TrAivsactioi\y0usijvess 
 
 ARTHUR HELPS 
 
 HowTo Wia Fortune 
 
 ANDREW CARNEGIE- 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
I 
 
The Transaction of Business 
 
 How to Win Fortune 
 
 A little consideration of what takes place 
 around us every day would show us that a 
 higher law than that of our will regulates 
 events; that our painful labors are unnec- 
 essary and fruitless; that only in our easy, 
 simple, spontaneous actions are we strong. 
 EMERSON. 
 
The Transaction of Business 
 
 SIR ARTHUR HELPS 
 
 How to Win Fortune 
 
 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
 Edited by 
 DAVID E. GOE 
 
 { UNIVERSITY ij 
 
 Of 
 
 CHICAGO 
 FORBES & COMPANY 
 
 i 97 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY 
 DAVID E. GOE 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY 
 EDDY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY 
 
 FORBES & COMPANY 
 
Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xm 
 
 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS 19 
 
 CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS 27 
 
 INTERVIEWS 33 
 
 THE TREATMENT OF SUITORS 41 
 
 COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS 47 
 
 THE VALUE OF COUNSEL 52 
 
 ADVICE 57 
 
 SECRECY 65 
 
 PRACTICAL WISDOM 71 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS 77 
 
 OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN 87 
 
 How TO WIN FORTUNE 97 
 
 TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS 117 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF AUDITS 131 
 
 ANALYZING A BUSINESS PROPOSITION 139 
 
 DISPATCH 147 
 
 DELAYS . . 149 
 
 EXPENSE 150 
 
 CUNNING 152 
 
 GET OUT, OR GET IN LINE 159 
 
 1 G4099 
 
Acknowledgment is due to MR. FORREST CRISSEY for 
 the loan of a rare copy of an anonymous edition of 
 Helps' Essays. 
 
 To THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE for permission to repub- 
 lish Mr. Carnegie's article, 'How to Win Fortune.' 
 
 To MR. C. A. BROCKAWAY for the loan, from his pri- 
 vate collection, of Mr. Carnegie's autograph and photo- 
 graph. 
 
 To the COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE for permission to use 
 Mr. Hubbard's article, 'Get Out, or Get in Line.' 
 
 To the editor of SYSTEM for permission to reprint the 
 excellent articles by Mr. W. T. Fenton, and Mr. John 
 Farson, and also to the gentlemen themselves for cour- 
 teously revising and correcting. 
 
 To MR. JOHN W. FERGUSON for his most timely and 
 helpful discussion of ' Tactful Relations with Customers. ' 
 
Editor's Introduction 
 
 IN offering this volume of essays on business to the 
 merchants and manufacturers of the United States, 
 the editor feels assured that it cannot fail to be appre- 
 ciated by these intelligent and thinking men. The 
 lessons of these practical papers, and the sound business 
 principles which they serve to emphasize, appeal equally 
 to the banker, merchant, and manufacturer, or the busi- 
 ness man of any other class. 
 
 The fact that there is a distinct literature of business 
 is too little appreciated. Perhaps, as a class, we have 
 been bending over the counter and the cost-sheet too 
 diligently to see the finer fibers of our work ; we have re- 
 garded business with a sordid and mercenary affection. 
 'In the intervals of business ' it has been the editor's 
 pleasant fortune to have his attention directed to some 
 of the literary lore of business. The discovery of l Helps' 
 Essays,' bristling with scintillant, crisp, straight- from- 
 the-shoulder business common sense was a delightful 
 revelation. And certainly there are a few thousand 
 other men, immersed in the details of business, who will 
 read them with an equally keen relish of their wit, wis- 
 dom, and intensely practical advice and directions. 
 
