;a safe remark
+always, because if he is not he should be;
+&ldquo;maybe I can do something for you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The salesman explains that he has an attachment
+to increase efficiency of typewriters. He
+would like to show the president how it works.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, you don't want Mr. President,&rdquo; the host
+answers. &ldquo;You want Mr. Jones. He attends
+to all such things for us. Will you be seated
+here in the reception room,&rdquo; motioning toward
+the door which is at one side of his desk, &ldquo;while I
+find out if he is busy?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This concern is very conservative about buying
+new attachments and new machinery of any kind,
+but it is ever on the alert to discover means of increasing
+its output and saving its manpower.
+Almost any new idea is worth a demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>If the man at the desk has an intelligent mes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>senger
+boy&mdash;and he should have&mdash;he sends him
+in to Mr. Jones. The boy finds Mr. Jones busy.
+He will be free in about fifteen minutes and then
+will be glad to see the salesman. The man reports
+to the visitor and asks if he cares to wait.
+He does. The host offers him a magazine and
+asks him to make himself comfortable while he
+goes back to his desk to attend to the next visitor.</p>
+
+<p>This one also wants to see the president.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The president is in conference just now,&rdquo;
+the young man replies. &ldquo;Perhaps there is something
+I can do for you in the meanwhile if you
+will tell me what you want.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It's none of your business,&rdquo; he answers
+rudely. &ldquo;I want the president.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The chances are against a man of this sort.
+He may be a person the president wants to see,
+but the odds are ten to one that he is not.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'm sorry but you cannot possibly see him
+now. He is busy.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;When will he be free?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is hard to tell. These conferences sometimes
+last an hour or two, and I am sure he will
+not see you even then unless you tell him why
+you want to see him. He is a very busy man.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The visitor sputters around a few minutes and
+it develops that he is selling insurance. The
+young man knows that the president will not see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>
+him under any circumstances. He is already
+heavily insured, as every wise man should be,
+and he cannot be bothered with agents who are
+trying to sell him larger policies.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'm sorry,&rdquo; the young man repeats, &ldquo;but I
+am sure there is no use in letting him waste your
+time. He is already carrying a heavy policy
+and he positively refuses to talk insurance with
+anyone, no matter who it is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This should be enough for the salesman. What
+the young man says is true. It would be a waste
+of his time as well as the president's. He does
+not care half so much for the salesman's time&mdash;there
+is no reason why he should&mdash;but notice how
+tactfully he tells him that the head of the organization
+has no time to spend with him.</p>
+
+<p>There is a certain rough type of salesman (we
+use the word salesman here in the broadest sense,
+as the salesmen themselves use it, to cover all the
+people who are trying to convince some one else
+that what they have is worth while whether it is
+an idea or a washing machine or a packet of
+drawings)&mdash;there is a certain rough type of
+salesman who tries to bluster his way through.
+He never lasts long as a salesman, though unfortunately
+he survives a good many years in
+various kinds of business. Even he must not be
+turned away rudely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'm sorry,&rdquo; the young man says to a person
+of this sort, &ldquo;but the president has given positive
+orders that he must not be disturbed this
+morning. He is engaged in a very important
+transaction.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The next man who approaches the door has an
+authentic claim on the president. It would be
+as great a calamity to turn him away as it would
+be to let some of the others in. He presents his
+card and says that he has an appointment. A
+truly courteous man, whenever possible, arranges
+an appointment beforehand. The young
+man takes the card, waves toward the reception
+room, and asks him to be seated while he finds out
+if the president is busy. He telephones to the
+secretary of the president, tells him who is calling,
+and asks if the president is ready to see him.
+If the answer is affirmative he asks if he will see
+him in his office or out in the reception room.
+It is much easier to get rid of a visitor from the
+entrance hall or reception room than from an inside
+office. If he says that he will see him in
+the reception room the girl reports to the visitor
+that he will come in a few minutes, offers him a
+magazine, and asks him to make himself at home.
+If the president says that he will see the visitor
+in his office the young man sends one of the messenger
+boys to usher him through the building.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now it may be that this man had no appointment
+with the president, but that he has used it
+as a pretext to break through. In this case, the
+secretary answers, after consulting his schedule,
+that the president has never heard of such a person
+and has no such appointment. A man of
+this sort is not worth a minute's consideration.
+He has shown himself dishonest at the outset
+with a petty contemptible dishonesty, and the
+temptation is to pitch him out on his head. But
+the young man says quietly:</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;His secretary says that the president has no
+appointment with you. I am afraid you have
+come to the wrong place. It must be some
+other Mr. Beacon.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There is a note of finality in his voice which
+convinces the visitor that there is no use in going
+further.</p>
+
+<p>The next visitor is a woman who has come to
+have lunch with a friend of hers who works in
+the accounting department.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is fifteen minutes before time for lunch,&rdquo;
+the young man answers. &ldquo;I can call her now,
+of course, but if you would rather not disturb
+her, I'll tell her that you will wait for her in the
+reception room until she comes for you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The woman thanks him and agrees that it will
+be much better not to disturb her. The young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+man offers her a chair and a magazine and invites
+her to make herself comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>It grows monotonous in the telling for him to
+ask each of the visitors exactly the same questions
+(never exactly the same, of course) in the
+same cordial tone of voice and to tell them to
+make themselves comfortable in exactly the same
+way, but the means of attaining success in such
+a place lies in the fact that he greets each visitor
+as if he were the only one he had to attend to,
+and that he is, for the time being, at least, completely
+at the visitor's service. It is not so much
+what the young man says as the way he says it.
+&ldquo;Good morning&rdquo; can be spoken in such a way
+that it is an insult.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Girl at the Telephone.</i> It is nerve-racking
+to stand at the door to receive callers,
+but it is much more so to sit at the switchboard
+and receive messages. The only point of contact
+is through the voice, but it is remarkable
+how much of one's personality the voice expresses.
+If you are tired your voice shows it;
+if you are cross your voice tells it; if you are
+worried, your voice betrays it. It is possible for
+one (everyone) to cultivate a pleasing voice.
+The telephone companies have learned this, and
+there is no part of her equipment upon which
+they spend more time and effort than on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
+voice of the telephone girl. It is interesting to
+know that their very excellent motto, &ldquo;The voice
+with the smile wins&rdquo; did not spring into being
+without thought. On the early bulletins this
+clumsy phrase was printed: &ldquo;A smiling voice
+facilitates service.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The girl at the telephone, even though she receives
+a thousand calls a day, must answer each
+one pleasantly and patiently. Some people call
+without a very clear idea of what they want, and
+the fact that business houses have so many different
+names for exactly the same job often makes
+it difficult for them to locate the person they are
+asking for, even when they are fairly sure who it
+is they want.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;May I speak to your personnel manager?&rdquo;
+comes the query over the wire to a girl who has
+never heard of a personnel manager.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'm sorry, I did not quite hear you.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The person at the other end repeats the word
+and the girl is sure she had it right the first time.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;We have no personnel manager here. Maybe
+there is some one else who would do. If you will
+tell me what you want&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I want a job.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Just a minute, please, I'll connect you with
+our employment manager.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Advertising engineers, executive secretaries,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
+and many others are old jobs masquerading
+under new names.</p>
+
+<p>More business men complain of the girl at the
+telephone than of any other person in business.
+She must, under the handicap of distance, accomplish
+exactly what the man at the door does,
+and must do it as efficiently and as courteously.</p>
+
+<p>No matter how angry the one who is calling
+becomes, no matter how profane he may be, no
+matter what he says, she must not answer back,
+and she must not slam the receiver down while
+he is talking. Perfect poise, an even temper,
+patience, and a pleasant voice under control&mdash;if
+she has these, and a vast number of the telephone
+girls have, she need not worry about the
+rules of courtesy. They will take care of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The numbers that a girl in a business office
+has to call frequently she should have on a pad
+or card near the switchboard so that she will
+not have to look them up. Many business men
+ask the girl at the board to give them Blank and
+Blank or Smith and Smith instead of giving her
+the numbers of the two concerns. She then has
+to look them up, quite a difficult task when one
+has the headpiece on and calls coming in and
+going out every minute. To stop to look up one
+number often delays several, and it is a duty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+which should never devolve upon the girl whose
+business it is to send the calls through. The
+man who is calling, or his secretary, if he has one,
+or a person near the switchboard stationed there
+for the purpose should look up the numbers and
+give them to the operator.</p>
+
+<p>An efficient girl at the telephone sends numbers
+through as quickly as is humanly possible,
+but even then she is often scolded by nervous and
+harassed men who expect more than can really
+be done.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hunter has called Main 6785. It is busy.
+He waits. Hours pass. At least it seems so to
+him, and he grows impatient.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What's the matter with that number, Miss
+Fisher?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'm still trying, Mr. Hunter. I'll call you
+when they answer.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The line continues busy. Mr. Hunter looks
+over the papers on his desk. His nervousness
+increases. He takes down the receiver again
+and asks what the trouble is. He does not get
+the number any more quickly this way, but it
+would be hard to convince him that he does not.
+The girl says quietly again that she is still trying.
+He clings to the receiver and in a few
+minutes she answers triumphantly, &ldquo;Here they
+are,&rdquo; and the connection is made.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The telephone girl in a big concern (or a little
+one) is constantly annoyed with people who have
+the wrong number. When it happens ten or
+twelve times in the course of a day&mdash;fortunately
+it is not usually so often&mdash;it is hard for her to
+keep a grip on her temper and answer pleasantly,
+&ldquo;This is not the number you want,&rdquo; but
+the snappish answer always makes a bad situation
+worse, and the loss of temper which causes
+it drains the energy of the person who makes it.
+It is not merely the voice with the smile that
+wins; it is the disposition and temperament to
+which such a voice is the index.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Secretary.</i> The next in the line of defense
+is the president's secretary. To him (and
+we use the masculine pronoun although this position,
+like a good many others, is often held by
+women even in the biggest organizations, where
+the responsibility attached to it is by no means
+small)&mdash;to him the president turns over the details
+of his day's work. He arranges the president's
+schedule and reminds him of the things
+he has forgotten and the things he is likely to
+forget. He receives all of his visitors by telephone
+first and many times disposes of their
+wants without having to connect them with the
+president at all. He receives many of the callers
+who are admitted by the man at the door and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
+in the same way often takes care of them without
+disturbing the president. He knows more
+about the petty routine of the job than the president
+himself. He is accurate. He is responsible.
+He is patient. He is courteous.</p>
+
+<p>In order that he may be all these things it is
+necessary for the president to keep him well informed
+as to what he is doing and where he is
+going and what he is planning so that he can
+give intelligent answers to the people who come,
+so that he can keep things running smoothly
+when the president is away, so that he can
+answer without delay when the president asks
+whether he has a luncheon engagement on
+Thursday, and what he did with the memorandum
+from the circulation manager, and who is
+handling the shipping sheets.</p>
+
+<p>Men who have their minds on larger matters
+cannot keep all the details of their jobs in mind,
+but it is significant to know that most successful
+business men know with more than a fair degree
+of accuracy what these details amount to. Some
+secretaries feel very superior to the men who employ
+them because they can remember the date
+on which the representatives of the Gettem Company
+called and the employers cannot. The
+author knows a chauffeur who drives for a
+famous New York surgeon who thinks himself a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
+much better man than the surgeon because he
+can remember the numbers of the houses where
+his patients and his friends live and the surgeon
+cannot. The author also knows a messenger
+boy who thinks himself a much bigger man than
+one of the most successful brokers in Wall Street
+because the broker sometimes gives him the same
+message twice within fifteen minutes, the second
+time after it has already been delivered.</p>
+
+<p>The secretary comes to the office every morning
+neatly clad and on time. The hour at which
+his employer comes in has nothing to do with
+him. There is a definite time at which he is expected
+to be at his desk. He is there.</p>
+
+<p>He opens the letters on his desk&mdash;and those
+addressed to the president come first to him&mdash;and
+sorts them, throwing aside the worthless
+advertising matter, saving that which may be of
+some interest, marking the letters that are to
+be referred to various other members of the
+house, and placing them in the memorandum basket,
+piling into one heap those that he cannot answer
+without first consulting the president, and
+into another those which must be answered by the
+president personally. Intimately personal letters
+often come mixed in with the rest of the
+mail. No man wants a secretary whom he cannot
+trust even with letters of this sort, but almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>
+any secretary worth having will feel a certain
+amount of delicacy in opening them unless he is
+requested to do so. When these letters are from
+people who write often the secretary grows to
+recognize the handwriting from the outside of
+the envelope, and therefore does not need to open
+them. In other cases it is sometimes possible to
+distinguish a personal from a business letter.
+These should be handled according to the wishes
+of the man to whom they are directed. Many
+business men turn practically everything&mdash;even
+the settlement of their family affairs&mdash;over to
+their secretaries. It is a personal matter, and
+the secretary's part in it is to carry out the wishes
+of his employer.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the mail is sorted the president
+has come in.</p>
+
+<p>He rings for his secretary, telephones for him,
+sends a messenger for him, or else goes to his
+desk himself and asks him to come in and take
+dictation. There is no special courtesy or discourtesy
+in any of these methods. It depends
+on how far apart the desks are, how busy he is,
+and a number of other things. He does not yell
+for his secretary to come in. He manages to
+get him there quietly. It is not necessary for
+him to rise when the secretary enters (even if the
+secretary is a woman) though he may do so (and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
+it is a very gracious thing, especially if the secretary
+is a woman) but he should greet him (or
+her) with a pleasant &ldquo;Good-morning.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The secretary takes his place in the comfortable
+chair that has been provided for him, with
+notebook and pencil in hand and at least one
+pencil in reserve. He waits for the president to
+begin, and listens closely so that he may transcribe
+as rapidly as he speaks. If he fails to
+understand he waits until they come to the end
+of a sentence before asking his employer to repeat.
+It is much better to do so then than to depend
+on puzzling it out later or coming back and
+asking him after he has forgotten what was said.</p>
+
+<p>Telephone interruptions and others may come
+during the dictation but the secretary waits until
+he is dismissed or until the pile of letters has disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>When the president has finished it is the secretary's
+time to begin talking. He consults him
+about the various letters upon which he needs his
+advice and makes notations in shorthand on
+them. He reports on the various calls that have
+come in and the house memoranda. A good
+secretary reads and digests these before turning
+them over to his employer, and in most cases
+gives the gist of the memorandum instead of the
+memorandum itself. It saves time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The president's secretary usually has a secretary
+of his own, a woman, let us say, or a girl
+whose preliminary training has been good and
+whose record for the year and a half she has been
+with the company has been excellent.</p>
+
+<p>She comes to her desk on time every morning
+as fresh as a daisy and as inconspicuous. The
+relation that she bears to the president's secretary
+is much the same as the relation that he
+bears to the president. She gets the letters
+that are addressed to him and sorts them in the
+same way that he does those of the president.
+On days when he is absent she takes care of all
+of his work, in so far as she is able, as well as her
+own.</p>
+
+<p>Her employer is considerate of her always.
+He does not make a practice of taking ten or fifteen
+minutes of her lunch hour or five or ten
+minutes overtime at the close of the day, but
+when there is a good reason why he should ask
+her to remain he does so, asking courteously if
+she would mind staying. If she is genuinely
+interested in her work&mdash;and this young lady is&mdash;she
+will stay, but if she has an even better reason
+why she should go she explains briefly that it is
+impossible to stay. He never imposes heavier
+burdens upon her than she can bear, but he does
+not hesitate to ask her to do whatever needs to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+done, and he does it with a &ldquo;Please&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Thank
+you,&rdquo; and not with a &ldquo;See, here&rdquo; and a &ldquo;Say,
+listen to me, now.&rdquo; She is a very pretty and
+attractive girl, but the man she is working for is
+a gentleman. To him she is his secretary, and
+if he were ever in danger of forgetting it she
+would be quick to remind him. She does not go
+around with a chip on her shoulder all the time,
+and she talks freely with the various men around
+the office just as she does with the women and
+girls, but it is in an impersonal way. She never
+permits intimate attentions from her immediate
+employer or any one else.</p>
+
+<p><i>Executives.</i> &ldquo;Executive&rdquo; is a large, loose
+word which rolls smoothly off the tongue of far
+too many business men to-day. Office boys begin
+to think in terms of it before they are out of
+knee trousers. &ldquo;I could hold down the job,&rdquo;
+said a youngster who had hurt his hand and
+whose business was to carry a bag of mail from
+a suburban factory into New York, &ldquo;if I could
+get some one to carry the bag.&rdquo; &ldquo;I can do the
+work,&rdquo; say smart young men in the &ldquo;infant
+twenties&rdquo; (and many others&mdash;there is no age
+limit), &ldquo;but I must have a man to look after the
+details.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The way to an executive position is through
+details. Work, plain hard work, is the founda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>tion
+of every enduring job, and the executive
+who thinks he can do without it has a sharp reckoning
+day ahead. In most places the executives
+have worked their way up slowly, and at no time
+along the way have they had that large contempt
+for small jobs which characterizes so many young
+men in business. They have been perfectly willing
+to do whatever came to hand.</p>
+
+<p>But after all this is said, the fact remains that
+an executive is successful not so much because of
+his own ability as because of his power to recognize
+ability in other men. He is&mdash;and this is
+true of every executive from the president down&mdash;the
+servant of his people in much the same way
+that the President of the United States is the
+servant of the American people. This means
+that he must be readily accessible to them, and
+must listen as courteously to them as if they were
+important visitors from across the sea or somewhere
+else.</p>
+
+<p>Many executives&mdash;and this was true especially
+during the war&mdash;have surrounded themselves
+with a tangle of red tape which has to be unwound
+every time an employee (or any one else)
+wants to get near enough to ask a question. This
+is absurd. Sensible men destroy elaborate plans of
+management and find they get along better without
+them. The Baldwin Locomotive Works,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+which has a hundred years of solid reputation behind
+it, has no management plans. &ldquo;There is
+about the place an atmosphere of work, and work
+without frills or feathers,&rdquo; and this is essentially
+true of every business that is built to last. Look
+at the organizations which, because of war conditions,
+rose into a prosperity they had never enjoyed
+before. Most of them have collapsed, and
+the little men who rose with them (so many of
+them and so much too small for their jobs) have
+collapsed with them.</p>
+
+<p>In the big reliable concerns, and the small
+ones, too, the high executives are easily approached,
+especially by the members of the
+organization. In many of the open offices&mdash;and
+open offices have done much to create a feeling
+of comradeship among workers&mdash;the desk of the
+general manager is out on the floor with the
+desks of the rank and file of the employees with
+nothing to distinguish it from theirs except the
+fact that there is a bigger man behind it. A real
+man does not need a lot of elaborate decorations.
+They annoy him.</p>
+
+<p>There are two sides to this, however. Visitors
+from the outside are not the only ones who are
+likely to waste the time of other people, and a
+busy man has to protect himself from indoor
+nuisances as well as those that drift in from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
+outside. Some do it by means of secretaries, but
+a good executive needs no barrier at all between
+himself and his own men. They learn soon
+enough&mdash;we are speaking now of a good executive,
+remember&mdash;that there is no use in going to
+him unless there is some definite reason why they
+should, and that the more briefly and directly
+they present their problem the more likely they
+are to have it settled.</p>
+
+<p>When an executive receives a caller (or when
+any man in a business house receives a caller) he
+should <i>receive</i> him and not merely tolerate him.
+A young advertising man who began several
+years ago had two very interesting experiences
+with two gruff executives in two different companies.
+Both consented to see him, both kept on
+writing at their desks after he entered and gave
+him scant attention throughout the interview.
+Apparently they were both successful business
+men. Certainly they both held positions that
+would indicate it. Yet both of them a few years
+later came to the young advertising man at different
+times looking for jobs. Needless to say
+neither found a place with him, not because he
+held a grudge against them, but simply because
+he knew what kind of men they were and that
+they could not help in the kind of business he was
+trying to build.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From the beginning of the interview the host
+should do all he can to make his visitor comfortable.
+You see a lot in certain magazines
+about setting the visitor at a disadvantage by
+giving him an awkward chair, making him face
+the light and grilling him with questions. It is
+pure nonsense.</p>
+
+<p>It is very gracious for a man to rise to greet a
+caller and extend his hand, especially if the caller
+is young and ill at ease. It is imperative if it
+is an old man or a woman. He should ask the
+visitor to be seated before he sits down himself.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Well, young man, what can I do for you?&rdquo;
+is hardly a polite way of opening an interview.
+The host should wait with a cordially receptive
+air until his guest begins, unless he is in a great
+hurry. Then he frankly tells the caller so and
+asks him to make his business brief.</p>
+
+<p>Interruptions come even in the midst of conversations
+with important visitors, but no visitor
+is so important as to permit neglect of one's
+employees. These should be met courteously and
+dispatched quickly. The host must always ask
+the pardon of the guest before turning to the
+telephone or to a messenger, and if the guest is
+an employee the rule is the same.</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of the interview the host<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
+rises and shakes hands with the departing visitor
+but does not necessarily go with him (or her) to
+the door or the elevator, as the case may be.
+This is an additional courtesy in which a busy
+man cannot always indulge. The essential part
+of every interview is that the visitor shall state
+what he wants, that the host shall give the best
+answer in his power, and then the sooner the
+visitor departs the better for all concerned.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Rank and File.</i> This is the largest group
+in every business. It is the one that fluctuates
+most. It is the one from which the discards are
+made. It is the one from which officers are
+chosen. It is the one in which the real growth of
+a business takes place. And by the same token
+it is the one, generally speaking, where there is
+most discourtesy. Promotion depends upon the
+possession of this quality much more than people
+realize. Many a man with actual ability to hold
+a high position is not given an opportunity to do
+so because the men who employ him realize that
+he would antagonize those who worked under
+him.</p>
+
+<p>There are among the body of employees in
+every concern (even the very best) discontented
+members. In most cases, indeed, in nearly all
+cases except where there is a chronic grudge
+against life which is not affected by external cir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>cumstances,
+these are weeded out, and those with
+habitual grudges are weeded out along with the
+others or else are kept in minor places. Perhaps
+it would be more nearly correct to say they keep
+themselves there. Sometimes a subordinate
+feels that he is unfairly treated by his immediate
+superior. He wishes to go to the man above
+him in authority. Is it right for him to do so?</p>
+
+<p>It is an unwritten law that each worker shall
+be loyal to the head of his department. Suppose
+the head does not deserve it?</p>
+
+<p>There are three courses open to the worker.
+He can leave the job and find another in a different
+organization. He can go to the head of
+the department and state the case to him. If
+this should fail he may appeal to the man above
+him, but <i>he should never go over the head of his
+own immediate superior without first telling him
+that he intends to do it</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This is an important rule. It holds whether
+one has a grievance to present or a suggestion.
+Constructive plans should first be talked over
+with one's immediate superior, and with his approval
+carried to the next man, or he may carry
+them himself. If this superior is the sort of man
+with whom you are constantly at loggerheads,
+you had much better get out and get a place
+somewhere else. And if you find that continu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>ally
+you are in hot water with the men who have
+authority over you, you may be very sure that
+the fault is not altogether theirs.</p>
+
+<p>Subordinates usually have an idea that the
+heads of their departments leave all of the work
+to them. Well, as a matter of fact, they do leave
+a large part of it. If they did not they would
+have no excuse for having subordinates. The
+reward of good work is more work. This is less
+of a hardship than it sounds. Sir James Barrie
+once quoted Dr. Johnson's statement that doubtless
+the Lord could have made a better fruit than
+the strawberry, but that he doubtless never did,
+and added to it that He doubtless could have
+created something that was more fun than hard
+work, but that He doubtless never did.</p>
+
+<p>The subway guards in New York City say
+that the rush which comes just before five o'clock
+(the closing time of most of the business houses)
+is as great as the one which comes just after.
+They call the persons in the former rush the
+clock watchers. They have left work about fifteen
+minutes early, and to-morrow morning&mdash;business
+experience has taught this&mdash;they will
+come in fifteen minutes late. For the most part
+these are the discontented workers who spend
+&ldquo;60 per cent of their time in doing their job, and
+40 per cent in doing the boss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It has always been considered a breach of good
+manners to pull out one's watch and look at it in
+company. It is true in the office as well as in
+the drawing room. The clock watchers are impolite.
+It has also been considered a breach of
+good manners to hold a guest against his will
+against the conventional hour for his departure.
+The employers who habitually keep their employees
+after closing hours are equally impolite.
+It is a question of honor, too. Time is money,
+and the time grafters, whether employers or employees,
+are dishonest.</p>
+
+<p>When one employee goes over to the desk of
+another it is not necessary for the second to rise.
+The first should wait until the one at the desk
+looks up before speaking unless he is so absorbed
+in his work that he does not glance up after a
+minute or two. Then he should interrupt with
+&ldquo;I beg your pardon.&rdquo; It makes no difference
+if one of the employees is a woman and the other
+is a man. Work at an office can be seriously impeded
+if every time one person goes to the desk
+of another the other rises. So many times the
+whole conversation covers less time than it takes
+to get out of one's chair and sit back down again.
+In some places subordinates are required to
+stand when a superior speaks to them, but as a
+general thing it is not necessary. In such houses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
+it is correct to play the game according to the
+general standard and to act according to the
+rules set down by the men who are in charge of
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>There is no person so wretched or so poor or
+so miserable but that he can find other people
+who are more wretched, poorer, or more miserable.
+At the same time there is no person so
+superior, so wealthy, or gifted but that he can
+find other people who are more superior, more
+wealthy, and more gifted. It is a part of good
+manners to recognize superiority when one finds
+it. Youngsters entering business can sit at the
+feet of the older men in the same business and
+learn a great deal. Knowledge did not enter the
+world with the present generation any more
+than it will depart from it when the present generation
+dies. It is just as well for young people
+to realize this. Age has much to teach them.
+Experience has much to teach them, and so have
+men and women of extraordinary ability. &ldquo;I
+have never met a man,&rdquo; says a teacher of business
+men, &ldquo;from whom I could not learn something.&rdquo;
+All of us are born with the capacity to
+learn. It is those who develop it who amount to
+something.</p>
+
+<p>Petty quarrels should be disregarded and
+grudges should be forgotten. This piece of ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>vice
+is needed more by women in business than
+by men. Men have learned&mdash;it has taken them
+several thousand years&mdash;to fight and shake
+hands. They have a happy way of forgetting
+their squabbles&mdash;this is a general truth&mdash;after
+a little while, and two men who were yesterday
+abusing one another with hot and angry words
+are to-day walking together down the hall smiling
+and talking as gently as you please.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Office Boy.</i> If the office boy in a big
+business house where much of the work is done
+at a white-hot tension&mdash;the office boy in a busy
+Wall Street office during the peak of the day's
+rush, for example&mdash;could write his intimate impressions
+they would make good reading.</p>
+
+<p>The temper of the great American business
+man is an uncertain quantity. Famous for good
+humor and generosity as a general thing, he is,
+for all that, at his worst moments the terror of
+the office boy's life. Nervous, worried, tired,
+and exasperated, he is likely to &ldquo;take it out&rdquo; on
+the office boy if there is no one else at hand.
+There is no defense for such conduct&mdash;even the
+man who is guilty would not, the next day in his
+calmer moments, defend it. Meantime, what
+shall the office boy do?</p>
+
+<p>A hot, tired man with papers fluttering over
+his desk, his telephone ringing, and three men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+waiting in line to talk to him about serious problems
+connected with the business, yells, &ldquo;What
+do you want?&rdquo; when the office boy comes to
+answer the bell.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You rang for me,&rdquo; the boy answers.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I rang half an hour ago,&rdquo; the man snaps.</p>
+
+<p>In reality he rang two minutes before. Shall
+the office boy remind him of this?</p>
+
+<p>Not if he values his job!</p>
+
+<p>Of course it is unjust, but one of the first laws
+of discipline is to learn to be composed in the
+face of injustice, and the first law of courtesy
+for the office boy (and other employees would do
+just as well to follow) is: Don't be too harsh with
+the boss!</p>
+
+<p>It is said that the grizzly bear, who is a very
+strict mother, often spanks her cubs when she
+herself has done something foolish. Julia Ellen
+Rogers tells a story of an explorer who came
+suddenly upon a bear with two cubs. He was so
+frightened that he stood still for a minute or two
+before he could decide which way to run. Meantime
+the bear, fully as frightened as he, turned
+and fled, spanking the two cubs at every jump
+in spite of the fact that each was already going
+as fast as its legs could carry it. &ldquo;It was so unexpected,&rdquo;
+continues Miss Rogers, &ldquo;and so funny
+to see those little bears look around reproach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>fully
+at their angry parent every time they felt
+the weight of her paw, helping them to hurry,
+that the man sat down and laughed until he
+cried.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It was not funny to the cubs.</p>
+
+<p>Cases in which the office boy is maltreated are
+exceptional, though cases in which he is misunderstood
+are not. Most office boys have not
+one boss but many. There should always be one
+person from whom they receive their general
+orders and to whom they go with their troubles.
+(A youngster should have very few troubles to
+report. It is usually the worthless ones who
+report.)</p>
+
+<p>In most places the several office boys are stationed
+at a certain point, a desk or a table, with
+one of their number more or less in charge.
+The rule is that one person be always at the
+desk.</p>
+
+<p>All right. Six office boys. Five out on errands.
+One at the desk. The bell rings. The
+boy keeps his place. The bell rings again. The
+boy keeps his place. The bell rings a third
+time, long and insistently, but the youngster,
+with a steadfastness worthy of the boy who stood
+on the burning deck, still keeps his place.</p>
+
+<p>A second later an angry official bounces out
+and wants to know what on earth is the matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
+and declares that he will report the desk to the
+manager. Meanwhile one of the missing five
+has returned, and the youngster who had held
+the place so long under fire takes the message
+from the man and delivers it.</p>
+
+<p>If the boy should see an opening&mdash;and most
+business men except those funny little executives
+puffed up with their own importance are ready
+enough to listen&mdash;he may explain how it happened,
+but if he has to enter a shouting contest
+it is best to stay silent.</p>
+
+<p>The law of business courtesy&mdash;no matter how
+far away from this a discussion goes it always
+swings back&mdash;is the Golden Rule. The subordinate
+who feels himself neglected by the men in
+positions above him might check himself by honestly
+asking himself how he appears to those
+beneath him. It is interesting to know that the
+one who complains most is usually the one who is
+haughtiest when he enters into conversation with
+the employees, who, he thinks, are not quite worth
+his notice. He feels blighted because the president
+does not stop to say &ldquo;Good-morning&rdquo; in
+the hall, but it is beneath his dignity to say
+&ldquo;Good-morning&rdquo; to the girl who collects his mail
+or &ldquo;Good-night&rdquo; to the janitor who comes to
+dust his desk when the day's work is over. The
+means of attaining courtesy&mdash;and if you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+it yourself you will find it in other people&mdash;is
+by watching your own actions. Teach no
+one but yourself. Worry about no one's behavior
+but your own. That is job enough for
+any one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN A DEPARTMENT STORE</h3>
+
+<p>Let us now see courtesy at work in a big department
+store.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins has taken a morning off to do a
+little shopping before he goes away on his summer
+vacation. He wants to buy two shirts, a
+trunk, a toy for his baby, and a present for his
+wife. He is not sure what he wants for the wife
+and baby.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hopkins does not like to shop. He remembers
+his last expedition. A haberdashery
+had sent him a cordial letter asking him to open
+an account. He did so, but one morning later
+when he went in to buy a waistcoat the rude and
+inefficient service he met disgusted him so that
+he has not been back since. He knew exactly
+what he wanted and asked for it. &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo;
+answered the smart young clerk. &ldquo;You don't
+want that. People have not been wearing waistcoats
+like that for years. This is what you
+want,&rdquo; and he exhibited a different style altogether.
+It happened that Mr. Hopkins knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+better than the clerk what he wanted, and the
+fact that people had not been wearing waistcoats
+like it made no difference to him. As a matter
+of fact, the only reason the clerk made the remark
+was that he did not have them in stock, and
+thought perhaps he could sell by substituting.</p>
+
+<p>There are other haberdasheries where the service
+is distinctly good, but Mr. Hopkins decides
+to go to a department store instead. Haberdasheries,
+however excellent, do not carry toys
+for one's baby nor presents for one's wife.</p>
+
+<p>Helpem's store has been warmly recommended.
+He will go there. It is his first visit.</p>
+
+<p>When he enters the door he is bewildered by
+an array of women's scarfs and gloves and perfume
+bottles, handkerchiefs and parasols, handbags,
+petticoats, knick-knacks, and whatnot. He
+almost loses courage and begins backing toward
+the door when he catches sight of a man in uniform
+standing near the entrance. He sees that
+this man is directing the tides of shoppers that
+are surging in, and approaches him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Where can I find the trunks?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Third floor. Elevator in the rear,&rdquo; the man
+answers briefly (but not gruffly). People who
+have to answer thousands of questions must be
+brief.</p>
+
+<p>As he passes down the aisle Mr. Hopkins, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
+is very observant, notices that all of the girls&mdash;most
+of the clerks are girls&mdash;are dressed in a
+pleasant gray. This gives an agreeable uniform
+tone to a large establishment which would break
+up into jarring patches of color if each clerk
+were allowed to wear whatever color happened to
+strike her fancy. Good idea, Mr. Hopkins
+thinks, very necessary where there are many,
+many clerks.</p>
+
+<p>He does not have much trouble getting the
+trunk. He knows pretty well what he wants,
+and the obliging salesman convinces him that
+the trunk will probably last forever by assuring
+him that an elephant could dance a jig on it and
+never make a dent. He asks Mr. Hopkins if he
+wants his name on it. Mr. Hopkins had not
+thought of it, but he does. No, upon second
+thought, he will have only his initials stenciled
+on in dull red, W. H. H. The trunk will be
+delivered in the afternoon and he goes away well
+satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>The shirts are somewhat more difficult. He is
+attached to a certain kind of collar and he likes
+madras shirts with little black stripes or figures
+in them. The man shows him white ones and
+wide striped ones and colored ones with the right
+collar, and he almost decides that the place does
+not keep madras shirts with little black figures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+in them, when he suddenly realizes that he was so
+intent on getting the collar that he forgot to say
+anything about the material or color. He begins
+again, tells the clerk exactly what he wants, and
+in a few minutes the proper shirts are before him
+and he is happy. While the clerk is folding them,
+he asks about ties. It is a good thing. Mr.
+Hopkins remembers that he has forgotten ties.
+They have great bargains in ties. He drifts
+over to the counter and presently has three lovely
+ones. One is red, and Mr. Hopkins resolves to be
+more careful than he was with the last red one.
+His wife burned it. He must keep this hidden.</p>
+
+<p>The ties remind him that he needs a bathrobe.
+An agreeable clerk sells him a dull figured bathrobe,
+comfortable and light for summer and
+guaranteed to wash, and tells him that a pajama
+sale is in progress about four counters away.</p>
+
+<p>When he has bought six pairs of pajamas he
+begins to think of the baby's present. Toys are
+on the top floor. The girl there&mdash;a wise department
+store always chooses carefully for this
+place&mdash;is very helpful. She asks about the
+baby, how old he is, what toys he has, what toys
+he has asked for, and so on. Mr. Hopkins tells
+her, and after showing him several ingenious mechanical
+contrivances, she suggests a train with a
+real track to run on. Mr. Hopkins is delighted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>
+The girl asks if the youngster likes to read. He
+does not, but he likes to be read to. &ldquo;Why don't
+you take him a book?&rdquo; and in a few minutes he
+has the &ldquo;Just-So Stories&rdquo; tucked under his arm.
+As he leaves the girl smiles, &ldquo;Come back to see
+us,&rdquo; she says.</p>
+
+<p>All the clerks have said this. The clerk
+who sold the shirts said, while they stood waiting
+for the change, that he could depend on them.
+They would not shrink and the colors would not
+run. &ldquo;We are here in the city,&rdquo; he continued
+(the store was in New York), &ldquo;but we have our
+regular customers just as if we were in a small
+town. We don't try to make just one sale and
+get by with it. We want you to come back.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The girl at the toy counter tells Mr. Hopkins
+that there is a woman downstairs who will
+help him select something for his wife. He goes
+back to the man in uniform to locate her and
+finds her in a secluded booth on the first floor.
+She asks several questions about whether he
+would like china or silver, furniture or linen, but
+Mr. Hopkins wants to give his wife something
+personal&mdash;something she can use or wear. He
+has been married several years but not long
+enough to know that this is a dangerous thing to
+do, but the woman is wise. She suggests a silk
+parasol, a kimono, or a dozen handkerchiefs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such a service as this is not possible except in
+very large shops, but in most places clerks are
+quick to respond with suggestions for gifts.
+There is a pleasure about buying them and selling
+them that does not go with ordinary transactions.</p>
+
+<p>When he buys a parasol the clerk suggests
+that they have a very large assortment of handbags,
+but Mr. Hopkins's day's work is done, and
+the clerk does not insist. None of the clerks in
+a good department store is insistent. They offer
+suggestions and stand ready to serve, but they
+do not try to impose their ideas or their goods
+upon the customers. Mr. Hopkins leaves well
+satisfied with himself and his purchases. He
+will come back.</p>
+
+<p>The trunk is delivered in the afternoon, not by
+the regular wagon, but by an express company.
+It is a busy season. Mr. Hopkins is still further
+delighted. These people keep their promises.
+And as he tips the man who brought it up&mdash;he
+had to climb three flights of stairs&mdash;the man
+gives him a card. &ldquo;Here's one of the boss's
+cards,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;in case you want any hauling
+done.&rdquo; Without doubt the man has been instructed
+by the boss to distribute his cards, but he
+does it with such a grace that it seems to be on his
+own initiative.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It rarely happens that a business man or woman
+can shop in the leisurely manner described
+above. Most of their shopping has to be done
+during the half hour after lunch or during a
+frantic few minutes snatched at the beginning or
+the end of the day's work. One morning Mr.
+Hopkins had to leave home without a collar because
+he forgot to send the dirty ones to the laundry
+(his wife was away that week) and dashed
+into a little shop to get one on the way to the
+office. He would have felt like murdering a
+clerk who wanted to show him something nice in
+the way of gloves or mufflers, and he would have
+had a hard time to restrain himself from violence
+if the clerk had started in on a eulogy of a new
+shipment of English tweeds.</p>
+
+<p>An intelligent clerk can usually tell when his
+customer is in a tearing hurry. It is an unpropitious
+time to make suggestions. The clerk
+must see things from the customer's point of
+view. It is permissible to suggest something
+else in place of the thing he has asked for but it
+is not good manners to make fun of it or to insist
+upon a substitute. Recently a woman wanted
+to buy a rug for her automobile. She knew just
+what she wanted, but the bright young clerk insisted
+that she wanted something else. She finally
+bought the rug, but it was in spite of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+clerk rather than because of him. Too many
+salesmen kill their sales by thinking and talking
+only of their product. The customer is not half
+so interested in that as he is in himself. Good
+salesmanship relates the product to the customer,
+and does it in such a way that the customer is
+hardly aware of how it is done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+<h3>A WHILE WITH A TRAVELING MAN</h3>
+
+<p><i>In a Big City.</i> We will suppose that our traveling
+man has his headquarters in some big city&mdash;New
+York, Chicago, San Francisco, it does not
+matter&mdash;and that he has several calls to make before
+he goes out on the road.</p>
+
+<p>There are two kinds of salesmen, those who
+make only one sale to a customer and those who
+sell something that has to be renewed periodically.
+The first sell pianos, real estate, encyclopedias,
+and so on; the second sell raw materials
+and supplies. The salesman whom we are to
+follow is in the second group.</p>
+
+<p>He has&mdash;and so have most men who do this
+kind of selling&mdash;a regular routine that he follows,
+adding new names to the list and deleting
+old ones as seems expedient. At this particular
+time he has several old customers to visit
+and one or two new prospects to investigate before
+he leaves town.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary for him to make arrange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>ments
+beforehand to gain access to the old customers.
+They know him and they are always
+glad to see him. But if there is a chance that the
+customer may be out of town, or if it is during a
+busy season, he telephones ahead to make sure.
+He prefers indefinite to definite appointments,
+especially if he has to see two or three people during
+the course of a morning or an afternoon; that
+is, he would rather have an appointment to come
+some time between ten and eleven or between
+three and four than to have one for exactly half
+past ten or a quarter of three. It is impossible
+to tell how long interviews will last. Sometimes
+when the salesman counts on staying an hour he
+is through in five minutes and sometimes when
+he thinks he can arrange things in fifteen minutes
+he finds himself strung up for half a day.</p>
+
+<p>The new prospects&mdash;there are three on this
+particular morning&mdash;he handles in different
+ways. To one he has a note of introduction from
+a mutual friend. To another he has written a
+letter stating why he wishes to call and asking
+when it will be convenient for him to do so. The
+third, whom he knows by reputation as a &ldquo;hard
+customer&rdquo; (in the slang sense of the word) who
+will have nothing to do with salesmen of any sort,
+he decides to approach directly, trusting to his
+own presence to get past the girl at the front door<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+and whomsoever else stands between him and the
+man he wants to see. He does not write, because
+he knows that the man would tear up the letter
+and he does not telephone, because he knows that
+the man would not promise to see him and that if
+he were to call after such a telephone conversation
+his chances for success would be lessened.</p>
+
+<p>Our salesman is careful with his appearance.
+He bathes and shaves every morning and takes
+special care that his linen is clean and that his
+shoes are polished. He does not ornament himself
+with a lot of jewelry, and the material of
+which his suit is made is plain. He presents, if
+you should see him on the street, the appearance
+of a clean, solid, healthy, progressive American
+citizen. He is poised but he is not aggressive.
+He is persistent but he is not obstinate.</p>
+
+<p>The best public speakers, it is said, never get
+over a sinking feeling of fear during the few minutes
+just before time for them to speak. It vanishes
+as soon as they get to their feet or a very
+few minutes afterward, and, strange as it may
+seem, it is this very fear that gives them their
+power on the platform. The fact that they have
+the dreadful feeling nerves them to strenuous
+effort, and it is this effort that makes the orator.
+In the same way the best salesmen are
+those who never get over the fear that perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+they have not thought out the best way to handle
+the situation ahead of them. They forget the
+fear as they begin to talk to the prospect, but the
+fact that it is subconsciously present makes
+the difference between the real salesman and
+the &ldquo;dub.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Did you ever get to the door of a house you
+were about to enter and then turn and walk
+around the block before you rang the bell? Did
+you ever walk around the block six or eight
+times? So have we. Especially on those Wednesday
+and Sunday evenings when we used to
+go calling. There are not many salesmen who
+have not had this experience and who have not,
+upon hearing that a prospect they dreaded was
+out, turned away from the door with a prayer of
+deep thanksgiving. All of which is by way of
+saying that selling is not an easy job.</p>
+
+<p>The salesman whose career we are following
+for a short time always has that little feeling of
+nervousness before an interview. It is deeper
+than ever when he approaches the &ldquo;hard customer,&rdquo;
+and it is not lessened in the least degree
+when he finds a painted and marceled flapper at
+the door who looks at him without a word. (Incidentally,
+she likes his looks.)</p>
+
+<p>He takes out his card and asks her to give it to
+Mr. Green and say that he is calling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He won't see you,&rdquo; the girl says.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you tell him, please, that I am here, all
+the same? Wait a minute.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He takes the card and scribbles on it, &ldquo;I want
+only five minutes of your time,&rdquo; and hands it to
+the girl again.</p>
+
+<p>She carries it away and presently returns saying
+that Mr. Green is busy and cannot see
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I knew he wouldn't,&rdquo; she adds.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He must be very busy,&rdquo; the salesman says.
+&ldquo;When shall I be most likely to find him free?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;He's no busier now than usual,&rdquo; the girl responds.
+&ldquo;He's smoking a cigar and looking out
+the window.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Will you tell him, please, that I am coming
+back to-morrow at the same time?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The girl sees that he is very much in earnest.
+She respects him for his quiet persistence and
+because he has not tried to &ldquo;kid&rdquo; her. She would
+most likely have joined in heartily if he had, but
+he would never have got past her.</p>
+
+<p>She goes back into the office and returns with
+word that the salesman may come in if he will
+not take more than five minutes. He thanks the
+girl and goes into the office where the &ldquo;hard customer&rdquo;
+is seated. He does not rise, he does not
+say &ldquo;Good morning,&rdquo; and he does not take the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
+cigar out of his mouth, but this does not disconcert
+the salesman. He wastes no time in preliminaries,
+but after a brief greeting, plunges at
+once into his proposition, stating the essential
+points clearly and in terms of this man's business.
+He knows what the customer needs pretty
+accurately for he has taken the trouble to find
+out. He is not broadcasting. He is using line
+radio, and everything he says is directed against
+a single mark. The prospect is interested. He
+puts the cigar aside. The salesman concludes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'm sorry,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but my five minutes are
+up. Will you let me come back some day when
+you are not so busy and tell you more about it?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sit where you are,&rdquo; the other says, and begins
+firing questions.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later the salesman pockets the
+order he wanted and makes ready to depart, feeling
+that he has found another friend. The &ldquo;hard
+customer&rdquo; is ashamed of his gruff reception and
+apologizes for it. &ldquo;I've been so bothered with
+agents and drummers and traveling men that
+I've promised myself never to see another one as
+long as I live,&rdquo; he says.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I can well understand that,&rdquo; the salesman answers.
+&ldquo;It is one of the hardest things we are
+up against, the fact that there are so many four-flushers
+out trying to sell things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He goes next to see the man with whom he has
+made an appointment by mail and finds that he
+has been called out of town on business. He
+talks with his secretary, who expresses a polite regret
+that they were unable to locate him in time
+to tell him that his visit would be of no use. He
+asks if there is some one else who can take charge
+of the matter, but the girl replies that all such
+things have to come before Mr. Thompson. He
+will not be back until next week, and by that time
+the salesman will be out on the road.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I'll have another representative of our house,
+Mr. Hamilton, call,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;He will write
+to find out when it will be convenient for him to
+come.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The third man on his list is the one to whom
+he has the letter of introduction. This is one of
+his best prospects. That is why he took such
+pains to arm himself with the letter. He has no
+trouble getting inside. The man is very busy
+but he thrusts it completely aside for the moment.