 It may be of interest to more fully introduce Mr. 
 Helps. He was the youngest son of Thomas Helps, and 
 was born July 10, 1813. His father was then, and for 
 
XIV EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 many years afterwards, the head of a large mercantile 
 house in London. Arthur Helps received his education 
 at Eton and at Trinity College. Soon after leaving the 
 University, where he made many and lasting friends, he 
 became Private Secretary to Mr. Spring [Rice, afterwards 
 Lord Monteagle, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 This office he filled until he went to Ireland as the Pri- 
 vate Secretary of Lord Morpeth, then Chief Secretary of 
 State for Ireland. In these positions of responsibility 
 he established such a reputation for ability, tact, and dis- 
 cretion, that when the clerkship of the Privy Council be- 
 came vacant in 1860, he was unanimously selected for 
 the position. The work in this new capacity brought 
 him into intimate friendship with the Queen, who very 
 soon learned to greatly appreciate his powers of mind, 
 his intuition and discernment, his skill in the analysis 
 of character, and his masterful grasp of business exigen- 
 cies. He was made a C. B. in 1871, and K. C. B. in the 
 following year. 
 
 Helps was a careful, consistent student of the cause 
 and effect in all that came under his observation, and he 
 counsels with a strength, clearness and directness which 
 leaves little of doubt or uncertainty in the mind of the 
 reader. The articles selected for this book are taken 
 from his ' ' Essays Written in the Intervals of Business. ' ' 
 
 Of introduction for Andrew Carnegie, there is certain- 
 ly very little need. His achievements are known the world 
 over and what he has to say bears the hall-mark of ster- 
 ling quality. When any man, beginning life a poor boy, 
 succeeds, in the course of manufacturing and merchan- 
 dising, in building up a fortune of over two hundred 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 and fifty million dollars, it certainly is of interest to 
 other toilers after wealth, to learn something of the prin- 
 ciples ; something of the secrets of his methods. And it 
 is exceedingly fortunate that this man of great expe- 
 rience, of deep, practical knowledge, has the happy fac- 
 ulty of being able to impart his wisdom to others; and 
 having the faculty, is also possessed of a generous- 
 minded willingness to point the way of success to all 
 who would tread the golden road. 
 
 His article "How to Win Fortune' 7 is a notable and 
 valuable contribution to the literature of business and 
 is at the same time a wonderful mine of facts and prin- 
 ciples governing what is to many, if not all, the gist of 
 business. 
 
 It is an especial pleasure to have the privilege of in- 
 cluding in this book articles by John Farson, W. T. 
 Fenton and John W. Ferguson. These Chicago busi- 
 ness men plainly evidence that their knowledge, in gen- 
 eral and in detail, is the result of personal effort and 
 experience in large affairs. They tell of practical things 
 in a practical manner. Each deals with a subject most 
 intimately vital to the success of business enterprises. 
 He who would build broadly and safely must know, at 
 all times, the state of his business ; must keenly sift the 
 varying matters claiming his attention; and must, most 
 surely, cultivate in spirit and in fact, 'tactful relations 
 with customers/ The three articles, Mr. Farson 's 'Im- 
 portance of Audits'; Mr. Fenton 's 'Analyzing a Busi- 
 ness Proposition'; and Mr. Ferguson's 'Tactful Rela- 
 tions with Customers' are earnestly commended to the 
 careful, thoughtful perusal of business men. 
 
XVI EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The four essays of Francis Bacon will certainly be of 
 value and interest. Bacon exhibits a profound knowl- 
 edge and an incisive analysis of human nature. He was 
 a brilliant, cool, and skilful lawyer; a member of Par- 
 liament; and a favorite of the great Lord Essex. His 
 mental endowments won rapid advancement for him to 
 positions of trust and power. In 1601 he was Queen's 
 Counsel. In 1607 King James made him Solicitor Gen- 
 eral. In 1613 he was appointed Attorney General; in 
 1618 Lord Chancellor. 
 