+He does not have to say &ldquo;Be brief.&rdquo; Our salesman
+has been in the game long enough to know
+that he must not be anything else.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Frankly,&rdquo; he says at the end of the talk, &ldquo;I
+am not interested. I have no doubt that what
+you say is true. In fact, I have heard of your
+firm before and know that its reputation is good.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
+But I buy my material, and have for years, from
+Hicks and Hicks.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is a good reliable concern,&rdquo; the salesman
+responds, &ldquo;and there is no reason why you should
+desert them. They depend upon you as much
+as you do upon them. But if they happen to be
+short of something you want in a hurry, please
+remember that our product is as good as theirs.
+You can depend upon it with as much certainty.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Thank you, I will,&rdquo; the prospect answers
+and the interview is over.</p>
+
+<p>Did the salesman act wisely? Would he have
+gained anything by proving that his house was
+superior to Hicks and Hicks? Not if the customer
+was worth having. This salesman never
+forgets that his part of the job is to build up
+business for his own firm, and not to tear down
+business for other firms. As it stands, he has in
+this case established a feeling of good will for
+the house he represents, and has placed it in
+such a light that if the rival concern should be
+afflicted with a strike or a fire or any of a hundred
+or two disasters which might lessen or suspend
+its output, the customer will probably turn
+to the salesman's house. And if Hicks and
+Hicks should sell out or go into bankruptcy the
+salesman will have won for his own house a
+steady customer of great value.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>In the Sleeping Car.</i> The wise traveling man&mdash;and
+our salesman is wise&mdash;always engages
+sleeping accommodations on the train in advance.
+This time he has the lower berth in
+No. 9.</p>
+
+<p>When he comes in to take his seat he finds that
+a woman has the upper berth in the same compartment.
+He is reading a newspaper and she
+is reading a magazine. He says nothing until
+toward evening, and then he offers to exchange
+places with her. She thanks him cordially, explains
+that she was late in securing a berth and
+that this was all she could get. She is very
+grateful and the transfer is made.</p>
+
+<p>He goes into the smoking car and meets there
+several men who are talking together. He joins
+them and the conversation runs along pleasantly
+enough until one of the number begins to retail
+dirty stories. Some of the others try to switch
+him off to another subject but he is wound up
+and nothing short of a sledge hammer will stop
+him until he has run down. Our salesman has
+a healthy loathing for this sort of thing. He
+has a good fund of stories himself&mdash;most traveling
+men have&mdash;and in the course of his journeyings
+he has heard many of the kind that the
+foul-minded man in the smoking car is retailing
+with such delight. He never retells stories of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+that nature, and he never, when he can avoid it,
+listens to them. He knows that he cannot stop
+the man, but after a little while he gets up quietly
+and leaves. Another man follows him and the
+two stand on the rear platform of the train until
+time to go to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Men who are traveling together often converse
+without knowing one another's names, and
+it is correct that they should. Only a prig refuses
+to speak to a man on a train or a boat because
+he does not know his name. Opening
+conversation with a stranger is not always easy,
+and should be avoided unless it comes about in
+a natural way. The stranger may not want to
+converse. It is correct for a man who wishes
+to talk to another first to introduce himself.
+&ldquo;My name is Hammond,&rdquo; he says, and the man
+to whom he says it responds by holding out his
+hand (this is the more gracious way, but he may
+omit this part of it, if he likes) and pronouncing
+his own name. The same rule holds when the
+travelers are women.</p>
+
+<p>Our salesman goes to bed early.</p>
+
+<p>Two men have the compartment across from
+his. They seem very much interested in each
+other, for they continue to talk after they have
+gone to bed. In order to make themselves heard
+they have almost to scream, and the raucous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+sound of their voices is much more disturbing
+than the sound of the wheels grinding against
+the rails. It is hard to sleep on a train even
+under favorable circumstances. Our salesman
+has a strenuous day ahead of him&mdash;most of his
+days are strenuous&mdash;and the noise is keeping
+him awake.</p>
+
+<p>He could throw on his bathrobe, climb down
+and remonstrate with the two men across the
+way. It would be correct for him to do so, but
+it would hardly be expedient. People who are
+thoughtless enough to be noisy late at night are
+often rude enough to be very unpleasant when
+any one interferes. The salesman has no
+real authority over them, but the porter on duty
+at night is supposed to see that a certain amount
+of peace and quiet is maintained. The salesman
+rings the bell, and when the porter appears,
+asks him if he would mind begging the two men
+across the aisle to lower their voices. The porter
+has had years of experience. He has developed
+a soft, pleasant way of asking people to be quiet,
+and in a few minutes the car is still except for
+the inevitable sound of the train and the snoring
+of an old lady near the end of the car. This
+last cannot be helped. It must be endured, and
+our salesman composes himself into a deep
+slumber.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dressing and undressing in a sleeping car are
+among the most difficult operations to perform
+gracefully. There are no rules. Most men prefer
+staying in their berths to making the attempt
+in the crowded dressing rooms. Some divide
+the process between the two, but no gentleman
+ever goes streaking down the aisle half-dressed.
+He is either fully clothed or else he is wrapped in
+a bathrobe or a dressing gown.</p>
+
+<p>When our salesman comes in to breakfast the
+next morning there is only one vacant place, a
+seat opposite a young woman at a table for
+two. He crosses over and sits down, first asking
+if he may do so. In well-managed dining
+cars and restaurants, the seating is taken care
+of by the head waiter. He never places a person
+at a table with some one else without asking
+permission of the one who is already seated. It
+is never permissible for a stranger to go to a
+table that is already taken if there is a vacant
+one available. The young lady bows and smiles.
+She has already sent in her order. They talk
+during the meal quite as if they had been introduced
+and had met by appointment instead of
+by accident. She does not introduce herself, nor
+does he introduce himself. When she has finished
+she asks the waiter for her bill. She pays
+it herself&mdash;our salesman has too much delicacy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+to offer to do so&mdash;and tips the waiter. Then
+with a nod and a smile she is gone.</p>
+
+<p>This salesman is a chivalrous traveler. Whenever
+there is an opportunity to render a service to
+a woman (or to any one else) he takes pleasure in
+doing it. He does not place women under
+financial obligation to him, however, and he is
+careful not to annoy them with attentions. He
+has many times found a taxi for a woman traveling
+alone or with children when they have had
+the same destination; he has helped women
+decipher time tables; he has carried bundles
+and suitcases and baskets and boxes for old
+ladies who have not yet learned in all their long,
+long lives that the way to travel is with as little,
+instead of with as much, baggage as possible; and
+he has helped young mothers establish themselves
+comfortably in place with their children. But
+he has never&mdash;and he has been traveling a good
+many years now&mdash;thrust himself upon a woman
+and he has never embarrassed one by his attentions.</p>
+
+<p>He does not &ldquo;treat&rdquo; the men whom he meets
+by accident during his travels. They often go
+in to meals together but each one settles his own
+bill, and when they come to the end of the
+journey they are without obligations toward one
+another. It is much pleasanter so.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The salesman does not, as a rule, tip the porter
+until he leaves the train, and the amount that
+he gives then is according to what the porter has
+done for him. If he has been in the car a good
+many hours and if he has had to ask the porter
+for many things, such as bringing ice water at
+night, silencing objectionable travelers, bringing
+pillows and tables during the day, not to
+mention polishing his shoes and brushing his
+coat every morning, he is much more generous
+than if he had been on the car only a few hours
+and had not asked for any special service. Unless
+the trip is long he never gives more than a
+dollar. Twenty-five cents is the minimum.</p>
+
+<p><i>By Automobile</i>. From an economic point of
+view this problem has come to be almost as large
+as the railroad problem, and the part the automobile,
+including trucks and taxis, plays in
+business is growing larger and larger every year.</p>
+
+<p>Motorists have a code of their own. They&mdash;when
+they do as they should&mdash;drive to the right
+in the United States, to the left in certain other
+countries. They take up no more of the road
+than is necessary, and they observe local traffic
+regulations scrupulously, not only because they
+will be fined if they do not but because it is impolite
+in Rome to do other than the Romans do.
+They hold out their hands to indicate that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
+are about to turn, they slow down at crossings,
+and they sound their horns as a warning signal
+but never for any other reason.</p>
+
+<p>It is often necessary for a man who is trying to
+sell a piece of property to take out to look at it
+the man who thinks he will buy it. Needless to
+say, it is the former who pays for the trip. Other
+business trips are arranged by groups, the benefit
+or pleasure which is to result to be shared
+among them. Under such conditions it is wise
+(and polite) for them to divide expenses. These
+matters should be arranged ahead of time. If
+one is to furnish the machine, and one the gasoline,
+and another is to pay for the lunch, it
+should be understood at the outset.</p>
+
+<p><i>In a Small Town.</i> The salesman is now completely
+out of the metropolitan district. He is
+in a small town like hundreds of others over the
+United States. The hotel is very good in itself,
+but compared with the one in the city, which he
+has just left, it is inconvenient. He has better
+judgment than to remind the people of this.
+Instead, when he is talking to them&mdash;and he
+likes to talk with the people in the towns he is
+serving&mdash;he talks about what they have rather
+than what they have not and about what they
+can do in the future rather than what they have
+failed to do in the past. It is in this way that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+he discovers how he can best be useful to them.</p>
+
+<p>He likes to work at the quick pace set by the
+big cities but he knows it will not do here. He
+goes around to see Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter is
+glad to see him, but he has had a bad year. The
+crops have not been good, the banks have not
+been generous, his wife has been sick, and one of
+his children has broken a leg. The salesman
+listens sympathetically to this tale of woe, leads
+the conversation away from the bad year behind
+to the good year ahead, and in a little while they
+are eagerly discussing plans for business in the
+next month or so. The salesman shows how he
+can help, and convinces Mr. Carter that the best
+time to begin is right now and gets an order for
+supplies from him. It has taken the better part
+of the morning, and Mr. Carter asks him to go
+home with him to lunch. The salesman would
+prefer going back to the hotel, but he knows that
+it will give Mr. Carter great pleasure to have
+him&mdash;his invitation is unmistakably hearty&mdash;so
+he accepts.</p>
+
+<p>Before he came the salesman had discovered,
+through consulting the directories and by talking
+with friends of his who knew the town, who
+were worth going to see and who were not. Mr.
+Carter he had learned was immensely worth while
+and that is why he was willing to spend so much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
+time with him. No salesman can afford to stop
+and talk with everybody who can give him the
+inside story of why business is no good. This
+salesman always finds out as much as possible
+about a man before he goes to see him. He never
+leaps blindly ahead when there is any way to
+get a gleam of light first.</p>
+
+<p>Once in South Carolina he was anxious to
+get a large order from a wealthy old man who,
+he felt sure, would be a regular customer if he
+could once be persuaded to buy. The old man
+paid no attention to what he was saying until
+he mentioned the picture of a hunting dog that
+hung above the desk. The old man's eyes kindled.
+This was his hobby and he forgot all about
+business while he talked about hunting, and
+ended by asking the salesman to go home with
+him and spend the night. The salesman accepted
+gladly, and the next morning they went
+rabbit hunting instead of going back to the
+office. The salesman was out of practice in
+handling a gun but it was great fun, and the upshot
+of it all was that he &ldquo;landed&rdquo; the order he
+wanted.</p>
+
+<p>This method is pleasant but wasteful. The
+salesman never uses it except as a last resource.</p>
+
+<p>Much of the success of this salesman (and of
+the others who are successful) lies in the fact<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>
+that he can put himself so completely into the
+place of the man he is trying to sell. He talks
+in terms of that man's work, and he tries to sell
+only where he believes the sale will result in
+mutual satisfaction. He never says anything
+about serving humanity, but his life is shaped
+around this idea, which is, when all is said and
+done, the biggest idea that any of us can lay
+ourselves out to follow.</p>
+
+<p>He is working for a firm that he knows is
+honest&mdash;no self-respecting man will work for
+any other kind&mdash;and he wants its financial rating
+to stand solid. He does not sell to every man
+who wants to buy. He investigates his credit
+first, and if there is to be a delay while the investigation
+is under way he frankly tells the man
+so, and assures him that it is for his protection
+as well as for that of the house that is selling the
+goods. &ldquo;It is a form we go through with every
+new customer,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If we did not we'd
+find ourselves swamped with men who would not
+pay. And that would work hardship on those
+who do.&rdquo; Every business man knows that this
+is the only way in which reliable business can be
+carried on. And it is reliable business that we
+are interested in.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>TABLES FOR TWO OR MORE</h3>
+
+<p>A young banker from Smithville is in New
+York. It is his first trip.</p>
+
+<p>You would like him if you could see him. Tall,
+sun-burned, clean-cut, well-dressed, thoroughly
+alive and interested in everything. He is a bit
+confused by the city but he is determined to learn
+everything that it has to teach him. He does
+not hesitate to ask questions but he likes to find
+out without, whenever possible.</p>
+
+<p>He goes into the dining room of the great
+hotel where he is staying, and for the first time
+in his life is confronted with an array of silver on
+both sides of his plate. At home he always has
+a knife, fork, and spoon laid together at the
+right of his plate, by which you can see that he
+has not lived among people who place much
+emphasis on having food daintily or correctly
+served. He is not exactly prepared for this.
+When he left Smithville he was thinking more
+of his business connections than of what he was
+going to eat, and how. He is embarrassed be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>cause,
+like every sanely balanced person, he likes
+to do things as they should be done, and not just
+blunder through them. There is no one he can
+ask except the waiter, and the waiter seems such
+a superior person that he is afraid to ask
+him (though it would have been perfectly correct
+for him to do so). He gets through the
+meal the best way he can and finds that when the
+ice cream is brought the only thing he has left
+to eat it with is a slender fork with a long handle
+and three very tiny prongs. He knows that
+he has tripped up somewhere along the line,
+but he asks the waiter to bring him a spoon
+(he should have asked for a fork) and goes
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The next day he is invited out to dinner with
+a man who has all of his life been accustomed
+to first-class hotels and restaurants and the dining
+tables of wealthy and cultured people. He
+is somewhat older than our young banker and
+he has had a great deal of experience in entertaining
+men who have come into the city from
+small towns. He is thoughtful, sympathetic,
+an excellent host. He leads the way into the
+dining room (though they stand together in such
+a way that it seems that neither is leading) and
+chooses a table. This nearly always means accepting
+the one the head waiter indicates,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
+though it is quite correct for the host to suggest
+the table he would like to have.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Does this suit you?&rdquo; he asks the young banker
+before they sit down.</p>
+
+<p>It suits him exactly. He says as much.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Now, what will you have to eat?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The waiter has given him a menu card, containing,
+so it seems to the young man, a million
+things that he might have. A dinner served
+in courses was something beyond his knowledge
+until the night before, and the dinner then was
+<i>table d'h&ocirc;te</i> instead of <i>&agrave; la carte</i>. He flounders
+through the card and is about ready to thrust it
+aside and say, &ldquo;Just bring me some ham and
+eggs&rdquo; when his host sees his predicament.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Blue Points are usually good at this time of
+the year,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Shall we try them?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The young man has not the remotest idea what
+Blue Points are but he thinks it will be very delightful
+to try them.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;What kind of soup do you like?&rdquo; the host
+continues when the waiter has departed. &ldquo;I see
+they have vegetable soup and consomm&eacute;.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The young man clutches at the familiar straw.
+He will have vegetable soup.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the meal the host makes comments
+and suggestions and guides his guest through to
+the end, and does it so graciously that the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>
+man from Smithville is not aware that he is doing
+it, and feels that it is all due to his own quick
+observation that he is getting along so well. No
+business man is a perfect host until he can accomplish
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Our young man knows already that one should
+sit up at a table and not lean forward or lounge
+back, that he should not take large mouthfuls
+and that he should not snap at his food, that he
+should eat without noise and with great cleanliness.
+He knows that his napkin should be unfolded
+(it should be unfolded once and not
+spread out) and laid across his lap, not tucked
+into his collar or the top of his vest. He knows
+that he should not eat with his knife.</p>
+
+<p>He has never seen a finger bowl before but
+he has heard of them, so that when one is placed
+before him he knows that he should dip the ends
+of his fingers into it and dry them on his napkin.
+He has also heard that toothpicks are never
+used by gentlemen, at least in public, and he is
+not surprised when he does not see them.</p>
+
+<p>He has read somewhere that when a knife or
+a fork is dropped to the floor he should not pick
+it up himself but should allow the waiter to do
+so, and that the waiter should be allowed to clear
+away the damage when something is upset on
+the table. He knows that long apologies are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+out of order anywhere, and he is not likely to
+say anything more than &ldquo;Excuse me&rdquo; or &ldquo;I beg
+your pardon&rdquo; if he should by a clumsy movement
+break a glass or overturn a plate of soup.</p>
+
+<p>But he does not know about the various knives
+and forks or about how courses are arranged, and
+he does not know about tips.</p>
+
+<p>It is correct for him to explain to his host, just
+as Pip did when he was dining for the first time
+with Herbert Pocket, that he is unused to such
+things and beg him to give him a few hints as
+they go along. But it is less embarrassing to
+consult a book of etiquette about fundamentals
+and to pick up the other knowledge by close observation.</p>
+
+<p>He discovers&mdash;our young friend uses both
+methods&mdash;that knives are laid at the right of the
+plate in the order in which they are to be used, beginning
+at the outside, and that the spoons are
+laid just beyond the knives in the same order. The
+butter knife (which rarely appears at dinner
+time) is usually laid across the little bread plate
+at the left of the dinner plate. Forks are placed
+at the left of the plate in the order in which they
+are to be used, except the oyster fork, which is
+laid across the knives or else is brought in with
+the oysters. The steel knife is for cutting meats.
+The flat fork with the short prongs is for salads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
+Salads are always eaten with a fork. It is sometimes
+not very easy to do, but it is the only correct
+way.</p>
+
+<p>This is the general standard, but there are deviations
+from it. Nothing but experience in
+dining&mdash;and a great deal of it&mdash;will teach one
+to know always what fork or what knife or what
+spoon to use when the table service is highly
+elaborate. The best policy for a stranger under
+such conditions is that of watchful and unobtrusive
+waiting.</p>
+
+<p>The dinners that business men choose for
+themselves are rarely divided into numerous
+courses. Often they have only two: meat and
+vegetables, and dessert. The regular order for
+a six-course dinner is: first, an appetizer such as
+oyster cocktail, grapefruit, strawberries, or something
+of the sort, followed by soup, fish, meat and
+vegetables, salad, dessert, cheese and crackers.
+One or more of the courses is often omitted.</p>
+
+<p>The rule for tipping is universally the same:
+Ten per cent of the bill.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+<p>Suppose the cases had been reversed and the
+man from the city had been in Smithville to take
+dinner with the young banker.</p>
+
+<p>He is not accustomed to seeing all of the food
+put on the table at one time, nor to having to use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
+the same fork throughout the meal. But he is
+a gentleman. He adapts himself to their standard
+so readily that not one of the people at the
+table could tell but that he had always lived that
+way.</p>
+
+<p>The young banker is a gentleman, too. When
+his friends from the city come to visit him he
+gives them the best he has and does not apologize
+for it. He does not begin by saying, &ldquo;I know
+you are used to having better things than this
+but I suppose you can stand it for one meal.&rdquo;
+He simply ushers his guest into the dining room
+as cordially and with as little affectation as if he
+were the paying teller of the Smithville bank.
+No one need ever apologize when he has done or
+given his best.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to know that the standard of
+our young banker is growing higher and higher
+all the time. He likes to know how the people
+who have had time to make an art of dining do it
+and to adapt his ways to theirs whenever he can.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+<p>It is a grave mistake for a business man to
+feel that he must entertain another to the standard
+to which the second is accustomed. A poor
+man who finds himself under the necessity of
+entertaining a rich one should not feel that he
+must do it on a grand scale if he has been so en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>tertained
+by a rich one. Aside from the moral
+question involved the great game of bluff is too
+silly and vulgar a one for grown men to play.</p>
+
+<p>But business men play it and their wives join
+in. Suppose Mrs. Davis, whose husband is an
+assistant of Mr. Burke, wishes to invite Mrs.
+Burke to her home to dinner. She and Mr.
+Davis have been formally entertained in the
+other home, and the dinner they had there
+was superintended by a butler and carefully
+manipulated by two maids. Now Mrs. Davis
+has no maid, her china is very simple, and the
+food that she and her husband have, even when
+they entertain their friends, is plain and wholesome.
+Should she, for the great occasion, hire
+more beautiful china and engage servants?
+Should she draw on the savings bank for more
+delicate viands?</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, Mr. Burke knows exactly what
+salary Mr. Davis gets. He knows whether it
+will warrant such expenditure. Will it make
+him feel like placing more responsibility on his
+assistant's shoulders to see him living beyond
+his means? Is it not, after all, much better for
+people to meet face to face instead of hiding
+themselves behind masks? The masks are not
+pretty, and in most cases deceive only the persons
+who wear them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Men who are friends in business often like
+their wives to be friends as well. It is many
+times possible to bring about a meeting at the
+home of a common friend, but when this is not
+convenient, one of the women may invite the
+other. If the invitation is to dinner, it is not
+correct for Mr. Gardner to invite Mrs. Shandon
+even if he knows her and his wife does not. The
+invitation should go from Mrs. Gardner and
+should be addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Shandon.
+If the invitation is for tea, Mrs. Gardner simply
+invites Mrs. Shandon, and the nature of the invitation
+depends upon whether the affair is
+formal or informal.</p>
+
+<p>As to which of two women should proffer the
+first invitation there might be some discussion.
+Usually it is the wife of the man whose position is
+superior, if they both work for the same concern.
+It frequently happens that a man whose
+position in business is high is married to a
+woman whose social standing is not of corresponding
+importance. Perhaps such a man has
+a subordinate whose wife is a social leader. In
+this case which of the women should extend the
+first invitation?</p>
+
+<p>Most women of eminent social rank realize
+and appreciate the fact thoroughly. The social
+leader knows that the other woman might be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+embarrassed and hesitant about inviting her to
+her home. If she does apprehend this it is only
+gracious for her to extend the first invitation
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>In small towns the rule is for the old residents
+to call upon the new, and the wife of a business
+man who has recently established himself in a
+community must wait until the women who live
+there have called upon her before she begins to
+entertain them.</p>
+
+<p>In large cities where it is impossible to know
+everyone this rule is practically disregarded, and
+business men invite one another and ask their
+wives to do the same according to the way convenience
+and chance make most natural. Women
+whose husbands are longest in the employ of
+a firm, or whose husbands hold high positions, as
+a rule call first on the wives of newcomers or
+subordinates.</p>
+
+<p>It all comes to the same thing whether it is in
+a city or a small town or the country. Those
+who are already established in the neighborhood
+or the business extend the right hand of welcome
+and good fellowship to those who are not.</p>
+
+<p>In order to bring their employees together
+socially most big houses now give various entertainments
+such as picnics, parties, dances, and
+banquets. They are in no way different from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>
+other entertainments of the same kind so far as
+the etiquette of behavior is concerned. Formal
+dances and banquets in the evening require evening
+dress just the same, except with that very
+enormous group (to which most of us belong)
+who do not own evening dress. This does not
+mean that evening parties must be foregone by
+this group or that they should hire gala attire
+for the occasion, but simply that the men wear
+their business suits and the girls their &ldquo;Sunday&rdquo;
+dresses. It is just as correct, it is just as much
+fun, and it is infinitely wiser than giving a
+dollar down and a dollar a week for a <i>d&eacute;collet&eacute;</i>
+gown or a swallow-tail outfit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>LADIES FIRST?</h3>
+
+<p>Most girls who are in business are there to
+earn a living.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that an increasing number of wealthy
+girls who are under no necessity to work but who
+want a definite place in the economic life of the
+world are entering business every year, but the
+great army of workers is made up of those who
+enter business because they are driven into it
+(driven, many of them, while they are yet very
+young), because it is the only way in which they
+can have their own money, or because it is the
+only way in which they can raise their standard
+of living.</p>
+
+<p>The majority of business girls come from the
+homes of parents in moderate circumstances.
+They have had advantages&mdash;a high-school or a
+college diploma, a certificate from a business
+school, travel, specialized training&mdash;and all these
+they have added to their business capital. In
+many instances the opportunities they have had
+have not been brilliant, but every opportunity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
+however small, carries with it the responsibility
+to make the best of it. Upon these girls, since
+they outnumber the others and because they have
+had advantages (a high-school education is an
+enormous advantage if you are looking at it from
+the point of view of a person who wanted one but
+was not able to get it), rests the responsibility of
+setting the pace for others. And the standard
+of behavior for the business girl, whether she be
+rich or poor or in between, is the same.</p>
+
+<p>The wealthy girls who enter business deliberately
+are usually followed by the same sensible
+impulse that started them on their careers, and,
+as a rule, they conduct themselves with dignity
+and modesty. The wealthy girls who, through a
+turn of fortune have been forced into work and
+have gone unwillingly, are another matter. &ldquo;The
+rudest girls we have,&rdquo; is the testimony of most
+people who have to deal with them. Conventional
+social charm and poise they may have but
+they are without that finer sense of courtesy
+which makes them accept whatever fate gives
+them and make the best of it. The fading
+splendor of the days of plenty envelops them
+like a cloud&mdash;remember that we are speaking of
+the unwilling ones&mdash;they lose themselves in self-pity,
+and the great fun that comes from good
+work they miss entirely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many of the poor girls in business have never
+known anything but poverty, and their lives have
+been cast among people who have never known
+anything else. They have had no home training
+in the art of behavior (for the people at home
+did not know how to give it to them). No one
+has ever told them how to dress or act but there
+have never been lacking those to condemn them
+when they dressed foolishly or acted indiscreetly.
+&ldquo;The silly little things,&rdquo; they say (and oh, how
+superior they are when they say it). Employers
+agree, for, after all, it is true, and the silly little
+things hold their jobs until they are married,
+until they are fired, or (and this happens frequently)
+until they wake up, and then they are
+promoted to something better. We cannot expect
+girls like these, who have grown up without
+contact with the gentler side of life, to begin with
+a high standard of behavior, but we can (and
+do) expect them, once they have been brought
+into touch with better things, to raise their standard.
+It is no disgrace for a girl to begin in
+ignorance and squalor; the disgrace lies in staying
+there.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, the dress of the business girl.
+Most of the ill-breeding in the world is due to
+ignorance. Ignorance of the laws of beauty
+and taste causes one to make a display of finery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>
+and over-dressing is a mark of vulgarity whether
+one can afford it or not.</p>
+
+<p>The girl does not live&mdash;we believe this is right&mdash;who
+does not love pretty clothes. But the
+average girl does not have money to spend lavishly
+for them. Her salary, as a rule, is not
+princely, and there are often financial as well as
+moral obligations to the people at home. She
+cannot have Sunday clothes and everyday
+clothes. She must combine the two with the
+emphasis on the latter.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago it was almost impossible to
+accomplish this, but manufacturers have recognized
+her needs and are now making clothes especially
+for her&mdash;plain dresses in bright colors
+and dark dresses with a happy bit of trimming
+here and there, neat enough to pass the censorship
+of the strictest employer, pretty enough to
+please the most exacting young girl.</p>
+
+<p>A woman is no longer thought eccentric if
+she wears low heels. The modern flapper is too
+sensible for such nonsense as French heels for
+standing all day behind the counter. Manufacturers
+have discovered this also, and are making
+shoes with low heels and broad toes quite as
+pleasing as the French monstrosities and infinitely
+more comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>A business girl&mdash;or any girl, for that matter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>&mdash;should
+take pains with her hands and her hair.
+Coiffures that might be appropriate in a ball room
+are out of place in an office, and heavily
+jeweled hands, whether the jewels are real or
+imitation, are grotesquely unsuited to office work.
+(So are dirty ones.)</p>
+
+<p>Hair that is glossy and tidy, hands that are
+clean and capable, dress that is trim and inconspicuous&mdash;add
+to these intelligence, willingness,
+good health, and good manners and there is not
+much left to be desired.</p>
+
+<p>Certain positions expose girls to the temptation
+of dress more than others. She, for instance,
+who all day handles lovely garments or
+she who all day poses before long mirrors in exquisite
+gowns that other women are to wear&mdash;can
+one expect these girls to go merrily home at
+night to a hall bedroom with a one-burner gas
+jet and a mournful array of old furniture? They
+have a problem that the girl in a glue factory
+or a fish cannery does not have to meet&mdash;at least
+not in so concrete a form. At the same time they
+have an opportunity that these other girls do
+not have, and it rests with them whether the
+opportunity or the temptation gets the upper
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Positions in which girls are thrown into close
+contact with men expose them to temptation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+another sort. It is in its most acute form when
+it brings a poor girl into more or less intimate
+association with a rich man. Once, a very long
+time ago, a king married a beggar maid and
+they lived happily ever after. People have not
+stopped writing and talking about it yet,
+although it is many centuries since it happened.
+It is true that once in a very great while
+a girl marries her father's chauffeur or her brother's
+valet and finds later that she has acted
+wisely; but these are rare exceptions to the general
+rule, for the result usually is unhappiness.
+Such marriages are always the occasion for big
+headlines in the paper, usually a double set of
+them, for, in most instances, the divorce follows
+within a year or so.</p>
+
+<p>It is a dangerous thing for a girl to receive
+attentions indiscriminately from men, especially
+those who drift across her horizon from the great
+world outside. It is dangerous (is it necessary
+to add that it is incorrect?) for a manicurist to
+accept presents from the millionaire whose hands
+she looks after. It is unwise for any girl to
+accept expensive gifts from a man who is not her
+fianc&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>There are exceptions to this rule, as indeed to
+every other. At Christmas or at the time a ceremony
+or an anniversary employers sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>
+give their secretaries or another trusted employee
+a beautiful gift, and it is within the bounds of
+propriety for the employee to accept it. Often
+when he has been away from the office for several
+weeks a man presents his secretary a gift
+to express his gratitude for the capable way in
+which she has managed affairs in his absence,
+and this gift the secretary is privileged to accept.
+Gifts are seldom presented except where
+the association has been a long and highly satisfactory
+one.</p>
+
+<p>But the girl who goes to the theatre with a
+man about whom she knows nothing except that
+he has the price of the tickets is running a serious
+risk. She is violating one of the most rigid principles
+of etiquette and she is skating perilously
+out beyond the line marked off by common sense.
+Nearly every man can, and does, if he is the
+right sort, present credentials before asking
+a girl if he may call or if he may escort her
+to a place of amusement. There are instances
+in romantic stories and in real life where a
+man and a maid have met without the help of
+a third party and have entered upon a charming
+friendship. They are rare, rarer in fact
+than in fiction. It is banal to say that a girl
+can usually tell. But she can, and if she has
+any doubt (and this is true of all her relations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>
+with men) she should have no doubt. She should
+stop where she is.</p>
+
+<p>Where men and girls work together in the
+same building or in buildings near one another
+they often go to the same restaurant for lunch.
+It is natural that they should sometimes sit together
+at the same tables. It is correct for a
+man to sit at a table where there are already only
+girls (if the girls are willing), but it is not correct
+for a girl to sit at a table where there are already
+only men (however willing the men may be).
+In these mixed groups each person pays for
+his or her own lunch. It is not even necessary
+for the man, or the men, as the case
+may be, to offer to do so, and it is a distinct
+breach of the rules of etiquette for a girl to allow
+a man to pay for her lunch under such circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>The only time when it is correct for a man and
+a girl who are associated together in business to
+have lunch, with him the host and her the guest,
+is when the engagement is made ahead of time
+as for any other social affair. On such an occasion
+he should be as attentive as he would
+in any other circumstances, taking care of
+her wraps and placing her chair if the waiter is
+not at hand to do it, suggesting dishes he thinks
+perhaps she will like, and making himself as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
+generally useful and agreeable as it is possible
+for him to be. A point about which considerable
+breath is wasted is whether a man should enter a
+restaurant with the girl following or whether
+he should allow her to lead the way. It makes
+no material difference one way or the other, but
+usually he permits her to go ahead and follows
+closely enough behind to open the doors for her
+and to receive whatever instructions the head
+waiter has to offer.</p>
+
+<p>If a man should enter a restaurant and find a
+girl whom he knows already seated he may join
+her if he thinks he will be not unwelcome, but
+this does not make it incumbent upon him to pay
+for her lunch. He may offer to do it, but it is
+a matter that rests with the girl. If she does
+not care to develop his acquaintance she should
+not permit it, but if the two are good friends or
+if she feels that he is a man she would like to
+know, she may give him her check to settle along
+with his own. A girl is herself the best judge
+of what to do under such conditions, and if common
+sense does not show her the way out etiquette
+will not help.</p>
+
+<p>Women in business sometimes bring up perplexing
+questions and create awkward situations.
+Suppose a man has asked a girl several times to
+a business-social lunch and she has accepted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
+every time. It seems that she should, as a man
+would in the same position, make some return.
+If she works for a house where there is a dining
+room in which checks do not have to be settled at
+the end of every meal she may do so without the
+slightest difficulty, but if she is compelled to
+take him to a place where the check must be
+given to the waiter or paid at the desk before
+they leave, she must look out for a different
+way of managing things. Business luncheons
+are usually paid for by the firm in whose
+interests they are brought about, and if the
+girl works for an organization where there
+are several men employed she may ask one
+of them to take her friend out to lunch. Then,
+even if she is not present, her social duty is
+done. The easiest way out of such a predicament,
+it is superfluous to say, is never to get
+into it.</p>
+
+<p>A girl who enters business presumably accepts
+the same conditions that men have to
+meet. She has no right to expect special favors
+because she is a woman. She does get a certain
+amount of consideration, as indeed she should,
+but she is very foolish and childish if she feels
+resentful when a busy man fails to hold open a
+door for her to pass through, when he rushes into
+his office ahead of her, or when he cuts short an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
+interview when she has said only half of what she
+had on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Much is said about the man who keeps his
+seat on a train while a woman stands. His defense
+rests upon two arguments, first, that his
+need is greater than hers (which is not true)
+and, second, that she does not appreciate it even
+when he does give it to her (which is not true
+either). Unfortunately, there are as many rude
+women in the world&mdash;and this statement is not
+made carelessly&mdash;as there are rude men, and in
+almost half the cases where a man rises to give
+a woman his place the woman sits down without
+even a glance toward her benefactor, as if the
+act, which is no small sacrifice on the part of a
+tired man, were not worth noticing. Every act
+of civility or thoughtfulness should be rewarded
+with at least a &ldquo;Thank you&rdquo; and a good hearty
+one at that.</p>
+
+<p>Old people, cripples, and invalids rarely fail
+to secure seats, however crowded a car may be.
+A man seldom offers his place to another man
+unless it is evident that the other, because of age,
+infirmity, or extreme fatigue is greatly in need
+of it. Well-bred girls resign their seats to
+old men, but if they refuse to accept, the
+girls do not insist. At a reunion of Confederate
+veterans several years ago a girl rose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+from her place on a street car to allow a feeble
+old man to sit down. He gripped the strap
+fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I ain't dead yet,&rdquo; he responded sturdily.</p>
+
+<p>One of the chief petty complaints brought
+against women is that they do not keep their
+places in line. Some of them appear to have
+neither conscience nor compunction about dashing
+up to a ticket window ahead of twenty or
+thirty people who are waiting for their turn.
+Men would do the same thing (so men themselves
+say) but they know very well that the
+other men in the line would make them regret
+it in short order. Two or three minutes is all
+one can save by such methods and it is not worth
+it. Even if it were more it would still not be
+worth it.</p>
+
+<p>When a woman breaks into a line it is quite
+permissible for the person behind her (whoever
+he or she may be) to say, &ldquo;I beg your pardon, I
+was here first.&rdquo; This should be enough. Sometimes
+there is an almost desperate reason why
+one should get to a window. Many times everybody
+in the line has the same desperate reason
+for being in a hurry, but now and then in individual
+cases it is allowable for a woman (or a
+man) to ask for another person's place. <i>But
+only if there is a most urgent reason for it.</i> Much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>
+of courtesy is made up of petty sacrifices, and
+most of the great sacrifices are only a larger
+form of courtesy. It all comes back to Sir
+Philip Sidney's principle of &ldquo;Thy need is greater
+than mine,&rdquo; but it is only extraordinary circumstances
+which warrant one's saying, &ldquo;My need
+is greater than thine.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Since the beginning of time, and before (if
+there was any before) women have done their
+share of the work of the world. Formerly their
+part of it centered in the home but now that machinery
+has taken it out of the home they have
+come out of the home too, to stand in the fields
+and factories of industry by the side of their
+fathers and husbands and brothers. Because
+they have recently been thrown into closer association
+in their hours of work than ever before
+there has sprung up a certain amount of strife
+between men and women, and a great deal is
+said about how superior men are to women and
+how superior women are to men. It is pure
+nonsense. If all the men in the world were put
+on one side of a scale and all the women on the
+other, the scale would probably stand perfectly
+still.</p>
+
+<p>The woman in business should never forget
+that she is a woman but she must remember that
+above all things she is a citizen, and that she her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>self
+has value and her work has value only as
+they contribute to her community and her community
+as it contributes to her country. Courtesy
+is one of her strongest allies, this quality
+which, alone, can do nothing, but, united to the
+solid virtues that make character, can move
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p>We have said a good deal as we came along
+about courtesy toward oneself and other people,
+but perhaps the most valuable of all courtesies
+in business is politeness toward one's job. It
+is desirable for every woman to be pretty, well-dressed,
+and well-groomed, but it is much more
+desirable for the woman in business to be able
+to do capable and efficient work. She may be
+ornamental but she must be useful, and while
+she is at the office her chief concern should be
+with her job and not with herself. The end of
+business is accomplishment, and courtesy is valuable
+because it is a means of making accomplishment
+easy and pleasant. It is this that gives
+us the grace to accept whatever comes, if not
+gladly, at least bravely.</p>
+
+<p>It is a poor workman who quarrels with his
+tools (or with his job), so the proverb says, and
+there are two lines of Mr. Kipling's that might
+be added. He was speaking of a king, but in
+a democracy we are all kings:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The wisest thing, we suppose, that a king can do for his land<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under his hand.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And the lines are just as true when &ldquo;girl&rdquo; is
+substituted for &ldquo;king&rdquo; and the pronouns are
+changed accordingly.</p>
+<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span>
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney
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+Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Book of Business Etiquette
+
+Author: Nella Henney
+
+Release Date: October 13, 2007 [EBook #23025]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETIQUETTE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Marcia Brooks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images from the Home Economics
+Archive: Research, Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann
+Library, Cornell University)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_The Book of_
+BUSINESS ETIQUETTE
+
+
+
+
+_The Book of_
+Business Etiquette
+
+Garden City      New York
+Doubleday, Page & Company
+1922
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
+AT
+THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
+
+_First Edition_
+
+
+
+
+RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
+(AS BEFITS AN AUTHOR)
+
+TO
+THREE BUSINESS MEN
+
+
+
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+
+It would be a pleasure to call over by name and thank individually the
+business men and the business organizations that so graciously furnished
+the material upon which this little book is based. But the author feels
+that some of them will not agree with all the statements made and the
+inferences drawn, and for this reason is unable to do better than give
+this meager return for a service which was by no means meager.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+CHAPTER                                  PAGE
+
+   I. THE AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN             1
+
+  II. THE VALUE OF COURTESY                17
+
+ III. PUTTING COURTESY INTO BUSINESS       40
+
+  IV. PERSONALITY                          70
+
+   V. TABLE MANNERS                        94
+
+  VI. TELEPHONES AND FRONT DOORS          108
+
+ VII. TRAVELING AND SELLING               130
+
+VIII. THE BUSINESS OF WRITING             153
+
+  IX. MORALS AND MANNERS                  183
+
+
+PART II
+
+   X. "BIG BUSINESS"                      209
+
+  XI. IN A DEPARTMENT STORE               242
+
+ XII. A WHILE WITH A TRAVELING MAN        250
+
+XIII. TABLES FOR TWO OR MORE              268
+
+ XIV. LADIES FIRST?                       279
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: Please note that the book does not credit an
+author. The Library of Congress lists Nella Henney as the author.]
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ETIQUETTE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN
+
+
+The business man is the national hero of America, as native to the soil
+and as typical of the country as baseball or Broadway or big
+advertising. He is an interesting figure, picturesque and not unlovable,
+not so dashing perhaps as a knight in armor or a soldier in uniform, but
+he is not without the noble (and ignoble) qualities which have
+characterized the tribe of man since the world began. America, in common
+with other countries, has had distinguished statesmen and soldiers,
+authors and artists--and they have not all gone to their graves
+unhonored and unsung--but the hero story which belongs to her and to no
+one else is the story of the business man.
+
+Nearly always it has had its beginning in humble surroundings, with a
+little boy born in a log cabin in the woods, in a wretched shanty at
+the edge of a field, in a crowded tenement section or in the slums of a
+foreign city, who studied and worked by daylight and firelight while he
+made his living blacking boots or selling papers until he found the
+trail by which he could climb to what we are pleased to call success.
+Measured by the standards of Greece and Rome or the Middle Ages, when
+practically the only form of achievement worth mentioning was fighting
+to kill, his career has not been a romantic one. It has had to do not
+with dragons and banners and trumpets, but with stockyards and oil
+fields, with railroads, sewer systems, heat, light, and water plants,
+telephones, cotton, corn, ten-cent stores and--we might as well make a
+clean breast of it--chewing gum.
+
+We have no desire to crown the business man with a halo, though judging
+from their magazines and from the stories which they write of their own
+lives, they are almost without spot or blemish. Most of them seem not
+even to have had faults to overcome. They were born perfect. Now the
+truth is that the methods of accomplishment which the American business
+man has used have not always been above reproach and still are not. At
+the same time it would not be hard to prove that he--and here we are
+speaking of the average--with all his faults and failings (and they are
+many), with all his virtues (and he is not without them), is superior in
+character to the business men of other times in other countries. This
+without boasting. It would be a great pity if he were not.
+
+Without trying to settle the question as to whether he is good or bad
+(and he really can be pigeon-holed no better than any one else) we have
+to accept this: He is the biggest factor in the American commonwealth
+to-day. It follows then, naturally, that what he thinks and feels will
+color and probably dominate the ideas and the ideals of the rest of the
+country. Numbers of our magazines--and they are as good an index as we
+have to the feeling of the general public--are given over completely to
+the service or the entertainment of business men (the T. B. M.) and an
+astonishing amount of space is devoted to them in most of the others.
+
+It may be, and as a matter of fact constantly is, debated whether all
+this is good for the country or not. We shall not go into that. It has
+certainly been good for business, and in considering the men who have
+developed our industries we have to take them, and maybe it is just as
+well, as they are and not as we think they ought to be.
+
+There was a time when the farmer was the principal citizen. And the
+politician ingratiated himself with the people by declaring that he too
+had split rails and followed the plow, had harvested grain and had
+suffered from wet spells and dry spells, low prices, dull seasons,
+hunger and hardship. This is still a pretty sure way to win out, but
+there are others. If he can refer feelingly to the days when he worked
+and sweated in a coal mine, in a printing shop, a cotton, wool, or silk
+mill, steel or motor plant, he can hold his own with the ex-farmer's
+boy. We have become a nation of business men. Even the "dirt" farmer has
+become a business man--he has learned that he not only has to produce,
+he must find a market for his product.
+
+In comparing the business man of the present with the business man of
+the past we must remember that he is living in a more difficult world.
+Life was comparatively simple when men dressed in skins and ate roots
+and had their homes in scattered caves. They felt no need for a code of
+conduct because they felt no need for one another. They depended not on
+humanity but on nature, and perhaps human brotherhood would never have
+come to have a meaning if nature had not proved treacherous. She gave
+them berries and bananas, sunshine and soft breezes, but she gave them
+trouble also in the shape of wild beasts, and savages, terrible
+droughts, winds, and floods. In order to fight against these enemies,
+strength was necessary, and when primitive men discovered that two were
+worth twice as much as one they began to join forces. This was the
+beginning of civilization and of politeness. It rose out of the oldest
+instinct in the world--self-preservation.
+
+When men first organized into groups the units were small, a mere
+handful of people under a chief, but gradually they became larger and
+larger until the nations of to-day have grown into a sort of world
+community composed of separate countries, each one supreme in its own
+domain, but at the same time bound to the others by economic ties
+stronger than sentimental or political ones could ever be. People are
+now more dependent on one another than they have ever been before, and
+the need for confidence is greater. We cannot depend upon one another
+unless we can trust one another.
+
+The American community is in many respects the most complex the world
+has ever seen, and the hardest to manage. In other countries the manners
+have been the natural result of the national development. The strong who
+had risen to the top in the struggle for existence formed themselves
+into a group. The weak who stayed at the bottom fell into another, and
+the bulk of the populace, which, then as now, came somewhere in between,
+fell into a third or was divided according to standards of its own.
+Custom solidified the groups into classes which became so strengthened
+by years of usage that even when formal distinctions were broken down
+the barriers were still too solid for a man who was born into a certain
+group to climb very easily into the one above him. Custom also dictated
+what was expected of the several classes. Each must be gracious to those
+below and deferential to those above. The king, because he was king,
+must be regal. The nobility must, _noblesse oblige_, be magnificent, and
+as for the rest of the people, it did not matter much so long as they
+worked hard and stayed quiet. There were upheavals, of course, and now
+and then a slave with a braver heart and a stouter spirit than his
+companions incited them to rebellion. His head was chopped off for his
+pains and he was promptly forgotten. The majority of the people for
+thousands of years honestly believed that this was the only orderly
+basis upon which society could be organized.
+
+Nebulous ideas of a brotherhood, in which each man was to have an equal
+chance with every other, burned brightly for a little while in various
+parts of the world at different times, and flickered out. They broke
+forth with the fury of an explosion in France during the Revolution and
+in Russia during the Red Terror. They have smoldered quietly in some
+places and had just begun to break through with a steady, even flame.
+But America struck the match and gathered the wood to start her own
+fire. She is the first country in the world which was founded especially
+to promote individual freedom and the brotherhood of mankind. She had,
+to change the figure slightly, a blue-print to start with and she has
+been building ever since.
+
+Her material came from the eastern hemisphere. The nations there at the
+time when the United States was settled were at different stages of
+their development. Some were vigorous with youth, some were in the
+height of their glory, and some were dying because the descendants of
+the men who had made them great were futile and incapable. These nations
+were different in race and religion, in thought, language, traditions,
+and temperament. When they were not quarreling with each other, they
+were busy with domestic squabbles. They had kept this up for centuries
+and were at it when the settlers landed at Jamestown and later when the
+_Mayflower_ came to Plymouth Rock. Yet, with a cheerful disregard of
+the past and an almost sublime hope in the future they expected to live
+happily ever after they crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Needless to add,
+they did not.
+
+Accident of place cannot change a man's color (though it may bleach it a
+shade lighter or tan it a shade darker), nor his religion nor any of the
+other racial and inherent qualities which are the result of slow
+centuries of development. And the same elements which made men fight in
+the old countries set them against each other in the new. Most of the
+antagonisms were and are the result of prejudices, foolish narrow
+prejudices, which, nevertheless, must be beaten down before we can
+expect genuine courtesy.
+
+Further complications arose, and are still arising, from the fact that
+we did not all get here at the same time. Those who came first have
+inevitably and almost unconsciously formulated their own system of
+manners. Wherever there is community life and a certain amount of
+leisure there is a standard of cultivated behavior. And America, young
+as she is, has already accumulated traditions of her own.
+
+It is beyond doubt that the men who came over in the early days were, as
+a rule, better timber than the ones who come now. They came to live and
+die, if necessary, for a religious or a political principle, for
+adventure, or like the debtors in Oglethorpe's colony in Georgia, to
+wipe clean the slate of the past and begin life again. To-day they come
+to make money or because they think they will find life easier here than
+it was where they were. And one of the chief reasons for the discontent
+and unrest (and, incidentally, rudeness) which prevails among them is
+that they find it hard. We are speaking in general terms. There are
+glorious exceptions.
+
+The sturdy virtues of the pioneers did not include politeness. They
+never do. So long as there is an animal fear of existence man cannot
+think of minor elegances. He cannot live by bread alone, but he cannot
+live at all without it. Bread must come first. And the Pilgrim Father
+was too busy learning how to wring a living from the forbidding rocks of
+New England with one hand while he fought off the Indians with the other
+to give much time to tea parties and luncheons. Nowhere in America
+except in the South, where the leisurely life of the plantations gave
+opportunity for it, was any great attention paid to formal courtesy. But
+everywhere, as soon as the country had been tamed and prosperity began
+to peep over the horizon, the pioneers began to grow polite. They had
+time for it.
+
+What we must remember--and this is a reason, not an excuse, for bad
+manners--is that these new people coming into the country, the
+present-day immigrants, are pioneers, and that the life is not an easy
+one whether it is lived among a wilderness of trees and beasts in a
+forest or a wilderness of men and buildings in a city. The average
+American brings a good many charges against the foreigner--some of them
+justified, for much of the "back-wash" of Europe and Asia has drifted
+into our harbor--but he must remember this: Whatever his opinion of the
+immigrant may be the fault is ours--he came into this country under the
+sanction of our laws. And he is entitled to fair and courteous treatment
+from every citizen who lives under the folds of the American flag.
+
+The heterogeneous mixture which makes up our population is a serious
+obstacle (but not an insuperable one) in the way of courtesy, but there
+is another even greater. The first is America's problem. The second
+belongs to the world.
+
+Material progress has raced so far ahead of mental and spiritual
+progress that the world itself is a good many years in advance of the
+people who are living in it. Our statesmen ride to Washington in
+automobiles and sleeping cars, but they are not vastly preferable to
+those who went there in stagecoaches and on horseback. In other words,
+there has been considerably more improvement in the vehicles which fill
+our highways than there has been in the people who ride in them.
+
+The average man--who is, when all is said and done, the most important
+person in the state--has stood still while the currents of science and
+invention have swept past him. He has watched the work of the world pass
+into the keeping of machines, shining miracles of steel and electricity,
+and has forgot himself in worshipping them. Now he is beginning to
+realize that it is much easier to make a perfect machine than it is to
+find a perfect man to put behind it, and that man himself, even at his
+worst (and that is pretty bad) is worth more than anything else in the
+scheme of created things.
+
+This tremendous change in environment resulting from the overwhelming
+domination of machinery has brought about a corresponding change in
+manners. For manners consist, in the main, of adapting oneself to one's
+surroundings. And the story of courtesy is the story of evolution.
+
+It is interesting to run some of our conventions back to their origin.
+Nearly every one of them grew out of a practical desire for lessening
+friction or making life pleasanter. The first gesture of courtesy was,
+no doubt, some form of greeting by which one man could know another as a
+friend and not an enemy. They carried weapons then as habitually as they
+carry watches to-day and used them as frequently, so that when a man
+approached his neighbor to talk about the prospects of the sugar or
+berry crop he held out his right hand, which was the weapon hand, as a
+sign of peace. This eventually became the handshake. Raising one's hat
+is a relic of the days of chivalry when knights wore helmets which they
+removed when they came into the house, both because they were more
+comfortable without them and because it showed their respect for the
+ladies, whom it was their duty to serve. And nearly every other ceremony
+which has lasted was based on common sense. "Etiquette," as Dr. Brown
+has said, "with all its littlenesses and niceties, is founded upon a
+central idea of right and wrong."
+
+The word "courtesy" itself did not come into the language until late
+(etiquette came even later) and then it was used to describe the polite
+practices at court. It was wholly divorced from any idea of character,
+and the most fastidious gentlemen were sometimes the most complete
+scoundrels. Even the authors of books of etiquette were men of great
+superficial elegance whose moral standards were scandalously low. One of
+them, an Italian, was banished from court for having published an
+indecent poem and wrote his treatise on polite behavior while he was
+living in enforced retirement in his villa outside the city. It was
+translated for the edification of the young men of England and France
+and served as a standard for several generations. Another, an
+Englishman, spent the later years of his life writing letters to his
+illegitimate son, telling him exactly how to conduct himself in the
+courtly (and more or less corrupt) circles to which his noble rank
+entitled him. The letters were bound into a fat, dreary volume which
+still sits on the dust-covered shelves of many a library, and the name
+of the author has become a synonym for exquisite manners. Influential as
+he was in his own time, however, neither he nor any of the others of the
+early arbiters of elegance could set himself up as a dictator of what is
+polite to American men, of no matter what class, and get by with it. Not
+very far by, at any rate.
+
+It is impossible now to separate courtesy and character. Politeness is a
+fundamental, not a superficial, thing. It is the golden rule translated
+into terms of conduct. It is not a white-wash which, if laid on thick
+enough, will cover every defect. It is a clear varnish which shows the
+texture and grain of the wood beneath. In the ideal democracy the ideal
+citizen is the man who is not only incapable of doing an ungallant or an
+ungracious thing, but is equally incapable of doing an unmanly one.
+There is no use lamenting the spacious days of long ago. Wishing for
+them will not bring them back. Our problem is to put the principles of
+courtesy into practice even in this hurried and hectic Twentieth Century
+of ours. And since the business man is in numbers, and perhaps in power
+also, the most consequential person in the country, it is of most
+importance that he should have a high standard of behavior, a high
+standard of civility, which includes not only courtesy but everything
+which has to do with good citizenship.
+
+We have no desire for candy-box courtesy. It should be made of sterner
+stuff. Nor do we care for the sort which made the polite Frenchman say,
+"Excusez-moi" when he stabbed his adversary. We can scarcely hope just
+yet to attain to the magnificent calm which enabled Marie Antoinette to
+say, "I'm sorry. I did not do it on purpose," when she stepped on the
+foot of her executioner as they stood together on the scaffold, or Lord
+Chesterfield, gentleman to the very end, to say, "Give Dayrolles a
+chair" when his physician came into the room in which he lay dying. But
+we do want something that will enable us to live together in the world
+with a minimum degree of friction.
+
+The best of us get on one another's nerves, even under ordinary
+conditions, and it takes infinite pains and self-control to get through
+a trying day in a busy office without striking sparks somewhere. If
+there is a secret of success, and some of the advertisements seem trying
+to persuade us that it is all secret, it is the ability to work
+efficiently and pleasantly with other people. The business man never
+works alone. He is caught in the clutches of civilization and there is
+no escape. He is like a man climbing a mountain tied to a lot of other
+men climbing the same mountain. What each one does affects all the
+others.
+
+We do not want our people to devote themselves entirely to the art of
+being agreeable. If we could conceive of a world where everybody was
+perfectly polite and smiling all the time we should hardly like to live
+in it. It is human nature not to like perfection, and most of us, if
+brought face to face with that model of behavior, Mr. Turveydrop, who
+spent his life serving as a pattern of deportment, would sympathize
+with the delightful old lady who looked at him in the full flower of
+his glory and cried viciously (but under her breath) "I could bite you!"
+
+When Pope Benedict XI sent a messenger to Giotto for a sample of his
+work the great artist drew a perfect circle with one sweep of his arm
+and gave it to the boy. Before his death Giotto executed many marvelous
+works of art, not one of them perfect, not even the magnificent bell
+tower at Florence, but all of them infinitely greater than the circle.
+It is better, whether one is working with bricks or souls, to build
+nobly than to build perfectly.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE VALUE OF COURTESY
+
+
+Every progressive business man will agree with the successful Western
+manufacturer who says that "courtesy can pay larger dividends in
+proportion to the effort expended than any other of the many human
+characteristics which might be classed as Instruments of
+Accomplishment." But this was not always true. In the beginning "big
+business" assumed an arrogant, high-handed attitude toward the public
+and rode rough-shod over its feelings and rights whenever possible. This
+was especially the case among the big monopolies and public service
+corporations, and much of the antagonism against the railroads to-day is
+the result of the methods they used when they first began to lay tracks
+and carry passengers. Nor was this sort of thing limited to the large
+concerns. Small business consisted many times of trickery executed
+according to David Harum's motto of "Do unto the other feller as he
+would like to do unto you, but do him fust." The public is a
+long-suffering body and the business man is a hard-headed one, but
+after a while the public began to realize that it was not necessary to
+put up with gross rudeness and the business man began to realize that a
+policy of pleasantness was much better than the "treat 'em rough" idea
+upon which he had been acting. He deserves no special credit for it. It
+was as simple and as obvious a thing as putting up an umbrella when it
+is raining.
+
+People knew, long before this enlightened era of ours, that politeness
+had value. In one of the oldest books of good manners in the English
+language a man with "an eye to the main chance" advised his pupils to
+cultivate honesty, gentleness, propriety, and deportment because they
+paid. But it has not been until recently that business men as a whole
+have realized that courtesy is a practical asset to them. Business
+cannot be separated from money and there is no use to try. Men work that
+they may live. And the reason they have begun to develop and exploit
+courtesy is that they have discovered that it makes for better work and
+better living. Success, they have learned, in spite of the conspicuous
+wealth of several magnates who got their money by questionable means,
+depends upon good will and good will depends upon the square deal
+courteously given.
+
+The time is within the memory of living men, and very young men at that,
+when the idea of putting courtesy into business dealings sprang up, but
+it has taken hold remarkably. When the Hudson Tubes were opened not
+quite a decade and a half ago Mr. McAdoo inaugurated what was at that
+time an almost revolutionary policy. He took the motto, "The Public be
+Pleased," instead of the one made famous by Mr. Vanderbilt, and posted
+it all about, had pamphlets distributed, and made a speech on courtesy
+in railroad management and elsewhere. Since that time, not altogether
+because of the precedent which had been established, but because people
+were beginning to realize that with this new element creeping into
+business the old regime had to die because it could not compete with it,
+there have been all sorts of courtesy campaigns among railroad and bus
+companies, and even among post office and banking employees, to mention
+only two of the groups notorious for haughty and arrogant behavior. The
+effects of a big telephone company have been so strenuous and so well
+planned and executed that they are reserved for discussion in another
+chapter.
+
+Mr. McAdoo tells a number of charming stories which grew out of the
+Hudson Tubes experiment. One day during a political convention when he
+was standing in the lobby of a hotel in a certain city a jeweler came
+over to him after a slight moment of hesitation, gave him one of his
+cards and said, "Mr. McAdoo, I owe you a great debt of gratitude. For
+that," he added, pointing to "The Public be Pleased" engraved in small
+letters on the card just above his name. "I was in New York the day the
+tunnel was opened," he continued, "and I heard your speech, and said to
+myself that it might be a pretty good idea to try that in the jewelry
+trade. And would you believe it, my profits during the first year were
+more than fifty per cent bigger than they were the year before?" And we
+venture to add that the jeweler was more than twice as happy and that it
+was not altogether because there was more money in his coffers.
+
+Mr. McAdoo is a man with whom courtesy is not merely a policy: it is a
+habit as well. He places it next to integrity of character as a
+qualification for a business man, and he carries it into every part of
+his personal activity, as the statesmen and elevator boys, waiters and
+financiers, politicians and stenographers with whom he has come into
+contact can testify. "I never have a secretary," he says, "who is not
+courteous, no matter what his other qualifications may be." During the
+past few years Mr. McAdoo has been placed in a position to be sought
+after by all kinds of people, and in nearly every instance he has given
+an interview to whoever has asked for it. "I have always felt," we quote
+him again, "that a public servant should be as accessible to the public
+as possible." Courtesy with him, as with any one else who makes it a
+habit, has a cumulative effect. The effect cannot always be traced as in
+the case of the jeweler or in the story given below in which money plays
+a very negligible part, but it is always there.
+
+On one occasion--this was when he was president of the Hudson
+Railroad--Mr. McAdoo was on his way up to the Adirondacks when the train
+broke down. It was ill provided for such a catastrophe, there was no
+dining car, only a small buffet, and the wait was a long and trying one.
+When Mr. McAdoo after several hours went back to the buffet to see if he
+could get a cup of coffee and some rolls he found the conductor almost
+swamped by irate passengers who blamed him, in the way that passengers
+will, for something that was no more his fault than theirs. The
+conductor glanced up when Mr. McAdoo came in, expecting him to break
+into an explosion of indignation, but Mr. McAdoo said, "Well, you have
+troubles enough already without my adding to them."
+
+The conductor stepped out of the group. "What did you want, sir?" he
+asked.
+
+"Why, nothing, now," Mr. McAdoo responded. "I did want a cup of coffee,
+but never mind about it."
+
+"Come into the smoker here," the conductor said. "Wait a minute."
+
+The conductor disappeared and came back in a few minutes with coffee,
+bread, and butter. Mr. McAdoo thanked him warmly, gave him his card and
+told him that if he ever thought he could do anything for him to let him
+know. The conductor looked at the card.
+
+"Are you the president of the Hudson Railroad?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, maybe there's something you can do for me now. There are two men
+out here who say they are going to report me for what happened this
+morning. You know how things have been, and if they do, I wish you would
+write to headquarters and explain. I'm in line for promotion and you
+know what a black mark means in a case like that."
+
+Mr. McAdoo assured him that he would write if it became necessary. The
+men were bluffing, however, and the complaint was never sent in.
+Apparently the incident was closed.
+
+Several years later Mr. McAdoo's son was coming down from the
+Adirondacks when he lost his Pullman ticket. He did not discover the
+fact until he got to the station, and then he had no money and no time
+to get any by wire before the train left. He went to the conductor,
+explained his dilemma, and told him that if he would allow him to ride
+down to the city his father, who was to meet him at the Grand Central
+station, would pay him for the ticket. The conductor liked the
+youngster--perhaps because there was something about him that reminded
+him of his father, for as chance would have it, the conductor was the
+same one who had brought Mr. McAdoo the coffee and bread in the smoking
+car so many months before.
+
+"Who is your father?" he asked.
+
+"Mr. McAdoo."
+
+"President of the Hudson Railroad?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Boy, you can have the train!"
+
+So far as monetary value of courtesy is concerned we might recount
+hundreds of instances where a single act of politeness brought in
+thousands of dollars. Only the other morning the papers carried the
+story of a man who thirty years ago went into a tailor's shop with a
+ragged tear in his trousers and begged the tailor to mend it and to
+trust him for the payment which amounted to fifty cents. The tailor
+agreed cheerfully enough and the man went his way, entered business and
+made a fortune. He died recently and left the tailor fifty thousand
+dollars. Not long before that there was a story of an old woman who came
+to New York to visit her nephew--it was to be a surprise--and lost her
+bearings so completely when she got into the station that she was about
+ready to turn around and go back home when a very polite young man
+noticed her bewilderment. He offered his services, called a taxi and
+deposited her in front of her nephew's door in half an hour. She took
+his name and address and a few days later he received a check large
+enough to enable him to enter the Columbia Law School. A banker is fond
+of telling the story of an old fellow who came into his bank one day in
+a suit of black so old that it had taken on a sickly greenish tinge. He
+fell into the hands of a polite clerk who answered all his
+questions--and there were a great many of them--clearly, patiently, and
+courteously. The old man went away but came back in a day or so with
+$300,000 which he placed on deposit. "I did have some doubts," he said,
+"but this young man settled them all." Word of it went to people in
+authority and the clerk was promoted.
+
+Now it is pleasant to know that these good people were rewarded as they
+deserved to be. We would be very happy if we could promise a like reward
+to every one who is similarly kind, but it is no use. The little words
+of love and the little deeds of kindness go often without recompense so
+far as we can see, except that they happify the world, but that in
+itself is no small return.
+
+Courtesy pays in dollars and cents but its value goes far beyond that.
+It is the chief element in building good will--we are speaking now of
+courtesy as an outgrowth of character--and good will is to a firm what
+honor is to a man. He can lose everything else but so long as he keeps
+his honor he has something to build with. In the same way a business can
+lose all its material assets and can replace them with insurance money
+or something else, but if it loses its good will it will find in ninety
+cases out of a hundred that it is gone forever and that the business
+itself has become so weakened that there is nothing left but to
+reorganize it completely and blot out the old institution altogether.
+
+One must not make the mistake of believing that good will can be built
+on courtesy alone. Courtesy must be backed up by something more solid.
+An excellent comparison to show the relation that good manners bear to
+uprightness and integrity of character was drawn a number of years ago
+by a famous Italian prelate. We shall paraphrase the quaint English of
+the original translator. "Just as men do commonly fear beasts that are
+cruel and wild," he says, "and have no manner of fear of little ones
+such as gnats and flies, and yet because of the continual nuisance which
+they find them, complain more of these than they do of the other: so
+most men hate the unmannerly and untaught as much as they do the wicked,
+and more. There is no doubt that he who wishes to live, not in solitary
+and desert places, like a hermit, but in fellowship with men, and in
+populous cities, will find it a very necessary thing, to have skill to
+put himself forth comely and seemly in his fashions, gestures, and
+manners: the lack of which do make other virtues lame."
+
+Granting dependability of character, courtesy is the next finest
+business builder an organization can have. One of the largest trust
+companies in the world was built up on this hypothesis. A good many
+years ago the man who is responsible for its growth was cashier in a
+"busted" bank in a small city. The situation was a desperate one, for
+the bank could not do anything more for its customers than it was
+already doing. It could not give them more interest on their money and
+most of its other functions were mechanical. The young cashier began to
+wonder why people went to one bank in preference to another and in his
+own mind drew a comparison between the banking and the clothing
+business. He always went to the haberdasher who treated him best. Other
+men he knew did the same thing. Would not the same principle work in a
+bank? Would not people come to the place which gave them the best
+service? He decided to try it. Not only would they give efficient
+service, they would give it pleasantly. It was their last card but it
+was a trump. It won. The bank began to prosper. People who were annoyed
+by rude, brusque, or indifferent treatment in other banks came to this
+one. The cashier was raised to a position of importance and in an
+incredibly short time was made president of a trust company in New York.
+He carried with him exactly the same principle that had worked so well
+in the little bank and the result in the big one was exactly the same.
+
+In a leaflet which is in circulation among the employees at this
+institution there are these paragraphs:
+
+     We ask you to remember:
+
+     That our customers _can_ get along without us.
+
+     (There are in Greater New York nearly one hundred banks and trust
+     companies, every one of them actively seeking business.)
+
+     We _cannot_ get along without our customers.
+
+     A connection which, perhaps, it has taken us several months to
+     establish, can be terminated by one careless or discourteous act.
+
+     Our customers are asked to maintain balances of certain
+     proportions. If they wish to borrow money, they must deposit
+     collateral. They must repay loans when they mature; or arrange
+     for their extension.
+
+     If a bank errs, it must err on the side of safety, for the money
+     it loans is not its own money but the money of its depositors. We
+     (and every other bank and trust company) operate almost entirely
+     on money which our customers have deposited with us. The least we
+     can do, then, is to serve them courteously. They really are our
+     employers.
+
+     Ours is a semi-public institution.
+
+     Every day, men try to interest us in matters with which we have
+     no concern. It is our duty to tell these men, very courteously,
+     why their proposals do not appeal to us. But they are entitled to
+     a hearing. It may be that they are not in a position to benefit
+     us, and never will be. But almost every man can harm us, if he
+     tries to do so. And a pleasantly expressed declination invariably
+     makes a better impression than a favor grudgingly granted. We ask
+     you, then, to remember that our growth--and your
+     opportunities--depend not only upon the friends we make, but _the
+     enemies we do not make_.
+
+     Remember names and faces. Do something, say something that will
+     bring home to those who do business with us the fact that the
+     Blank Trust Company is a very human institution--that it wants
+     the good will of every man and woman in the country.
+
+That is the kind of courtesy which has builded this particular
+organization. It is a pleasure to visit it to-day because of the spirit
+of cooeperation which animates it. They have done away with the elaborate
+spy systems in use in so many banks, although they keep the management
+well enough in hand to be able to fasten the blame for mistakes upon the
+right person. The employees work with one another and with the
+president, whom they adore. It is, as a matter of fact, largely the
+influence of the personality of the president filtering down through the
+ranks which has made possible the phenomenal success which the
+institution has enjoyed during the past few years, another proof of the
+fact that every institution--and Emerson was speaking of great
+institutions when he said it--"is the lengthened shadow of one man."
+
+Banks have almost a peculiar problem. Money is a mighty power, and to
+the average person there is something very awesome about the place where
+it is kept. Mr. Stephen Leacock is not the only man who ever went into a
+bank with a funny little guilty feeling even when he had money in it.
+When one is in this frame of mind it takes very little on the part of
+the clerk to make him believe that he has been treated rudely. Bank
+clerks are notoriously haughty, but the fault is often as much in the
+person on the outside as in the one on the inside of the bars,
+especially when he has come in to draw out money which he knows he
+should not, such as his savings bank account, for instance. The other
+day a young man went into a savings bank to draw out all of his money
+for a purpose which he knew was extravagant although he had persuaded
+himself that it was not. Throughout the whole time he was in the bank he
+was treated with perfect courtesy, but in spite of it he came out
+growling about "the dirty look the paying teller gave him!"
+
+It is not only in the first contact that civility is important. Eternal
+vigilance is the price of success as well as of liberty. Another
+incident from the banking business illustrates this. Several years ago a
+bank which had been steadily losing customers called in a publicity
+expert to build up trade for them. The man organized a splendid campaign
+and things started off with a flourish. People began to come in most
+gratifying numbers. But they did not stay. An investigation conducted
+by the publicity man disclosed the fact that they had been driven away
+by negligent and discourteous service. He went to the president of the
+bank and told him that he was wasting money building up advertising so
+long as his bank maintained its present attitude toward the public. The
+president was a man of practical sense. There was a general clearing up,
+those who were past reform were discharged and those who stayed were
+given careful training in what good breeding meant and there was no more
+trouble. Advertising will bring in a customer but it takes courtesy to
+keep him.
+
+Business, like nearly everything else, is easier to tear down than to
+build up, and one of the most devastating instruments of destruction is
+discourtesy. A contact which has taken years to build can be broken off
+by one snippy letter, one pert answer, or one discourteous response over
+the telephone. Even collection letters, no matter how long overdue the
+accounts are, bring in more returns when they are written with tact and
+diplomacy than when these two qualities are omitted. If you insult a man
+who owes you money he feels that the only way he can get even is not to
+pay you, and in most cases, he can justify himself for not doing it.
+
+Within the organization itself a courteous attitude on the part of the
+men in positions of authority toward those beneath them is of immense
+importance. Sap rises from the bottom, and a business has arrived at the
+point of stagnation when the men at the top refuse to listen to or help
+those around them. It is, as a rule, however, not the veteran in
+commercial affairs but the fledgling who causes most trouble by his bad
+manners. Young men, especially young men who have been fortunate in
+securing material advantages, too many times look upon the world as an
+accident placed here for their personal enjoyment. It never takes long
+in business to relieve their minds of this delusion, but they sometimes
+accomplish a tremendous amount of damage before it happens. For a pert,
+know-it-all manner coupled with the inefficiency which is almost
+inseparable from a total lack of experience is not likely to make
+personal contacts pleasant. Every young man worth his salt believes that
+he can reform the world, but every old man who has lived in it knows
+that it cannot be done. Somewhere half way between they meet and say,
+"We'll keep working at it just the same," and then business begins to
+pick up. But reaching the meeting ground takes tolerance and patience
+and infinite politeness from both sides.
+
+"It is the grossest sort of incivility," the quotation is not exact,
+for we do not remember the source, "to be contemptuous of any kind of
+knowledge." And herein lies the difficulty between the hard-headed
+business man of twenty years' experience and the youngster upon whose
+diploma the ink has not yet dried. "Ignorance," declares a man who has
+spent his life in trying to draw capital and labor together and has
+succeeded in hundreds of factories, "is the cause of all trouble." And a
+lack of understanding, which is a form of ignorance, is the cause of
+nearly all discourtesy.
+
+So long as there is discourtesy in the world there must be protection
+against it, and the best, cheapest, and easiest means of protection is
+courtesy itself. Boats which are in constant danger of being run into,
+such as the tug and ferry boats in a busy harbor, are fitted out with
+buffers or fenders which are as much a part of their equipment as the
+smokestack, and in many cases, as necessary. Ocean liners carry fenders
+to be thrown over the side when there is need for them, but this
+naturally is not as often as in more crowded waters. A single boat on a
+deserted sea with nothing but sea-gulls and flying fish in sight cannot
+damage any one besides herself. But the moment she enters a harbor she
+has to take into account every other vessel in it from the _Aquitania_
+to the flat-bottomed row-boat with only one man in it. It is a
+remarkable fact that most of the boats that are injured or sunk by
+collision are damaged by vessels much smaller than themselves. Most of
+these accidents (this statement is given on the authority of an able
+seaman) could have been prevented by the use of a fender thrown over the
+side at the proper moment. Politeness is like this. It is the finest
+shock absorber in the world, as essential from an economic point of view
+as it is pleasant from a social one. In business there is no royal
+isolation. We are all ferry boats. We need our shock absorbers every
+minute of the day.
+
+No boat has a right to run into another, but they do it just the same,
+and a shock absorber is worth all the curses the captain and the crew
+can pronounce, however righteous their indignation toward the offending
+vessel. Sometimes politeness is better than justice.
+
+Most of the causes of irritation during the course of a business day are
+too petty to bother about. Many of them could be ignored and a good many
+more could be laughed at. A sense of humor and a sense of proportion
+would do away with ninety per cent of all the wrangling in the world.
+Some one has said, and not without truth, that a highly developed sense
+of humor would have prevented the World War. Too many people use
+sledge-hammers when tack hammers would do just as well. They belong in
+the same company with William Jay whose immortal epitaph bears these
+words:
+
+    Here lies the body of William Jay
+    Who died maintaining his right of way.
+    He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
+    But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.
+
+Courtesy is restful. A nervous frenzy of energy throughout the day
+leaves one at sunset as exhausted as a punctured balloon. The fussy
+little fellow who fancies himself rushed to death, who has no time to
+talk with anybody, who cannot be polite to his stenographer and his
+messenger boys because he is in such a terrible hurry, is dissipating
+his energy into something that does not matter and using up the vitality
+which should go into his work. He is very like the engine which
+President Lincoln was so fond of telling about which used so much steam
+in blowing its whistle that every time it did it it had to stop.
+
+The Orientals manage things better than we do. "We tried hurrying two
+thousand years ago," a banker in Constantinople said to a tired American
+business man, "and found that it did not pay. So we gave it up." There
+is always time to be polite, and though it sounds like a contradiction,
+there will be more time to spare if one devotes a part of his day to
+courtesy.
+
+But there is danger in too much courtesy. Every virtue becomes a vice if
+it is carried too far, and frank rudeness is better than servility or
+hypocrisy. Commercial greed, there is no other name for it, leads a firm
+to adopt some such idiotic motto as "the customer is always right." No
+organization could ever live up to such a policy, and the principle back
+of it is undemocratic, un-American, unsound and untrue. The customer is
+not always right and the employer in a big (or little) concern who
+places girls (department stores are the chief sinners in this) on the
+front line of approach with any such instructions is a menace to
+self-respecting business. America does not want a serving class with a
+"king-can-do-no-wrong" attitude toward the public. Business is service,
+not servility, and courtesy works both ways. There is no more sense in
+business proclaiming that the customer is always right than there would
+be in a customer declaring that business is always right, and no more
+truth.
+
+No good business man will argue with a customer, or anybody else, not
+only because it is bad policy to do so, but because his self-respect
+will not allow it. He will give and require from his employees
+courteous treatment toward his customers, and when doubt arises he will
+give them (the customers) the benefit of it. And he will always remember
+that he is dealing with an intelligent human being. The customer has a
+right to expect a firm to supply him with reliable commodities and to do
+it pleasantly, but he has no right to expect it to prostrate itself at
+his feet in order to retain his trade, however large that trade may be.
+
+Too little has been said about courtesy on the part of the customer and
+the public--that great headless mass of unrelated particles. Business is
+service, we say, and the master is the public, the hardest one in the
+world to serve. Each one of us speaks with more or less pitying contempt
+of the public, forgetting that we ourselves are the public and that the
+sum total of the good breeding, intelligence, and character of the
+public can be no greater than that of the individuals who make it up.
+
+"Sid," of the _American Magazine_, says that he once asked the manager
+of a circus which group of his employees he had most trouble keeping.
+Quite unexpectedly the man replied, "The attendants. They get
+'sucker-sore' and after that they are no good." This is how it happens.
+The wild man from Borneo is placed in a cage with a placard attached
+bearing in big letters the legend "The Wild Man from Borneo." An old
+farmer comes to the circus, looks at the wild man from Borneo in his
+cage, reads the placard, looks at the attendant, "Is this the wild man
+from Borneo?" he asks. No human being can stand an unlimited amount of
+this sort of thing, and the attendant, after he has explained some
+hundred thousand or so times that this really is the wild man from
+Borneo begins to lose his zest for it and to answer snappishly and
+sarcastically. An infinite supply of courtesy would, of course, be a
+priceless asset to him, but does not this work both ways? What right
+have people to bother other people with perfectly foolish and imbecile
+questions? Is there any one who cannot sympathize with a "sucker-sore"
+attendant? And with the people who are stationed about for the purpose
+of answering questions almost anywhere? There are not many of us who at
+one time and another have not had the feeling that we were on the wrong
+train even after we had asked the man who sold us the ticket, the man
+who punched it at the gate, the guard who was standing near the
+entrance, and the guard who was standing near the train, the porter, the
+conductor, and the news-butcher if it was the right one and have had an
+affirmative answer from every one of them. How many times can a man be
+expected to answer such a question with a smile? For those who are
+exposed to "suckers" the best advice is to be as gentle with them as
+possible, to grit your teeth and hold your temper even when the
+ninety-thousandth man comes through to ask if this is the right train.
+For the "suckers" themselves there are only two words of advice. They
+include all the rest: Stop it.
+
+It is impossible to tell what the value of courtesy is. Perhaps some day
+the people who have learned to measure our minds will be able to tell us
+just what a smile is worth. Maybe they can tell us also what Spring is
+worth, and what happiness is worth. Meanwhile we do not know. We only
+know that they are infinitely precious.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PUTTING COURTESY INTO BUSINESS
+
+
+We talk a great deal about gentlemen and about democracy and a good many
+other words which describe noble conceptions without a very clear idea
+of what they mean. The biggest mistake we make is in thinking of them as
+something stationary like a monument carved in granite or a stone set
+upon a hill, when the truth is that they are living ideas subject to the
+change and growth of all living things. No man has ever yet become a
+perfect gentleman because as his mind has developed his conception of
+what a gentleman is has enlarged, just as no country has ever become a
+perfect democracy because each new idea of freedom has led to broader
+ideas of freedom. It is very much like walking through a tunnel. At
+first there is only darkness, and then a tiny pin point of light ahead
+which grows wider and wider as one advances toward it until, finally, he
+stands out in the open with the world before him. There is no end to
+life, and none to human development, at least none that can be conceived
+of by the finite mind of man.
+
+There are hundreds of definitions of a gentleman, none of them
+altogether satisfactory. Cardinal Newman says it is almost enough to say
+that he is one who never gives pain. "They be the men," runs an old
+chronicle, "whom their race and bloud, or at the least, their virtues,
+do make noble and knowne." Barrow declares that they are the men lifted
+above the vulgar crowd by two qualities: courage and courtesy. The
+Century Dictionary, which is as good an authority as any, says, "A
+gentleman is a man of good breeding, courtesy, and kindness; hence, a
+man distinguished for fine sense of honor, strict regard for his
+obligations, and consideration for the rights and feelings of others."
+And this is a good enough working standard for anybody. The Dictionary
+is careful to make--and this is important--a gentleman not one who
+conforms to an outward and conventional standard, but one who follows an
+inward and personal ideal.
+
+Of late days there has been a great deal of attention paid to making
+gentlemen of business men and putting courtesy into all the
+ramifications of business. Without doubt the chief reason for it is the
+fact that business men themselves have discovered that it pays. One
+restaurant frankly adopted the motto, "Courtesy Pays," and had it all
+fixed up with gilt letters and framed and hung it near the front door,
+and a number of other places have exactly the same policy for exactly
+the same reason though they do not all proclaim the fact so boldly. It
+is not the loftiest motive in the world but it is an intelligent one,
+and it is better for a man to be polite because he hopes to win success
+that way than for him not to be polite at all.
+
+Human conduct, even at its best, is not always inspired by the highest
+possible motives. Not even the religions which men have followed have
+been able to accomplish this. Most of them have held out the hope of
+heavenly reward in payment for goodness here on earth and countless
+millions of men (and women, too, for that matter) have kept in the
+straight and narrow path because they were afraid to step out of it. It
+may be that they were, intrinsically, no better men than the ones who
+trod the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire, but they were much
+easier to live with. And the man who is courteous, who is a gentleman,
+whatever his motives, is a more agreeable citizen than the one who is
+not.
+
+Now how--this is our problem--does one go about making a gentleman?
+Environment plays, comparatively speaking, a very small part. "The
+appellation of gentleman," this is from a gentleman of the Seventeenth
+Century, "is not to be affixed to a man's circumstances, but to his
+behavior in them." It is extremely doubtful if courtesy can be taught by
+rule. It is more a matter of atmosphere, and an instinct "for the better
+side of things and the cleaner surfaces of life." And yet, heredity,
+training, and environment all enter into the process.
+
+It is a polite and pleasant fiction that courtesy is innate and not
+acquired, and we hear a great deal about the "born lady" and the "born
+gentleman." They are both myths. Babies are not polite, and the "king
+upon 'is throne with 'is crown upon 'is 'ead" has had, if he is a
+gentleman, life-long training in the art of being one. There is still in
+existence a very interesting outline which was given by Queen Victoria
+and Prince Albert to their oldest son, the Prince of Wales, on his
+seventeenth birthday. It contained a careful summary of what was
+expected of him as a Christian gentleman and included such items as
+dress, appearance, deportment, relations with other people, and ability
+to acquit himself well in whatever company he happened to be thrown.
+
+The King and Queen, although they were probably unaware of the fact,
+were acting upon the advice of an authority on good manners at court a
+number of years before their time. "Indeed," says the old manuscript,
+"from seven to seventeen young gentlemen commonly are carefully enough
+brought up: but from seventeen to seven-and-twenty (the most dangerous
+time of all a man's life, and the most slippery to stay well in) they
+have commonly the rein of all license in their own hand, and specially
+such as do live in the court." If we bring the sentence up to date, and
+it is as true now as it was then, we may substitute "business" for
+"court." Business men as well as courtiers find the ages between
+seventeen and seven-and-twenty "the most slippery to stay well in" for
+it is during these years that they are establishing themselves in the
+commercial world. As a general thing, but it is wise to remember that
+there is no rule to which there are not exceptions, by the time a man is
+twenty-seven his habits are formed and it is too late to acquire new
+ones.
+
+Most children undergo a painstaking and more or less painful course of
+instruction in good manners and know by the time they are men and women
+what should be done whether they do it or not. Our social code is not a
+complicated one, and there is no excuse except for the youngsters who
+have just growed up like Topsy or have been brought up by jerks like
+Pip. It is, without doubt, easier to be polite among people who are
+naturally courteous than among those who snap and snarl at one another,
+but it is a mistake to place too much emphasis on this part of it. Too
+many men--business men, at that--have come up out of the mire for us to
+be able to offer elaborate apologies for those who have stayed in it.
+The background is of minor importance. A cockroach is a cockroach
+anywhere you put him.
+
+It is easy to envy the men who have had superior advantages, and many a
+man feels that if he had another's chance he, too, might have become a
+great gentleman. It is an idle speculation. His own opportunities are
+the only ones any man can attend to, and if he is sensible he will take
+quick advantage of those that come, not in dreams, but in reality, and
+will remember what a very sagacious English statesman said about matters
+of even graver import: "It makes no difference where you are going.
+You've got to start from where you are."
+
+The lack of early training is a handicap but not a formidable one,
+especially to a business man. As the Spaniards say, there is little
+curiosity about the pedigree of a good man. And no man needs to be
+ashamed of his origin. The president of a firm would naturally be
+interested in the ancestry of a young man who came to ask him for the
+hand of his daughter, but if the man has come to sell a bill of goods he
+does not care a snap. In discussions of the social evil it is often said
+that every child has a right to be well born, but Robert Louis Stevenson
+saw more deeply and spoke more truly when he said, "We are all nobly
+born; fortunate those who know it; blessed those who remember."
+
+The finest Gentleman the world has ever seen was born some two thousand
+years ago to the wife of a carpenter in Bethlehem and spent most of His
+time among fishermen, tax-collectors, cripples, lepers, and outcasts of
+various sorts; and yet in the entire record of His short and troubled
+life there is not one mention of an ungraceful or an ungainly action. He
+was careful to observe even the trivialities of social life. Mary and
+Martha were quarreling before dinner. He quieted them with a few
+gracious words. The people at the marriage feast at Cana were worried
+because they had only water to drink. He touched it and gave them wine.
+The multitude who came to hear Him were tired, footsore, and hungry. He
+asked them to be seated and gave them food. He dined with the
+Pharisees, He talked with the women of Samaria, He comforted Mary
+Magdalen, and He washed the feet of His disciples. He was beset and
+harassed by a thousand rude and unmannerly questions, but not once did
+He return an impatient answer. Surely these things are godlike and
+divine whatever one may believe about the relation of Jesus Christ to
+God, the Father.
+
+It has been said that every man should choose a gentleman for his
+father. He should also choose a gentleman for his employer.
+Unfortunately he often has no more option in the one than he has in the
+other. Very few of us get exactly what we want. But however this may be,
+a gentleman at the head of a concern is a priceless asset. The
+atmosphere of most business houses is determined by the man at the top.
+His character filters down through the ranks. If he is a
+rough-and-tumble sort of person the office is likely to be that kind of
+place; if he is quiet and mannerly the chances are that the office will
+be quiet and mannerly. If he is a gentleman everybody in the place will
+know it and will feel the effects of it. "I am always glad John was with
+Mr. Blank his first year in business," said a mother speaking of her
+son. Mr. Blank was a man who had a life-long reputation for being as
+straight as a shingle and as clean as a hound's tooth, every inch a
+gentleman.
+
+"How do you account for the fact that you have come to place so much
+emphasis on courtesy?" a business man was asked one day as he sat in his
+upholstered office with great windows opening out on the New York
+harbor. He thought for a moment, and his mind went back to the little
+Georgia village where he was born and brought up. "My father was a
+gentleman," he answered. "I remember when I was a boy he used to be
+careful about such trifles as this. 'Now, Jim,' he would say, 'when you
+stop on the sidewalk don't stop in the middle of it. Stand aside so you
+won't be in anybody's way.' And even now," the man smiled, "I never stop
+on the sidewalk without stepping to one side so as to be out of the
+way."
+
+The life of a young person is plastic, easy to take impressions, strong
+to retain them. And the "old man" or the "governor," whether he is
+father, friend, or employer, or all three, has infinitely more influence
+than either he or the young man realizes. At the same time it is
+perfectly true that young people do not believe what older ones tell
+them about life. They have to try it out for themselves. One generation
+does not begin where the other left off. Each one of us begins at the
+beginning, and the world, with all that it holds, is as wonderful
+(though slightly different, to be sure) and as new to the child who is
+born into it to-day as it was to Adam on the first morning after it was
+created.
+
+It is almost tragic that so many young men take the tenor of their lives
+from that of their employers, especially if the latter have been
+successful. This places a terrific responsibility upon the employer
+which does not, however, shift it from the employee. His part in
+business or in life--and this is true of all of us--is what he makes it,
+great or small. And the most important thing is for him to have a
+personal ideal of what he thinks best and hold to it. He cannot get it
+from the outside.
+
+"Courtesy is not one of the company's rules," wrote the manager of a
+large organization which has been very successful in handling men and
+making money. "It is a tradition, an instinct. It is an attribute of the
+general tone, of the dominating influence of the management in all its
+relations. It is a part of the general tone, the honor, the integrity of
+the company. For three generations it has been looked upon as an
+inheritance to be preserved and kept irreproachable. Employees are drawn
+into this influence by the very simple process of their own
+development. Those who find themselves in harmony with the character of
+the company or who deliberately put themselves in tune, progress. Those
+who do not, cannot, for long, do congenial or acceptable service." This
+is the statement from the manager of a firm that is widely known for
+courteous dealing. Their standard is now established. It is a part of
+the atmosphere, and their chief problem is to get men who will fit into
+it.
+
+An employer does not judge a man on an abstract basis. He takes him
+because he thinks he will be useful to his business. This is why most
+places like to get men when they are young. They are easier to train.
+
+Every one likes good material to work with, and employers are no
+exception. They take the best they can find, and the higher the standard
+of the firm the greater the care expended in choosing the employees.
+"Whenever we find a good man," said the manager of a big trust company,
+"we take him on. We may not have a place for him at the time but we keep
+him until we find one."
+
+Except during times of stress such as that brought about by the war when
+the soldiers were at the front, no business house hires people
+indiscriminately. They know, as the Chinese have it, that rotten wood
+cannot be carved. "It is our opinion," we quote from another manager,
+"that courtesy cannot be pounded into a person who lacks proper social
+basis. In other words, there are some people who would be boorish under
+any circumstances. Our first and chief step toward courtesy is to
+exercise care in selecting our employees. We weigh carefully each
+applicant for a sales position and try to visualize his probable
+deportment as our representative, and unless he gives promise of being a
+fit representative we do not employ him."
+
+But it is not enough to take a man into a business organization. Every
+newcomer must be broken in. Sometimes this is done by means of formal
+training, sometimes it consists merely of giving him an idea of what is
+expected of him and letting him work out his own salvation. Granting
+that he is already familiar with the work in a general way, and that he
+is intelligent and resourceful, he ought to be able to adapt himself
+without a great deal of instruction from above. All of this depends upon
+the kind of work which is to be done.
+
+Nearly every employer exercises more caution in selecting the man who is
+to meet the public than any other. It is through him that the
+all-important first impression is made, and a man who is rude or
+discourteous, or who, for any reason, rubs people the wrong way, simply
+will not do. He may have many virtues but unless they are apparent they
+are for the time being of little service.
+
+Most salesmen have to go to school. Their work consists largely of the
+study of one of the most difficult subjects in the catalogue: human
+psychology. They must know why men do what they do and how to make them
+do what they, the salesmen, want them to do. They must be able to handle
+the most delicate situations courteously and without friction. It takes
+the tact of a diplomat, the nerve of a trapeze performer, the physical
+strength of a prize fighter, the optimism of William J. Bryan or of
+Pollyanna, and the wisdom of Solomon. Not many men are born with this
+combination of qualities.
+
+The best training schools base their teaching on character and common
+sense. One very remarkable organization, which has at its head an
+astonishingly buoyant and optimistic--and, it is hardly necessary to
+add, successful--man, teaches that character is nine-tenths of success
+in salesmanship and technique is only one-tenth. They study technique
+and character along with it, in a scientific way, like the students in
+a biological laboratory who examine specimens. Their prospects are their
+subjects, and while they do not actually bring them into the
+consultation room, they hold experience meetings and tell the stories of
+their successful and unsuccessful contacts. The meetings are held at the
+end of the day, when the men are all tired and many of them are
+depressed and discouraged. They are opened with songs, "My Old Kentucky
+Home," "Old Black Joe," "Sweet Adeline," and the other good old familiar
+favorites that make one think of home and mother and school days and
+happiness. One or two catchy popular songs are introduced, and the men
+sing or hum or whistle or divide into groups and do all three with all
+their might. It is irresistible. Fifteen or twenty minutes of it can
+wipe out the sourest memory of the day's business, and trivial
+irritations sink to their proper place in the scheme of things. The
+little speeches follow, and the men clap and cheer for the ones who have
+done good work and try to make an intelligent diagnosis of the cases of
+the ones who have not. When the leader talks he sometimes recounts his
+early experiences--he, like most good salesmanagers, was once on the
+road himself--and if he is in an inspirational mood, gives a sound talk
+on the principle back of the golden rule. The spirit of cooeperation
+throughout the institution is amazing and the morale is something any
+group of workers might well envy them.
+
+Most business houses recognize their responsibilities toward the young
+people that they hire. Well-organized concerns build up from within. The
+heads of the departments are for the most part men who have received
+their training in the institution, and they take as much pains in
+selecting their office boys as they do in selecting any other group, for
+it is in them that they see the future heads and assistant heads of the
+departments. In hiring office boys "cleanness, good manners, good
+physique, mental agility, and good habits are primary requisites,"
+according to Mr. J. Ogden Armour in the _American Magazine_.
+
+In one of the oldest banks in New York each boy who enters is given a
+few days' intensive training by a gentleman chosen for the purpose. The
+instructor stresses the fundamentals of character and, above all things,
+common sense. Courtesy is rarely discussed as a separate quality but
+simple instructions are given about not going in front of a person when
+there is room to go around him, not pushing into an elevator ahead of
+every one else, not speaking to a man at a desk until he has signified
+that he is ready, and about sustaining quiet and orderly behavior
+everywhere. The atmosphere in the bank is the kind that encourages
+gentlemanly conduct and the new boys either fall in with it or else get
+out and go somewhere else.
+
+It takes more patience on the part of the youngsters in the financial
+district than it does in most other places, for the men there work under
+high tension and are often cross, worried, nervous, and irritable, and
+as a result are, many times, without intending it, unjust. The
+discipline is severe, and the boy would not be human if he did not
+resent it. But the youngster who is quick to fly off the handle will
+find himself sadly handicapped, however brilliant he may be, in the race
+with boys who can keep their tempers in the face of an injury.
+
+Three boys out of the hundreds who have passed through the training
+school in the bank of which we were speaking have been discharged for
+acts of discourtesy. One flipped a rubber clip across a platform and hit
+one of the officials in the eye, one refused to stay after hours to
+finish some work he had neglected during the day, and one was
+impertinent. All three could have stayed if each had used a little
+common sense, and all three could have stayed if each act had not been
+a fair indication of his general attitude toward his work.
+
+One of the most difficult organizations to manage and one against which
+the charge of discourtesy is frequently brought is the department store.
+Yet a distinguished Englishwoman visiting here--it takes a woman to
+judge these things--said, "I had always been told that people in New
+York were in such a hurry that, although well-meaning enough, they were
+inclined to appear somewhat rude to strangers. I have found it to be
+just the reverse. During my first strolls in the streets, in the shops,
+and elsewhere, I have found everybody most courteous. Your stores, I may
+say, are the finest I have ever seen, not excepting those of Paris.
+Their displays are remarkable. Their spaciousness impressed me greatly.
+Even at a crowded time it was not difficult to move about. In London,
+where our shops are mostly cramped and old-fashioned, it would be
+impossible for such large numbers of people to find admittance."
+
+The tribute is a very nice one. For a long time the department stores
+have realized the difficulties under which they labor and have been
+making efforts to overcome them. They have formed associations by which
+they study each other's methods, and most of them have very highly
+organized systems of training and management. One big department store
+carries on courtesy drives. Talks are given, posters are exhibited, and
+prizes are offered for the most courteous clerks in the store. "We know
+that it is not fair to give prizes," the personnel manager says,
+"because it is impossible to tell really which clerks are the most
+courteous, but it stimulates interest and effort throughout the
+organization and the effects last after the drive is over."
+
+One big department store which is favorably known among a large
+clientele for courteous handling of customers depends upon its
+atmosphere to an enormous extent, but it realizes that atmosphere does
+not come by chance, that it has to be created. They have arranged it so
+that each clerk has time to serve each customer who enters without the
+nervous hurry which is the cause of so much rudeness. The salesclerks
+who come into the institution are given two weeks' training in the
+mechanical end of their work, the ways of recording sales, methods of
+approach, and so on, as well as in the spirit of cooeperation and
+service. By the time the clerk is placed behind the counter he or she
+can conduct a sale courteously and with despatch, but there is never a
+time when the head of the department is not ready and willing to be
+consulted about extraordinary situations which may arise.
+
+It is during the rush seasons such as the three or four weeks which
+precede Christmas that courtesy is put to the severest test, and the
+store described in the paragraph above bears up under it nobly. It did
+not wait until Christmas to begin teaching courtesy. It had tried to
+make it a habit, but last year several weeks before the holidays it
+issued a bulletin to its employees to remind them of certain things that
+would make the Christmas shopping less nerve-racking. The first
+paragraph was headed HEALTH. It ran as follows:
+
+"If you want to be really merry at Christmas time, it will be well to
+bear in mind during this busy month at least these few 'health savers':
+
+"Every night try to get eight good hours of sleep.
+
+"All day try to keep an even temper and a ready smile.
+
+"Remember that five minutes lost in the morning means additional
+pressure all day long.
+
+"Try to make your extra effort a steady one--not allowing yourself to
+get excited and rushed so that you make careless mistakes.
+
+"Try to eat regularly three good nourishing meals, relaxing completely
+while you are at the table and for a little while afterward.
+
+"Breathe deeply, and as often as you can, good fresh air--it cures
+weariness.
+
+"And don't forget that a brisk walk, a sensible dinner, an hour's
+relaxation, and then a hot bath before retiring, make a refreshing end
+for one business day and a splendid preparation for the next."
+
+There were six other paragraphs in the bulletin. One asked the
+salesclerks to take the greatest care in complying with a customer's
+request to send gift purchases without the price tags. Another asked
+them to pay strictest attention to getting the right addresses, and most
+of the others were taken up with suggestions for ways to avoid
+congestion by using a bank of elevators somewhat less conveniently
+located than the others, by limiting their personal telephone calls to
+those which were absolutely necessary, and so on. In both tone and
+content the bulletin was an excellent one. It first considered the
+employees and then the customers. There was no condescension in the way
+it was written and there was no "bunk" about what was in it. But the
+bulletin was only a small part of an effort that never stops.
+
+The purpose of the store is, to quote from its own statement, "to
+render honest, prompt, courteous and complete service to customers" and
+the qualities by which they measure their employees are as follows:
+
+     Health
+     Loyalty
+     Cooeperation
+     Initiative
+     Industry
+     Accuracy
+     Thoroughness
+     Responsibility
+     Knowledge
+
+Courtesy is not included in the list but it is unnecessary. If these
+qualities are developed courtesy will come of its own accord. It is
+worth noting that health comes first in the list. To a business man, or
+indeed to any other, it is one of the most precious possessions in the
+world, and is the best of backgrounds upon which to embroider the flower
+of courtesy.
+
+Every employer who has had any experience knows the value of a contented
+workman, and does what he can to make and keep him so by paying him
+adequate wages, and providing comfortable, sanitary, and pleasant
+working conditions. Contentment is, however, more an attitude of mind
+than a result of external circumstances. Happiness is who, not where,
+you are. We do not mean by this that a workman should be wholly
+satisfied and without ambition or that he should face the world with a
+permanent grin, but that he should to the best of his ability follow
+that wonderful motto of Roosevelt's, "Do what you can where you are with
+what you have." No man can control circumstances; not even the braggart
+Napoleon, who declared that he made circumstances, could control them to
+the end; and no man can shape them to suit exactly his own purposes, but
+every man can meet them bravely as a gentleman should.
+
+Most big business concerns supply rest rooms, eating places, recreation
+camps, and all manner of comforts for their employees, and most of them
+maintain welfare departments. No business house under heaven could take
+the place of a home, but where the home influence is bad the best
+counterfoil is a wholesome atmosphere in which to work. Recently an
+institution advertising for help, instead of asking what the applicant
+could do for it, pictured and described what it could do for the
+applicant. The result was that they got a high-class group of people to
+make their selection from, and their attitude was one which invited the
+newcomers to do their best.
+
+Factory owners are paying a good deal of attention to the appearance of
+their buildings. Many of them have moved out into the country so as to
+provide more healthful surroundings for work. Numbers of modern factory
+buildings are very beautiful to look at, trim white buildings set in
+close-cut lawns with tennis courts and swimming pools not far away, red
+brick buildings covered with ivy, sand-colored ones with roses climbing
+over them, and others like the one famous for its thousand windows,
+rather more comfortable than lovely. In our big cities there are office
+buildings that look like cathedrals, railroad stations that look like
+temples, and traffic bridges that look (from a distance) like fairy
+arches leading into the land of dreams. They are not all like this. We
+wish they were. But it is to the credit of the American business man
+that he has put at least a part of his life and work into the building
+of beautiful things. The influence which comes from them is, like nearly
+all potent influences, an unconscious one, but it makes for happiness
+and contentment.
+
+The problem of keeping the employees contented is somewhat different in
+every place. House organs, picnics, dances, recreation parks,
+sanitariums in the country and so on can be utilized by "big business,"
+but the spirit which animates them is the same as that which makes the
+grocery man at Hicksville Centre give his delivery boy an afternoon off
+when the baseball team comes to town. The spirit of courtesy is
+everywhere the same, but it must be kept in mind that the end of
+business is production, production takes work, and that play is
+introduced in order that the work may be better. This is true whether we
+are looking at the matter from the point of view of the employer or of
+the employee. What is to the interest of one--this is gaining slow but
+sure recognition--is to the interest of the other.
+
+Certain kinds of mechanical work are very trying because of their
+monotony. The work must be done, however, and in well-ordered places it
+is arranged so that the worker has brief periods of rest at regular
+intervals or so that he is shifted from one kind of activity to another.
+It is poor economy to wear out men. In the old days before the power of
+steam or electricity had been discovered, boats were propelled by slaves
+who were kept below decks chained to their seats, and watched by an
+overseer who forced them to continue rowing long after they had reached
+the point of exhaustion. The galley slave sat always on the same side of
+the boat and after a few years his body became so twisted and warped
+that he was no good for anything else, and pretty soon was not even good
+for that. Then he was thrown into the discard--most of them died before
+they got this far along--and the owner of the boat had to look out for
+more men. Something like this happens to the soul of a man who is bound
+to dreary, monotonous work without relief or any outlet for growth. It
+is deadening to him, to his work, and to his employer. The far-sighted
+employer knows it. The masters of slaves learned it many years ago. The
+chain which binds the servant to the master binds the master to the
+servant. And the fastening is as secure at one end as it is at the
+other.
+
+Too strict supervision--slave-driving--is fatal to courtesy. The places
+which have intricate spy systems to watch their employees are the ones
+where there is most rudeness and trickery. The clerk who is hectored,
+nagged, spied upon, suspected and scolded by some hireling brought in
+for that purpose or by the head of the firm himself cannot be expected
+to give "a smile with every purchase and a thank you for every goodbye."
+The training of employees never stops, but it is something that should
+be placed very largely in their own hands. After a certain point
+supervision should be unnecessary.
+
+Most places hate to discharge a man. Labor turnover is too expensive.
+Most of them try to place their men in the positions for which they are
+best suited. It is easier to take a round peg out of a square hole and
+put it into a round one than it is to send out for another assortment of
+pegs. Men are transferred from sales departments to accounting
+departments, are taken off the road and brought into the home office,
+and are shifted about in various ways until they fit. If a man shows
+that "he has it in him" he is given every chance to succeed. "There is
+only one thing we drop a man for right off," says an employment manager
+in a place which has in its service several thousand people of both
+sexes, "and that is for saying something out of the way to one of our
+girls."
+
+This same manager tells the story of a boy he hired and put into a
+department which had been so badly managed that there were a number of
+loose ends to be tied up. The boy threw himself into his work, cleared
+up things, and found himself in a "soft snap" without a great deal to
+do. He happened not to be the kind of person who can be satisfied with a
+soft snap, and he became so restive and unhappy that he was recommended
+for discharge. This brought him back to the head of the employment
+bureau. He, instead of throwing the young man out, asked that he be
+given a second trial in a department where the loose ends could not be
+cleaned up. It was a place where there was always plenty of work to do,
+and the young man has been happy and has been doing satisfactory work
+ever since.
+
+The house in which this happened is always generous toward the mistakes
+of its employees if the mistakes do not occur too persistently and too
+frequently. In one instance a boy made three successive errors in
+figures in as many days. He was slated for discharge but sent first
+before the employment manager. As they talked the latter noticed that
+the boy leaned forward with a strained expression on his face. Thinking
+perhaps he was slightly deaf, he lowered his voice, but the boy
+understood every word he said. Then he noticed that there was a tiny red
+ridge across his nose as if he were accustomed to wearing glasses,
+although he did not have them on, and when he asked about it he
+discovered that the boy had broken his glasses a few days before, and
+that he had not had them fixed because he did not have money enough.
+
+"Why didn't you tell us about it?" the employment manager asked.
+
+"It was not your fault that I broke them," the boy replied. "It was up
+to me," an independent answer which in itself indicates how much worth
+while it was to keep him.
+
+The manager gave him money enough to have the glasses mended, the next
+day the boy was back at work, and there was no more trouble.
+
+An employee in the same organization unintentionally did something which
+hurt the president of the firm a great deal. But when he went to him and
+apologized (it takes a man to admit that he is wrong and apologize for
+it) the president sent him back to his desk, "It's all right, boy," he
+said, "I know you care. That's enough."
+
+In a big department store in New England there was a girl a few years
+back with an alert mind, an assertive personality, and a tremendous fund
+of energy. She was in the habit of giving constructive suggestions to
+the heads of the departments in which she worked, and because of her
+youth and manner, they resented it. "I took her into my office," the
+manager said. "I'm the only one she can be impertinent to there and I
+don't mind it. It is a bad manifestation of a good quality, and in time
+the disagreeable part of it will wear off. She will make an excellent
+business woman."
+
+"If a man finds fault with a boy without explaining the cause to him,"
+we are quoting here from an executive in a highly successful Middle
+Western firm, "I won't fire the boy, I fire the man. We have not a
+square inch of space in this organization for the man who criticizes a
+subordinate without telling him how to do better." Unless the plan of
+management is big enough to include every one from the oldest saint to
+the youngest sinner it is no good. Business built on oppression and
+cut-throat competition, whether the competition is between employer and
+employee or between rival firms, is war, and war, industrial or
+political, is still what General Sherman called it some years ago.
+
+We hold no brief for paternalism. We have no patience with it. All that
+we want is a spirit of fairness and cooeperation which will give every
+man a chance to make good on his own account. This spirit inevitably
+flowers into courtesy. In every place courtesy should be, of course, so
+thoroughly a part of the surroundings that it is accepted like air or
+sunshine without comment. But it is not, and never has been except in
+old civilizations where manners have ripened and mellowed under the
+beneficent influence of time. Our traditions here--speaking of the
+country as a whole--are still in the making, but we have at least got
+far enough along to realize that it is not only worth while to do things
+that are good, but, as an old author has it, to do them with a good
+grace. It cannot be accomplished overnight. Courtesy is not like a
+fungous growth springing up in a few hours in the decayed parts of a
+tree; it is like that within the tree itself which gives lustre to the
+leaves and a beautiful surface to the whole. It takes time to develop
+it--time and patience--but it is worth waiting for.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+PERSONALITY
+
+
+All that makes a man who he is and not someone else is called
+personality. It is the sum total of his qualities, a thing inborn, but
+including besides such externals as dress, manner, and appearance. It is
+either a tremendous asset or a terrific liability, and so important that
+certain schools which purport to teach success in business declare that
+it is everything. Which is just as foolish as saying that it is nothing.
+
+One of these success-before-you-wake-to-morrow-morning schools of
+business instruction dismisses the fact which has remained true through
+three thousand years of change, namely, that there is no short cut to
+success, as a myth, and even goes so far as to say that it is almost
+impossible to achieve success to-day by working for it. E. H. Harriman
+they give as an example of a man who did no work but won success by
+smoking cigars while other men built railroads for him, quoting a joking
+remark of his to prove a serious point, when, as a matter of fact, Mr.
+Harriman was one of the large number of American business men who have
+literally worked themselves to death. Foch said that he won the war by
+smoking his pipe, but does any one believe that the great commander won
+the war by not working? What he meant was that he won the war by
+thinking, and the worn face, which seemed almost twice as old when the
+conflict was over, showed how hard that work was.
+
+It is so impossible for a false doctrine to stand on its own feet that
+the spread-eagle advertisement of this school contradicts itself long
+before it gets to the "Sign here and mail to-day" coupon. "The first
+time you try to swim," shouts the advertisement, "for instance, you
+sink; and the first time you try to ride a bicycle you fall off. But the
+ability to do these things was born in you. And shortly you can both
+swim and ride. Then you wonder why you could not always do these things.
+They seem so absurdly simple." It may be that there are people who have
+learned to swim and to ride a bicycle by sitting in a chair and
+cultivating certain inherent qualities but we have never heard of them.
+Everybody that we ever knew worked and worked hard swimming and riding
+before they learned. The only way to learn to do a job is to do it, and
+the only way to succeed is to work. Any school or any person who says
+that "the most important thing for you to do is not to work, but first
+to find the short road to success. After that you may safely work all
+you like--but as a matter of fact, you won't have to work very hard," is
+a liar and a menace to the country and to business.
+
+But the value of personality is not to be under-estimated. "Nature,"
+says Thackeray somewhere in "The Virginians," "has written a letter of
+credit upon some men's faces, which is honored almost wherever
+presented. Harry Warrington's [Harry Warrington was the hero who brought
+about this observation] countenance was so stamped in his youth. His
+eyes were so bright, his cheeks so red and healthy, his look so frank
+and open, that almost all who beheld him, nay, even those who cheated
+him, trusted him." It was the "letter of credit" stamped upon the face
+of Roosevelt, pledge of the character which lay behind it, which made
+him the idol of the American people.
+
+Personality is hard to analyze and harder still to acquire. The usual
+advice given to one who is trying to cultivate a pleasing manner and
+address is "Be natural," but this cannot be taken too literally. Most of
+us find it perfectly natural to be cross and disagreeable under trying
+circumstances. It would be natural for a man to cry out profane words
+when a woman grinds down on his corn but it would not be polite. It was
+natural for Uriah Heep to wriggle like an eel, but that did not make it
+any the less detestable. It was natural, considering the past history of
+Germany and the system under which he was educated, for the Kaiser to
+want to be lord of the world, but that did not make it any the less
+horrible.
+
+Another bromidic piece of advice is "Be perfectly frank and sincere."
+But this, too, has its limits. Some people pride themselves on saying
+exactly what they think. Usually they are brutal, insensitive, wholly
+incapable of sympathetic understanding of any one else, and cursed,
+besides, with a colossal vanity. A man may determine to tell nothing but
+the truth, but this does not make it necessary for him to tell the whole
+truth, especially when it will hurt the feelings or the reputation of
+some one else. No man has a right to impose his opinions and prejudices,
+his sufferings and agonies, on other people. It is the part of a coward
+to whine.
+
+And yet a man must be himself, must be natural and sincere. Roosevelt
+could no more have adopted the academic manner of Wilson than Wilson
+could have adopted the boyish manner of Roosevelt. Lincoln could no
+more have adopted the courtly grace of Washington than Washington could
+have adopted the rugged simplicity of Lincoln. Nor would such
+transformations be desirable even if they were possible. The world would
+be a very dreary place if we were all cut by the same pattern.
+
+A number of years ago in an upstate town in New York there was a shoe
+store which had been built up by the engaging personality of the man who
+owned it. He had worked his way up from a tiny shoe shop in New Jersey
+where, as a boy, he made shoes by hand before there were factories for
+the purpose, and he had always kept in close touch with the business
+even after he owned a large establishment and had a number of men
+working under him. He stayed in the shop, greeted his customers as they
+came in, and many times waited on them himself.
+
+When he retired from active business he sold out to a man exactly his
+opposite in temperament, as good a man, so far as character went, as
+himself, but very quiet and taciturn. A woman who had always patronized
+the shop and was a friend of them both came to him soon after the
+transfer was made and said, "Now, Mr. Tillis, the reason this place has
+prospered so is on account of the personality of Mr. Kilbourne. His
+shoes are good but people can get good shoes at other places. They come
+here because of Mr. Kilbourne. They like him, and if you are not careful
+they will stop coming now that he is gone. You've got to smile and show
+them you are glad to see them."
+
+Mr. Tillis felt that the woman was telling the truth. He decided that he
+would stay in the shop and greet each customer with a gladsome smile and
+make himself generally pleasant and agreeable. The next day he was
+fitting a shoe on a woman who was also an old customer and a friend of
+both men. He was smiling in his best manner and congratulating himself
+that he was doing very well when the woman abruptly took her foot off
+the stand. "What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
+
+Some years later he told Mr. Kilbourne about it. "I decided then that
+there was no use in me trying to be you. You had been yourself, and I
+made up my mind that I'd be myself."
+
+And that is, after all, the only rule that can be given. Be yourself,
+but be very sure that it is your best self.
+
+It is personality which permits one man to do a thing that another would
+be shot for. What is charming in this man is disgusting in that. What is
+a smile with one becomes a smirk with another. What makes one succeed
+will cause another to fail. It is personality that opens the doors of
+opportunity. It cannot, alone, keep them open, but it is worth a good
+deal to get inside.
+
+We were interested to observe the methods used by three young men who
+were looking for jobs, not one of whom would probably have succeeded if
+he had used the tactics of either of the others.
+
+The first wanted to talk with the biggest executive in a large
+organization. He had fought his way through the ranks until he had got
+as far as the man's secretary. "Mr. So-and-So does not see people who
+want jobs," said that young lady.
+
+"I don't want a job," he prevaricated mildly, "I want to talk to him."
+
+The girl let him in.
+
+"Mr. So-and-So," he said, "I don't want a job. I want advice."
+
+His manner was so ingenuous and charming, his earnestness so glowing,
+that the man at the desk listened while he talked, and then talked a
+while himself, and ended by giving the young man the position (as well
+as the advice) that he wanted. But if he had been less attractive
+personally and the older man had been shrewd enough to see through the
+ruse (or perhaps he did see through it but made the proper discount for
+it) or had been opposed to trick methods, the scheme might not have
+worked so well.
+
+The most universal weakness of intellect lies in the part of the brain
+which listens to flattery. Very few people like compliments laid on with
+a trowel, but no man can resist the honest admiration of another if it
+seems sincere. And since it is the sort of thing that one likes almost
+above all else he often takes the false coin for the true.
+
+The second young man met the rebuff so familiar to young men looking for
+their first job, "We want men with experience."
+
+"That's what everybody says," the boy answered, "but what I want to know
+is how we are going to get that experience if you don't give us a
+chance."
+
+The older man sympathized, but had no place for the other and told him
+so.
+
+"What would you do if you were I?" the young man asked as he turned to
+leave. The other grinned. "Why, I'd work for a firm for a week for
+nothing," he said, "and show them that they could not get along without
+me."
+
+The boy stopped. "All right," he said, "let me work for you a week."
+
+The older man had not expected this but he gave the youngster a chance
+and he made good.
+
+The third young man had reached the point of desperation. He had been
+out of a job several weeks. He had been trying to get one all that time
+and had not succeeded. He walked into the employment bureau of a certain
+concern and said, "I want a job. I want a good job. Not some dinky
+little place filing letters or picking up chips. If you've got an
+executive position where there is plenty of work and plenty of
+responsibility, I want it." They asked him a few questions about what he
+had been doing and a few more about what he thought he could do, and
+ended by giving him a desk and an office.
+
+It would be foolish to advise any one to follow any of these plans. Each
+man must work out his own method, all the better if it is an original
+one. Most business men like a simple approach without any flourishes.
+"It is astonishing," says one man whose income runs to six figures, "how
+many things one can get just by asking for them." The best reporter in
+America says that he has always found the direct method of approach
+better than any other. None is infallible but this has the highest
+percentage of success.
+
+So far as personal appearance is concerned--and this is one of the most
+important elements in the fashioning of personality--the greatest
+variations are not due to intrinsic differences in character, nor to
+differences of feature or form, but to the use and disuse of the
+bathtub. More sharp than the distinction between labor and capital or
+between socialism and despotism is that between the people who bathe
+daily and those who go to the tub only on Saturday night or less often.
+The people with whom personal cleanliness is a habit find dirt, grime,
+and sweat revolting. To them "the great unwashed" are repulsive.
+
+"When you teach a man to bathe," says John Leitch in his book on
+"Industrial Democracy," "you do more than merely teach him to cleanse
+his body. You introduce him to a new kind of life and create in him a
+desire for better living."
+
+The month before he began his wonderful work at Tuskegee, Booker
+Washington spent visiting the Negro families in the part of Alabama
+where he was to teach. "One of the saddest things I saw during the month
+of travel which I have described," he writes in his autobiography, "was
+a young man, who had attended some high school, sitting down in a
+one-room cabin, with grease on his clothing, filth all around him, and
+weeds in the yard and garden, engaged in studying a French grammar."
+
+Farther on he writes, "It has been interesting to note the effect that
+the use of the tooth-brush has had in bringing about a higher degree of
+civilization among the students. With few exceptions, I have noticed
+that, if we can get a student to the point where, when the first or
+second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own motion buys another, I have
+not been disappointed in the future of that individual. Absolute
+cleanliness of the body has been insisted upon from the first."
+
+Cleanliness is an attribute of civilization. We find it amusing to read
+that three or four hundred years ago bathing for pleasure was unknown,
+that when soap was first invented it was used only for washing clothes,
+and that even so late as the Seventeenth Century an author compiling a
+book of rules for the gentleman of that day advises him to wash his
+hands every day and his face almost as often! In the monasteries bathing
+was permitted only to invalids and the very old. Perfume was used
+copiously, and filth and squalor abounded. This even in royal circles.
+Among the common people conditions were unspeakable.
+
+To-day a gentleman bathes and shaves every day. He keeps his hair
+brushed, his finger nails immaculate (or as clean as the kind of work
+which he does permits), his linen is always clean and his shoes are
+polished. He is not over-fastidious about his clothes, but he has
+respect enough for himself as well as for the people among whom he lives
+to want to present as agreeable an appearance as possible. "Dress,"
+wrote Lord Chesterfield to his son, "is a very foolish thing, and yet it
+is a very foolish thing for a man not to be well-dressed, according to
+his rank and way of life.... The difference in this case between a man
+of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and
+the man of sense laughs at it, and at the same time knows he must not
+neglect it."
+
+It is a cheap device for a man to trick himself out with lodge pins and
+fraternity symbols, rings, and badges in the hope that they will open
+doors for him. Highly ornamental jewelry of any kind is inappropriate.
+Not many men can offset a heavy gold watch chain stretched full length
+across their bosoms, not many can live down a turquoise ring set with
+pearls, and very few can bear the handicap of a bright gold front tooth.
+Artists, alone, may gratify their taste for velvet jackets,
+Tam-o'-Shanters, and Windsor ties, but the privilege is denied business
+men. Eccentricity of dress usually indicates eccentricity of temper, and
+we do not want temperamental business men. It is hard enough to get
+along with authors and artists and musicians. The business man who is
+wise wears conventional clothes of substantial material in conservative
+colors. Good sense and good taste demand it.
+
+The time has passed when uncouthness of dress and manner can be taken as
+a pledge of honesty and good faith. The President of the United States
+to-day is a well-dressed, well-groomed man, and no one thinks any the
+less of him for it. Men no longer regard creased trousers, nicely tied
+cravats, well-chosen collars, and harmonious color combinations as signs
+of sissiness, snobbishness, or weak-mindedness.
+
+Formal dinners and other ceremonious functions require evening dress. It
+is the custom, as the Orientals say; and for the sake of other people
+present if not for his own, a man should undergo the discomfort, if he
+finds it a discomfort, and many men do, of conforming to it. Holiday
+attire gives a happy note of festivity which might otherwise be lacking.
+It is quite possible to point to a number of men who have succeeded in
+business who were wholly indifferent to matters of dress. But it does
+not prove anything. Men rise by their strength, not by their weakness.
+Some men wait until after they have become rich or famous to become
+negligent of their personal appearance. But it is well to remember that
+"if Socrates and Aristippus have done aught against custom or good
+manner, let not a man think he can do the same: for they obtained this
+license by their great and excellent good parts."
+
+A well-dressed man is so comfortably dressed that he is not conscious of
+his clothes and so inconspicuously dressed that no one else is conscious
+of them.
+
+In a good many instances it is not his own dress which bothers a
+business man so much as it is that of some one else--his stenographer,
+for instance. Men do not have quite so much opportunity to make
+themselves ridiculous as women. Their conventions of dress are stricter,
+and, as a rule, they can express their love of color and ornamentation
+only in their choice of ties and socks. Girls have practically no
+restrictions except what happens to be the style at the moment, and a
+young girl untrained in selecting and combining colors and lines, and
+making money for the first time in her life, is more likely than not to
+make herself look more like a Christmas tree than a lily of the field.
+
+The big department stores which employ hundreds of girls to meet and
+serve their customers have settled the problem for themselves by
+requiring the girls to wear uniforms. The uniform is very simple; often
+a certain color during working hours is prescribed, but the girls are
+permitted to choose their own styles. Other places have women who look
+after the welfare of the girls and prevent them from laying themselves
+open to misunderstanding by the way they dress. Large organizations can
+afford to have a special person to take care of such matters, but in a
+small office the problem is different.
+
+Of course, a man can always dismiss a girl who dresses foolishly or
+carelessly, but this is sneaking away from a problem instead of facing
+it. High-class offices have comparatively little trouble this way. In
+the first place, they do not attract the frivolous, light-headed, or
+"tough" girls; in the second place, if such girls come, the atmosphere
+in which they work either makes them conform to the standards of the
+office or leave and go somewhere else. If a girl in his office dresses
+in a way that he considers inappropriate, a man may tactfully suggest
+that something simpler would be more dignified and more in keeping with
+business ideals and traditions. But, oh, he must be careful! On no
+subject is one so sensitive as on his personal appearance, and women,
+perhaps, more so than men.
+
+There is a limit to how far an employer should go in dictating the
+manner of his employees' dress. When the head of a big Western
+department store declared that he would discharge all the girls who
+bobbed their hair, most of us felt that he had gone a bit too far, even
+while we saw the logic of his position. While it is the only sensible
+way in the world for a woman to wear her hair the majority of people
+have not yet come to think so. To the average person, especially to Mrs.
+Grundy, who is really the most valuable customer a department store has,
+the impression given by bobbed hair is one of frivolity or eccentricity.
+The impression given the customer as she enters a store is a most
+important item; the head of the store knew it, and therefore he placed
+the ban on bobbed hair. Whichever side we take in this particular case
+this is true: The business woman should give, like the business man, an
+impression of dependability, and she cannot do it if her appearance is
+abnormal, or if her mind is divided between how she is looking and what
+she is doing.
+
+It is almost funny that we let the faults and mannerisms of other people
+affect us to such an extent. They are nothing to us, and yet a man can
+work himself into a perfect frenzy of temper merely by looking at or
+talking to another who has a fidgety way of moving about, a dainty
+manner of using his hands, or a general demean--or that is delicate and
+ladylike. Men like what the magazines call "a red-blooded, two-fisted,
+he-man." But the world is big enough to accommodate us all whether the
+blood in our veins is red or blue, and it is perfectly silly for a man
+to throw himself into a rage over some harmless creature who happens to
+exasperate him simply because he is alive.
+
+It is an altogether different matter when it is a question of one man
+taking liberties with another. Most people object to the physical
+nearness of others. It is the thing that makes the New York subways
+during the rush hours such a horror. It is not pleasant to have a person
+so near that his breath is against your face, and there are not many men
+who enjoy being slapped on the back, punched in the ribs, or held fast
+by a buttonhole or a coat lapel. A safe rule is never to touch another
+person. He may resent it.
+
+The garrulous or impertinent talker is almost as objectionable as the
+hail-fellow-well-met, slap-on-the-back fellow. Charles Dickens has a
+record of this kind of American in the book which he wrote after his
+visit in this country: "Every button in his clothes said, 'Eh, what's
+that? Did you speak? Say that again, will you?' He was always wide
+awake, always restless; always thirsting for answers; perpetually
+seeking and never finding....
+
+"I wore a fur great-coat at that time, and before we were well clear of
+the wharf, he questioned me concerning it, and its price, and where I
+bought it, and when, and what fur it was, and what it weighed, and what
+it cost. Then he took notice of my watch, and asked me what _that_ cost,
+and whether it was a French watch, and where I got it, and how I got it,
+and whether I bought it or had it given me, and how it went and where
+the keyhole was, and when I wound it, every night or every morning, and
+whether I ever forgot to wind it at all, and if I did, what then? Where
+I had been to last, and where I was going next, and where I was going
+after that, and had I seen the President, and what did he say, and what
+did I say, and what did he say when I had said that? Eh? Lor' now! Do
+tell!"
+
+This sort of curiosity is harmless enough, but exasperating, and so
+childish that one hates to rebuke the person who is asking the foolish
+questions. There is another kind which is perhaps worse--the man who
+asks intrusive questions about how much salary another is getting, how
+old he is (men are as sensitive on this subject as women) and so on and
+on. It is perfectly legitimate to refuse to answer any question to
+which one does not wish to reply. Every man has a right to mental
+privacy even when he is denied, as he is in so many modern offices, any
+other kind of privacy.
+
+A loud or boisterous person is objectionable. Many times this is through
+carelessness, but sometimes, as when a man recounts the story of his
+dinner with Mr. Brown, who is a national figure, in a voice so loud that
+all the people in the car or room or whatever place he happens to be in,
+can hear him, it is deliberate. The careless person is the one who
+discusses personalities aloud in elevators, on the train, and in all
+manner of public places. Exchanging gossip is a pretty low form of
+indoor sport and exchanging it aloud so that everybody can hear makes it
+worse than ever. Names should never be mentioned in a conversation in a
+place where strangers can overhear, especially if the connection is an
+unpleasant one. Private opinions should never be aired in public places
+(except from a platform).
+
+The highly argumentative or aggressive person is another common type of
+nuisance. He usually raises his voice, thus drowning out the possibility
+of interruption, and talks with so much noise and so many vigorous
+gestures that he seems to try to make up for his lack of intellect by
+an excess of tumult. Arguments have never yet convinced anybody of the
+truth, and it is a very unpleasant method to try. Most arguments are
+about religion or politics and even if they were settled nothing would
+be accomplished. In the Middle Ages men used to debate about the number
+of angels that could stand on the point of a pin. Hours and hours were
+wasted and learned scholars were brought into the discussion, which was
+carried forward as seriously as if it were a debate between the merits
+of the Republican and Democratic parties. Suppose they had settled it.
+Would it have mattered?
+
+One of the most offensive public plagues is the man who leaves a trail
+of untidiness behind him. No book of etiquette, not even a book of
+business etiquette, could counsel eating on the streets in spite of the
+historic and inspiring example of Mr. Benjamin Franklin walking down the
+streets of Philadelphia with a loaf of bread under each arm while he
+munched from a third which he held in his hand. One can forgive a man,
+however, if he, feeling the need of nourishment, eats a bar of chocolate
+if he takes great care to put the wrappings somewhere out of the way. No
+man with any civic pride will scatter peanut hulls, cigarette boxes,
+chocolate wrappings, raisin boxes, and other debris along the streets,
+in the cars, on the stairs, and even on the floors of office buildings.
+Garbage cans and waste-baskets were made to take care of these things.
+
+Tidiness is worth more to a business man than most of them realize. In
+the first place it gives a favorable impression to a person coming in
+from the outside, and, in the second place, it helps those on the inside
+to keep things straight. Folders for correspondence, card indexes,
+memorandum files and other similar devices are essential to the orderly
+transaction of business.
+
+Keeping ashes and scraps of paper off the floor may seem trifles, but
+such trifles go far toward making the atmosphere, which is another word
+for personality, of an office. Some men have secretaries who take care
+of their desks and papers and supervise the janitor who cleans the
+floors and windows, but those who do not, find that they can manage
+better when they have a place to put things and put them there.
+
+Nothing has more to do with making a gentleman than a courteous and
+considerate attitude toward women. In business a man should show
+practically the same deference toward a woman that he does in society.
+Any man can be polite to a woman he is anxious to please, the girl he
+loves, for instance, but it takes a gentleman to be polite to every
+woman, especially to those who work for him, those over whom he
+exercises authority.
+
+It is unnecessary for a man to rise every time one of the girls in his
+office enters his private audience room, but he should always rise to
+receive a visitor, whether it is a man or woman, and should ask the
+visitor to be seated before he sits down himself. In witheringly hot
+weather a man may go without his coat even if his entire office force
+consists of girls, but he should never receive a guest in his shirt
+sleeves. He should listen deferentially to what the visitor has to say,
+but if she becomes too voluble or threatens to stay too long or if there
+is other business waiting for him, he may (if he can) cut short her
+conversation. When she is ready to go he should rise and conduct her to
+the door or to the elevator, as the case may be, and ring the bell for
+her. He cannot, of course, do this if his visitors are frequent, if
+their calls are about matters of trifling importance, or if he is
+working under high pressure.
+
+We once had an English visitor here in America who thought our manners
+were outrageously bad, but there was one point on which we won a perfect
+score. "Any lady," he said, "may travel alone, from one end of the
+United States to the other, and be certain of the most courteous and
+considerate treatment everywhere. Nor did I ever once, on any occasion,
+anywhere, during my rambles in America, see a woman exposed to the
+slightest act of rudeness, incivility, or even inattention." Conditions
+have changed since then. Women had not left their homes to go into
+offices and factories, but unless we can hold to the standard described
+by the Englishman, the change has not been for the better, for any of
+the people concerned.
+
+Since the Victorian era our ideas of what constitutes an act of rudeness
+have been modified. Then it would have been unthinkable that a woman
+should remain standing in a coach while men were seated. Now it is
+possible for a man to keep his place while a woman swings from a strap
+and defend himself on the grounds that he has worked harder during the
+day than she (how he knows is more than we can say), and that he has
+just as much right (which is certainly true) as any one else. Yet it is
+a gracious and a chivalrous act for a man to offer a woman his place on
+a car, and it is very gratifying to see that hundreds of them, even in
+the cities, where life goes at its swiftest pace and people live always
+in a hurry, surrender their seats in favor of the women who, like
+themselves, are going to work. Old people, afflicted people, men and
+women who are carrying children in their arms, and other people who
+obviously need to sit down are nearly always given precedence over the
+rest of us. This is, of course, as it should be.
+
+But the heart of what constitutes courtesy has not changed and never
+will. It is exactly what it was on that day nearly four hundred years
+ago when Sir Philip Sidney, mortally wounded on the field of Zutphen,
+gave his last drop of water to the dying soldier who lay near him and
+said, "Thy need is greater than mine."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+TABLE MANNERS
+
+
+In the old books of etiquette in the chapter on table manners the
+authors used to state that it was not polite to butter your bread with
+your thumb, to rub your greasy fingers on the bread you were about to
+eat, or to rise from the table with a toothpick in your mouth like a
+bird that is about to build her nest. We have never seen any one butter
+his bread with his thumb, but----
+
+There are in the United States nearly five million people who can
+neither read nor write. We have no statistics but we venture to say
+there are as many who eat with their knives. There are people among
+us--and they are not all immigrants in the slum districts or Negroes in
+the poorer sections of the South--who do not know what a napkin is, who
+think the proper way to eat an egg is to hold it in the hand like a
+piece of candy, and bite it, the egg having previously been fried on
+both sides until it is as stiff and as hard as a piece of bristol board,
+who would not recognize a salad if they saw one, and who have never
+heard of after-dinner coffee.
+
+Very few of them are people of wealth, but an astonishing number of
+successful business men were born into such conditions. They had no
+training in how to handle a knife and fork and they probably never read
+a book of etiquette, but they had one faculty, which is highly developed
+in nearly every person who lifts himself above the crowd, and that is
+observation.
+
+In addition to this a young man is very fortunate, especially if his way
+of life is cast among people whose manners are different from those to
+which he has been accustomed, if he has a friend whom he can consult,
+not only about table manners but about matters of graver import as well.
+And he should not be embarrassed to ask questions. The disgrace, if
+disgrace it could be called, lies only in ignorance.
+
+A number of years ago a young man who was the prospective heir to a
+fortune--this charming story is in Charles Dickens's wonderful novel,
+"Great Expectations"--went up to London for the express purpose of
+learning to be a gentleman. It fell about that almost as soon as he
+arrived he was thrown into the company of a delightful youth who had
+already attained the minor graces of polite society. Very much in
+earnest about what he had set out to do, and blessed besides with a
+goodish bit of common sense, he explained his situation to Herbert, for
+that was the other boy's name, mentioned the fact that he had been
+brought up by a blacksmith in a country place, that he knew practically
+nothing of the ways of politeness, and that he would take it as a great
+kindness if Herbert would give him a hint whenever he saw him at a loss
+or going wrong.
+
+"'With pleasure,' said he, 'though I venture to prophesy that you'll
+want very few hints.'"
+
+They went in to dinner together, a regular feast of a dinner it seemed
+to the ex-blacksmith's apprentice, and after a while began to talk about
+the benefactress who, they believed, had made it possible.
+
+"'Let me introduce the topic,' began Herbert, who had been watching
+Pip's table manners for some little time, 'by mentioning that in London
+it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth--for fear of
+accidents--and that while the fork is reserved for that use it is not
+put further in than necessary. It is scarcely worth mentioning, only
+it's as well to do as other people do. Also, the spoon is not generally
+used over-hand but under. This has two advantages. You get at your mouth
+better (which after all is the object), and you save a good deal of the
+attitude of opening oysters on the part of the right elbow.'
+
+"He offered these suggestions (said Pip) in such a lively way, that we
+both laughed and I scarcely blushed."
+
+The conversation and the dinner continued and the friendship grew apace.
+Presently Herbert broke off to observe that "society as a body does not
+expect one to be so strictly conscientious in emptying one's glass, as
+to turn it bottom upwards with the rim on one's nose."
+
+"I had been doing this," Pip confessed, "in an excess of attention to
+his recital. I thanked him, and apologized. He said, 'Not at all,' and
+resumed."
+
+This was written many years ago but neither in life nor in literature is
+there a more beautiful example of perfect courtesy than that given by
+Herbert Pocket when he took the blacksmith's boy in hand and began his
+education in the art of being a gentleman. Not only was he at perfect
+ease himself but--and this is the important point--he put the
+blacksmith's boy at ease.
+
+It is worth remarking, by way of parenthesis, that Herbert's father was
+a gentleman. "It is a principle of his," declared the boy, "that no man
+who was not a true gentleman at heart, ever was, since the world began,
+a true gentleman in manner. He says, no varnish can hide the grain of
+the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will
+express itself."
+
+The American table service is not complicated. Any intelligent person
+who knows the points covered by Herbert Pocket, who knows that one
+should not cut up all of his meat at the same time but mouthful by
+mouthful as he needs it, that it is not customary to butter a whole
+slice of bread at once nor to plaster cheese over the entire upper
+surface of a cracker, can by a dint of watching how other people do it
+find his way without embarrassment through even the most elaborate array
+of table implements. The easiest way to acquire good table manners (or
+good manners of any other kind, as far as that goes) is to form the
+habit of observing how the people who manage these things most
+gracefully go about it. It is best to begin early. To use one of David
+Harum's expressive maxims, "Ev'ry hoss c'n do a thing better 'n' spryer
+if he's ben broke to it as a colt."
+
+Eating should be, and, as a matter of fact, is, when one follows his
+usual custom, an unconscious process like the mechanical part of reading
+or writing. It is only when he is trying to be a bit more formal or
+fastidious than is habitual with him that a man gets tangled, so to
+speak, in the tines of his fork.
+
+Cooking is one of the fine arts. Poets, painters, sculptors, musicians,
+and millionaires have always paid tribute to it as such--and so is
+dining. Like a great many other arts it was first developed among royal
+circles, and there was a time when the king resented the idea of a
+commoner being able to dine with grace and elegance. Since then it has
+become democratized, and now there are no restrictions except those
+which a man places about himself. And there is no earthly (or heavenly)
+reason why a man should not eat in the way which society has established
+as correct, and a good many reasons why he should.
+
+Physicians--and this is the strongest argument we know--might advance
+their plea on the grounds of good health. In this case we find, as we do
+in a number of others, that what good manners declares should be done is
+heartily endorsed at the same time by good sense. It is only among
+people of blunted sensibilities that nice table manners count for
+nothing; for
+
+    There's no reproach among swine, d'you see,
+        For being a bit of a swine.
+
+Among business men it is often perplexing to know whom and when to
+invite. Generally speaking, the older man or the man with the superior
+position takes the initiative, but there are an infinite number of
+exceptions. Generally speaking, also, the man who is resident in a place
+entertains the one who is visiting, but there are infinite exceptions to
+this as well, especially in the case of traveling salesman. All courtesy
+is mutual, and it is almost obligatory upon the salesman who has been
+entertained to return the courtesy in kind. Such invitations should be
+tendered after a transaction is completed rather than before. The burden
+of table courtesy falls upon the man who is selling rather than the one
+who is buying, probably because he is the one to whom the obvious profit
+accrues.
+
+Social affairs among the wives of business men which grow out of the
+business relations of their husbands follow the same rules as almost any
+other social affairs. Nearly always it is the wife of the man with the
+higher position who issues the first invitation, and it is permissible
+for her to invite a woman whom she does not know personally if she is
+the wife of a business friend of her husband.
+
+The biggest hindrance to the establishment of good manners among
+business men is the everlasting hurry in which they (and all the rest of
+us) live. There must first of all be leisure, not perhaps to the extent
+advocated by a delightful literary gentleman of having three hours for
+lunch every day, but time enough to sit down and relax. Thousands of
+business men dash out to lunch--bad manners are at their worst in the
+middle of the day--as if they were stopping off at a railroad junction
+with twenty minutes to catch a train and had used ten of them checking
+baggage. And they do not always do it because they are in a hurry. They
+have so thoroughly developed the habit of living in a frenzied rush that
+even when they have time to spare they cannot slow down.
+
+Pleasant surroundings are desirable. It is much easier to dine in a
+quiet spacious room where the linen is white and the china is thin, the
+silver is genuine silver, and the service is irreproachable, than in a
+crowded restaurant where thick dishes rattle down on white-tiled tables
+from the steaming arms of the flurried waitress, where there is no
+linen, but only flimsy paper napkins (which either go fluttering to the
+floor or else form themselves into damp wads on the table), where the
+patrons eat ravenously and untidily, and where the atmosphere is dense
+with the fumes of soup and cigarettes. But luxury in eating is expensive
+and most of us must, perforce, go to the white-tiled places. And the art
+of dining is not a question of what one has to eat--it may be beans or
+truffles--or where one eats it--from a tin bucket or a mahogany
+table--it all depends upon _how_; and the man who can eat in a
+"hash-house," an "arm-chair joint," a "beanerie," a cafeteria, a
+three-minute doughnut stand or any of the other quick-lunch places in as
+mannerly a way as if he were dining in a hotel _de luxe_ has, we think,
+a pretty fair claim to the title of gentleman.
+
+The responsibility for a dinner lies with the host. If his guest has had
+the same social training that he has or is accustomed to better things
+he will have comparatively little trouble. All he can do is to give him
+the best within his means _without apology_. We like to present
+ourselves in the best possible light (it is only human) and for this
+reason often carry our friends to places we cannot afford. This imposes
+upon them the necessity of returning the dinner in kind, and the vicious
+circle swings around, each person in it grinding his teeth with rage but
+not able to find his way out. Entertaining is all right so long as it is
+a useful adjunct to business, but when it becomes a burden in itself it
+is time to call a halt.
+
+Smoking during and immediately after a meal is very pleasing to the man
+who likes tobacco, but if he has a guest (man or woman) who objects to
+the smell of it he must wait until later. On the other hand if his guest
+likes to smoke and he does not he should insist upon his doing so. It is
+a trifling thing but politeness consists largely of yielding gracefully
+in trifles.
+
+Old-fashioned gentlemen held it discourteous to mention money at table,
+but in this degenerate age no subject is taboo except those that would
+be taboo in any decent society. Obviously when men meet to talk over
+business they cannot leave money out of the discussion. In a number of
+firms the executives have lunch together, meeting in a group for perhaps
+the only time during the day. It helps immeasurably to cooerdinate
+effort, but it sometimes fails to make the lunch hour the restful break
+in the middle of the day which it should be. It is generally much more
+fun and of much more benefit to swap fish stories and hunting yarns than
+to go over the details of the work in the publicity department or to
+formulate the plans for handling the Smith and Smith proposition.
+Momentous questions should be thrust aside until later, and the talk
+should be--well, _talk_, not arguing, quarreling, or scandal-mongering.
+The subject does not greatly matter except that it should be something
+in which all of the people at the table are interested. Whistler was
+once asked what he would do if he were out at dinner and the
+conversation turned to the Mexican War, and some one asked him the date
+of a certain battle. "Do?" he replied. "Why, I would refuse to associate
+with people who could talk of such things at dinner!"
+
+Polite society has always placed a high value on table manners, but it
+is only recently that they have come to play so large a part in
+business. Some one has said that you cannot mix business and friendship.
+It would be nearer the truth to say that you cannot separate them. More
+and more it is becoming the habit to transact affairs over the table,
+and a very pleasant thing it is, too. Aside from the coziness and warmth
+which comes from breaking bread together one is free from the
+interruptions and noise of the office, and many a commercial
+acquaintance has ripened into a friend and many a business connection
+has been cemented into something stronger through the genial influence
+of something good to eat and drink. It is, of course, a mistake to
+depend too much upon one's social gifts. They are very pleasant and
+helpful but the work of the world is done in offices, not on golf links
+or in dining rooms. We have little patience with the man who sets his
+nose to the grindstone and does not take it away until death comes in
+between, but we have just as little with the man who has never touched
+the grindstone.
+
+Stories go the rounds of executives who choose their subordinates by
+asking them out to lunch and watching the way they eat. One man always
+calls for celery and judges his applicant by what he does with it. If he
+eats only the tender parts the executive decides that he is extravagant,
+at least with other people's money, but if he eats the whole stalk,
+green leaves and all, he feels sure that he has before him a man of
+economy, common sense, and good judgment! The story does not say what
+happens when the young man refuses celery altogether. Another uses
+cherry pie as his standard and judges the young man by what he does with
+the pits. There are three ways to dispose of them. They may be lowered
+from the mouth with the spoon, they may be allowed to drop unaided, or
+they may be swallowed. The last course is not recommended. The first is
+the only one that will land a job. But tests like this work both ways
+and one is rather inclined to congratulate the young men who were turned
+down than those who were accepted.
+
+All this aside, an employer does want to know something about the table
+manners of an employee who is to meet and dine with his customers. An
+excellent salesman may be able to convince a man of good breeding and
+wide social training if he tucks his napkin into his bosom, drinks his
+soup with a noise, and eats his meat with his knife, but the chances are
+against it.
+
+A man who is interested heart and soul in one thing will think in terms
+of it, will have it constantly in his mind and on the tip of his tongue.
+But the man of one subject, whatever that subject may be, is a bore. It
+is right that a man should live in his work, but he must also live
+outside of it. One of the most tragic chapters in the history of
+American life is the one which tells of the millions and millions of men
+who became so immersed in business affairs that they lost sight of
+everything else. The four walls of the narrow house which in the end
+closes around us all could not more completely have cut them off from
+the light of day. It is a long procession and it has not ended--that
+line of men passing single file like convicts down the long gray vaults
+of business, business, business, with never a thought for the stars or
+the moon or books or trees or flowers or music or life or love--nothing
+but what casts a shadow over that dismal corridor.
+
+    These are dead men with no thought
+    Of things that are not sold or bought.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    In their bodies there is breath,
+    But their souls are steeped in death.
+
+It is not a cheerful picture to contemplate (and it seems a good long
+way away from table manners), but the men who form it are more to be
+pitied than blamed. They are blind.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+TELEPHONES AND FRONT DOORS
+
+
+"If the outside of a place is not all right," says a man who spends the
+greater part of his time visiting business houses and talking with
+business men, "the chances are that it is not worth while to go inside."
+
+There are three ways of getting inside: by letter (which has a chapter
+to itself), by the front door, and by telephone. And there are more
+complaints against the telephone way than either or both the others,
+which is perfectly natural, since it is the most difficult to manage. In
+the first place, it requires good behavior from three people at the same
+time, and that is a good deal to expect. Secondly, they cannot see one
+another--they are like blind people talking together--and no one of them
+can do his part unless the other two do theirs. In the third place, the
+instrument is a lifeless thing, and when something goes wrong with it it
+rouses the helpless fury inspired by all inanimate objects which
+interfere with our comfort--like intermittent alarm clocks, collar
+buttons that roll under the furniture, and flivvers that go dead without
+reason in the middle of country roads. In each case whatever one does
+has no effect. The alarm clock continues to ring (unless one gets out of
+bed to shut it off, which is worse than letting it ring), the collar
+button remains hid in the darkest part of the room, the flivver remains
+stuck in the muddiest part of the road, and the telephone is worst of
+all, for the source of the trouble is usually several miles away and
+there is no means of getting at it.
+
+The telephone is a nuisance--no one denies it--but it is a necessity
+also--no one denies that, either--and one of the greatest conveniences
+in an age of great conveniences. Some of the disagreeable features
+connected with it cannot be done away with but must be accepted with as
+much tranquility as we can master, like the terrific noise which an
+aeroplane makes or the trail of smoke and cinders which a railway train
+leaves behind. The one who is calling, for instance, cannot know that he
+is the tenth or eleventh person who has called the man at the other end
+of the wire in rapid succession, that his desk is piled high with
+correspondence which must be looked over, signed, and sent out before
+noon, that the advertising department is waiting for him to O. K. their
+plans for a campaign which should have been launched the week before,
+that an important visitor is sitting in the library growing more
+impatient every minute, and that his temper has been filed down to the
+quick by an assortment of petty worries. (Of course, no office should be
+run like this, but it sometimes happens in the best of them.)
+
+Some one has said that we are all like islands shouting at each other
+across a sea of misunderstanding, and this was long before telephones
+were thought of. It is hard enough to make other people understand what
+we mean, even with the help of facial expression and gestures, and over
+the wire the difficulty is increased a hundred fold. For telephoning
+rests upon a delicate adjustment between human beings by means of a
+mechanical apparatus, and it takes clear thinking, patience, and
+courtesy to bring it about.
+
+The telephone company began its career some few years ago unhampered by
+the traditions to which the earlier corporations were slave, the old
+"public be damned" idea. Their arbitrary methods had brought them to
+grief, and the new concern, with a commendable regard for the lessons
+taught by the experience of others, inaugurated a policy of usefulness,
+service, and courtesy. The inside history of the telephone is one of
+constant watchfulness, careful management, and continuous improvement;
+and every improvement has meant better service to the public. (We are
+not trying to advertise the telephone company. We realize that it has
+been guilty, like every other business, of manifold sins.)
+
+Even the fact that there is a telephone girl instead of a telephone boy
+is due to the alertness and good business sense of the company. To put a
+boy before a switchboard and expect him not to pull it apart to see how
+it was made; or to place him in a position to entertain himself by
+connecting the wrong parties and listening to the impolite names they
+called each other and expect him not to do it, would be expecting the
+laws of nature to reverse themselves. The telephone company tried
+it--for a while. They discovered, besides, that a boy will not "take"
+what a girl will. It makes no difference what goes wrong with a
+connection, the subscriber blames the operator when many times the
+operator, especially the one he is talking to, has had nothing to do
+with it. The girls have learned to hold their tempers (not always, but
+most of the time), but when boys had charge of the switchboards and the
+man at the end of the wire yelled, "You cut me off!" and the youngster
+had not, he denied it hotly: "You're a liar! I didn't!" The subscriber
+would not stand for this, angry words flew back and forth, and more than
+once the indignant young operator located the subscriber (not a very
+difficult thing for him to do) and went around to settle things in
+person. Words were not always the only weapons used.
+
+If this had continued the telephone would never have become a public
+utility. People would have looked upon it as an ingenious device but not
+of universal practical value. As it is, good salesmanship and efficient
+service first elevated a plaything to a luxury and then reduced the
+luxury to a necessity. And it was possible not only because the
+mechanism itself is a miraculous thing but because it has had back of it
+an intelligent human organization working together as a unit.
+
+We say this deliberately, knowing that the reader will think of the
+times when the trouble he has had in getting the number he wanted has
+made him think there was not a thimbleful of intelligence among all of
+the people associated with the entire telephone company. But considering
+the body of employees as a whole the standard of courteous and competent
+service is extraordinarily high. The public is impatient and prone to
+remember bad connections instead of good ones. It is ignorant also and
+has very small conception of what a girl at central is doing. And it is
+quick to blame her for faults of its own.
+
+One of the worst features of telephone service is the fact that when one
+is angry or exasperated he seldom quarrels with the right person. Some
+time ago a man was waked in the middle of the night by the ringing of
+the telephone bell. He got out of bed to answer it and discovered that
+the man was trying to get another number. He went back to bed and to
+sleep. The telephone bell rang again, and again he got out of bed to
+answer it. It was the same man trying to get the same number. He went to
+bed and back to sleep. The telephone bell rang the third time, he got
+out of bed again and answered it again and found that it was still the
+same man trying to get the same number! "I wasn't very polite the third
+time," he confessed when he told about it. But the poor fellow at the
+other end of the wire probably had just as touching a story to tell, for
+unless it had been very important for him to get the number he would
+hardly have been so persistent. The girl at the switchboard may have had
+a story of her own, but what it was is one of those things which, as
+Lord Dundreary used to say, nobody can find out.
+
+The girls who enter the service of the New York Telephone Company (and
+the same thing is true in the other branches of the telephone service,
+especially in big cities where there are large groups to work with) are
+carefully selected by an employment bureau and sent to a school where
+they are thoroughly grounded in the mechanical part of their work and
+the ideals for which the company stands. They are not placed on a
+regular switchboard until they have proved themselves efficient on the
+dummy switchboard, and then it is with instructions to be courteous
+though the heavens fall (though they do not express it exactly that
+way). "It is the best place in the world to learn self-control," one of
+the operators declares, and any one who has ever watched them at work
+will add, "Concentration, also." One of the most remarkable sights in
+New York is a central exchange where a hundred or more girls are working
+at lightning speed, undisturbed by the low murmur around them, intent
+only on the switchboard in front of them, making something like five
+hundred connections a minute.
+
+They are a wonderfully level-headed group, these telephone girls,
+wonderfully unlike their clinging-vine Victorian grandmothers. They do
+not know how to cling. If a man telephones that he has been shot, the
+girl who receives the call does not faint. She sends him a doctor
+instead and takes the next call almost without the loss of a second. If
+a woman wants a policeman to get some burglars out of the house, she
+sends her one; if some one telephones that a house is burning, she calls
+out the fire department--and goes straight on with her work. Now and
+then something spectacular happens to bring the splendid courage of the
+girls at the switchboards to the attention of the public, such as the
+magnificent service they gave from the exchange located a few feet from
+Wall Street on the day of the explosion, but ordinarily it passes, like
+most of the other good things in life, without comment.
+
+The New York Telephone Company tries to keep its girls healthy and
+happy. At regular intervals they are given rest periods. Attractive
+rooms are prepared for them, tastefully furnished, well-lighted, and
+filled with comfortable chairs, good books, and magazines. Substantial
+meals are supplied in the middle of the day at a nominal charge. Special
+entertainments are planned from time to time, and best of all, the play
+time is kept absolutely distinct from the work time, a condition which
+makes for happiness as well as usefulness.
+
+The girls are not perfect, they are not infallible. And they are only a
+third part of a telephone call. They work under difficulties at a task
+which is not an easy one, and their efficiency does not rest with them
+alone but with the people whom they serve as well.
+
+A telephone call begins with the subscriber. Very few people understand
+the intricate system of cable and dynamos, vacuum tubes, coil racks,
+storage batteries, transmitters and generators which enable them to talk
+from a distance, and a good many could not understand them even if they
+were explained. Fortunately it is not necessary that they should. The
+subscriber's part is very simple.
+
+He should first make sure that he is calling the right number. In New
+York City alone, forty-eight thousand wrong numbers are asked for every
+day by subscribers who have not consulted the telephone directory first,
+or who have unconsciously transposed the digits in a number. For
+example, a number such as 6454 can easily be changed to 6544. The
+telephone directory is a safe guide, much more so than an old letter or
+bill head or an uncertain memory. Information may be called if the
+number is not in the directory, but one should be definite even with
+her. She cannot supply the number of Mr. What-you-may-call-it or of Mr.
+Thing-um-a-bob or of Mr. Smith who lives down near the railroad station,
+and she cannot give the telephone number of a house which has no
+telephone in it. She has no right to answer irrelevant questions; is, in
+fact, prohibited from doing so. Her business is to furnish numbers and
+she cannot do it efficiently if she is expected also to explain why a
+cat has whiskers, how to preserve string beans by drying them, what time
+it is, what time the train leaves for Wakefield, or what kind of
+connection can be made at Jones's Junction.
+
+In calling a number the name of the exchange should be given first. The
+number itself should be called with a slight pause between the hundreds
+and the tens, thus, "Watkins--pause--five, nine--pause--hundred" for
+"Watkins 5900" or "Murray Hill--pause--four, two--pause--six, three" for
+"Murray Hill 4263." The reason for this is that the switchboard before
+which the operator sits is honeycombed with tiny holes arranged in
+sections of one hundred each. Each section is numbered and each of the
+holes within it is the termination of a subscriber's line. In locating
+"Watkins 5900" the girl first finds the section labelled "59" and then
+the "00" hole in that section, and if the "59" is given first she has
+found it by the time the subscriber has finished calling the number.
+
+The number should be pronounced slowly and distinctly.
+
+When the operator repeats it the subscriber should acknowledge it, and
+if she repeats it incorrectly, should stop her and give her the number
+again. And he should always remember, however difficult it may be to
+make her understand, that he is talking to a girl, a human being, and
+that the chances are ten to one that the poor connection is not her
+fault.
+
+To recall the operator in case the wrong person is connected it is only
+necessary to move the receiver hook slowly up and down. She may not be
+able to attend to the recall at once but jiggling the hook angrily up
+and down will not get her any sooner. In fact, the more furious the
+subscriber becomes the less the girl knows about it, for the tiny signal
+light fails to register except when the hook is moved slowly; or if the
+switchboard is one where the operator is signalled by a little disk
+which falls over a blank space the disk fails to move down but remains
+quivering almost imperceptibly in its usual position.
+
+After he has placed a call a man should wait at the telephone or near it
+until the connection is made. Too many men have a way of giving their
+secretaries a number to send through and then wandering off somewhere
+out of sight so that when the person is finally connected he has to wait
+several minutes while the secretary locates the man who started the
+call. It is the acme of discourtesy to keep any one waiting in this
+manner. It implies that your time is much more valuable than his, which
+may be true, but it is hardly gracious to shout it in so brazen a
+fashion.
+
+It has been estimated that in New York City alone, more than a full
+business year is lost over the telephone every day between sunrise and
+sunset. There are 3,800,000 completed connections made every day. Out of
+each hundred, six show a delay of a minute or more before the person
+called answers. In each day this amounts to a delay of 228,000
+connections. Two hundred and twenty-eight thousand minutes (and
+sometimes the delay amounts to much more than a minute) is the
+equivalent of 475 days of eight hours each, or as the gentleman who
+compiled these interesting statistics has it, a business year and a
+third with all the Sundays and holidays intact. In the course of a year
+it amounts to more than all the business days that have elapsed since
+Columbus discovered America!
+
+It may be argued that we would be better off if we lost more than a year
+every day and did all our work at more leisurely pace. This may be, but
+the time to rest is not when the telephone bell is ringing.
+
+The telephone on a business man's desk should always be facing him and
+it should not be tricked out with any of the patent devices except those
+sanctioned by the company. Most of them lessen instead of increase
+efficiency. A woman in her home where calls are infrequent may hide her
+telephone behind a lacquered screen or cover it with pink taffeta
+ruffles, but in a business office it is best to make no attempts to
+beautify it. It is when it is unadorned that the ugly little instrument
+gives its best service.
+
+There should always be a pad and pencil at hand so that the message (if
+there is one) can be taken down without delay. The person at the other
+end probably has not time (and certainly has not inclination) to wait
+until you have fumbled through the papers on your desk and the rubbish
+in the drawers to locate something to write on and something to write
+with.
+
+"Hello" is a useless and obsolescent form of response in business
+offices. The name of the firm, of the department, or of the man
+himself, or of all three, according to circumstances, should be given.
+When there is a private operator to take care of the calls she answers
+with the name of the firm, Blank and Blank. If the person at the other
+end of the wire says, "I want the Advertising department," she connects
+them and the man there answers with "Advertising department." The other
+then may ask for the manager, in which case the manager answers with his
+name. It is easy to grow impatient under all these relays, but a
+complicated connection involving half a dozen people before the right
+one is reached can be accomplished in less than a minute if each person
+sends it straight through without stopping to exchange a number of
+"Helloes" like a group of Swiss yodelers, or to ask a lot of unnecessary
+questions.
+
+It is not necessary to scream over the telephone. The mouth should be
+held close to the transmitter and the words should be spoken carefully.
+In an open office where there are no partitions between the desks one
+should take especial pains to keep his voice modulated. One person
+angrily spluttering over the telephone can paralyze the work of all the
+people within a radius of fifty feet. If it were a necessary evil we
+could make ourselves grow accustomed to it. But it is not. And there is
+already enough unavoidable wear and tear during the course of a business
+day without adding this.
+
+"_Hello, what do you want?_" is no way to answer a call. No decent
+person would speak even to a beggar at his door in this way and the
+visitor over the telephone, whoever he is, is entitled to a cordial
+greeting. _The voice with the smile wins._
+
+An amusing story is told of a man in Washington who was waked one
+evening about eleven o'clock by the telephone bell. At first he swore
+that he would not answer it but his wife insisted that it might be
+something very important, and finally, outraged and angry, he blundered
+through the dark across the room and into the hall, jerked down the
+receiver and yelled, "Hello!" His wife, who was listening tensely for
+whatever ill news might be forthcoming, was perfectly amazed to hear him
+saying in the next breath, in the most dulcet tones he had ever used,
+"Oh, how do you do, I'm _so_ glad you called. Oh, delightful. Charmed.
+I'm sure she will be, too. Thank you. Yes, indeed. So good of you.
+_Good_-bye." It was the wife of the President of the United States
+asking him and his wife to dinner at the White House.
+
+If the person calling is given the wrong department he should be
+courteously transferred to the right one. Courteously, and not with a
+brusque, "You've got the wrong party" or "I'm not the man you want" but
+with "Just a minute, please, and I'll give you Mr. Miller."
+
+The time when people are rudest over the telephone is when some one
+breaks in on the wire. It might be just as well to remember that people
+do not interrupt intentionally, and the intruder is probably as
+disconcerted as the man he has interrupted. If he had inadvertently
+opened the wrong door in a business office the man inside would not have
+yelled, "Get out of here," but over the telephone he will shriek, "Get
+off the wire" in a tone he would hardly use to drive the cow out of a
+cabbage patch.
+
+In an effort to secure better manners among their subscribers the
+telephone company has asked them to try to visualize the person at the
+other end of the wire and to imagine that they are talking face to face.
+Many times a man will say things over the telephone--rude, profane,
+angry, insulting things, which he would not dream of saying if he were
+actually before the man he is talking to. And to make it worse he is
+often so angry that he does not give the other a chance to explain his
+side of it, at least not until he has said all that he has to say, and
+even then he not infrequently slams the receiver down on the hook as
+soon as he has finished!
+
+Listening on a wire passes over from the field of courtesy into that of
+ethics. On party lines in the country it is not considered a heinous
+offense to eavesdrop over the telephone, but the conversation there is
+for the most part harmless neighborhood gossip and it does not matter
+greatly who hears it. In business it is different. But it is practically
+impossible for any one except the operator to overhear a conversation
+except by accident, and it is a misdemeanor punishable by law for her to
+give a message to any one other than the person for whom it was
+intended.
+
+In every office there should be a large enough mechanical equipment
+manned by an efficient staff to take care of the telephone traffic
+without delay. "The line is busy" given in answer to a call three or
+four times will send the person who is calling to some other place to
+have his wants looked after.
+
+Few places appreciate the tremendous volume of business that comes in by
+way of telephone or the possibilities which it offers to increase
+business opportunities. They are as short-sighted as the department
+store which, a good many years ago, when telephones were new, had them
+installed but took them out after a few weeks because the clerks were
+kept so busy taking orders over them that they did not have time to
+attend to the customers who came into the store!
+
+Another important vantage point which, like the telephone, suffers from
+neglect is the reception desk. Millions of dollars' worth of business is
+lost every year and perfect sandstorms and cyclones of animosity are
+generated because business men have not yet learned the great value of
+having the right kind of person to receive visitors. To the strangers
+who come--and among the idlers and swindlers and beggars who assail
+every successful business house are potential good friends and
+customers--this person represents the firm,--is, for the time being, the
+firm itself.
+
+It is very childish for a man to turn away from a reception desk because
+he does not like the manner of the person behind it, but business men,
+sensible ones at that, do it every day. Pleasant connections of years'
+standing are sometimes broken off and valuable business propositions are
+carried to rival concerns because of indifferent or insolent treatment
+at the front door. Only a short time ago an advertising agency lost a
+contract for which it had been working two years on account of the way
+the girl at the door received the man who came to place it. He dropped
+in without previous appointment and was met by a blonde young lady with
+highly tinted cheeks who tilted herself forward on the heels of her
+French pumps and pertly inquired what he wanted. He told her. "Mr. Hunt
+isn't in." "When will he be back?" "I don't know," and she swung around
+on the impossible heels. The man deliberated a moment and then swung
+around on his heels (which were very flat and sensible) and carried the
+contract to another agency. Instances of this kind might be multiplied.
+Some business men would have persisted until they got what they wanted
+from the young lady. Others would have angrily reported her to the head
+of her office, but the majority would have acted as this man did.
+
+Most men (and women), whether they are in business or not, do not
+underestimate their own importance and they like to feel that the rest
+of the world does not either. They do not like to be kept waiting; they
+like to be received with a nice deference, not haughtily; they do not
+like to be sent to the wrong department; and they love (and so do we
+all) talking to important people. Realizing this, banks and trust
+companies and other big organizations have had to appoint nearly as many
+vice-presidents as there were second-lieutenants during the war to take
+care of their self-important visitors. Even those whose time is not
+worth ten cents (a number of them are women) like to be treated as if it
+were worth a great deal. It is, for the most part, an innocent desire
+which does no one any special harm, and any business that sets out to
+serve the public (and there is no other kind) has to take into account
+all the caprices of human vanity. We cannot get away from it. Benjamin
+Franklin placed humility among the virtues he wished to cultivate, but
+after a time declared it impossible. "For," he said, "if I overcame
+pride I would be proud of my humility."
+
+Courtesy is the first requirement of the business host or hostess and
+after that, intelligence. Some business houses make the mistake of
+putting back of the reception desk a girl who has proved herself too
+dull-witted to serve anywhere else. The smiling idiot with which this
+country (and others) so abounds may be harmless and even useful if she
+is kept busy behind the lines, but, placed out where she is a buffer
+between the house and the outside world, she is a positive affliction.
+She may be pleasant enough, but the caller who comes for information and
+can get nothing but a smile will go away feeling about as cheerful as if
+he had stuck his hand into a jar of honey when he was a mile or so away
+from soap, water, and towel.
+
+A litter of office boys sprawling untidily over the desks and chairs in
+the reception room is as bad, and a snappy young lady of the "Now see
+here, kid" variety is worse.
+
+The position is not an easy one, especially in places where there is a
+constant influx of miscellaneous callers, and it is hardly fair to ask a
+young girl to fill it. In England they use elderly men and in a number
+of offices over here, too. Their age and manner automatically protect
+them (and incidentally their firms) from many undesirables that a boy or
+girl in the same position would have considerable difficulty in
+handling. And they lend the place an air of dignity and reserve quite
+impossible with a youngster.
+
+In some offices, especially in those where large amounts of money are
+stored or handled, there are door men in uniform and often plain clothes
+huskies near the entrances to protect the people (and the money) on the
+inside from cranks and crooks and criminals. In others, a physician's
+office, for instance, or any small office where the people who are
+likely to come are of the gentler sort, a young girl with a pleasing
+manner will do just as well as and perhaps better than any one else. In
+big companies where there are many departments, it is customary to
+maintain a regular bureau of information to which the caller who is not
+sure whom or what he wants is first directed, but the majority of
+businesses have only one person who is delegated to receive the people
+who come and either direct them to the person they want to see or turn
+them aside.
+
+Most of them must be turned aside. If the stage managers in New York
+interviewed all the girls who want to see them, they would have no time
+left for anything else, and the same thing is true of nearly every man
+who is prominent in business or in some other way. (Charlie Chaplin
+received 73,000 letters during the first three days he was in England.
+Suppose he had personally read each of them!) Hundreds of people must be
+turned away, but every person who approaches a firm either to get
+something from it or to give something to it has a right to attention.
+Men are in business to work, not to entertain, and they must protect
+themselves. But the people who are turned away must be turned away
+courteously, and the business house which has found some one who can do
+it has cause to rise and give thanks.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+TRAVELING AND SELLING
+
+
+The etiquette of traveling includes very few points not covered by the
+general laws of good behavior. Keeping one's place in line before the
+ticket window, having money ready and moving aside as quickly as
+possible instead of lingering to converse with the ticket-seller about
+train schedules and divers other interesting subjects are primary rules.
+It is permissible to make sure that the train is the right one before
+getting on it, but it is unnecessary to do it more than half a dozen
+times. When the sign over the gate says "Train for Bellevue" it probably
+_is_ the train for Bellevue, and when the guard at the gate repeats that
+it is the train for Bellevue the chances are that he is telling the
+truth.
+
+An experienced traveler usually carries very little baggage. A lot of
+suitcases and grips are bothersome, not only to the one who has charge
+of them, but also to those who are cramped into small quarters because
+of them. A traveler may make himself as comfortable as he likes so long
+as it is not at the expense of the other passengers. If they object to
+an open window the window must stay down. Lounging over a seat is bad
+form, especially if there is some one else in it. So is prowling from
+one end of the car to the other. Besides, it makes some people nervous.
+Snoring is impolite and so is talking in one's sleep, but they are
+beyond remedy. Talking with the person in the berth above or below is
+not, however, and is much more disturbing than the noise of the train.
+Forgetting the number of one's berth and blundering into the wrong place
+is a serious breach of good manners in a sleeping car, and it is
+extremely severe on timid persons who have gone to bed with visions
+before their minds of the man who was murdered in lower ten and the
+woman who brought her husband's corpse from Florida in the same berth
+with her.
+
+Among men, "picking up" acquaintances on a train or boat is allowable if
+it comes about in a natural way, but there are men who object to it.
+Many business men do not discontinue their work because they are
+traveling. Portable typewriters, secretaries, the telegraph and other
+means of swift communication have made it possible for them to
+accomplish almost as much as if they were in the office back home. Such
+men do not like to be interrupted, and if a garrulous or an intrusive
+person approaches it is within the bounds of courtesy to turn him aside.
+Generally, however, there is a comradery of the road, a sort of good
+fellowship among voyagers which lets down ordinary bars, and the men who
+like to rest as they travel find it highly diverting and interesting to
+talk with other men from various parts of the country. This holds true
+in hotels, especially in the commercial hotels, where traveling men
+foregather to meet their customers and transact their business, and in
+hotels in small places where the possibilities for amusement are limited
+and the people have to depend on one another for entertainment. But
+there are limits. No man should ever thrust himself upon another and it
+is almost an iron clad rule that he should never "pick up" women
+acquaintances when traveling. It is permissible to talk with them, but
+not to annoy them with personal attentions nor to place them under
+obligation by paying their bills. If a man and a woman who are traveling
+on the same train fall into conversation and go into the dining car
+together, each one should pay his or her own check, or if he insists
+upon paying at the table she should insist upon settling afterwards. In
+hotels also this is essentially true.
+
+Hotels are judged more by the people who come to them than by anything
+else. The guests indicate the quality of the service, and for this
+reason, most hotels prefer that they be gentlemen. There is an
+atmosphere about a first-class hotel that frightens away second-rate
+people. Most places have standards and many a man has been turned away
+even when there was an empty room because the management did not like
+his looks.
+
+Tipping is one of the most vexatious petty problems with which a
+traveler is confronted. It is an undemocratic custom which every
+sensible man deplores but sees no way around. Waiters, porters, and
+other functionaries who are in positions to receive tips draw very small
+salaries, if any. They depend upon the generosity of the public they
+serve. The system may be all wrong (we believe it is) but it means bread
+and butter to those who live by it, and it is only just, as matters are
+now arranged, for the traveler to pay. It is foolish to tip
+extravagantly or to tip every pirate who performs even the most trifling
+service, but a small fee, especially if the service has been good, is a
+courtesy not to be forgotten.
+
+Tipping originally grew out of kindness. The knight who had received
+special attention at the hands of his squire expressed his gratitude by
+a special reward. The word "gratuity" itself indicates that the little
+gift was once simply a spontaneous act of thoughtfulness. It has
+degenerated into a perfunctory habit, but it should not be so. Excellent
+service deserves a recompense just as slip-shod service does not. And no
+one has a right to spoil a waiter (or any one else) by tipping him for
+inefficient work. In hotels and restaurants the standard fee is ten per
+cent of the bill.
+
+Regular travelling of any kind even under favorable circumstances is a
+great wear and tear on the disposition. Commuters who go in and out of
+town every day are a notoriously hag-ridden lot, and the men who go on
+the road are not much better. But there is one enormous difference. It
+is the privilege of the commuter to growl as much as he likes about the
+discomforts of the road and the stupidity of the men who make up the
+time tables, but travelling men--we are speaking of salesmen
+especially--can never indulge in the luxury of a grouch. One of the
+biggest parts of his job is to keep cheerful all the time and that in
+itself is no small task. (Try it and see.) A farmer can wear a frown as
+heavy as a summer thunder cloud and the potatoes will grow just the
+same; a mechanic can swear at the automobile he is putting into shape
+(a very impolite thing to do even when there is no one but the machine
+to hear), and the bolts and screws will hold just as fast; a lawyer can
+knit his brows over his brief case and come to his solution just as
+quickly as if he sat grinning at it, but the salesman must smile, smile,
+smile. The season may be dull, the crops may be bad, there may be
+strikes, lockouts, depressions and deflations, unemployment--it makes no
+difference--he must keep cheerful. It is the courtesy of salesmanship,
+and it is this quality more than any other that makes selling a young
+man's job--we do not mean in years, but in spirit--an old one could not
+stand it.
+
+In the good old days when the country was young and everybody, from all
+accounts we can gather, was happy, salesmen in the present sense of the
+term were almost unknown. There were peddlers, characters as picturesque
+as gipsies, who travelled about the country preying chiefly on the
+farmers. Often they spent the night--hotel accommodations were few and
+houses were far apart--and entertained the family with lively tales of
+life on the road. Next morning they gave the children trifling presents,
+swindled the farmer out of several dollars and made themselves generally
+agreeable. The farmer took it all in good part and looked forward with
+pleasure to the next visit. The peddlers came in pairs then, like
+snakes, but they were for the most part welcome and there was genuine
+regret when they became things of the past like top-buggies and Prince
+Albert coats.
+
+After the peddler came the drummer, a rough, noisy chap, as his name
+indicates, harmless enough, but economically not much more significant
+than the peddler. He stayed in the business district where he was
+tolerated with good-natured indulgence. He was less objectionable than
+the man who followed him, the agent. He was (and is) a house-to-house
+and office-to-office canvasser and a general nuisance. He sold
+everything from books to life insurance, from patent potato peelers to
+opera glasses. He still survives, but not in large numbers, for his
+work, like that of the peddler and the drummer, has been swallowed up by
+the salesman.
+
+The rewards which modern salesmanship holds out to those who succeed at
+it are so large that the field has attracted all kinds of men, highly
+efficient ones who love the game for its own sake, grossly incompetent
+ones who, having failed at something else, have decided to try this, and
+adventurers who believe they see in it a chance to get rich quick. The
+teachers of salesmanship tell us that we are all selling something,
+even when there is no visible product. The worker, according to them, is
+selling his services just as the salesman is selling goods. It may be
+true, but we all could not (and it is a blessing) go out and sell things
+in the ordinary sense in which we use the word. Some of us have to be
+producers. But the salesman's work is important. We do not discredit it.
+
+Salesmanship is built on faith. A man must believe in his product and
+then must make other people believe in it as firmly as he does. So
+devoted are some salesmen to their work that it is difficult to tell
+whether they consider their calling a trade, a profession, a science, or
+a religion. Sometimes it is all four. Sometimes it goes beyond them and
+becomes a kind of mesmerism in which the salesman uses a sort of
+hypnotic process (which is simply the result of being over-anxious to
+sell) to persuade the prospect that he cannot wait another day before
+buying the particular article that the salesman is distributing. The
+article may be stocks and bonds, wash cloths, soap, or hair nets. It
+makes no difference, but he must be filled with enthusiasm and must be
+able to pass it along. And this very virtue which is the foundation of
+successful salesmanship is likely to lead the salesman into gross
+rudeness. For the man who is selling is so eager and so earnest that he
+forgets that the man who is buying may have his own ideas on the
+subject.
+
+The first step in salesmanship is to acquire a thorough knowledge of the
+product. The next is to gain access to the man who is to buy it. This is
+not always easy. Business men have been annoyed so much by agents that
+they have had to erect barriers, in many instances almost impenetrable
+ones. It is especially difficult in big cities where the pressure is
+heavy, but most worth while business men have learned the value of
+contact with the world outside and are willing to give almost any man an
+interview if he can show a valid reason why he should have it. Whether
+he gets a second interview or not depends upon how he handled the first
+one.
+
+There are many ways of getting into an office. A salesman usually stands
+a much better chance if he writes ahead for an appointment. It is much
+more courteous to ask a man when he wants to see you than to drop in on
+him casually and trust to luck that the time is not inopportune. Some
+salesmen are afraid to write because they think the knowledge of what
+they have to sell will prejudice the prospect against it. At the same
+time they feel that if they can only get a chance to talk to him a few
+minutes they can over-ride the prejudice. A salesman may come into an
+office without letting the man know what his purpose is (though it is
+best to begin with cards on the table) but he will not come in (unless
+he is a crook) under false pretenses.
+
+The friends of a salesman can sometimes be very useful to him in
+presenting him to valuable prospects, and when they feel that the
+meeting will result in mutual benefit they are glad to do it. Sometimes
+the friend will give a letter or a card of introduction. Sometimes he
+will telephone or speak for an appointment. It is best when these come
+unsolicited, though it is permissible to ask for them. No man should
+depend upon the help of his friends. A salesman should be able to stand
+on his own feet, and if he and his product together do not form a strong
+enough combination to break down all obstructions there is something
+wrong with one or the other of them.
+
+The best card of admission at the door of a business office is a
+pleasing personal appearance coupled with a calm and assured manner.
+This is a universal standard of measuring a man's character and calibre.
+Until we have heard him speak we judge him by the way he looks. It is a
+dangerous practice, as the proverb warns us, but the percentage of hits
+is high enough to make us continue to use it.
+
+A favorite device with a certain cheap type of salesman is to give his
+name to the girl at the entrance desk and ask her to tell Mr. Brown that
+Mr. Green has sent Mr. Smith to call. The Mr. Green is entirely
+fictitious, but since Mr. Brown has several business acquaintances of
+that name, he interrupts his work and comes out to see Mr. Smith and
+discovers that he is a life insurance agent who thinks that if he can
+once get inside he can "put it across." Most business men have no use
+for such practices and rarely allow the salesmen who employ them to stay
+in their offices any longer than it takes to get them out. Besides, the
+salesman places himself under a handicap to begin with. He will find it
+pretty hard to convince the man in the office that he is not dishonest
+about his goods just as he is about himself. He is the greatest enemy of
+his profession. And he makes the work of every one else engaged in it
+infinitely harder. It is something every business and profession has to
+fight against--the dishonest grafter who is using it as a means of
+swindling society.
+
+Most salesmen give their names at the entrance desk instead of
+presenting their cards. Psychologists and experience have taught them
+that the card is distracting and that even if the interview is granted
+it is harder to get the attention of the other man if he has a card to
+twiddle between his fingers. It is more conventional to send in a card
+(a good card is a letter of introduction in itself) but if the salesman
+finds it a handicap, however slight, he should by all means dispense
+with it. If the card is cheap or flashy or offensive in any way it
+arouses prejudice against the man who bears it before he has had a
+chance to present his case in person. The business card may be the same
+as the personal card, simply a bit of pasteboard bearing the name and
+perhaps the address, or it may be larger than the ordinary personal card
+and bear the name of the firm for which the salesman is working, and in
+addition, if it is a very simple design, the trademark of the firm.
+
+Whether to rise when a caller enters and shake hands is a question to be
+settled by each person according to the way he likes best. It is
+certainly more gracious to rise and ask him to be seated before resuming
+one's own place. But promiscuous handshaking is an American habit which
+Europeans as a rule frown upon and in which a number of Americans do not
+indulge, for they like the grasp of their hand to mean something more
+than a careless greeting and reserve it for their friends. In any case,
+the caller should not be the first to extend his hand.
+
+If a man is accustomed to see a great number of people he will find it
+too much of a strain on his vitality to shake hands with them all.
+Roosevelt used to surprise strangers with the laxness of his grasp, but
+the Colonel had learned to conserve his strength in small things so that
+he might give it to great ones. The President of the United States has
+more than once in the course of the history of our country come to the
+end of the day with his hands bleeding from the number of times people
+have pressed it during the day. Now the President ought to be willing to
+give his life for his country, but he ought not to be required to give
+it in this way. It probably meant a great deal to each one of the people
+in the throng to be able to say, "I once shook hands with the
+President," but how much more it would have meant if each one of them
+could have said, "One day I helped my President," even if the help was
+so small an act of thoughtfulness as forbearing to shake his hand.
+
+But to get back to salesmen: Some of them have a way, especially the
+over-zealous ones, of getting as close to the prospect as is physically
+possible. They place their papers or their brief cases on the desk
+before which the prospect is sitting, hitch their chairs up as close as
+they can, and talk with their breath in his face. No one likes this and
+it is only a rude and thoughtless salesman who is guilty of it. One man
+who had been vexed by it over and over again had the visitor's chair
+nailed to the floor in his office some little distance from his own. And
+he never had a caller who didn't try to move it nearer to him!
+
+For years it has been the habit for business men to receive their
+callers at their desks, but lately there has been a turning away from
+this. The desk is usually littered with papers and letters which the
+caller can hardly help reading, and there are constant interruptions
+from the telephone and the other members of the office. For these
+reasons a number of business men are going out to see their callers
+instead of bringing them in to see them, a practice which is much more
+cordial than the other if one can afford the time for it. One big
+business house abolished its large reception room and built in a number
+of smaller ones instead. In this way each visitor has privacy and there
+is a feeling of hospitality and coziness about the little room which the
+bigger one failed to give. Each room was fitted up with comfortable
+chairs, books, and magazines so that if the caller had to wait he would
+have the means of entertaining himself.
+
+Once a man agrees to see a salesman or other visitor he should give, in
+so far as it is possible, his full attention to him. It is better to
+refuse an audience altogether than to give it grudgingly. A prominent
+man cannot possibly see all of the people, salesmen and whatnot, who
+want to talk with him or he would have no time left to keep himself
+prominent. A busy man has to protect himself against the cranks and
+idlers who try to gain access to him, and most men have to have devices
+by which they can rid themselves of objectionable or tiresome callers.
+One man who has a constant stream of visitors has only one chair in his
+office, and he sits in it. Another never allows a visitor to enter his
+office, but goes to the outer reception room and stands while he talks.
+One man stands up as a signal that the interview is at an end. Another
+begins to fumble with the papers on his desk, and the salesman does not
+live who is not familiar with the man who must hurry out to lunch or who
+has only five minutes to catch a train. One man has his secretary or his
+office boy interrupt him after a visitor has been in as much as ten
+minutes, to tell him that Mr. So-and-So is waiting outside. Another
+rises to his feet and walks slowly toward the door, the salesman
+following, until he has maneuvered him out. If the salesman is a man of
+sense none of these devices will be necessary. He knows that a courteous
+and prompt departure helps his cause much more than an annoying
+persistence, and the man who stays after his prospect's mind has lost
+every interest except to get him out of the way is lacking in one of the
+fundamentals of social good manners as well as business good manners.
+Rarely, perhaps never, does he succeed. For the successful salesman is
+the one who can put himself into his prospect's place and let him know
+that he has made a study of his needs and is there to help him.
+
+Carefully prepared approaches and memorized speeches are worth much to
+the beginner, but an agility in adapting himself is much more important.
+Ludendorff failed to get to Paris because his original plan was upset
+and he could not think quickly enough to rally the German army and
+attack from a different angle. Most salesmen have to talk to men who are
+continually interrupted to attend to something else. And most business
+men know what they want, or think they do, and when they ask a direct
+question they want a direct answer. Many a young salesman has ruined
+himself so far as his career was concerned because he went out with
+instructions to keep the interview in his hands and every time the man
+he was "selling" asked a question he passed airily over it and kept
+stubbornly on the road he had mapped out for himself. The salesman
+cannot think in theoretical terms; he must think concretely and from the
+point of view of the man he is trying to convince. As one very excellent
+salesman has put it, he must get the prospect's own story and tell it to
+him in different words, and if he can actually show him a way to
+decrease expenses or to increase output he will win not only his
+attention, but his heart as well.
+
+The salesman must be absorbed in his commodity, but not to the exclusion
+of the man he is trying to "sell." A beginner of this type went into a
+man's office some time ago and rattled off a speech he had memorized
+about some charts. The man listened until he came to the end--the boy
+was talking so rapidly and excitedly that it would have been hard to
+interrupt him except by shouting at him--and then quietly told him that
+he had not been able to understand a word of what he had said. "You have
+not been talking to me," he explained. "You have been talking at me."
+
+Another salesman of the same general kind went into the office of a busy
+lawyer one morning recently in a building which happened to be owned by
+the lawyer.
+
+"I am going to give you some books," he announced.
+
+The lawyer asked him what they were, but the salesman refused to be
+diverted before he had led up to the dramatic moment in his carefully
+planned speech at which he thought it best to mention the name of the
+books. He went through the whole of his canvass and then thrust a paper
+under the lawyer's face with "Sign here" above the dotted line.
+
+"I thought you were going to give them to me," the lawyer said.
+
+The salesman began to explain that of course he could not give him the
+books outright and so on and on and on--everybody has heard this part of
+his speech. The lawyer laughed and the salesman lost his temper. Very
+angry, he started out of the room. Near the door which opened into the
+hall was another door which opened into a closet that contained a shelf
+which was a little more than five feet high. The salesman opened this
+door by mistake and struck his head smartly against the shelf. This made
+him angrier than ever. He jerked the other door open and slammed it
+behind him with a crash that nearly broke the glass out. This was more
+than the lawyer could stand. He sprang up and started in pursuit of the
+salesman, who by this time was on his way into another office in the
+same building. The lawyer asked him where he was going. The salesman
+told him.
+
+"Not in my building," the lawyer said. "I can't have the men who have
+offices here disturbed by people who act like this. Now go on," he added
+kindly but firmly, "and let's forget that you ever came here."
+
+And the salesman went.
+
+Salesmanship is service, and the man who persuades another to buy
+something he knows he does not want, does not need, and cannot use, is a
+scoundrel. "Good salesmanship," and this is the only sort that any
+self-respecting man will engage in, "is selling goods that won't come
+back to customers that will." It is cumulative in its effect, and the
+man who sells another something that really fills a want wins his
+eternal gratitude and friendship. He tells his friends about it, they
+come to the same salesman and the product begins almost to sell itself.
+But it takes patience and courtesy to bring it up to this point.
+
+Some salesmen kill a territory on their first trip. Bad manners can do
+it very easily. Sometimes they make themselves so objectionable that the
+customer will buy to get rid of them, especially if the purchase does
+not involve more than a dollar or two. Sometimes they carry the customer
+along so smoothly with plausible arguments that they persuade him to buy
+something that he knows he does not want. It is all right so long as the
+salesman is present, but discontent follows in his trail.
+Sometimes--stocks and bonds salesmen are guilty here--they wheedle the
+customer into buying more than he can afford, beginning on the premise
+that since their stocks are good (and the men who sell fraudulent ones
+use the same methods) a man should if he has a hundred dollars buy a
+hundred dollars' worth, if he has a million he should buy a million
+dollars' worth, if he has a home he must mortgage it, if he has an
+automobile he must sell it. No good salesman works like this. People are
+very gullible and it takes little argument to persuade them to invest
+nearly all they have in something that will make them rich in a hurry,
+but the fact that they are foolish is not quite sufficient justification
+for fooling them. Even if the stocks and bonds are all the salesman
+believes and represents them to be, no man has a right to risk his home
+or his happiness for them. A worth while salesman leaves his customer
+satisfied and comes back a year later and finds him still satisfied. And
+this sort of customer is the best advertisement and the best friend any
+business can have.
+
+Bad salesmen create violent prejudices against the firms they represent.
+For the average customer, like the average man, judges the whole of a
+thing by the part that he sees. To most of us the word Chinaman calls up
+the picture of the laundryman around the corner in spite of the fact
+that there are some three hundred million Chinamen in the world engaged
+in other occupations. Salesmen who are consumed with their own
+importance do their firms more harm than good. They usually are men in
+positions too big for them (they may not be very big at that) and are
+for the most part of not much more real consequence than the gnat which
+sat on the tip of the bull's horn and cried, "See what a dust I raise!"
+Glum and sullen salesmen--there are not many of them--are of little
+genuine value to their firms. It is not true that when you weep you weep
+alone. Gloomy moods are as contagious as pleasant ones, and a happy man
+radiates happiness.
+
+It is not easy to look pleasant when one's nerves are bruised from
+miscellaneous contacts with all sorts of people, but it is an actual
+fact that assuming the gestures of a mood will often induce the mood
+itself. The man who forces himself to _look_ cheerful (we are not
+talking about the one who takes on an idiotic grin) may find himself
+after a while beginning to _feel_ cheerful. After he has greeted the
+elevator boy with a smile (it may be a very crooked one) and the hotel
+clerk and the waitress and the bootblack and the paper boy he is likely
+to find that the smile has straightened out into a genuine one. It does
+not always work--it is like counting to a hundred when one is angry--but
+it is worth trying.
+
+Salesmen find their greatest difficulties among people of little
+education. It is the people with fewest ideas that cling to them most
+tenaciously. Scholars and scientists and business men who have learned
+to employ scientific methods are constantly watching for something new.
+They welcome new discoveries and new ideas, but the man in the backwoods
+of ignorance has a fence around the limits of his mind and it is hard
+for anything to get inside it. He is open to conviction, but like the
+Scotsman, he would like to see the person who could "convict" him. It is
+hard work to get a new idea into the mind of a man who is encased in a
+shell of ignorance or prejudice, but the salesman is worse than
+bad-mannered who lets another man, whoever he is, know that he thinks
+his religion is no good, that his political party is rotten, that his
+country is not worth a cancelled postage stamp, and that the people of
+his race are "frogs," "square-heads," "dagos," "wops," or "kikes."
+
+Salesmen who are themselves courteous usually meet with courtesy. The
+people who move graciously through life find comparatively little
+rudeness in the world. And a good salesman is courteous to all men
+alike. With him overalls command as much respect as broadcloth. It
+pays--not only in money, but in other things that are worth more.
+
+A salesman should be especially careful of his attitude toward the
+representatives of rival houses and their products. His eagerness to
+advance his own cause should never lead him into belittling them. He
+need not go out of his way to praise them nor should he speak of them
+insincerely in glowing terms; but an honest word of commendation shows
+that he is not afraid of his rivals in spite of the fact that they too
+have excellent goods, and when it is impossible to speak well of them it
+is best to stay silent.
+
+It is not hard to see why business men spend so much time and effort in
+selecting their salesmen. They know that one who is ill-mannered or
+offensive in any way indicates either a lack of breeding or a lack of
+judgment on the part of the parent concern. And one is about as bad as
+the other.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE BUSINESS OF WRITING
+
+
+Half the business letters which are written should never be written at
+all, and of the other half so many are incomplete or incoherent that a
+transaction which could be finished and filed away in two letters
+frequently requires six or eight.
+
+A good letter is the result of clear thinking and careful planning. In
+the case of the sales-letter it sometimes takes several weeks to write
+one, but for ordinary correspondence a few minutes is usually all that
+is necessary. The length of time does not matter--it is the sort of
+letter which is produced at the end of it.
+
+Books of commercial correspondence give a number of rules and standards
+by which a letter can be measured. But all rules of thumb are dangerous,
+and there are only two items which are essential. The others are
+valuable only as they contribute to them. The letter must succeed in
+getting its idea across and it must build up good will for its firm. And
+the best one is the one which accomplishes this most courteously and
+most completely in the briefest space of time (and paper).
+
+There should be a reason back of every letter if it is only to say
+"Thank you" to a customer. Too much of our national energy goes up in
+waste effort, in aimless advertising, worthless salesmanship,
+ineffective letter writing, and in a thousand and one other ways. A lot
+of it is hammered out on the typewriters transcribing perfectly useless
+letters to paper which might really be worth something if it were given
+over to a different purpose.
+
+A good letter never attracts the mind of the reader to itself as a thing
+apart from its contents. Last year a publishing house sent out a hundred
+test letters advertising one of their books. Three answers came back,
+none of them ordering the book, but all three praising the letter. One
+was from a teacher of commercial English who declared that he was going
+to use it as a model in his classes, and the other two congratulated the
+firm on having so excellent a correspondent. The physical make-up of the
+letter was attractive, it was written by a college graduate and couched
+in clear, correct, and colorful English. And yet it was no good. No
+_letter and no advertisement is any good which calls attention to itself
+instead of the message it is trying to deliver_.
+
+There is not much room for individuality in the make-up of a letter.
+Custom has standardized it, and startling variations from the
+conventional format indicates freakishness rather than originality. They
+are like that astonishing gentleman who walks up Fifth Avenue on the
+coldest mornings in the year, bareheaded, coatless, sockless, clad in
+white flannels and tennis slippers. He attracts attention, but he makes
+us shiver.
+
+Plain white paper of good quality is always in good taste. Certain
+dull-tinted papers are not bad, but gaudy colors, flashy designs, and
+ornate letter heads are taboo in all high types of business. Simple
+headings giving explicit and useful information are best. The name and
+address of the firm (and "New York" or "Chicago" is not sufficient in
+spite of the fact that a good many places go into no more detail than
+this), the cable address if it has one, the telephone number and the
+trademark if it is an inconspicuous one (there is a difference between
+_conspicuous_ and _distinctive_) are all that any business house needs.
+
+Hotels are often pictured on their own stationery in a way that is
+anything but modest, but there is a very good reason for it. The first
+thing most people want to know about a hotel is what sort of looking
+place it is. All right, here you are. Some factories, especially those
+that are proud of their appearance, carry their own picture on their
+stationery. There is nothing to say against it, but one of the most
+beautiful factories in America has on its letter head only the name of
+the firm, the address, and a small trademark engraved in black.
+Sometimes a picture, in a sales letter, for instance, supplements the
+written matter in a most effective way. And whenever any kind of device
+is really helpful it should by all means be used, subject only to the
+limits of good taste.
+
+It is more practical in business to use standard size envelopes. If
+window envelopes are used the window should be clear, the paper white or
+nearly so, and the typewritten address a good honest black. The
+enclosure should fit snugly and should be placed so that the address is
+in plain view without having to be jiggled around in the envelope first.
+A letter passes through the hands of several postal clerks before it
+reaches the person to whom it is addressed, and if each one of them has
+to stop to play with it awhile an appreciable amount of time is lost,
+not to mention the strain it puts on their respective tempers. The paper
+of which an envelope is made should always be opaque enough to conceal
+the contents of the letter.
+
+Practically all business letters are typewritten. Occasionally a "Help
+Wanted" advertisement requests that the answer be in the applicant's own
+handwriting, but even this is rare. In most places the typing is taken
+care of by girls who have been trained for the purpose, but most young
+girls just entering business are highly irresponsible, and it is
+necessary for the men and women who dictate the letters to know what
+constitutes a pleasing make-up so that they can point out the flaws and
+give suggestions for doing away with them.
+
+The letter should be arranged symmetrically on the page with ample
+margins all around. Nothing but experience in copying her own notes will
+teach a stenographer to estimate them correctly so that she will not
+have to rewrite badly placed letters. It is a little point, but an
+important one.
+
+Each subject considered in a letter should be treated in a separate
+paragraph, and each paragraph should be set off from the others by a
+wider space than that between the lines, double space between the
+paragraphs when there is single space between the lines, triple space
+between the paragraphs when there is a double space between the lines,
+and so on.
+
+A business letter should handle only one subject. Two letters should be
+dispatched if two subjects are to be covered. This enables the house
+receiving the letter to file it so that it can be found when it is
+needed.
+
+When a letter is addressed to an individual it is better to begin "Dear
+Mr. Brown" or "My dear Mr. Brown" than "Dear Sir" or "My dear Sir."
+"Gentlemen" or "Ladies" is sometime used in salutation when a letter is
+addressed to a group. "Dear Friend" is permissible in general letters
+sent out to persons of both sexes. Honorary titles should be used in the
+address when they take the place of "Mr.," such titles as Reverend,
+Doctor, Honorable (abbreviated to Rev., Dr., Hon.,) and the like. Titles
+should not be dropped except in the case of personal letters.
+
+Special care should be taken with the outside address. State
+abbreviations should be used sparingly when there is a chance of
+confusion as in the case of Ga., Va., La., and Pa. "City" is not
+sufficient and should never be used. Nor should the name of the state
+ever be omitted even when the letter is addressed to some other point in
+the same state, as from New York to Brooklyn. And postage should be
+complete. A letter on which there is two cents due has placed itself
+under a pretty severe handicap before it is opened.
+
+It is astonishing how many letters go out every day unsigned, lacking
+enclosures, carrying the wrong addresses, bearing insufficient postage,
+and showing other evidences of carelessness and thoughtlessness. In a
+town in New England last year one of the specialty shops received at
+Christmas time twenty different lots of money--money orders, stamps, and
+cash--by mail, not one of which bore the slightest clue to the identity
+of the sender. Countless times during the year this happens in every
+mail order house.
+
+The initials of the dictator and of the stenographer in the lower
+left-hand corner of a letter serve not only to identify the carbon, but
+often to place the letter itself if it has gone out without signature.
+The signature should be legible, or if the one who writes it enjoys
+making flourishes he may do so if he will have the name neatly typed
+either just below the name or just above it. It should be written in ink
+(black or blue ink), not in pencil or colored crayon, and it should be
+blotted before the page is folded. The dictator himself should sign the
+letter whenever possible. "Dictated but not read" bears the mark of
+discourtesy and sometimes brings back a letter with "Received but not
+read" written across it. When it is necessary to leave the office before
+signing his letters, a business man should deputize his stenographer to
+do it, in which case she writes his name in full with her initials just
+below it. A better plan is to have another person take care of the
+entire letter, beginning it something like, "Since Mr. Blake is away
+from the office to-day he has asked me to let you know----"
+
+The complimentary close to a business letter should be "Yours truly,"
+"Yours sincerely" or something of the kind, and not "Yours cordially,"
+"Yours faithfully" or "Yours gratefully" unless the circumstances
+warrant it.
+
+In writing a letter as a part of a large organization one should use
+"We" instead of "I." A firm acts collectively, no one except the
+president has a right to the pronoun of the first person, and he (if he
+is wise) seldom avails himself of it. If the matter is so near personal
+as to make "We" somewhat ridiculous "I" should, of course, be used
+instead. But one should be consistent. If "I" is used at the beginning
+it should be continued throughout.
+
+Similarly a letter should be addressed to a firm rather than to a
+person, for if the person happens to be absent some one else can then
+take charge of it. But the address should also include the name of the
+addressee (whenever possible) or "Advertising Manager," "Personnel
+Manager" or whatever the designation of his position may be. The name
+may be placed in the lower left-hand corner of the letter "Attention Mr.
+Green" or "Attention Advertising Manager," and it may also be placed
+just above the salutation inside the letter. Sometimes the subject of
+the letter is indicated in the same way, _Re Montana shipment_, _Re
+Smythe manuscript_, etc. These lines may be typed in red or in capital
+letters so as to catch the attention of the reader at once. If a letter
+is more than two pages long this line is often added to the succeeding
+pages, a very convenient device, for letters are sometimes misplaced in
+the files and this helps to locate them.
+
+A business letter should never be longer than necessary. If three lines
+are enough it is absurd to use more, especially if the letter is going
+to a firm which handles a big correspondence. Some one has said with
+more truth than exaggeration that no man south of Fourteenth Street in
+New York reads a letter more than three lines long. But there is danger
+that the too brief letter will sound brusque. Mail order houses which
+serve the small towns and the rural districts say that, all other things
+being equal, it is the long sales letter which brings in the best
+results. Farmers have more leisure and they are quite willing to read
+long letters _if_ (and this _if_ is worth taking note of) they are
+interesting.
+
+All unnecessary words and all stilted phrases should be stripped from a
+letter. "Replying to your esteemed favor," "Yours of the 11th inst. to
+hand, contents noted," "Yours of the 24th ult. received. In reply would
+say," "Awaiting a favorable reply," "We beg to remain" are dead weights.
+"Prox" might be added to the list, and "In reply to same." "Per diem"
+and other Latin expressions should likewise be thrown into the discard.
+"As per our agreement of the 17th" should give place to "According to
+our agreement of the 17th," and, wherever possible, simplified
+expression should be employed. Legal phraseology should be restricted to
+the profession to which it belongs. Wills, deeds, and other documents
+likely to be haled into court need "whereas's" and "wherefores" and
+"said's" and "same's" without end, but ordinary business letters do not.
+It is perfectly possible to express oneself clearly in the language of
+conversation (which is also the language of business) without burying
+the meaning in tiresome verbiage. And yet reputable business houses
+every day send out letters which are almost ridiculous because of the
+stiff and pompous way they are written.
+
+The following letter was sent recently by one of the oldest furniture
+houses in America:
+
+     DEAR MADAM:
+
+     Herewith please find receipt for full payment of your bill.
+     Please accept our thanks for same.
+
+     Relative to the commission due Mrs. Robinson would say that if
+     she will call at our office at her convenience we shall be glad
+     to pay same to her.
+
+     Thanking you for past favors, we beg to remain,
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+Contrast that with this:
+
+     DEAR MRS. BROWN:
+
+     We are returning herewith your receipted bill. Thank you very
+     much.
+
+     If you will have Mrs. Robinson call at our office at her
+     convenience we shall take pleasure in paying her the commission
+     due her.
+
+     Yours very truly,
+
+Here is another letter so typical of the kind that carelessness
+produces:
+
+     DEAR SIR:
+
+     I have your letter of the 27th inst. and I have forwarded it to
+     Mr. Stubbs and will see him in a few days and talk the matter
+     over.
+
+     I remain
+     Yours sincerely,
+
+Would it not have been just as easy to write:
+
+     DEAR MR. THOMPSON:
+
+     Thank you for your letter of the 27th. I have forwarded it to Mr.
+     Stubbs and will see him in a few days to talk the matter over.
+
+     Your sincerely,
+
+In the preparation of this volume a letter of inquiry was sent out to a
+number of representative business houses all over the country. It was a
+pleasure to read the excellent replies that came in response to it. One
+letter reached its destination in the midst of a strike, but the
+publicity manager of the firm sent a cordial answer, which began:
+
+     Your very courteous letter to Mr. Jennings came at a time when
+     his mind is pretty well occupied with thoughts concerning the
+     employment situation in our various plants.
+
+     We shall endeavor, therefore, to give you such information as
+     comes to mind with regard to matters undertaken by the company
+     which have contributed to the standard of courtesy which exists
+     in the departments here.
+
+We select another at random:
+
+     It pleases us very much to know that our company has been
+     described to you as one which practises courtesy in business. We
+     should like nothing better than to have all our employees live up
+     to the reputation credited to them by Mr. Haight.
+
+     As for our methods of obtaining it----
+
+Contrast these two excellent beginnings with (and this one is authentic,
+too):
+
+     In reply to yours of the 6th inst. relative to what part courtesy
+     plays in business and office management would say that it is very
+     important.
+
+Routine letters must be standardized--a house must conserve its own time
+as well as that of its customers--but a routine letter must never be
+used unless it adequately covers the situation. There is no excuse for a
+poor routine letter, for there is plenty of time to think it out, and
+there is no excuse for sending a routine letter when it does not
+thoroughly answer the correspondent's question. The man who is answering
+a letter must put himself in the place of the one who wrote it.
+
+This is a fair sample of what happens when a letter is written by a
+person who either has no imagination at all, or does not use what he
+has.
+
+A woman who had just moved to New York lost the key to her apartment and
+wrote to her landlord for another. This answer came:
+
+     Replying to your letter, will say am sorry but it is not the
+     custom of the landlord to furnish more than one key for an
+     apartment. Should the tenant lose or misplace the key it is up to
+     them to replace same.
+
+The woman felt a justifiable sense of irritation. She was new to the
+city and thought she was taking the most direct method of replacing
+"same." Perhaps she should have known better, but she did not. Buying a
+key is not so simple as buying a box of matches and to a newcomer it is
+a matter of some little difficulty. She was at least entitled to a bit
+more information and to more courteous treatment than is shown in the
+letter signed by his landlordly hand. She went to see him and found him
+most suave and polite (which was his habit face to face with a woman).
+He explained the heavy expense of furnishing careless tenants with new
+keys (which she understood perfectly to begin with) and was most
+apologetic when he discovered that she had intended all the time to pay
+for it. It would have been just as easy for him in the beginning to
+write:
+
+     I am sorry that I cannot send you a key, but we have had so many
+     similar requests that we have had to discontinue complying with
+     them.
+
+     You will find an excellent locksmith at 45 West 119 St. His
+     telephone number is Main 3480.
+
+Or:
+
+     I am sending you the key herewith. There is a nominal charge for
+     it which will be added to your bill at the end of the month. I
+     hope it will reach you safely. It is a nuisance to be without
+     one.
+
+Imagination is indispensable to good letter writing, but it is going
+rather far when one sends thanks in advance for a favor which he expects
+to be conferred. Even those who take pleasure in granting favors like to
+feel that they do so of their own free will. It takes away the pleasure
+of doing it when some one asks a favor and then assumes the thing done.
+Royalty alone are so highly privileged as to have simply to voice their
+wishes to have them complied with, and royalty has gone out of fashion.
+
+At one point in their journey all the travellers in "Pilgrim's Progress"
+exchanged burdens, but they did not go far before each one begged to
+have back his original load. That is what would happen if the man who
+dictates a letter were to exchange places with his stenographer. Each
+would then appreciate the position of the other, and if they were once
+in a while to make the transfer in their minds (imagination in business
+again) they would come nearer the sympathetic understanding that is the
+basis of good teamwork.
+
+The responsibility for a letter is divided between them, and it is
+important that the circumstances under which it is written should be
+favorable. The girl should be placed in a comfortable position so that
+she can hear without difficulty. The dictator should not smoke whether
+she objects to it or not. He should have in mind what he wants to say
+before he begins speaking, and then he should pronounce his words evenly
+and distinctly. He should not bang on the desk with his fist, flourish
+his arms in the air, talk in rhetorical rushes with long pauses between
+the phrases, or raise his voice to a thunderous pitch and then let it
+sink to a cooing murmur. These things have not the slightest effect on
+the typewritten page, and they make it very hard for the girl to take
+correct notes. No one should write a letter while he is angry, or if he
+writes it (and it is sometimes a relief to write a scorching letter) he
+should not mail it.
+
+It is said that Roosevelt used to write very angry letters to people who
+deserved them, drawing liberally upon his very expressive supply of
+abusive words for the occasion. Each time his secretary quietly stopped
+the letter. Each time the Colonel came in the day after and asked if the
+letter had been sent. Each time the secretary said, "No, that one did
+not get off." And each time the Colonel exclaimed, "Good! We won't send
+it!" It came to be a regular part of the day's routine.
+
+Inexperienced dictators will find it good practice to have their
+stenographers read back their letters so they can recast awkward
+sentences and make other improvements. It can usually be discontinued
+after a while, for dictating, like nearly everything else, becomes
+easier with habit.
+
+A considerate man will show special forbearance in breaking in a new
+girl. Different voices are hard to grow accustomed to, and a girl who is
+perfectly capable of taking dictation from one man will find it very
+difficult to follow another until she has grown used to the sound of his
+voice. It is like learning a foreign language. The pupil understands his
+teacher, but he does not understand any one else until he has got "the
+hang of it."
+
+The training of a good stenographer does not end when she leaves school.
+She should be able not only to take down and transcribe notes neatly and
+correctly. She should be able to spell and punctuate correctly and to
+make the minor changes in phrasing and diction that so often can make a
+good letter of a poor one. The most fatal disease that can overtake a
+stenographer (or any one else) is the habit of slavishly following a
+routine.
+
+"Many young fellows," this is from Henry Ford, "especially those
+employed in offices, fall into a routine way of doing their work that
+eventually makes it become like a treadmill. They do not get a broad
+view of the entire business. Sometimes that is the fault of the
+employer, but that does not excuse the young man. Those who command
+attention are the ones who are actually pushing the boss.... It pays to
+be ahead of your immediate job, and to do more than that for which you
+are paid. A mere clock watcher never gets anywhere. Forget the clock and
+become absorbed in your job. Learn to love it."
+
+The position of secretary is a responsible one. Frequently she knows
+almost as much about his business as her employer himself (and sometimes
+even more). He depends upon her quite as much as she depends upon him,
+though in a somewhat different way. It takes personal effort together
+with native ability to raise any one to a position of importance, but
+personal effort often needs supplementing, and many business houses have
+taken special measures to help their employees to become good
+correspondents.
+
+In some places there are supervisors who give talks and discuss the
+actual letters, good ones and bad, which have been written. They go over
+the carbons and hold conferences with the correspondents who need help.
+In other places courtesy campaigns for a higher standard of
+correspondence are held, while in others the matter is placed in the
+hands of the heads of the various departments, acting on the assumption
+that these heads are men of experience and ability or they would never
+have attained the position they hold.
+
+The president of a bank which has branches in London and Paris and other
+big foreign cities used every now and then to stop the boy who was
+carrying a basket of carbons to the file clerk and look them over. If he
+found a letter he did not like, or one that he did like a great deal, he
+sent for the person who wrote it and talked with him. It was not
+necessary for him to go over the letters often. The fact that the people
+in the office knew that it was likely to happen kept them on the alert
+and nearly every letter that left the organization was better because
+the person who wrote it knew that the man at the head was interested in
+it and that there was a strong chance that he might see it.
+
+What is effective in one place may not be so in another. Each house must
+work out its own system. But one thing must be understood in the
+beginning, and that is that the spirit of courtesy must first abide in
+the home office before the people who work there can hope to send it
+out through the mail.
+
+Roughly speaking there are eight types of business letters which nearly
+every business man at one time or another has to write or to consider.
+
+The first is the letter of _application_. The applicant should state
+simply his qualifications for the place he wants. He should not make an
+appeal to sympathy (sob stuff) nor should he beg or cringe. He should
+not demand a certain salary, though he may state what salary he would
+like, and he should not say "Salary no object." It would probably not be
+true. There are comparatively few people with whom money is no object.
+If it is the first time the applicant has ever tried for a position he
+should say so; if not, he should give his reason for leaving his last
+place. It should not be a long letter. A direct statement of the
+essential facts (age, education, experiences, etc.) is all that is
+necessary.
+
+Many times the letter of application is accompanied by, or calls for, a
+letter of _recommendation_.
+
+No man should allow himself to recommend another for qualities which he
+knows he does not possess. If he is asked for a recommendation he should
+speak as favorably of the person under consideration as he honestly
+can, and if his opinion of him is disapproving he should give it with
+reservations.
+
+At one time during the cleaning up of Panama there was considerable talk
+about displacing General Gorgas and a committee waited on Roosevelt to
+suggest another man for the job. He listened and then asked them to get
+a letter about him from Dr. William H. Welsh of Johns Hopkins. Dr. Welsh
+wrote a letter praising the man very highly, but ended by saying that
+while it was true that he would be a good man for the place, he did not
+think he would be as good as the one they already had--General Gorgas.
+The Colonel acted upon the letter confident (because he had great faith
+in Dr. Welsh) that he was taking the wise course, which subsequent
+events proved it to be. "Would to heaven," he said, "that every one
+would write such honest letters of recommendation!"
+
+The general letter of recommendation beginning "To whom it may concern"
+is rarely given now. It has little weight. Usually a man waits until he
+has applied for a position and then gives the name of his reference, the
+person to whom he is applying writes to the one to whom he has been
+referred, and the entire correspondence is carried on between these two.
+In this way the letter of recommendation can be sincere, something
+almost impossible in the open letter. It is needless to add that all
+such correspondence should be confidential.
+
+The letter of _introduction_ is, in a measure, a letter of
+recommendation. The one who writes it stands sponsor for the one who
+bears it. It should make no extravagant claims for the one who is
+introduced. He should simply be given a chance to make good on his own
+responsibility. But it should give the reason for the presentation and
+suggest a way of following it up that will result in mutual pleasure or
+benefit. It should be in an unsealed envelope and the envelope should
+bear, in addition to the address, the words, "Introducing Mr. Blank" on
+the lower left-hand corner. This does away with an embarrassing moment
+when the letter is presented in person and enables the host to greet his
+guest by name and ask him to be seated while he reads it.
+
+Letters of introduction should not be given promiscuously. Some men
+permit themselves to be persuaded into giving letters of introduction to
+people who are absolute nuisances (it is hard to refuse any one who asks
+for this sort of letter, but often kindest for all concerned) and then
+they send in secret another letter explaining how the first one came
+about. This really throws the burden on the person who least of all
+ought to bear it, the innocent man whom the first one wanted to meet. No
+letter of presentation is justified unless there is good reason behind
+it, such, as for instance, in the following:
+
+     This is Mr. Franklin B. Nesbitt. He has been in Texas for several
+     months studying economic conditions, and I believe can give you
+     some valuable information which has resulted from his research
+     there. He is a man upon whom you can rely. I have known him for
+     years, and I am sure that whatever he tells you will be
+     trustworthy.
+
+It is a common practice for a business man to give his personal card
+with "Introducing Mr. Mills" or "Introducing Mr. Mills of Howard and
+Powell Motor Co." written across it to a man whom he wishes to introduce
+to another. This enables him to get an interview. What he does with it
+rests entirely with him.
+
+_Sales letters_ are a highly specialized group given over, for the most
+part, to experts. Their most common fault is overstatement or
+patronizing. The advertisements inserted in trade papers and the letters
+sent out to the "trade" are often so condescendingly written that they
+infuriate the men to whom they are addressed. It is safer to assume that
+the man you are writing to is an intelligent human being. It is better
+to overestimate his mentality than to underestimate it, and it is better
+to "talk" to him in the letter than to "write" to him.
+
+Sales letters are, as a rule, general, not personal, and yet the best
+ones have the personal touch. The letter is a silent salesman whose
+function is to anticipate the needs of its customers and offer to supply
+them. In this as in any other kind of salesmanship it is the spirit
+which counts for most, and the spirit of genuine helpfulness (mutual
+helpfulness) gives pulling power to almost any letter. The one which
+presents a special offer on special terms specially arranged for the
+benefit of the customer wins out almost every time, provided, of course,
+that the offer is worth presenting. There is no use in declaring that
+all of the benefit is to the subscriber. It would be very foolish if it
+were actually true. Once a man went into a haberdashery to buy a coat.
+The shop owner unctuously declared that he was not making a cent of
+profit, was selling it for less than it cost him, and so on and on. The
+man walked out. "I'll go somewhere where they have sense enough to make
+a profit," he said.
+
+A sales letter should never be sent out to a large group of people
+without first having been tried out on a smaller one. In this way the
+letter can be tested and improvements made before the whole campaign is
+launched. The results in the small group are a pretty fair indication of
+what they will be in the large one, and a tremendous amount of time and
+money can be saved by studying the letter carefully to see where it has
+failed before sending it out to make an even bigger failure.
+
+On the face of things it seems that an _order letter_ would be an easy
+one to write, but the mail order houses have another story to tell.
+Order blanks should be used wherever possible. They have been carefully
+made and have blank spaces for the filling in of answers to the
+questions that are asked. In an order letter one should state exactly
+what he wants, how he wants it sent, and how he intends to pay for it.
+If the order consists of several items, each one should be listed
+separately. If they are ordered from a catalogue they should be
+identified with the catalogue description by mention of their names,
+their numbers and prices. One should state whether he is sending check,
+money, stamps, or money order, but he should not say "Enclosed please
+find."
+
+The commonest form of _letter of acknowledgment_ is sent in answer to an
+order letter. If there is to be the least delay in filling the order
+the letter acknowledging it should say so and should give the reason for
+it, but even when the order is filled promptly (if it is a large or a
+comparatively large one) the letter of acknowledgment should be sent.
+Then if anything goes wrong it is easier to trace than when the customer
+has no record except the copy of his order letter. The letter of
+acknowledgment should simply thank the customer and assure him of prompt
+and efficient service.
+
+Complaints should be acknowledged immediately. If there is to be a delay
+while an investigation is made, the letter of acknowledgment should
+simply state the fact and beg indulgence until it is finished.
+Complaints should _always_ receive careful and courteous attention. Most
+of them are justified, and even those that are not had something to
+begin on.
+
+The _letter of complaint_ should never be written hastily or angrily. It
+should go directly to the root of the trouble and should state as nearly
+as possible when and where and how it came about. One should be
+especially careful about placing the blame or charging to an individual
+what was really the fault of an unfortunate train of circumstances. The
+tone should never be sharp, no matter how just the complaint. "Please"
+goes further than "Now, see here."
+
+_Collection letters_ are hardest to write. They should appeal to a man's
+sense of honor first of all. It is a cheap (and ineffective) method to
+beg him to pay because you need the money, and rarely brings any
+reaction except rousing in his mind a contempt for you. The first letter
+in a series (and the series often includes as many as six or eight)
+should be simply a reminder. Drastic measures should not be taken until
+they are necessary, and at no time should the letters become abrupt or
+insulting. In the first place, it is ungentlemanly to write such
+letters, in the second it antagonizes the debtor, and if he gets angry
+enough he feels that it is hardly an obligation to pay the money; that
+it will "serve 'em right" if he does not do it.
+
+Advertising is a sort of letter writing. Each advertisement is a letter
+set before the public or some part of the public in the hope that it
+will be answered by the right person. It enters into an over-crowded
+field and if it is to attract attention it must be vivid, unusual, and
+convincing. Increasingly--and there is cause to be thankful for
+this--exaggerated statements are being forced to disappear. In the first
+place the ballyhoo advertisers have shouted the public deaf. They no
+longer believe. In the second place advertisers themselves have waked to
+the menace of the irresponsible and dishonest people who are
+advertising and are taking legal measures to safeguard the honor of the
+profession.
+
+One of the most successful advertisers of modern times was a man who
+carried the idea of service into everything he did. For a while he had
+charge of soliciting advertising for automobile trucks for a certain
+magazine. Instead of going at it blindly he made a careful study of the
+map of the United States and marked off the areas where automobile
+trucks were used, where they could be used, and where they should be
+used, and sent it to the manufacturers along with a statement of the
+circulation of the magazine and the advantages of reaching the public
+through it. The result was that the magazine got more advertising from
+the manufacturers than it could possibly handle. It is very gratifying
+to know that this man succeeded extraordinarily as an advertiser, for
+not once during his long career did he ever try to "put one over" on the
+public or on anybody else.
+
+No advertisement should be impertinent or importunate. During the war
+there was a splendid poster bearing a picture of Uncle Sam looking
+straight into your eyes and pointing his finger straight into your face
+as he said, "Young man, your country needs you!" The poster was
+excellent from every point of view, but since the war, real estate
+companies, barber shops, restaurants and whatnot have used posters
+bearing the pictures of men pointing their fingers straight at you
+saying, "There is a home at Blankville for you," "Watch out to use
+Baker's Best," and "You're next!" After all, Uncle Sam is the only
+person who has a right to point his finger at you in any such manner and
+say, "I need you." And besides, there is the moral side of it. Imitation
+is the sincerest flattery, but the dividing line between it and
+dishonesty is not always clear. And the law cannot every time prosecute
+the offender, for there is a kind of cleverness that enables a man to
+pilfer the ideas of another and recast them just sufficiently to "get
+by." It would be very stupid for a man not to profit by the experience
+of other men, but there is a vast difference between intelligent
+adaptation of ideas and stealing them. This is more a question of morals
+than of manners, for the crime--and it is a crime--is usually
+deliberate, while most breaches of manners are unintentional and due to
+either carelessness or ignorance.
+
+House memoranda are letters among the various people who are working
+there. They should be brief, above all things, and clear, but never at
+the sacrifice of courtesy. Titles should not be dropped and nicknames
+should not be used although initials may be. Memoranda should never be
+personal unless they are sent confidentially. An open memorandum should
+never contain anything that cannot be read by every one without
+reflecting unfavorably upon any one. And it is wise to keep in mind--no
+matter what you are writing--that the written record is permanent.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+MORALS AND MANNERS
+
+
+It has become a habit of late years for people to argue at great length
+about right and wrong, and what with complexes and psycho-analysis and
+what with this and that, they have almost come to the conclusion that
+there is no right and wrong. Man, so they have decided, is a frail and
+tender being completely at the mercy of the traits he has inherited from
+his ancestors and those he has acquired from his neighbors. What he does
+is simply the result of the combination of circumstances that have made
+him what he is. There is some truth in it, of course, but what there is
+is no bigger than a mustard seed, and all the volumes that have been
+written about it, all the sermons that have been preached upon it, and
+all the miles of space that have been devoted to it in the newspapers
+and magazines have not served to increase it. Most of us never give any
+one else credit for our achievements and there is no more reason for
+giving them blame for our failures. A gentleman is "lord of his own
+actions." He balances his own account, and whether there is a debit or a
+credit is a matter squarely up to him.
+
+The pivot upon which all right-thinking conduct involving relations with
+other people turns is the Golden Rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men
+should do to you, do ye even so to them." It is to the moral what the
+sun is to the physical world, and just as we have never made full use of
+the heat and light which we derive from the sun but could not live
+without that which we do use, so we have never realized more than a
+small part of the possibilities of the Golden Rule, but at the same time
+could not get along together in the world without the meagre part of it
+that we do make use of. The principle is older than the Christian Era,
+older than the sequoias of California, older than the Pyramids, older
+than Chinese civilization. It is the most precious abstract truth that
+man has yet discovered. It contains the germ of all that has been said
+and written about human brotherhood and all that has been done toward
+making it an accomplished fact. And if to-morrow it were to vanish from
+the earth we should miss it almost, if not quite, as much as we should
+the sun if it were to go hurtling off into space so far away that we
+could neither see nor feel it. In the one case there would be no life
+at all on earth, in the other there would be none worth living.
+
+The Golden Rule amounts to no more than putting yourself into another
+person's place. It is not always easy to do. Half of the people in the
+United States have very little idea of what the lives of the other half
+are like and have no special interest in knowing.
+
+"What," we asked the manager of a bookshop which caters to a large
+high-grade clientele, "do you find your greatest trouble?"
+
+"Lack of imagination on the part of our customers," he answered
+promptly, "a total inability to put themselves into our place, to
+realize that we have our lives to live just as they have theirs. If we
+haven't a book in stock they want to know why. If we don't drop
+everything to attend to them they want to know why. If anything goes
+wrong they want to know why, but they won't listen to explanations and
+won't accept them when they do. They simply can't see our side of it.
+And they make such unreasonable demands. Why, last year during the
+Christmas rush when the shop was fairly jammed to the door and we were
+all in a perfect frenzy trying to wait on them all, a man called up to
+know if his wife was here!"
+
+It is not always easy to see life, or even a small section of life,
+from another person's point of view. A man very often thinks housework
+practically no work at all (the drudgery of it he has never realized
+because he has never had to do it) and a woman very often underestimates
+the wear and tear and strain of working in an office and getting a
+living out of it in competition with hundreds of other men. Marie
+Antoinette had no conception of what it meant when the French people
+cried for bread. It seemed impossible to her that a person could
+actually be hungry. "Why, give them cake!" she exclaimed. It may be
+pretty hard for a man who is making $10,000 a year to sympathize with
+the stenographer he hires for $600 or $700 a year, or for her to see his
+side of things. But it is not impossible.
+
+Very few of us could honestly go as far as the novelist who recently
+advocated the motto: "My neighbor is perfect" or the governor who set
+aside a day for the people in his state to put it into practice. We
+happen to know that our neighbors are, like ourselves, astonishing
+compounds of vice and virtue in whom any number of improvements might be
+made. It is not necessary to think them perfect, only to remember that
+each one of us, each one of them, is entitled to life, liberty, and the
+pursuit of happiness. In other words, that every man has a right to a
+square deal.
+
+In the ancient world there were four cardinal virtues: justice,
+prudence, temperance, and discretion. In the modern world of business
+there are only two. Others may follow, but these two must come first.
+Justice, we mean, and kindness. No man was ever really a gentleman who
+was not just and kind, and we think it would be almost impossible for
+one who is, whatever his minor shortcomings may be, not to be a
+gentleman. Just to his employees (or to his employer), to his customers,
+to his friends, to himself, and this justice always tempered with
+kindness, the one quality giving the firmness necessary in dealing with
+people, the other the gentleness which is no less necessary.
+
+In the first place, and this is one of the corner stones of justice,
+industrial life must be made safe for the worker. And it is a job in
+which he has as large a part as the man who hires him. Under present
+conditions one workman out of every eight is injured during the year and
+the accident is as often his fault as it is that of his employer. In
+some instances efficient safety devices are not provided, in others they
+are not made use of.
+
+Special kinds of work, such as that in which the laborer is exposed to
+poisonous fumes, to sand blasts, dangerous chemicals or mineral dusts,
+need special protective devices and men with sense enough to use them.
+The employer cannot do his share unless the worker does his, and the
+worker is too quick to take a chance. The apprentice is usually cautious
+enough, but the old hand grows unwary. Ninety-nine times he thrusts his
+arm in among belts whirling at lightning speed and escapes, but the
+hundredth time the arm is caught and mangled. And there is nothing to
+blame but his own carelessness.
+
+
+WHO AM I?
+
+I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
+
+I have destroyed more men than all the wars of the nations.
+
+I am more deadly than bullets, and I have wrecked more homes than the
+mightiest of siege guns.
+
+I steal, in the United States, alone, over $300,000,000 each year.
+
+I spare no one, and I find my victims among the rich and poor alike, the
+young and old, the strong and weak. Widows and orphans know me.
+
+I loom up to such proportions that I cast my shadow over every field of
+labor, from the turning of the grindstone to the moving of every
+railroad train.
+
+I massacre thousands upon thousands of wage earners a year.
+
+I lurk in unseen places and do most of my work silently. You are warned
+against me but you heed not.
+
+I am relentless.
+
+I am everywhere--in the house, on the streets, in the factory, at the
+railroad crossings, and on the sea.
+
+I bring sickness, degradation and death, and yet few seek to avoid me.
+
+I destroy, crush or maim; I give nothing but take all.
+
+I am your worst enemy.
+
+
+I AM CARELESSNESS
+
+Any kind of carelessness which results in injury (or is likely to result
+in it), whether the injury is mental or physical, is criminal. No plea
+can justify building a theatre which cannot stand a snowstorm, a school
+which cannot give a maximum of safety to the children who are in it, a
+factory which does not provide comfortable working conditions for the
+people employed there, or allowing any unsafe building or part of a
+building to stand.
+
+There is a factory (this story is true) which places the lives of the
+majority of its employees in jeopardy twice a day. There are two sets of
+elevators, one at the front of the building for the executives and their
+secretaries and visitors, one at the rear for the rank and file of the
+employees. Since there are several hundred of the latter the advantages
+of the division are too obvious to need discussion. We have no quarrel
+with it. But the apparatus upon which the elevators in the rear run is
+so old and so rotten and so rusty that there is constant danger of its
+breaking down. Three times already there have been serious accidents.
+The men who are hired to operate the cars rarely stay more than a week
+or so. Protests have been sent in but nothing has been done. The
+management knows what the conditions are but they have never stopped to
+realize the horror of it. It is not that they value a few dollars more
+than they do human life, but that they simply do not stop to think or to
+imagine what it would be like to have to ride in the ramshackle elevator
+themselves. In the offices of this factory there is an atmosphere of
+courtesy and good breeding far beyond the ordinary--in justice to the
+people there it must be said that they do not know the conditions in the
+rear, but the management does. And the management is polite in most of
+its dealings, both with its employees and outside, but polish laid over
+a cancerous growth like this is not courtesy.
+
+There are three essentials for good work: _good lighting_ (it must be
+remembered that a light that is too glaring is as bad as one that is too
+dim), _fresh air_ (air that is hot and damp or dry and dusty is not
+fresh), and _cleanliness_ (clean workrooms--and workers--clean drinking
+water with individual drinking cups, and in places where the work is
+unusually dirty, plenty of clean water for bathing purposes.)
+
+In the matter of salaries--economically one of the most important
+questions in the world--the employer should pay, not as little, but as
+much as he can afford. No man has a right to hire a girl (or a boy
+either) at less than a living wage and expect her to live on it. The
+pitiless publicity which was given the evil of hiring girls at
+starvation wages some years ago (in particular through the short stories
+of O. Henry, "the little shop-girl's knight" which, according to Colonel
+Roosevelt, suggested all the reforms which he undertook in behalf of the
+working girls of New York) did much in the way of reform, but there is
+much yet to be done.
+
+Money has been called the root of all evil. It is not money, but greed.
+Greed and thoughtlessness. Sir James Barrie says stupidity and
+jealousy, but both these might be included under thoughtlessness. Men
+who are generous almost to a fault when a case of individual need is
+brought before them will hire girls at less than any one could exist on
+in decency. When they meet these same girls in the hall or when they
+come directly into contact with them in their work they may be polite
+enough, but their politeness is not worth a tinker's curse. Justice must
+come first. Only if the employer pays a fair day's wage can he expect a
+fair day's work. "Even then," he protests, "I can't get it." And this
+is, unfortunately, in large measure true. As Kipling said some few years
+ago, and it still holds,
+
+    From forge and farm and mine and bench
+      Deck, altar, outpost lone--
+    Mill, school, battalion, counter, trench,
+      Rail, senate, sheepfold, throne--
+    Creation's cry goes up on high
+      From age to cheated age:
+    "Send us the men who do the work
+      For which they draw the wage."
+
+"I can't even get them here on time," the employer's wail continues. The
+employee may respond that the employer is not there, but this has
+nothing to do with it. Most people are paid to get to their work at a
+certain hour. They have a daily appointment with their business at a
+specified time. It is wise and honorable to keep it. Tardiness is a
+habit, and, like most others, considerably harder to break than to form,
+but punctuality also is a habit, not quite so easy to establish as
+tardiness because it is based on strength while the other is based on
+weakness. Most of us hate to get up in the morning, but it is good
+discipline for the soul, and we have the words of poets as well as of
+business men that
+
+    Early to bed and early to rise
+    Is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.
+
+Time is one of the most valuable of commodities. More people are
+discharged for coming in late than for any other reason, not excepting
+(we believe this no exaggeration) "lay-offs" during dull seasons.
+Slipping out before the regular time and soldiering on the job fall into
+the same classification with tardiness. Such practices the employee too
+often looks upon as a smart way of getting around authority, blithely
+ignoring the fact which has so many times been called to our attention:
+that what a man does to a job is not half so important as what the job
+does to him. The material loss which comes from it is the least of its
+harms.
+
+All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but he is duller yet if he
+tries to mix them. Intense concentration during working hours followed
+by complete rest is the only way to make a contented workman, and it is
+the happy workman (just as it is the happy warrior), in spite of all
+that is said about divine discontent, who counts for most both to
+himself and to his community. There is a gladness about earnest eager
+work which is hard to find in anything else. "I know what pleasure is,"
+declared Robert Louis Stevenson, "because I have done good work."
+
+Gossiping, idling, smoking, writing personal letters during working
+hours (these usually on the firm's stationery), and a thousand and one
+other petty acts of dishonesty are ruinous, not so much to the house
+which tolerates them (because it cannot help itself) as to the person
+who commits them. Telephones are the cause of a good deal of disturbance
+during business hours in places where employees spend an appreciable
+amount of time on personal calls. In some organizations they are
+prohibited altogether; but in most they are allowed if not carried to
+excess. It is not business people who need education in this so much as
+their friends who have never been in business and seem unable to realize
+that personal calls are not only annoying, but time-killing and
+distracting.
+
+Part of the unrest and unhappiness among employees is due to the fact
+that vast numbers of them are working not at what they want to do but at
+what they have to do, marking time until they can get something better.
+It is very commendable for a man to be constantly watching out to
+improve himself, but it does not in the meanwhile excuse him from doing
+his best at the job for which he is drawing pay. It is dishonest. It is
+unsportsmanlike. It is unmanly.
+
+The question of salary is, from whatever angle it is approached, a
+delicate one. "My experience is," observed David Harum, "that most men's
+hearts is located ruther closter to their britchis pockets than they are
+to their vest pockets." It is a tender subject, and one that causes more
+trouble than almost any other in the world. Employees who are trusted
+with the payroll should not divulge figures and employees who are on the
+payroll should not discuss and compare salaries. Jones cannot understand
+why Brown gets more than he does when he knows that Brown's work is not
+so good, Brown cannot see why Smith gets as much as he does when he is
+out two or three days in the week, and Smith cannot see why he has not
+been made an executive after all the years he has worked in the place.
+There are many sides to the matter of salary adjustment and they all
+have to be taken into consideration. And the petty jealousies that
+employees arouse by matching salaries against one another only serve to
+make a complex problem more difficult.
+
+There is only one base upon which a man should rest his plea for an
+increase in salary, and that is good work. The fact that he has a family
+dependent upon him, that he is ill or hard up may be ample reason for
+giving him financial help or offering him a loan, but it is no reason
+why his salary should be increased unless his work deserves it.
+Paternalism is more unfair than most systems of reward, and the man who
+comes whimpering with a tale of hard luck is usually (but not always)
+not worth coddling. Years of experience, even though they stretch out to
+three score and ten, are not in themselves sufficient argument for
+promotion. Sometimes the mere fact that a man has been content to stay
+in one place year after year shows that he has too little initiative to
+rise in that particular kind of work and is too timid to try something
+else.
+
+Another big cause of trouble among men working in the same organization
+is rigid class distinction. When a man hires others to work _for_ him he
+invites discontent; when he hires them to work _with_ him there may be
+dissatisfaction, but the chances of it are lessened. A business well
+knit together is like any other group, an army or a football team, bound
+into a unit to achieve a result. At its best each person in it feels a
+responsibility toward each one of the others; each realizes that who a
+man is is not half so important as what he does, and that
+
+    ... the game is more than the player of the game
+           And the ship is more than the crew,
+
+or, as another poet with a Kiplingesque turn of mind and phrase has it,
+
+    It is not the guns or armament
+      Or the money they can pay.
+    It's the close cooeperation
+      That makes them win the day.
+    It is not the individual
+      Or the army as a whole,
+    But the everlastin' team work
+      Of every blooming soul.
+
+Each man is directly responsible to his immediate superior. He should
+never, unless the circumstances are unusual, go over his head and he
+should never do so without letting him know. It should be impossible,
+and is, in a well-organized house, for men coming from the outside to
+appeal over a member of a firm. Responsible men should be placed in the
+contact positions and their responsibility should be respected. Salesmen
+are warned not to bother with the little fellow but to go straight to
+the head of a firm. Like most general advice, it is dangerous to put
+into universal practice. The heads of most firms have men to take care
+of visitors, and in a good many instances, the salesman helps his cause
+by going to the proper subordinate in the first place. It is all very
+well to go to the head of a firm but to do it at the expense of the
+dignity of one of the smaller executives is doubtful business policy and
+doubtful ethics.
+
+"Passing the buck" is a gentle vice practised in certain loosely hung
+together concerns. It is a strong temptation to shift the accountability
+for a mistake to the shoulders of the person on the step below, but it
+is to be remembered that temptations, like obstacles, are things to be
+overcome. The "buck," as has been pointed out, always passes down and
+not up, a fact which makes a detestable practice all the more odious.
+One of the first laws of knighthood was to defend the weak and to
+protect the poor and helpless; it still holds, though knighthood has
+passed out of existence; and the creature (he is not even good red
+herring) who blames some one else for a fault of his, or allows him to
+take the blame, is beneath contempt.
+
+When a mistake has been made and the responsibility fixed on the right
+person the penalty may be inflicted. If it is a scolding or a "bawling
+out" it should be done quietly. Good managers do not shout their
+reprimands. They do not need to. The reproof for a fault is a matter
+between the offender and the "boss." No one else has any concern with
+it, and there is no reason why the instinct for gossip or the appetite
+for malicious reports on the part of the other employees should be
+satisfied. The world would be happier and business would be infinitely
+more harmonious if each person in it could realize that his chief aim in
+life should be to mind his own business or, at least, to let other
+people's alone.
+
+Private secretaries and other people in more or less confidential
+positions are many times tempted to give away secret information, not so
+much for the benefit of the person to whom it is given as to show how
+much they themselves are trusted. Nearly every one who holds a
+responsible business position receives items of information which are
+best not repeated, and if common sense does not teach him what should be
+kept private and what should be told, nothing will. It should not be
+necessary for the superior to preface each of his remarks with, "Now,
+this must go no further."
+
+Matters concerning salaries should always be confidential, and so should
+personal items such as health reports, character references, and so on,
+credit reports, blacklists, and other information of a similar nature.
+It is compiled for a definite purpose and for the use of a limited group
+of people. It is unethical to use it in any other way.
+
+The reason for dismissing a person from a business organization should
+be kept private, especially if it is something that reflects unfavorably
+on his character. But the reason should _always_ be given to the
+employee himself. He may not listen, and most of the men who have had
+experience in hiring and firing say that he will not, but that is his
+own responsibility. The employer has no right to let him go without
+letting him know why. And the employee should listen--it may not be his
+fault but he should check up honestly with himself and find out. The
+same thing that lost him this place may lose him another, and a good
+many times all that he can get out of being discharged is a purification
+of soul. It is a pity if he misses that.
+
+Discharging a person is a serious matter, serious from both sides, and
+it is not a thing to be done lightly. Most houses try to obviate it in
+so far as possible by hiring only the kind of people they want to keep.
+"Our efforts toward efficiency" (we quote from one manager who is
+typical of thousands) "begin at the front door. We try to eliminate the
+unfit there. We do not employ any one who happens to come along. We try
+by means of an interview and references and psychological tests to get
+the very highest type of employee." No human test is perfect, however,
+and there are times, even in the best regulated houses, when it becomes
+necessary to dismiss persons who have shown themselves unfit.
+
+It is not always a disgrace to be discharged and it is not always a step
+downward. It may be because of business depression or it may be because
+the man is a square peg in a round hole. Sometimes it is the only
+experience that will reduce a man's, especially a young man's, idea of
+his own importance to something like normal proportions, the only one
+that will clear his mind of the delusion that he is himself the only
+person who is keeping off the rocks the business for which he is
+working, in which case it is one of the best things that could have
+happened to him.
+
+A roll call of famous or successful men who were fired would take up
+several reams of paper, and it is a pretty rash personnel manager (not
+to say brutal and unfair) who will throw a man out like a rotten potato
+and declare that he is absolutely no good. Besides, he does not know.
+All that he can be sure of is that the man was not qualified for the job
+he was holding. And he should think twice before giving a man a bad name
+even if he feels certain that he deserves it. At the same time he must
+protect himself and other business men from incompetent, weak, or
+vicious employees. If after his dismissal a man sends back to his former
+employer for a recommendation, the recommendation should be as favorable
+as possible without sacrificing the truth.
+
+When a man breaks his connection with a business house, whether he does
+so voluntarily or involuntarily, his departure should be pleasant, or at
+the least dignified. It is childish to take advantage of the fact that
+you are going away to tell all of the people you have grudges against
+how you feel about them, and it is worse than a mere breach of good
+manners to abuse the house that has asked you to leave. If it has done
+some one else an injustice, talk about that all you please, but on your
+own account be silent. Even if the fault has been altogether with the
+house it does not help to call it names. Self-respect should come to the
+rescue here. This is the time when it is right to be too proud to fight.
+
+For a long time it has been held bad ethics for the members of one trade
+or profession to speak disparagingly of their competitors, and we have
+grown accustomed to say that you can judge a man by the way he speaks of
+his rivals. This has limits, however, and in some instances a mistaken
+idea of loyalty to one's calling has led to the glossing over of certain
+evils which could have been cured much earlier if they had been made
+public. It is all very well to be generous and courteous toward one's
+competitors but the finest courtesy in any business consists of doing
+whatever tends to elevate the standard of that business.
+
+Every man likes his business to be well thought of, and most businesses
+have organized for the promotion of a high standard of ethics as well as
+for the development of more efficient methods. Notable among these, to
+mention one of the most recent ones, is the Advertisers' Association.
+There was a time when the whole profession was menaced by the swindlers
+who were exploiting fraudulent schemes by means of advertising in
+magazines and newspapers, but to-day no reputable periodical will
+accept an advertisement without investigating its source and most of
+them will back up the guarantee of the advertiser that his goods are
+what he represents them to be with a guarantee of their own. No
+publication which intends to keep alive can afford a reputation of
+dishonesty, and the efforts of the publishers toward cleaning up have
+been seconded by the association to such an extent that any person or
+corporation that issues a deceptive advertisement, whether or not there
+was intent to deceive, will be prosecuted and punished.
+
+There was a time when a man could do almost anything within the law in a
+commercial transaction and excuse himself by saying "business is
+business." Happily this is no longer true. Business men have not grown
+perfect but they have raised their standards of business morality as
+high as their standards of personal morality. They have learned that
+business and life are one, that our lives cannot--and this has a number
+of disadvantages--be separated into compartments like so many tightly
+corked bottles on a shelf. We have only one vessel and whatever goes
+into it colors what is already there. And it is significant to remember
+that muddy water poured into clean water will make it muddy, but that
+clean water poured into muddy water will not make it clean. It takes
+very little ink in a pail of milk to color the whole of it, but it takes
+an enormous amount of milk to have any effect on a bottle of ink.
+
+Business men have also learned that the only way to build a business
+that will last is to lay its foundation on the Golden Rule, and many a
+man who might otherwise sidetrack the principles of integrity holds by
+them for this reason. "Honesty," declared one of the most insufferable
+prigs America ever produced, "is the best policy." He was right. Prigs
+usually are. It is only because they are so sure of it themselves that
+they irritate us.
+
+It is a fact, in spite of the difficulty Diogenes had when he took up
+his lantern and set out to find an honest man, that most people like to
+pay their way as they go, and the business men who recognize this are
+the ones who come out on top. They do not say that the customer is
+always right nor that he is perfect, but they assume that he is honest
+and trust him until he has proved himself otherwise. The biggest mail
+order house in America never questions a check. As soon as an order is
+received they fill it and attend to the check afterward. Their
+percentage of loss is extraordinarily small. Distrust begets distrust,
+and the perversity of human nature is such that even an honest man will
+be tempted to cheat if he knows another suspects him of it. The converse
+is equally true. There are, of course, exceptions. But the only rule in
+the world to which there are no exceptions is that there is no rule that
+holds good under all conditions.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+"BIG BUSINESS"
+
+
+In the preceding pages we have looked over the field of etiquette in
+business in a general way, and have come to the only conclusion
+possible, namely, that the basis of courtesy in business is common
+sense, and that whatever rules may be given must not be followed
+slavishly, but must simply be used as guide posts. In the pages which
+follow we shall go into detail and watch courtesy at work among certain
+groups and individuals.
+
+Let us take, for example, a big concern which employs a thousand or more
+people. We shall begin with the president.
+
+_President of a Big Organization._ Here is a man who bears a heavy
+responsibility. He has not only his own welfare to look after but that
+of the men and women who work _with_ (we like this word better than
+_for_) him. His first duty is to them. How can he best perform it?
+
+It is a matter of fact that few men rise to such positions who are not
+innately courteous. It is one of the qualities which enable them to
+rise. For this reason we shall take it for granted that the president
+needs no instructions. Already he has learned the great value of
+courtesy. But this does not protect him always from discourtesy in other
+people.
+
+Every man who holds a high position in a big organization is besieged
+with visitors, but no one so much as the president. He is a target for
+cranks and idlers and freaks as well as for earnest business men who
+want to help him or to get help from him. Thousands during the course of
+a year come to call on him. If he saw them all he would have to turn
+over the presidency to some one else and devote himself to entertaining
+visitors. Many of those who come ask for him when he is not at all the
+man they want to see, but they have been taught in the schools of
+salesmanship or they have read in a magazine that it never pays to
+bother with the little fellow, but that they should go straight to the
+top.
+
+Every minute of the time of the president of a big company is valuable
+(all time is valuable, as far as that goes), and it must be protected
+from the people who have no right to infringe upon it.
+
+You would think that the vice-presidents and the managers and the
+various executives would be his best protection. They are not. It is
+the person who is placed at the front door to receive visitors. We shall
+consider him next.
+
+_The Man at the Door._ As a matter of fact, this person is usually a
+girl, many times a very young and irresponsible one, because great
+numbers of business men have not yet realized the importance of the
+position. A well-poised girl or a woman who has had wide experience in
+handling people can fill the place quite as efficiently as a man, and a
+great deal more so if the man has not been chosen because he has the
+quick sympathy and ready tact so necessary in taking care of the needs
+of a miscellaneous assortment of callers.
+
+In the house we are observing the person at the door is a young man who
+began as a messenger boy, and who, because he did what he was asked to
+do cheerfully instead of sullenly, with a "Certainly, sir," and a smile
+instead of a "That's Bob's business" and a frown, was made manager of
+the messengers, and then first assistant of the man at the door, and
+later, when that man was given another position, was promoted to his
+place. The job commands a good salary and offers chances of promotion.
+The young man likes it.
+
+A visitor comes, a young salesman, let us say, who has had little
+experience. This is only the second or third time he has tried to storm
+the doors of big business. He asks at once for the president. He does
+not give his card because the school where he learned his trade
+cautioned him against doing so. (He is perfectly correct, and he would
+have been equally correct if he had given it. The more formal style is
+to send in the card.) The man at the door sees at once what kind of man
+he has to deal with.
+
+"The president is busy," he answers--a safe remark always, because if he
+is not he should be; "maybe I can do something for you."
+
+The salesman explains that he has an attachment to increase efficiency
+of typewriters. He would like to show the president how it works.
+
+"Oh, you don't want Mr. President," the host answers. "You want Mr.
+Jones. He attends to all such things for us. Will you be seated here in
+the reception room," motioning toward the door which is at one side of
+his desk, "while I find out if he is busy?"
+
+This concern is very conservative about buying new attachments and new
+machinery of any kind, but it is ever on the alert to discover means of
+increasing its output and saving its manpower. Almost any new idea is
+worth a demonstration.
+
+If the man at the desk has an intelligent messenger boy--and he should
+have--he sends him in to Mr. Jones. The boy finds Mr. Jones busy. He
+will be free in about fifteen minutes and then will be glad to see the
+salesman. The man reports to the visitor and asks if he cares to wait.
+He does. The host offers him a magazine and asks him to make himself
+comfortable while he goes back to his desk to attend to the next
+visitor.
+
+This one also wants to see the president.
+
+"The president is in conference just now," the young man replies.
+"Perhaps there is something I can do for you in the meanwhile if you
+will tell me what you want."
+
+"It's none of your business," he answers rudely. "I want the president."
+
+The chances are against a man of this sort. He may be a person the
+president wants to see, but the odds are ten to one that he is not.
+
+"I'm sorry but you cannot possibly see him now. He is busy."
+
+"When will he be free?"
+
+"It is hard to tell. These conferences sometimes last an hour or two,
+and I am sure he will not see you even then unless you tell him why you
+want to see him. He is a very busy man."
+
+The visitor sputters around a few minutes and it develops that he is
+selling insurance. The young man knows that the president will not see
+him under any circumstances. He is already heavily insured, as every
+wise man should be, and he cannot be bothered with agents who are trying
+to sell him larger policies.
+
+"I'm sorry," the young man repeats, "but I am sure there is no use in
+letting him waste your time. He is already carrying a heavy policy and
+he positively refuses to talk insurance with anyone, no matter who it
+is."
+
+This should be enough for the salesman. What the young man says is true.
+It would be a waste of his time as well as the president's. He does not
+care half so much for the salesman's time--there is no reason why he
+should--but notice how tactfully he tells him that the head of the
+organization has no time to spend with him.
+
+There is a certain rough type of salesman (we use the word salesman here
+in the broadest sense, as the salesmen themselves use it, to cover all
+the people who are trying to convince some one else that what they have
+is worth while whether it is an idea or a washing machine or a packet of
+drawings)--there is a certain rough type of salesman who tries to
+bluster his way through. He never lasts long as a salesman, though
+unfortunately he survives a good many years in various kinds of
+business. Even he must not be turned away rudely.
+
+"I'm sorry," the young man says to a person of this sort, "but the
+president has given positive orders that he must not be disturbed this
+morning. He is engaged in a very important transaction."
+
+The next man who approaches the door has an authentic claim on the
+president. It would be as great a calamity to turn him away as it would
+be to let some of the others in. He presents his card and says that he
+has an appointment. A truly courteous man, whenever possible, arranges
+an appointment beforehand. The young man takes the card, waves toward
+the reception room, and asks him to be seated while he finds out if the
+president is busy. He telephones to the secretary of the president,
+tells him who is calling, and asks if the president is ready to see him.
+If the answer is affirmative he asks if he will see him in his office or
+out in the reception room. It is much easier to get rid of a visitor
+from the entrance hall or reception room than from an inside office. If
+he says that he will see him in the reception room the girl reports to
+the visitor that he will come in a few minutes, offers him a magazine,
+and asks him to make himself at home. If the president says that he will
+see the visitor in his office the young man sends one of the messenger
+boys to usher him through the building.
+
+Now it may be that this man had no appointment with the president, but
+that he has used it as a pretext to break through. In this case, the
+secretary answers, after consulting his schedule, that the president has
+never heard of such a person and has no such appointment. A man of this
+sort is not worth a minute's consideration. He has shown himself
+dishonest at the outset with a petty contemptible dishonesty, and the
+temptation is to pitch him out on his head. But the young man says
+quietly:
+
+"His secretary says that the president has no appointment with you. I am
+afraid you have come to the wrong place. It must be some other Mr.
+Beacon."
+
+There is a note of finality in his voice which convinces the visitor
+that there is no use in going further.
+
+The next visitor is a woman who has come to have lunch with a friend of
+hers who works in the accounting department.
+
+"It is fifteen minutes before time for lunch," the young man answers. "I
+can call her now, of course, but if you would rather not disturb her,
+I'll tell her that you will wait for her in the reception room until she
+comes for you."
+
+The woman thanks him and agrees that it will be much better not to
+disturb her. The young man offers her a chair and a magazine and
+invites her to make herself comfortable.
+
+It grows monotonous in the telling for him to ask each of the visitors
+exactly the same questions (never exactly the same, of course) in the
+same cordial tone of voice and to tell them to make themselves
+comfortable in exactly the same way, but the means of attaining success
+in such a place lies in the fact that he greets each visitor as if he
+were the only one he had to attend to, and that he is, for the time
+being, at least, completely at the visitor's service. It is not so much
+what the young man says as the way he says it. "Good morning" can be
+spoken in such a way that it is an insult.
+
+_The Girl at the Telephone._ It is nerve-racking to stand at the door to
+receive callers, but it is much more so to sit at the switchboard and
+receive messages. The only point of contact is through the voice, but it
+is remarkable how much of one's personality the voice expresses. If you
+are tired your voice shows it; if you are cross your voice tells it; if
+you are worried, your voice betrays it. It is possible for one
+(everyone) to cultivate a pleasing voice. The telephone companies have
+learned this, and there is no part of her equipment upon which they
+spend more time and effort than on the voice of the telephone girl. It
+is interesting to know that their very excellent motto, "The voice with
+the smile wins" did not spring into being without thought. On the early
+bulletins this clumsy phrase was printed: "A smiling voice facilitates
+service."
+
+The girl at the telephone, even though she receives a thousand calls a
+day, must answer each one pleasantly and patiently. Some people call
+without a very clear idea of what they want, and the fact that business
+houses have so many different names for exactly the same job often makes
+it difficult for them to locate the person they are asking for, even
+when they are fairly sure who it is they want.
+
+"May I speak to your personnel manager?" comes the query over the wire
+to a girl who has never heard of a personnel manager.
+
+"I'm sorry, I did not quite hear you."
+
+The person at the other end repeats the word and the girl is sure she
+had it right the first time.
+
+"We have no personnel manager here. Maybe there is some one else who
+would do. If you will tell me what you want----"
+
+"I want a job."
+
+"Just a minute, please, I'll connect you with our employment manager."
+
+Advertising engineers, executive secretaries, and many others are old
+jobs masquerading under new names.
+
+More business men complain of the girl at the telephone than of any
+other person in business. She must, under the handicap of distance,
+accomplish exactly what the man at the door does, and must do it as
+efficiently and as courteously.
+
+No matter how angry the one who is calling becomes, no matter how
+profane he may be, no matter what he says, she must not answer back, and
+she must not slam the receiver down while he is talking. Perfect poise,
+an even temper, patience, and a pleasant voice under control--if she has
+these, and a vast number of the telephone girls have, she need not worry
+about the rules of courtesy. They will take care of themselves.
+
+The numbers that a girl in a business office has to call frequently she
+should have on a pad or card near the switchboard so that she will not
+have to look them up. Many business men ask the girl at the board to
+give them Blank and Blank or Smith and Smith instead of giving her the
+numbers of the two concerns. She then has to look them up, quite a
+difficult task when one has the headpiece on and calls coming in and
+going out every minute. To stop to look up one number often delays
+several, and it is a duty which should never devolve upon the girl
+whose business it is to send the calls through. The man who is calling,
+or his secretary, if he has one, or a person near the switchboard
+stationed there for the purpose should look up the numbers and give them
+to the operator.
+
+An efficient girl at the telephone sends numbers through as quickly as
+is humanly possible, but even then she is often scolded by nervous and
+harassed men who expect more than can really be done.
+
+Mr. Hunter has called Main 6785. It is busy. He waits. Hours pass. At
+least it seems so to him, and he grows impatient.
+
+"What's the matter with that number, Miss Fisher?"
+
+"I'm still trying, Mr. Hunter. I'll call you when they answer."
+
+The line continues busy. Mr. Hunter looks over the papers on his desk.
+His nervousness increases. He takes down the receiver again and asks
+what the trouble is. He does not get the number any more quickly this
+way, but it would be hard to convince him that he does not. The girl
+says quietly again that she is still trying. He clings to the receiver
+and in a few minutes she answers triumphantly, "Here they are," and the
+connection is made.
+
+The telephone girl in a big concern (or a little one) is constantly
+annoyed with people who have the wrong number. When it happens ten or
+twelve times in the course of a day--fortunately it is not usually so
+often--it is hard for her to keep a grip on her temper and answer
+pleasantly, "This is not the number you want," but the snappish answer
+always makes a bad situation worse, and the loss of temper which causes
+it drains the energy of the person who makes it. It is not merely the
+voice with the smile that wins; it is the disposition and temperament to
+which such a voice is the index.
+
+_The Secretary._ The next in the line of defense is the president's
+secretary. To him (and we use the masculine pronoun although this
+position, like a good many others, is often held by women even in the
+biggest organizations, where the responsibility attached to it is by no
+means small)--to him the president turns over the details of his day's
+work. He arranges the president's schedule and reminds him of the things
+he has forgotten and the things he is likely to forget. He receives all
+of his visitors by telephone first and many times disposes of their
+wants without having to connect them with the president at all. He
+receives many of the callers who are admitted by the man at the door
+and in the same way often takes care of them without disturbing the
+president. He knows more about the petty routine of the job than the
+president himself. He is accurate. He is responsible. He is patient. He
+is courteous.
+
+In order that he may be all these things it is necessary for the
+president to keep him well informed as to what he is doing and where he
+is going and what he is planning so that he can give intelligent answers
+to the people who come, so that he can keep things running smoothly when
+the president is away, so that he can answer without delay when the
+president asks whether he has a luncheon engagement on Thursday, and
+what he did with the memorandum from the circulation manager, and who is
+handling the shipping sheets.
+
+Men who have their minds on larger matters cannot keep all the details
+of their jobs in mind, but it is significant to know that most
+successful business men know with more than a fair degree of accuracy
+what these details amount to. Some secretaries feel very superior to the
+men who employ them because they can remember the date on which the
+representatives of the Gettem Company called and the employers cannot.
+The author knows a chauffeur who drives for a famous New York surgeon
+who thinks himself a much better man than the surgeon because he can
+remember the numbers of the houses where his patients and his friends
+live and the surgeon cannot. The author also knows a messenger boy who
+thinks himself a much bigger man than one of the most successful brokers
+in Wall Street because the broker sometimes gives him the same message
+twice within fifteen minutes, the second time after it has already been
+delivered.
+
+The secretary comes to the office every morning neatly clad and on time.
+The hour at which his employer comes in has nothing to do with him.
+There is a definite time at which he is expected to be at his desk. He
+is there.
+
+He opens the letters on his desk--and those addressed to the president
+come first to him--and sorts them, throwing aside the worthless
+advertising matter, saving that which may be of some interest, marking
+the letters that are to be referred to various other members of the
+house, and placing them in the memorandum basket, piling into one heap
+those that he cannot answer without first consulting the president, and
+into another those which must be answered by the president personally.
+Intimately personal letters often come mixed in with the rest of the
+mail. No man wants a secretary whom he cannot trust even with letters of
+this sort, but almost any secretary worth having will feel a certain
+amount of delicacy in opening them unless he is requested to do so. When
+these letters are from people who write often the secretary grows to
+recognize the handwriting from the outside of the envelope, and
+therefore does not need to open them. In other cases it is sometimes
+possible to distinguish a personal from a business letter. These should
+be handled according to the wishes of the man to whom they are directed.
+Many business men turn practically everything--even the settlement of
+their family affairs--over to their secretaries. It is a personal
+matter, and the secretary's part in it is to carry out the wishes of his
+employer.
+
+By the time the mail is sorted the president has come in.
+
+He rings for his secretary, telephones for him, sends a messenger for
+him, or else goes to his desk himself and asks him to come in and take
+dictation. There is no special courtesy or discourtesy in any of these
+methods. It depends on how far apart the desks are, how busy he is, and
+a number of other things. He does not yell for his secretary to come in.
+He manages to get him there quietly. It is not necessary for him to rise
+when the secretary enters (even if the secretary is a woman) though he
+may do so (and it is a very gracious thing, especially if the secretary
+is a woman) but he should greet him (or her) with a pleasant
+"Good-morning."
+
+The secretary takes his place in the comfortable chair that has been
+provided for him, with notebook and pencil in hand and at least one
+pencil in reserve. He waits for the president to begin, and listens
+closely so that he may transcribe as rapidly as he speaks. If he fails
+to understand he waits until they come to the end of a sentence before
+asking his employer to repeat. It is much better to do so then than to
+depend on puzzling it out later or coming back and asking him after he
+has forgotten what was said.
+
+Telephone interruptions and others may come during the dictation but the
+secretary waits until he is dismissed or until the pile of letters has
+disappeared.
+
+When the president has finished it is the secretary's time to begin
+talking. He consults him about the various letters upon which he needs
+his advice and makes notations in shorthand on them. He reports on the
+various calls that have come in and the house memoranda. A good
+secretary reads and digests these before turning them over to his
+employer, and in most cases gives the gist of the memorandum instead of
+the memorandum itself. It saves time.
+
+The president's secretary usually has a secretary of his own, a woman,
+let us say, or a girl whose preliminary training has been good and whose
+record for the year and a half she has been with the company has been
+excellent.
+
+She comes to her desk on time every morning as fresh as a daisy and as
+inconspicuous. The relation that she bears to the president's secretary
+is much the same as the relation that he bears to the president. She
+gets the letters that are addressed to him and sorts them in the same
+way that he does those of the president. On days when he is absent she
+takes care of all of his work, in so far as she is able, as well as her
+own.
+
+Her employer is considerate of her always. He does not make a practice
+of taking ten or fifteen minutes of her lunch hour or five or ten
+minutes overtime at the close of the day, but when there is a good
+reason why he should ask her to remain he does so, asking courteously if
+she would mind staying. If she is genuinely interested in her work--and
+this young lady is--she will stay, but if she has an even better reason
+why she should go she explains briefly that it is impossible to stay. He
+never imposes heavier burdens upon her than she can bear, but he does
+not hesitate to ask her to do whatever needs to be done, and he does it
+with a "Please" and a "Thank you," and not with a "See, here" and a
+"Say, listen to me, now." She is a very pretty and attractive girl, but
+the man she is working for is a gentleman. To him she is his secretary,
+and if he were ever in danger of forgetting it she would be quick to
+remind him. She does not go around with a chip on her shoulder all the
+time, and she talks freely with the various men around the office just
+as she does with the women and girls, but it is in an impersonal way.
+She never permits intimate attentions from her immediate employer or any
+one else.
+
+_Executives._ "Executive" is a large, loose word which rolls smoothly
+off the tongue of far too many business men to-day. Office boys begin to
+think in terms of it before they are out of knee trousers. "I could hold
+down the job," said a youngster who had hurt his hand and whose business
+was to carry a bag of mail from a suburban factory into New York, "if I
+could get some one to carry the bag." "I can do the work," say smart
+young men in the "infant twenties" (and many others--there is no age
+limit), "but I must have a man to look after the details."
+
+The way to an executive position is through details. Work, plain hard
+work, is the foundation of every enduring job, and the executive who
+thinks he can do without it has a sharp reckoning day ahead. In most
+places the executives have worked their way up slowly, and at no time
+along the way have they had that large contempt for small jobs which
+characterizes so many young men in business. They have been perfectly
+willing to do whatever came to hand.
+
+But after all this is said, the fact remains that an executive is
+successful not so much because of his own ability as because of his
+power to recognize ability in other men. He is--and this is true of
+every executive from the president down--the servant of his people in
+much the same way that the President of the United States is the servant
+of the American people. This means that he must be readily accessible to
+them, and must listen as courteously to them as if they were important
+visitors from across the sea or somewhere else.
+
+Many executives--and this was true especially during the war--have
+surrounded themselves with a tangle of red tape which has to be unwound
+every time an employee (or any one else) wants to get near enough to ask
+a question. This is absurd. Sensible men destroy elaborate plans of
+management and find they get along better without them. The Baldwin
+Locomotive Works, which has a hundred years of solid reputation behind
+it, has no management plans. "There is about the place an atmosphere of
+work, and work without frills or feathers," and this is essentially true
+of every business that is built to last. Look at the organizations
+which, because of war conditions, rose into a prosperity they had never
+enjoyed before. Most of them have collapsed, and the little men who rose
+with them (so many of them and so much too small for their jobs) have
+collapsed with them.
+
+In the big reliable concerns, and the small ones, too, the high
+executives are easily approached, especially by the members of the
+organization. In many of the open offices--and open offices have done
+much to create a feeling of comradeship among workers--the desk of the
+general manager is out on the floor with the desks of the rank and file
+of the employees with nothing to distinguish it from theirs except the
+fact that there is a bigger man behind it. A real man does not need a
+lot of elaborate decorations. They annoy him.
+
+There are two sides to this, however. Visitors from the outside are not
+the only ones who are likely to waste the time of other people, and a
+busy man has to protect himself from indoor nuisances as well as those
+that drift in from the outside. Some do it by means of secretaries, but
+a good executive needs no barrier at all between himself and his own
+men. They learn soon enough--we are speaking now of a good executive,
+remember--that there is no use in going to him unless there is some
+definite reason why they should, and that the more briefly and directly
+they present their problem the more likely they are to have it settled.
+
+When an executive receives a caller (or when any man in a business house
+receives a caller) he should _receive_ him and not merely tolerate him.
+A young advertising man who began several years ago had two very
+interesting experiences with two gruff executives in two different
+companies. Both consented to see him, both kept on writing at their
+desks after he entered and gave him scant attention throughout the
+interview. Apparently they were both successful business men. Certainly
+they both held positions that would indicate it. Yet both of them a few
+years later came to the young advertising man at different times looking
+for jobs. Needless to say neither found a place with him, not because he
+held a grudge against them, but simply because he knew what kind of men
+they were and that they could not help in the kind of business he was
+trying to build.
+
+From the beginning of the interview the host should do all he can to
+make his visitor comfortable. You see a lot in certain magazines about
+setting the visitor at a disadvantage by giving him an awkward chair,
+making him face the light and grilling him with questions. It is pure
+nonsense.
+
+It is very gracious for a man to rise to greet a caller and extend his
+hand, especially if the caller is young and ill at ease. It is
+imperative if it is an old man or a woman. He should ask the visitor to
+be seated before he sits down himself.
+
+"Well, young man, what can I do for you?" is hardly a polite way of
+opening an interview. The host should wait with a cordially receptive
+air until his guest begins, unless he is in a great hurry. Then he
+frankly tells the caller so and asks him to make his business brief.
+
+Interruptions come even in the midst of conversations with important
+visitors, but no visitor is so important as to permit neglect of one's
+employees. These should be met courteously and dispatched quickly. The
+host must always ask the pardon of the guest before turning to the
+telephone or to a messenger, and if the guest is an employee the rule is
+the same.
+
+At the conclusion of the interview the host rises and shakes hands with
+the departing visitor but does not necessarily go with him (or her) to
+the door or the elevator, as the case may be. This is an additional
+courtesy in which a busy man cannot always indulge. The essential part
+of every interview is that the visitor shall state what he wants, that
+the host shall give the best answer in his power, and then the sooner
+the visitor departs the better for all concerned.
+
+_The Rank and File._ This is the largest group in every business. It is
+the one that fluctuates most. It is the one from which the discards are
+made. It is the one from which officers are chosen. It is the one in
+which the real growth of a business takes place. And by the same token
+it is the one, generally speaking, where there is most discourtesy.
+Promotion depends upon the possession of this quality much more than
+people realize. Many a man with actual ability to hold a high position
+is not given an opportunity to do so because the men who employ him
+realize that he would antagonize those who worked under him.
+
+There are among the body of employees in every concern (even the very
+best) discontented members. In most cases, indeed, in nearly all cases
+except where there is a chronic grudge against life which is not
+affected by external circumstances, these are weeded out, and those
+with habitual grudges are weeded out along with the others or else are
+kept in minor places. Perhaps it would be more nearly correct to say
+they keep themselves there. Sometimes a subordinate feels that he is
+unfairly treated by his immediate superior. He wishes to go to the man
+above him in authority. Is it right for him to do so?
+
+It is an unwritten law that each worker shall be loyal to the head of
+his department. Suppose the head does not deserve it?
+
+There are three courses open to the worker. He can leave the job and
+find another in a different organization. He can go to the head of the
+department and state the case to him. If this should fail he may appeal
+to the man above him, but _he should never go over the head of his own
+immediate superior without first telling him that he intends to do it_.
+
+This is an important rule. It holds whether one has a grievance to
+present or a suggestion. Constructive plans should first be talked over
+with one's immediate superior, and with his approval carried to the next
+man, or he may carry them himself. If this superior is the sort of man
+with whom you are constantly at loggerheads, you had much better get out
+and get a place somewhere else. And if you find that continually you
+are in hot water with the men who have authority over you, you may be
+very sure that the fault is not altogether theirs.
+
+Subordinates usually have an idea that the heads of their departments
+leave all of the work to them. Well, as a matter of fact, they do leave
+a large part of it. If they did not they would have no excuse for having
+subordinates. The reward of good work is more work. This is less of a
+hardship than it sounds. Sir James Barrie once quoted Dr. Johnson's
+statement that doubtless the Lord could have made a better fruit than
+the strawberry, but that he doubtless never did, and added to it that He
+doubtless could have created something that was more fun than hard work,
+but that He doubtless never did.
+
+The subway guards in New York City say that the rush which comes just
+before five o'clock (the closing time of most of the business houses) is
+as great as the one which comes just after. They call the persons in the
+former rush the clock watchers. They have left work about fifteen
+minutes early, and to-morrow morning--business experience has taught
+this--they will come in fifteen minutes late. For the most part these
+are the discontented workers who spend "60 per cent of their time in
+doing their job, and 40 per cent in doing the boss."
+
+It has always been considered a breach of good manners to pull out one's
+watch and look at it in company. It is true in the office as well as in
+the drawing room. The clock watchers are impolite. It has also been
+considered a breach of good manners to hold a guest against his will
+against the conventional hour for his departure. The employers who
+habitually keep their employees after closing hours are equally
+impolite. It is a question of honor, too. Time is money, and the time
+grafters, whether employers or employees, are dishonest.
+
+When one employee goes over to the desk of another it is not necessary
+for the second to rise. The first should wait until the one at the desk
+looks up before speaking unless he is so absorbed in his work that he
+does not glance up after a minute or two. Then he should interrupt with
+"I beg your pardon." It makes no difference if one of the employees is a
+woman and the other is a man. Work at an office can be seriously impeded
+if every time one person goes to the desk of another the other rises. So
+many times the whole conversation covers less time than it takes to get
+out of one's chair and sit back down again. In some places subordinates
+are required to stand when a superior speaks to them, but as a general
+thing it is not necessary. In such houses it is correct to play the
+game according to the general standard and to act according to the rules
+set down by the men who are in charge of affairs.
+
+There is no person so wretched or so poor or so miserable but that he
+can find other people who are more wretched, poorer, or more miserable.
+At the same time there is no person so superior, so wealthy, or gifted
+but that he can find other people who are more superior, more wealthy,
+and more gifted. It is a part of good manners to recognize superiority
+when one finds it. Youngsters entering business can sit at the feet of
+the older men in the same business and learn a great deal. Knowledge did
+not enter the world with the present generation any more than it will
+depart from it when the present generation dies. It is just as well for
+young people to realize this. Age has much to teach them. Experience has
+much to teach them, and so have men and women of extraordinary ability.
+"I have never met a man," says a teacher of business men, "from whom I
+could not learn something." All of us are born with the capacity to
+learn. It is those who develop it who amount to something.
+
+Petty quarrels should be disregarded and grudges should be forgotten.
+This piece of advice is needed more by women in business than by men.
+Men have learned--it has taken them several thousand years--to fight and
+shake hands. They have a happy way of forgetting their squabbles--this
+is a general truth--after a little while, and two men who were yesterday
+abusing one another with hot and angry words are to-day walking together
+down the hall smiling and talking as gently as you please.
+
+_The Office Boy._ If the office boy in a big business house where much
+of the work is done at a white-hot tension--the office boy in a busy
+Wall Street office during the peak of the day's rush, for example--could
+write his intimate impressions they would make good reading.
+
+The temper of the great American business man is an uncertain quantity.
+Famous for good humor and generosity as a general thing, he is, for all
+that, at his worst moments the terror of the office boy's life. Nervous,
+worried, tired, and exasperated, he is likely to "take it out" on the
+office boy if there is no one else at hand. There is no defense for such
+conduct--even the man who is guilty would not, the next day in his
+calmer moments, defend it. Meantime, what shall the office boy do?
+
+A hot, tired man with papers fluttering over his desk, his telephone
+ringing, and three men waiting in line to talk to him about serious
+problems connected with the business, yells, "What do you want?" when
+the office boy comes to answer the bell.
+
+"You rang for me," the boy answers.
+
+"I rang half an hour ago," the man snaps.
+
+In reality he rang two minutes before. Shall the office boy remind him
+of this?
+
+Not if he values his job!
+
+Of course it is unjust, but one of the first laws of discipline is to
+learn to be composed in the face of injustice, and the first law of
+courtesy for the office boy (and other employees would do just as well
+to follow) is: Don't be too harsh with the boss!
+
+It is said that the grizzly bear, who is a very strict mother, often
+spanks her cubs when she herself has done something foolish. Julia Ellen
+Rogers tells a story of an explorer who came suddenly upon a bear with
+two cubs. He was so frightened that he stood still for a minute or two
+before he could decide which way to run. Meantime the bear, fully as
+frightened as he, turned and fled, spanking the two cubs at every jump
+in spite of the fact that each was already going as fast as its legs
+could carry it. "It was so unexpected," continues Miss Rogers, "and so
+funny to see those little bears look around reproachfully at their
+angry parent every time they felt the weight of her paw, helping them to
+hurry, that the man sat down and laughed until he cried."
+
+It was not funny to the cubs.
+
+Cases in which the office boy is maltreated are exceptional, though
+cases in which he is misunderstood are not. Most office boys have not
+one boss but many. There should always be one person from whom they
+receive their general orders and to whom they go with their troubles. (A
+youngster should have very few troubles to report. It is usually the
+worthless ones who report.)
+
+In most places the several office boys are stationed at a certain point,
+a desk or a table, with one of their number more or less in charge. The
+rule is that one person be always at the desk.
+
+All right. Six office boys. Five out on errands. One at the desk. The
+bell rings. The boy keeps his place. The bell rings again. The boy keeps
+his place. The bell rings a third time, long and insistently, but the
+youngster, with a steadfastness worthy of the boy who stood on the
+burning deck, still keeps his place.
+
+A second later an angry official bounces out and wants to know what on
+earth is the matter and declares that he will report the desk to the
+manager. Meanwhile one of the missing five has returned, and the
+youngster who had held the place so long under fire takes the message
+from the man and delivers it.
+
+If the boy should see an opening--and most business men except those
+funny little executives puffed up with their own importance are ready
+enough to listen--he may explain how it happened, but if he has to enter
+a shouting contest it is best to stay silent.
+
+The law of business courtesy--no matter how far away from this a
+discussion goes it always swings back--is the Golden Rule. The
+subordinate who feels himself neglected by the men in positions above
+him might check himself by honestly asking himself how he appears to
+those beneath him. It is interesting to know that the one who complains
+most is usually the one who is haughtiest when he enters into
+conversation with the employees, who, he thinks, are not quite worth his
+notice. He feels blighted because the president does not stop to say
+"Good-morning" in the hall, but it is beneath his dignity to say
+"Good-morning" to the girl who collects his mail or "Good-night" to the
+janitor who comes to dust his desk when the day's work is over. The
+means of attaining courtesy--and if you have it yourself you will find
+it in other people--is by watching your own actions. Teach no one but
+yourself. Worry about no one's behavior but your own. That is job enough
+for any one.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+IN A DEPARTMENT STORE
+
+
+Let us now see courtesy at work in a big department store.
+
+Mr. Hopkins has taken a morning off to do a little shopping before he
+goes away on his summer vacation. He wants to buy two shirts, a trunk, a
+toy for his baby, and a present for his wife. He is not sure what he
+wants for the wife and baby.
+
+Mr. Hopkins does not like to shop. He remembers his last expedition. A
+haberdashery had sent him a cordial letter asking him to open an
+account. He did so, but one morning later when he went in to buy a
+waistcoat the rude and inefficient service he met disgusted him so that
+he has not been back since. He knew exactly what he wanted and asked for
+it. "Oh, no," answered the smart young clerk. "You don't want that.
+People have not been wearing waistcoats like that for years. This is
+what you want," and he exhibited a different style altogether. It
+happened that Mr. Hopkins knew better than the clerk what he wanted,
+and the fact that people had not been wearing waistcoats like it made no
+difference to him. As a matter of fact, the only reason the clerk made
+the remark was that he did not have them in stock, and thought perhaps
+he could sell by substituting.
+
+There are other haberdasheries where the service is distinctly good, but
+Mr. Hopkins decides to go to a department store instead. Haberdasheries,
+however excellent, do not carry toys for one's baby nor presents for
+one's wife.
+
+Helpem's store has been warmly recommended. He will go there. It is his
+first visit.
+
+When he enters the door he is bewildered by an array of women's scarfs
+and gloves and perfume bottles, handkerchiefs and parasols, handbags,
+petticoats, knick-knacks, and whatnot. He almost loses courage and
+begins backing toward the door when he catches sight of a man in uniform
+standing near the entrance. He sees that this man is directing the tides
+of shoppers that are surging in, and approaches him.
+
+"Where can I find the trunks?"
+
+"Third floor. Elevator in the rear," the man answers briefly (but not
+gruffly). People who have to answer thousands of questions must be
+brief.
+
+As he passes down the aisle Mr. Hopkins, who is very observant, notices
+that all of the girls--most of the clerks are girls--are dressed in a
+pleasant gray. This gives an agreeable uniform tone to a large
+establishment which would break up into jarring patches of color if each
+clerk were allowed to wear whatever color happened to strike her fancy.
+Good idea, Mr. Hopkins thinks, very necessary where there are many, many
+clerks.
+
+He does not have much trouble getting the trunk. He knows pretty well
+what he wants, and the obliging salesman convinces him that the trunk
+will probably last forever by assuring him that an elephant could dance
+a jig on it and never make a dent. He asks Mr. Hopkins if he wants his
+name on it. Mr. Hopkins had not thought of it, but he does. No, upon
+second thought, he will have only his initials stenciled on in dull red,
+W. H. H. The trunk will be delivered in the afternoon and he goes away
+well satisfied.
+
+The shirts are somewhat more difficult. He is attached to a certain kind
+of collar and he likes madras shirts with little black stripes or
+figures in them. The man shows him white ones and wide striped ones and
+colored ones with the right collar, and he almost decides that the place
+does not keep madras shirts with little black figures in them, when he
+suddenly realizes that he was so intent on getting the collar that he
+forgot to say anything about the material or color. He begins again,
+tells the clerk exactly what he wants, and in a few minutes the proper
+shirts are before him and he is happy. While the clerk is folding them,
+he asks about ties. It is a good thing. Mr. Hopkins remembers that he
+has forgotten ties. They have great bargains in ties. He drifts over to
+the counter and presently has three lovely ones. One is red, and Mr.
+Hopkins resolves to be more careful than he was with the last red one.
+His wife burned it. He must keep this hidden.
+
+The ties remind him that he needs a bathrobe. An agreeable clerk sells
+him a dull figured bathrobe, comfortable and light for summer and
+guaranteed to wash, and tells him that a pajama sale is in progress
+about four counters away.
+
+When he has bought six pairs of pajamas he begins to think of the baby's
+present. Toys are on the top floor. The girl there--a wise department
+store always chooses carefully for this place--is very helpful. She asks
+about the baby, how old he is, what toys he has, what toys he has asked
+for, and so on. Mr. Hopkins tells her, and after showing him several
+ingenious mechanical contrivances, she suggests a train with a real
+track to run on. Mr. Hopkins is delighted. The girl asks if the
+youngster likes to read. He does not, but he likes to be read to. "Why
+don't you take him a book?" and in a few minutes he has the "Just-So
+Stories" tucked under his arm. As he leaves the girl smiles, "Come back
+to see us," she says.
+
+All the clerks have said this. The clerk who sold the shirts said, while
+they stood waiting for the change, that he could depend on them. They
+would not shrink and the colors would not run. "We are here in the
+city," he continued (the store was in New York), "but we have our
+regular customers just as if we were in a small town. We don't try to
+make just one sale and get by with it. We want you to come back."
+
+The girl at the toy counter tells Mr. Hopkins that there is a woman
+downstairs who will help him select something for his wife. He goes back
+to the man in uniform to locate her and finds her in a secluded booth on
+the first floor. She asks several questions about whether he would like
+china or silver, furniture or linen, but Mr. Hopkins wants to give his
+wife something personal--something she can use or wear. He has been
+married several years but not long enough to know that this is a
+dangerous thing to do, but the woman is wise. She suggests a silk
+parasol, a kimono, or a dozen handkerchiefs.
+
+Such a service as this is not possible except in very large shops, but
+in most places clerks are quick to respond with suggestions for gifts.
+There is a pleasure about buying them and selling them that does not go
+with ordinary transactions.
+
+When he buys a parasol the clerk suggests that they have a very large
+assortment of handbags, but Mr. Hopkins's day's work is done, and the
+clerk does not insist. None of the clerks in a good department store is
+insistent. They offer suggestions and stand ready to serve, but they do
+not try to impose their ideas or their goods upon the customers. Mr.
+Hopkins leaves well satisfied with himself and his purchases. He will
+come back.
+
+The trunk is delivered in the afternoon, not by the regular wagon, but
+by an express company. It is a busy season. Mr. Hopkins is still further
+delighted. These people keep their promises. And as he tips the man who
+brought it up--he had to climb three flights of stairs--the man gives
+him a card. "Here's one of the boss's cards," he says, "in case you want
+any hauling done." Without doubt the man has been instructed by the boss
+to distribute his cards, but he does it with such a grace that it seems
+to be on his own initiative.
+
+It rarely happens that a business man or woman can shop in the leisurely
+manner described above. Most of their shopping has to be done during the
+half hour after lunch or during a frantic few minutes snatched at the
+beginning or the end of the day's work. One morning Mr. Hopkins had to
+leave home without a collar because he forgot to send the dirty ones to
+the laundry (his wife was away that week) and dashed into a little shop
+to get one on the way to the office. He would have felt like murdering a
+clerk who wanted to show him something nice in the way of gloves or
+mufflers, and he would have had a hard time to restrain himself from
+violence if the clerk had started in on a eulogy of a new shipment of
+English tweeds.
+
+An intelligent clerk can usually tell when his customer is in a tearing
+hurry. It is an unpropitious time to make suggestions. The clerk must
+see things from the customer's point of view. It is permissible to
+suggest something else in place of the thing he has asked for but it is
+not good manners to make fun of it or to insist upon a substitute.
+Recently a woman wanted to buy a rug for her automobile. She knew just
+what she wanted, but the bright young clerk insisted that she wanted
+something else. She finally bought the rug, but it was in spite of the
+clerk rather than because of him. Too many salesmen kill their sales by
+thinking and talking only of their product. The customer is not half so
+interested in that as he is in himself. Good salesmanship relates the
+product to the customer, and does it in such a way that the customer is
+hardly aware of how it is done.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+A WHILE WITH A TRAVELING MAN
+
+
+_In a Big City._ We will suppose that our traveling man has his
+headquarters in some big city--New York, Chicago, San Francisco, it does
+not matter--and that he has several calls to make before he goes out on
+the road.
+
+There are two kinds of salesmen, those who make only one sale to a
+customer and those who sell something that has to be renewed
+periodically. The first sell pianos, real estate, encyclopedias, and so
+on; the second sell raw materials and supplies. The salesman whom we are
+to follow is in the second group.
+
+He has--and so have most men who do this kind of selling--a regular
+routine that he follows, adding new names to the list and deleting old
+ones as seems expedient. At this particular time he has several old
+customers to visit and one or two new prospects to investigate before he
+leaves town.
+
+It is unnecessary for him to make arrangements beforehand to gain
+access to the old customers. They know him and they are always glad to
+see him. But if there is a chance that the customer may be out of town,
+or if it is during a busy season, he telephones ahead to make sure. He
+prefers indefinite to definite appointments, especially if he has to see
+two or three people during the course of a morning or an afternoon; that
+is, he would rather have an appointment to come some time between ten
+and eleven or between three and four than to have one for exactly half
+past ten or a quarter of three. It is impossible to tell how long
+interviews will last. Sometimes when the salesman counts on staying an
+hour he is through in five minutes and sometimes when he thinks he can
+arrange things in fifteen minutes he finds himself strung up for half a
+day.
+
+The new prospects--there are three on this particular morning--he
+handles in different ways. To one he has a note of introduction from a
+mutual friend. To another he has written a letter stating why he wishes
+to call and asking when it will be convenient for him to do so. The
+third, whom he knows by reputation as a "hard customer" (in the slang
+sense of the word) who will have nothing to do with salesmen of any
+sort, he decides to approach directly, trusting to his own presence to
+get past the girl at the front door and whomsoever else stands between
+him and the man he wants to see. He does not write, because he knows
+that the man would tear up the letter and he does not telephone, because
+he knows that the man would not promise to see him and that if he were
+to call after such a telephone conversation his chances for success
+would be lessened.
+
+Our salesman is careful with his appearance. He bathes and shaves every
+morning and takes special care that his linen is clean and that his
+shoes are polished. He does not ornament himself with a lot of jewelry,
+and the material of which his suit is made is plain. He presents, if you
+should see him on the street, the appearance of a clean, solid, healthy,
+progressive American citizen. He is poised but he is not aggressive. He
+is persistent but he is not obstinate.
+
+The best public speakers, it is said, never get over a sinking feeling
+of fear during the few minutes just before time for them to speak. It
+vanishes as soon as they get to their feet or a very few minutes
+afterward, and, strange as it may seem, it is this very fear that gives
+them their power on the platform. The fact that they have the dreadful
+feeling nerves them to strenuous effort, and it is this effort that
+makes the orator. In the same way the best salesmen are those who never
+get over the fear that perhaps they have not thought out the best way
+to handle the situation ahead of them. They forget the fear as they
+begin to talk to the prospect, but the fact that it is subconsciously
+present makes the difference between the real salesman and the "dub."
+
+Did you ever get to the door of a house you were about to enter and then
+turn and walk around the block before you rang the bell? Did you ever
+walk around the block six or eight times? So have we. Especially on
+those Wednesday and Sunday evenings when we used to go calling. There
+are not many salesmen who have not had this experience and who have not,
+upon hearing that a prospect they dreaded was out, turned away from the
+door with a prayer of deep thanksgiving. All of which is by way of
+saying that selling is not an easy job.
+
+The salesman whose career we are following for a short time always has
+that little feeling of nervousness before an interview. It is deeper
+than ever when he approaches the "hard customer," and it is not lessened
+in the least degree when he finds a painted and marceled flapper at the
+door who looks at him without a word. (Incidentally, she likes his
+looks.)
+
+He takes out his card and asks her to give it to Mr. Green and say that
+he is calling.
+
+"He won't see you," the girl says.
+
+"Will you tell him, please, that I am here, all the same? Wait a
+minute."
+
+He takes the card and scribbles on it, "I want only five minutes of your
+time," and hands it to the girl again.
+
+She carries it away and presently returns saying that Mr. Green is busy
+and cannot see him.
+
+"I knew he wouldn't," she adds.
+
+"He must be very busy," the salesman says. "When shall I be most likely
+to find him free?"
+
+"He's no busier now than usual," the girl responds. "He's smoking a
+cigar and looking out the window."
+
+"Will you tell him, please, that I am coming back to-morrow at the same
+time?"
+
+The girl sees that he is very much in earnest. She respects him for his
+quiet persistence and because he has not tried to "kid" her. She would
+most likely have joined in heartily if he had, but he would never have
+got past her.
+
+She goes back into the office and returns with word that the salesman
+may come in if he will not take more than five minutes. He thanks the
+girl and goes into the office where the "hard customer" is seated. He
+does not rise, he does not say "Good morning," and he does not take the
+cigar out of his mouth, but this does not disconcert the salesman. He
+wastes no time in preliminaries, but after a brief greeting, plunges at
+once into his proposition, stating the essential points clearly and in
+terms of this man's business. He knows what the customer needs pretty
+accurately for he has taken the trouble to find out. He is not
+broadcasting. He is using line radio, and everything he says is directed
+against a single mark. The prospect is interested. He puts the cigar
+aside. The salesman concludes.
+
+"I'm sorry," he says, "but my five minutes are up. Will you let me come
+back some day when you are not so busy and tell you more about it?"
+
+"Sit where you are," the other says, and begins firing questions.
+
+Half an hour later the salesman pockets the order he wanted and makes
+ready to depart, feeling that he has found another friend. The "hard
+customer" is ashamed of his gruff reception and apologizes for it. "I've
+been so bothered with agents and drummers and traveling men that I've
+promised myself never to see another one as long as I live," he says.
+
+"I can well understand that," the salesman answers. "It is one of the
+hardest things we are up against, the fact that there are so many
+four-flushers out trying to sell things."
+
+He goes next to see the man with whom he has made an appointment by mail
+and finds that he has been called out of town on business. He talks with
+his secretary, who expresses a polite regret that they were unable to
+locate him in time to tell him that his visit would be of no use. He
+asks if there is some one else who can take charge of the matter, but
+the girl replies that all such things have to come before Mr. Thompson.
+He will not be back until next week, and by that time the salesman will
+be out on the road.
+
+"I'll have another representative of our house, Mr. Hamilton, call," he
+says. "He will write to find out when it will be convenient for him to
+come."
+
+The third man on his list is the one to whom he has the letter of
+introduction. This is one of his best prospects. That is why he took
+such pains to arm himself with the letter. He has no trouble getting
+inside. The man is very busy but he thrusts it completely aside for the
+moment. He does not have to say "Be brief." Our salesman has been in the
+game long enough to know that he must not be anything else.
+
+"Frankly," he says at the end of the talk, "I am not interested. I have
+no doubt that what you say is true. In fact, I have heard of your firm
+before and know that its reputation is good. But I buy my material, and
+have for years, from Hicks and Hicks."
+
+"It is a good reliable concern," the salesman responds, "and there is no
+reason why you should desert them. They depend upon you as much as you
+do upon them. But if they happen to be short of something you want in a
+hurry, please remember that our product is as good as theirs. You can
+depend upon it with as much certainty."
+
+"Thank you, I will," the prospect answers and the interview is over.
+
+Did the salesman act wisely? Would he have gained anything by proving
+that his house was superior to Hicks and Hicks? Not if the customer was
+worth having. This salesman never forgets that his part of the job is to
+build up business for his own firm, and not to tear down business for
+other firms. As it stands, he has in this case established a feeling of
+good will for the house he represents, and has placed it in such a light
+that if the rival concern should be afflicted with a strike or a fire or
+any of a hundred or two disasters which might lessen or suspend its
+output, the customer will probably turn to the salesman's house. And if
+Hicks and Hicks should sell out or go into bankruptcy the salesman will
+have won for his own house a steady customer of great value.
+
+_In the Sleeping Car._ The wise traveling man--and our salesman is
+wise--always engages sleeping accommodations on the train in advance.
+This time he has the lower berth in No. 9.
+
+When he comes in to take his seat he finds that a woman has the upper
+berth in the same compartment. He is reading a newspaper and she is
+reading a magazine. He says nothing until toward evening, and then he
+offers to exchange places with her. She thanks him cordially, explains
+that she was late in securing a berth and that this was all she could
+get. She is very grateful and the transfer is made.
+
+He goes into the smoking car and meets there several men who are talking
+together. He joins them and the conversation runs along pleasantly
+enough until one of the number begins to retail dirty stories. Some of
+the others try to switch him off to another subject but he is wound up
+and nothing short of a sledge hammer will stop him until he has run
+down. Our salesman has a healthy loathing for this sort of thing. He has
+a good fund of stories himself--most traveling men have--and in the
+course of his journeyings he has heard many of the kind that the
+foul-minded man in the smoking car is retailing with such delight. He
+never retells stories of that nature, and he never, when he can avoid
+it, listens to them. He knows that he cannot stop the man, but after a
+little while he gets up quietly and leaves. Another man follows him and
+the two stand on the rear platform of the train until time to go to bed.
+
+Men who are traveling together often converse without knowing one
+another's names, and it is correct that they should. Only a prig refuses
+to speak to a man on a train or a boat because he does not know his
+name. Opening conversation with a stranger is not always easy, and
+should be avoided unless it comes about in a natural way. The stranger
+may not want to converse. It is correct for a man who wishes to talk to
+another first to introduce himself. "My name is Hammond," he says, and
+the man to whom he says it responds by holding out his hand (this is the
+more gracious way, but he may omit this part of it, if he likes) and
+pronouncing his own name. The same rule holds when the travelers are
+women.
+
+Our salesman goes to bed early.
+
+Two men have the compartment across from his. They seem very much
+interested in each other, for they continue to talk after they have gone
+to bed. In order to make themselves heard they have almost to scream,
+and the raucous sound of their voices is much more disturbing than the
+sound of the wheels grinding against the rails. It is hard to sleep on a
+train even under favorable circumstances. Our salesman has a strenuous
+day ahead of him--most of his days are strenuous--and the noise is
+keeping him awake.
+
+He could throw on his bathrobe, climb down and remonstrate with the two
+men across the way. It would be correct for him to do so, but it would
+hardly be expedient. People who are thoughtless enough to be noisy late
+at night are often rude enough to be very unpleasant when any one
+interferes. The salesman has no real authority over them, but the porter
+on duty at night is supposed to see that a certain amount of peace and
+quiet is maintained. The salesman rings the bell, and when the porter
+appears, asks him if he would mind begging the two men across the aisle
+to lower their voices. The porter has had years of experience. He has
+developed a soft, pleasant way of asking people to be quiet, and in a
+few minutes the car is still except for the inevitable sound of the
+train and the snoring of an old lady near the end of the car. This last
+cannot be helped. It must be endured, and our salesman composes himself
+into a deep slumber.
+
+Dressing and undressing in a sleeping car are among the most difficult
+operations to perform gracefully. There are no rules. Most men prefer
+staying in their berths to making the attempt in the crowded dressing
+rooms. Some divide the process between the two, but no gentleman ever
+goes streaking down the aisle half-dressed. He is either fully clothed
+or else he is wrapped in a bathrobe or a dressing gown.
+
+When our salesman comes in to breakfast the next morning there is only
+one vacant place, a seat opposite a young woman at a table for two. He
+crosses over and sits down, first asking if he may do so. In
+well-managed dining cars and restaurants, the seating is taken care of
+by the head waiter. He never places a person at a table with some one
+else without asking permission of the one who is already seated. It is
+never permissible for a stranger to go to a table that is already taken
+if there is a vacant one available. The young lady bows and smiles. She
+has already sent in her order. They talk during the meal quite as if
+they had been introduced and had met by appointment instead of by
+accident. She does not introduce herself, nor does he introduce himself.
+When she has finished she asks the waiter for her bill. She pays it
+herself--our salesman has too much delicacy to offer to do so--and tips
+the waiter. Then with a nod and a smile she is gone.
+
+This salesman is a chivalrous traveler. Whenever there is an opportunity
+to render a service to a woman (or to any one else) he takes pleasure in
+doing it. He does not place women under financial obligation to him,
+however, and he is careful not to annoy them with attentions. He has
+many times found a taxi for a woman traveling alone or with children
+when they have had the same destination; he has helped women decipher
+time tables; he has carried bundles and suitcases and baskets and boxes
+for old ladies who have not yet learned in all their long, long lives
+that the way to travel is with as little, instead of with as much,
+baggage as possible; and he has helped young mothers establish
+themselves comfortably in place with their children. But he has
+never--and he has been traveling a good many years now--thrust himself
+upon a woman and he has never embarrassed one by his attentions.
+
+He does not "treat" the men whom he meets by accident during his
+travels. They often go in to meals together but each one settles his own
+bill, and when they come to the end of the journey they are without
+obligations toward one another. It is much pleasanter so.
+
+The salesman does not, as a rule, tip the porter until he leaves the
+train, and the amount that he gives then is according to what the porter
+has done for him. If he has been in the car a good many hours and if he
+has had to ask the porter for many things, such as bringing ice water at
+night, silencing objectionable travelers, bringing pillows and tables
+during the day, not to mention polishing his shoes and brushing his coat
+every morning, he is much more generous than if he had been on the car
+only a few hours and had not asked for any special service. Unless the
+trip is long he never gives more than a dollar. Twenty-five cents is the
+minimum.
+
+_By Automobile._ From an economic point of view this problem has come to
+be almost as large as the railroad problem, and the part the automobile,
+including trucks and taxis, plays in business is growing larger and
+larger every year.
+
+Motorists have a code of their own. They--when they do as they
+should--drive to the right in the United States, to the left in certain
+other countries. They take up no more of the road than is necessary, and
+they observe local traffic regulations scrupulously, not only because
+they will be fined if they do not but because it is impolite in Rome to
+do other than the Romans do. They hold out their hands to indicate that
+they are about to turn, they slow down at crossings, and they sound
+their horns as a warning signal but never for any other reason.
+
+It is often necessary for a man who is trying to sell a piece of
+property to take out to look at it the man who thinks he will buy it.
+Needless to say, it is the former who pays for the trip. Other business
+trips are arranged by groups, the benefit or pleasure which is to result
+to be shared among them. Under such conditions it is wise (and polite)
+for them to divide expenses. These matters should be arranged ahead of
+time. If one is to furnish the machine, and one the gasoline, and
+another is to pay for the lunch, it should be understood at the outset.
+
+_In a Small Town._ The salesman is now completely out of the
+metropolitan district. He is in a small town like hundreds of others
+over the United States. The hotel is very good in itself, but compared
+with the one in the city, which he has just left, it is inconvenient. He
+has better judgment than to remind the people of this. Instead, when he
+is talking to them--and he likes to talk with the people in the towns he
+is serving--he talks about what they have rather than what they have not
+and about what they can do in the future rather than what they have
+failed to do in the past. It is in this way that he discovers how he
+can best be useful to them.
+
+He likes to work at the quick pace set by the big cities but he knows it
+will not do here. He goes around to see Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter is glad
+to see him, but he has had a bad year. The crops have not been good, the
+banks have not been generous, his wife has been sick, and one of his
+children has broken a leg. The salesman listens sympathetically to this
+tale of woe, leads the conversation away from the bad year behind to the
+good year ahead, and in a little while they are eagerly discussing plans
+for business in the next month or so. The salesman shows how he can
+help, and convinces Mr. Carter that the best time to begin is right now
+and gets an order for supplies from him. It has taken the better part of
+the morning, and Mr. Carter asks him to go home with him to lunch. The
+salesman would prefer going back to the hotel, but he knows that it will
+give Mr. Carter great pleasure to have him--his invitation is
+unmistakably hearty--so he accepts.
+
+Before he came the salesman had discovered, through consulting the
+directories and by talking with friends of his who knew the town, who
+were worth going to see and who were not. Mr. Carter he had learned was
+immensely worth while and that is why he was willing to spend so much
+time with him. No salesman can afford to stop and talk with everybody
+who can give him the inside story of why business is no good. This
+salesman always finds out as much as possible about a man before he goes
+to see him. He never leaps blindly ahead when there is any way to get a
+gleam of light first.
+
+Once in South Carolina he was anxious to get a large order from a
+wealthy old man who, he felt sure, would be a regular customer if he
+could once be persuaded to buy. The old man paid no attention to what he
+was saying until he mentioned the picture of a hunting dog that hung
+above the desk. The old man's eyes kindled. This was his hobby and he
+forgot all about business while he talked about hunting, and ended by
+asking the salesman to go home with him and spend the night. The
+salesman accepted gladly, and the next morning they went rabbit hunting
+instead of going back to the office. The salesman was out of practice in
+handling a gun but it was great fun, and the upshot of it all was that
+he "landed" the order he wanted.
+
+This method is pleasant but wasteful. The salesman never uses it except
+as a last resource.
+
+Much of the success of this salesman (and of the others who are
+successful) lies in the fact that he can put himself so completely into
+the place of the man he is trying to sell. He talks in terms of that
+man's work, and he tries to sell only where he believes the sale will
+result in mutual satisfaction. He never says anything about serving
+humanity, but his life is shaped around this idea, which is, when all is
+said and done, the biggest idea that any of us can lay ourselves out to
+follow.
+
+He is working for a firm that he knows is honest--no self-respecting man
+will work for any other kind--and he wants its financial rating to stand
+solid. He does not sell to every man who wants to buy. He investigates
+his credit first, and if there is to be a delay while the investigation
+is under way he frankly tells the man so, and assures him that it is for
+his protection as well as for that of the house that is selling the
+goods. "It is a form we go through with every new customer," he says.
+"If we did not we'd find ourselves swamped with men who would not pay.
+And that would work hardship on those who do." Every business man knows
+that this is the only way in which reliable business can be carried on.
+And it is reliable business that we are interested in.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+TABLES FOR TWO OR MORE
+
+
+A young banker from Smithville is in New York. It is his first trip.
+
+You would like him if you could see him. Tall, sun-burned, clean-cut,
+well-dressed, thoroughly alive and interested in everything. He is a bit
+confused by the city but he is determined to learn everything that it
+has to teach him. He does not hesitate to ask questions but he likes to
+find out without, whenever possible.
+
+He goes into the dining room of the great hotel where he is staying, and
+for the first time in his life is confronted with an array of silver on
+both sides of his plate. At home he always has a knife, fork, and spoon
+laid together at the right of his plate, by which you can see that he
+has not lived among people who place much emphasis on having food
+daintily or correctly served. He is not exactly prepared for this. When
+he left Smithville he was thinking more of his business connections than
+of what he was going to eat, and how. He is embarrassed because, like
+every sanely balanced person, he likes to do things as they should be
+done, and not just blunder through them. There is no one he can ask
+except the waiter, and the waiter seems such a superior person that he
+is afraid to ask him (though it would have been perfectly correct for
+him to do so). He gets through the meal the best way he can and finds
+that when the ice cream is brought the only thing he has left to eat it
+with is a slender fork with a long handle and three very tiny prongs. He
+knows that he has tripped up somewhere along the line, but he asks the
+waiter to bring him a spoon (he should have asked for a fork) and goes
+ahead.
+
+The next day he is invited out to dinner with a man who has all of his
+life been accustomed to first-class hotels and restaurants and the
+dining tables of wealthy and cultured people. He is somewhat older than
+our young banker and he has had a great deal of experience in
+entertaining men who have come into the city from small towns. He is
+thoughtful, sympathetic, an excellent host. He leads the way into the
+dining room (though they stand together in such a way that it seems that
+neither is leading) and chooses a table. This nearly always means
+accepting the one the head waiter indicates, though it is quite correct
+for the host to suggest the table he would like to have.
+
+"Does this suit you?" he asks the young banker before they sit down.
+
+It suits him exactly. He says as much.
+
+"Now, what will you have to eat?"
+
+The waiter has given him a menu card, containing, so it seems to the
+young man, a million things that he might have. A dinner served in
+courses was something beyond his knowledge until the night before, and
+the dinner then was _table d'hote_ instead of _a la carte_. He flounders
+through the card and is about ready to thrust it aside and say, "Just
+bring me some ham and eggs" when his host sees his predicament.
+
+"Blue Points are usually good at this time of the year," he says. "Shall
+we try them?"
+
+The young man has not the remotest idea what Blue Points are but he
+thinks it will be very delightful to try them.
+
+"What kind of soup do you like?" the host continues when the waiter has
+departed. "I see they have vegetable soup and consomme."
+
+The young man clutches at the familiar straw. He will have vegetable
+soup.
+
+Throughout the meal the host makes comments and suggestions and guides
+his guest through to the end, and does it so graciously that the young
+man from Smithville is not aware that he is doing it, and feels that it
+is all due to his own quick observation that he is getting along so
+well. No business man is a perfect host until he can accomplish this.
+
+Our young man knows already that one should sit up at a table and not
+lean forward or lounge back, that he should not take large mouthfuls and
+that he should not snap at his food, that he should eat without noise
+and with great cleanliness. He knows that his napkin should be unfolded
+(it should be unfolded once and not spread out) and laid across his lap,
+not tucked into his collar or the top of his vest. He knows that he
+should not eat with his knife.
+
+He has never seen a finger bowl before but he has heard of them, so that
+when one is placed before him he knows that he should dip the ends of
+his fingers into it and dry them on his napkin. He has also heard that
+toothpicks are never used by gentlemen, at least in public, and he is
+not surprised when he does not see them.
+
+He has read somewhere that when a knife or a fork is dropped to the
+floor he should not pick it up himself but should allow the waiter to do
+so, and that the waiter should be allowed to clear away the damage when
+something is upset on the table. He knows that long apologies are out
+of order anywhere, and he is not likely to say anything more than
+"Excuse me" or "I beg your pardon" if he should by a clumsy movement
+break a glass or overturn a plate of soup.
+
+But he does not know about the various knives and forks or about how
+courses are arranged, and he does not know about tips.
+
+It is correct for him to explain to his host, just as Pip did when he
+was dining for the first time with Herbert Pocket, that he is unused to
+such things and beg him to give him a few hints as they go along. But it
+is less embarrassing to consult a book of etiquette about fundamentals
+and to pick up the other knowledge by close observation.
+
+He discovers--our young friend uses both methods--that knives are laid
+at the right of the plate in the order in which they are to be used,
+beginning at the outside, and that the spoons are laid just beyond the
+knives in the same order. The butter knife (which rarely appears at
+dinner time) is usually laid across the little bread plate at the left
+of the dinner plate. Forks are placed at the left of the plate in the
+order in which they are to be used, except the oyster fork, which is
+laid across the knives or else is brought in with the oysters. The steel
+knife is for cutting meats. The flat fork with the short prongs is for
+salads. Salads are always eaten with a fork. It is sometimes not very
+easy to do, but it is the only correct way.
+
+This is the general standard, but there are deviations from it. Nothing
+but experience in dining--and a great deal of it--will teach one to know
+always what fork or what knife or what spoon to use when the table
+service is highly elaborate. The best policy for a stranger under such
+conditions is that of watchful and unobtrusive waiting.
+
+The dinners that business men choose for themselves are rarely divided
+into numerous courses. Often they have only two: meat and vegetables,
+and dessert. The regular order for a six-course dinner is: first, an
+appetizer such as oyster cocktail, grapefruit, strawberries, or
+something of the sort, followed by soup, fish, meat and vegetables,
+salad, dessert, cheese and crackers. One or more of the courses is often
+omitted.
+
+The rule for tipping is universally the same: Ten per cent of the bill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Suppose the cases had been reversed and the man from the city had been
+in Smithville to take dinner with the young banker.
+
+He is not accustomed to seeing all of the food put on the table at one
+time, nor to having to use the same fork throughout the meal. But he is
+a gentleman. He adapts himself to their standard so readily that not one
+of the people at the table could tell but that he had always lived that
+way.
+
+The young banker is a gentleman, too. When his friends from the city
+come to visit him he gives them the best he has and does not apologize
+for it. He does not begin by saying, "I know you are used to having
+better things than this but I suppose you can stand it for one meal." He
+simply ushers his guest into the dining room as cordially and with as
+little affectation as if he were the paying teller of the Smithville
+bank. No one need ever apologize when he has done or given his best.
+
+It is interesting to know that the standard of our young banker is
+growing higher and higher all the time. He likes to know how the people
+who have had time to make an art of dining do it and to adapt his ways
+to theirs whenever he can.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a grave mistake for a business man to feel that he must entertain
+another to the standard to which the second is accustomed. A poor man
+who finds himself under the necessity of entertaining a rich one should
+not feel that he must do it on a grand scale if he has been so
+entertained by a rich one. Aside from the moral question involved the
+great game of bluff is too silly and vulgar a one for grown men to play.
+
+But business men play it and their wives join in. Suppose Mrs. Davis,
+whose husband is an assistant of Mr. Burke, wishes to invite Mrs. Burke
+to her home to dinner. She and Mr. Davis have been formally entertained
+in the other home, and the dinner they had there was superintended by a
+butler and carefully manipulated by two maids. Now Mrs. Davis has no
+maid, her china is very simple, and the food that she and her husband
+have, even when they entertain their friends, is plain and wholesome.
+Should she, for the great occasion, hire more beautiful china and engage
+servants? Should she draw on the savings bank for more delicate viands?
+
+To begin with, Mr. Burke knows exactly what salary Mr. Davis gets. He
+knows whether it will warrant such expenditure. Will it make him feel
+like placing more responsibility on his assistant's shoulders to see him
+living beyond his means? Is it not, after all, much better for people to
+meet face to face instead of hiding themselves behind masks? The masks
+are not pretty, and in most cases deceive only the persons who wear
+them.
+
+Men who are friends in business often like their wives to be friends as
+well. It is many times possible to bring about a meeting at the home of
+a common friend, but when this is not convenient, one of the women may
+invite the other. If the invitation is to dinner, it is not correct for
+Mr. Gardner to invite Mrs. Shandon even if he knows her and his wife
+does not. The invitation should go from Mrs. Gardner and should be
+addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Shandon. If the invitation is for tea, Mrs.
+Gardner simply invites Mrs. Shandon, and the nature of the invitation
+depends upon whether the affair is formal or informal.
+
+As to which of two women should proffer the first invitation there might
+be some discussion. Usually it is the wife of the man whose position is
+superior, if they both work for the same concern. It frequently happens
+that a man whose position in business is high is married to a woman
+whose social standing is not of corresponding importance. Perhaps such a
+man has a subordinate whose wife is a social leader. In this case which
+of the women should extend the first invitation?
+
+Most women of eminent social rank realize and appreciate the fact
+thoroughly. The social leader knows that the other woman might be
+embarrassed and hesitant about inviting her to her home. If she does
+apprehend this it is only gracious for her to extend the first
+invitation herself.
+
+In small towns the rule is for the old residents to call upon the new,
+and the wife of a business man who has recently established himself in a
+community must wait until the women who live there have called upon her
+before she begins to entertain them.
+
+In large cities where it is impossible to know everyone this rule is
+practically disregarded, and business men invite one another and ask
+their wives to do the same according to the way convenience and chance
+make most natural. Women whose husbands are longest in the employ of a
+firm, or whose husbands hold high positions, as a rule call first on the
+wives of newcomers or subordinates.
+
+It all comes to the same thing whether it is in a city or a small town
+or the country. Those who are already established in the neighborhood or
+the business extend the right hand of welcome and good fellowship to
+those who are not.
+
+In order to bring their employees together socially most big houses now
+give various entertainments such as picnics, parties, dances, and
+banquets. They are in no way different from other entertainments of the
+same kind so far as the etiquette of behavior is concerned. Formal
+dances and banquets in the evening require evening dress just the same,
+except with that very enormous group (to which most of us belong) who do
+not own evening dress. This does not mean that evening parties must be
+foregone by this group or that they should hire gala attire for the
+occasion, but simply that the men wear their business suits and the
+girls their "Sunday" dresses. It is just as correct, it is just as much
+fun, and it is infinitely wiser than giving a dollar down and a dollar a
+week for a _decollete_ gown or a swallow-tail outfit.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+LADIES FIRST?
+
+
+Most girls who are in business are there to earn a living.
+
+It is true that an increasing number of wealthy girls who are under no
+necessity to work but who want a definite place in the economic life of
+the world are entering business every year, but the great army of
+workers is made up of those who enter business because they are driven
+into it (driven, many of them, while they are yet very young), because
+it is the only way in which they can have their own money, or because it
+is the only way in which they can raise their standard of living.
+
+The majority of business girls come from the homes of parents in
+moderate circumstances. They have had advantages--a high-school or a
+college diploma, a certificate from a business school, travel,
+specialized training--and all these they have added to their business
+capital. In many instances the opportunities they have had have not been
+brilliant, but every opportunity, however small, carries with it the
+responsibility to make the best of it. Upon these girls, since they
+outnumber the others and because they have had advantages (a high-school
+education is an enormous advantage if you are looking at it from the
+point of view of a person who wanted one but was not able to get it),
+rests the responsibility of setting the pace for others. And the
+standard of behavior for the business girl, whether she be rich or poor
+or in between, is the same.
+
+The wealthy girls who enter business deliberately are usually followed
+by the same sensible impulse that started them on their careers, and, as
+a rule, they conduct themselves with dignity and modesty. The wealthy
+girls who, through a turn of fortune have been forced into work and have
+gone unwillingly, are another matter. "The rudest girls we have," is the
+testimony of most people who have to deal with them. Conventional social
+charm and poise they may have but they are without that finer sense of
+courtesy which makes them accept whatever fate gives them and make the
+best of it. The fading splendor of the days of plenty envelops them like
+a cloud--remember that we are speaking of the unwilling ones--they lose
+themselves in self-pity, and the great fun that comes from good work
+they miss entirely.
+
+Many of the poor girls in business have never known anything but
+poverty, and their lives have been cast among people who have never
+known anything else. They have had no home training in the art of
+behavior (for the people at home did not know how to give it to them).
+No one has ever told them how to dress or act but there have never been
+lacking those to condemn them when they dressed foolishly or acted
+indiscreetly. "The silly little things," they say (and oh, how superior
+they are when they say it). Employers agree, for, after all, it is true,
+and the silly little things hold their jobs until they are married,
+until they are fired, or (and this happens frequently) until they wake
+up, and then they are promoted to something better. We cannot expect
+girls like these, who have grown up without contact with the gentler
+side of life, to begin with a high standard of behavior, but we can (and
+do) expect them, once they have been brought into touch with better
+things, to raise their standard. It is no disgrace for a girl to begin
+in ignorance and squalor; the disgrace lies in staying there.
+
+First of all, the dress of the business girl. Most of the ill-breeding
+in the world is due to ignorance. Ignorance of the laws of beauty and
+taste causes one to make a display of finery, and over-dressing is a
+mark of vulgarity whether one can afford it or not.
+
+The girl does not live--we believe this is right--who does not love
+pretty clothes. But the average girl does not have money to spend
+lavishly for them. Her salary, as a rule, is not princely, and there are
+often financial as well as moral obligations to the people at home. She
+cannot have Sunday clothes and everyday clothes. She must combine the
+two with the emphasis on the latter.
+
+A few years ago it was almost impossible to accomplish this, but
+manufacturers have recognized her needs and are now making clothes
+especially for her--plain dresses in bright colors and dark dresses with
+a happy bit of trimming here and there, neat enough to pass the
+censorship of the strictest employer, pretty enough to please the most
+exacting young girl.
+
+A woman is no longer thought eccentric if she wears low heels. The
+modern flapper is too sensible for such nonsense as French heels for
+standing all day behind the counter. Manufacturers have discovered this
+also, and are making shoes with low heels and broad toes quite as
+pleasing as the French monstrosities and infinitely more comfortable.
+
+A business girl--or any girl, for that matter--should take pains with
+her hands and her hair. Coiffures that might be appropriate in a ball
+room are out of place in an office, and heavily jeweled hands, whether
+the jewels are real or imitation, are grotesquely unsuited to office
+work. (So are dirty ones.)
+
+Hair that is glossy and tidy, hands that are clean and capable, dress
+that is trim and inconspicuous--add to these intelligence, willingness,
+good health, and good manners and there is not much left to be desired.
+
+Certain positions expose girls to the temptation of dress more than
+others. She, for instance, who all day handles lovely garments or she
+who all day poses before long mirrors in exquisite gowns that other
+women are to wear--can one expect these girls to go merrily home at
+night to a hall bedroom with a one-burner gas jet and a mournful array
+of old furniture? They have a problem that the girl in a glue factory or
+a fish cannery does not have to meet--at least not in so concrete a
+form. At the same time they have an opportunity that these other girls
+do not have, and it rests with them whether the opportunity or the
+temptation gets the upper hand.
+
+Positions in which girls are thrown into close contact with men expose
+them to temptation of another sort. It is in its most acute form when
+it brings a poor girl into more or less intimate association with a rich
+man. Once, a very long time ago, a king married a beggar maid and they
+lived happily ever after. People have not stopped writing and talking
+about it yet, although it is many centuries since it happened. It is
+true that once in a very great while a girl marries her father's
+chauffeur or her brother's valet and finds later that she has acted
+wisely; but these are rare exceptions to the general rule, for the
+result usually is unhappiness. Such marriages are always the occasion
+for big headlines in the paper, usually a double set of them, for, in
+most instances, the divorce follows within a year or so.
+
+It is a dangerous thing for a girl to receive attentions
+indiscriminately from men, especially those who drift across her horizon
+from the great world outside. It is dangerous (is it necessary to add
+that it is incorrect?) for a manicurist to accept presents from the
+millionaire whose hands she looks after. It is unwise for any girl to
+accept expensive gifts from a man who is not her fiance.
+
+There are exceptions to this rule, as indeed to every other. At
+Christmas or at the time a ceremony or an anniversary employers
+sometimes give their secretaries or another trusted employee a
+beautiful gift, and it is within the bounds of propriety for the
+employee to accept it. Often when he has been away from the office for
+several weeks a man presents his secretary a gift to express his
+gratitude for the capable way in which she has managed affairs in his
+absence, and this gift the secretary is privileged to accept. Gifts are
+seldom presented except where the association has been a long and highly
+satisfactory one.
+
+But the girl who goes to the theatre with a man about whom she knows
+nothing except that he has the price of the tickets is running a serious
+risk. She is violating one of the most rigid principles of etiquette and
+she is skating perilously out beyond the line marked off by common
+sense. Nearly every man can, and does, if he is the right sort, present
+credentials before asking a girl if he may call or if he may escort her
+to a place of amusement. There are instances in romantic stories and in
+real life where a man and a maid have met without the help of a third
+party and have entered upon a charming friendship. They are rare, rarer
+in fact than in fiction. It is banal to say that a girl can usually
+tell. But she can, and if she has any doubt (and this is true of all her
+relations with men) she should have no doubt. She should stop where she
+is.
+
+Where men and girls work together in the same building or in buildings
+near one another they often go to the same restaurant for lunch. It is
+natural that they should sometimes sit together at the same tables. It
+is correct for a man to sit at a table where there are already only
+girls (if the girls are willing), but it is not correct for a girl to
+sit at a table where there are already only men (however willing the men
+may be). In these mixed groups each person pays for his or her own
+lunch. It is not even necessary for the man, or the men, as the case may
+be, to offer to do so, and it is a distinct breach of the rules of
+etiquette for a girl to allow a man to pay for her lunch under such
+circumstances.
+
+The only time when it is correct for a man and a girl who are associated
+together in business to have lunch, with him the host and her the guest,
+is when the engagement is made ahead of time as for any other social
+affair. On such an occasion he should be as attentive as he would in any
+other circumstances, taking care of her wraps and placing her chair if
+the waiter is not at hand to do it, suggesting dishes he thinks perhaps
+she will like, and making himself as generally useful and agreeable as
+it is possible for him to be. A point about which considerable breath is
+wasted is whether a man should enter a restaurant with the girl
+following or whether he should allow her to lead the way. It makes no
+material difference one way or the other, but usually he permits her to
+go ahead and follows closely enough behind to open the doors for her and
+to receive whatever instructions the head waiter has to offer.
+
+If a man should enter a restaurant and find a girl whom he knows already
+seated he may join her if he thinks he will be not unwelcome, but this
+does not make it incumbent upon him to pay for her lunch. He may offer
+to do it, but it is a matter that rests with the girl. If she does not
+care to develop his acquaintance she should not permit it, but if the
+two are good friends or if she feels that he is a man she would like to
+know, she may give him her check to settle along with his own. A girl is
+herself the best judge of what to do under such conditions, and if
+common sense does not show her the way out etiquette will not help.
+
+Women in business sometimes bring up perplexing questions and create
+awkward situations. Suppose a man has asked a girl several times to a
+business-social lunch and she has accepted every time. It seems that
+she should, as a man would in the same position, make some return. If
+she works for a house where there is a dining room in which checks do
+not have to be settled at the end of every meal she may do so without
+the slightest difficulty, but if she is compelled to take him to a place
+where the check must be given to the waiter or paid at the desk before
+they leave, she must look out for a different way of managing things.
+Business luncheons are usually paid for by the firm in whose interests
+they are brought about, and if the girl works for an organization where
+there are several men employed she may ask one of them to take her
+friend out to lunch. Then, even if she is not present, her social duty
+is done. The easiest way out of such a predicament, it is superfluous to
+say, is never to get into it.
+
+A girl who enters business presumably accepts the same conditions that
+men have to meet. She has no right to expect special favors because she
+is a woman. She does get a certain amount of consideration, as indeed
+she should, but she is very foolish and childish if she feels resentful
+when a busy man fails to hold open a door for her to pass through, when
+he rushes into his office ahead of her, or when he cuts short an
+interview when she has said only half of what she had on her mind.
+
+Much is said about the man who keeps his seat on a train while a woman
+stands. His defense rests upon two arguments, first, that his need is
+greater than hers (which is not true) and, second, that she does not
+appreciate it even when he does give it to her (which is not true
+either). Unfortunately, there are as many rude women in the world--and
+this statement is not made carelessly--as there are rude men, and in
+almost half the cases where a man rises to give a woman his place the
+woman sits down without even a glance toward her benefactor, as if the
+act, which is no small sacrifice on the part of a tired man, were not
+worth noticing. Every act of civility or thoughtfulness should be
+rewarded with at least a "Thank you" and a good hearty one at that.
+
+Old people, cripples, and invalids rarely fail to secure seats, however
+crowded a car may be. A man seldom offers his place to another man
+unless it is evident that the other, because of age, infirmity, or
+extreme fatigue is greatly in need of it. Well-bred girls resign their
+seats to old men, but if they refuse to accept, the girls do not insist.
+At a reunion of Confederate veterans several years ago a girl rose from
+her place on a street car to allow a feeble old man to sit down. He
+gripped the strap fiercely.
+
+"I ain't dead yet," he responded sturdily.
+
+One of the chief petty complaints brought against women is that they do
+not keep their places in line. Some of them appear to have neither
+conscience nor compunction about dashing up to a ticket window ahead of
+twenty or thirty people who are waiting for their turn. Men would do the
+same thing (so men themselves say) but they know very well that the
+other men in the line would make them regret it in short order. Two or
+three minutes is all one can save by such methods and it is not worth
+it. Even if it were more it would still not be worth it.
+
+When a woman breaks into a line it is quite permissible for the person
+behind her (whoever he or she may be) to say, "I beg your pardon, I was
+here first." This should be enough. Sometimes there is an almost
+desperate reason why one should get to a window. Many times everybody in
+the line has the same desperate reason for being in a hurry, but now and
+then in individual cases it is allowable for a woman (or a man) to ask
+for another person's place. _But only if there is a most urgent reason
+for it._ Much of courtesy is made up of petty sacrifices, and most of
+the great sacrifices are only a larger form of courtesy. It all comes
+back to Sir Philip Sidney's principle of "Thy need is greater than
+mine," but it is only extraordinary circumstances which warrant one's
+saying, "My need is greater than thine."
+
+Since the beginning of time, and before (if there was any before) women
+have done their share of the work of the world. Formerly their part of
+it centered in the home but now that machinery has taken it out of the
+home they have come out of the home too, to stand in the fields and
+factories of industry by the side of their fathers and husbands and
+brothers. Because they have recently been thrown into closer association
+in their hours of work than ever before there has sprung up a certain
+amount of strife between men and women, and a great deal is said about
+how superior men are to women and how superior women are to men. It is
+pure nonsense. If all the men in the world were put on one side of a
+scale and all the women on the other, the scale would probably stand
+perfectly still.
+
+The woman in business should never forget that she is a woman but she
+must remember that above all things she is a citizen, and that she
+herself has value and her work has value only as they contribute to her
+community and her community as it contributes to her country. Courtesy
+is one of her strongest allies, this quality which, alone, can do
+nothing, but, united to the solid virtues that make character, can move
+mountains.
+
+We have said a good deal as we came along about courtesy toward oneself
+and other people, but perhaps the most valuable of all courtesies in
+business is politeness toward one's job. It is desirable for every woman
+to be pretty, well-dressed, and well-groomed, but it is much more
+desirable for the woman in business to be able to do capable and
+efficient work. She may be ornamental but she must be useful, and while
+she is at the office her chief concern should be with her job and not
+with herself. The end of business is accomplishment, and courtesy is
+valuable because it is a means of making accomplishment easy and
+pleasant. It is this that gives us the grace to accept whatever comes,
+if not gladly, at least bravely.
+
+It is a poor workman who quarrels with his tools (or with his job), so
+the proverb says, and there are two lines of Mr. Kipling's that might be
+added. He was speaking of a king, but in a democracy we are all kings:
+
+    The wisest thing, we suppose, that a king can do for his land
+    Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under
+        his hand.
+
+And the lines are just as true when "girl" is substituted for "king" and
+the pronouns are changed accordingly.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of Business Etiquette, by Nella Henney
+
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