 We cannot do better than quote Helps' estimate of 
 Bacon where he says, 'His lucid order, his grasp of the 
 subject, the comprehensiveness of his views, his knowl- 
 edge of mankind, the greatest perhaps that has been 
 distinctly given out by any uninspired man; the prac- 
 tical nature of his purposes, render Bacon's works un- 
 rivaled in their fitness to form the best men for the 
 conduct of the highest affairs. His essays penetrate to 
 the heart of many a close-thicketed matter, hewing with 
 short, trenchant strokes, like those of a Roman sword. ' 
 
 The article by Elbert Hubbard is included because of 
 its evident aptness to the purpose of this book. It will 
 be enjoyed by the veterans of business, and ought to 
 profit the young men who have not yet won their spurs. 
 
 DAVID E. GOE. 
 Madison, Wis. 
 
The Transaction of Business 
 
Get the thing done. The tag ends of un- 
 finished business are time-consumers. They 
 drag on. They multiply. They take ten 
 minutes to do, if they are done today; two 
 hours, if they are done tomorrow. 
 
 Get the thing done. That is system. Sys- 
 tem stands at the door and denies admit- 
 tance to every interrupting detail. System 
 sees that every facility is ut hand at the 
 finger's end. System keeps things away 
 from you until you are ready for them. 
 
 When, by no fault of yours, a thing goes 
 wrong, it is a symptom that there is a lack 
 of system. Sit down then and there and de- 
 vise a system which will insure you that 
 that particular thing will never again go 
 wrong. Don't wait till tomorrow to devise 
 the system. Get the thing done. 
 
 There is satisfaction and success in a fin- 
 ished article. There is danger and delay in 
 even an unfinished detail. Proceed calmly, 
 forcefully, quickly, but not hurriedly. Get 
 the thing done. SYSTEM. 
 
O, THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 The Transaction of Business 
 
 TTHIS subject may be divided into two parts. 1. Deal- 
 ing with others about business. 2. Dealing with 
 the business itself. 
 
 1. DEALING WITH OTHERS ABOUT BUSINESS. 
 
 The first part of the general subject embraces the 
 choice and management of agents, the transaction of 
 business by means of interviews, the choice of colleagues, 
 and the use of councils. Each of these topics will be 
 treated separately. There remain, however, certain 
 general rules with respect to our dealings with others 
 which may naturally find a place here. 
 
 In your converse with the world avoid anything like 
 a juggling dexterity. The proper use of dexterity is to 
 prevent your being circumvented by the cunning of oth- 
 ers. It should not be aggressive. 
 
 Concessions and compromises form a large and very 
 important part of our dealings with others. Concessions 
 must generally be looked upon as distinct defeats; and 
 you must expect no gratitude for them. I am far from 
 saying that it may not be wise to make concessions, but 
 this will be done more wisely when you understand the 
 nature of them. 
 
20 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 In making compromises, do not think to gain much by 
 concealing your views and wishes. You are as likely to 
 suffer from its not being known how to please or satisfy 
 you, as from any attempt to overreach you, grounded on 
 a knowledge of your wishes. 
 
 Delay is in some instances to be adopted advisedly. 
 It sometimes brings a person to reason when nothing else 
 could. When his mind is so occupied with one idea, that 
 he completely over-estimates its relative importance, he 
 can hardly be brought to look at the subject calmly by 
 any force of reasoning. For this disease time is the only 
 doctor. 
 
 A good man of business is very watchful, over both 
 himself and others, to prevent things from being carried 
 against his sense of right in moments of lassitude. After 
 a matter has been much discussed, whether to the pur- 
 pose or not, there comes a time when all parties are anx- 
 ious that it should be settled; and there is then some 
 danger of the handiest way of getting rid of the matter 
 being taken for the best. 
 
 It is often worth while to bestow much pains in gain- 
 ing over foolish people to your way of thinking : and you 
 should do it soon. Your reasons will always have some 
 weight with the wise. But if at first you omit to put 
 your arguments before the foolish, they will form their 
 prejudices ; and a fool is often very consistent, and very 
 fond of repetition. He will be repeating his folly in sea- 
 son and out of season, until at last it has a hearing ; and 
 it is hard if it does not sometimes chime in with external 
 circumstances. 
 
THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 21 
 
 A man of business should take care to consult occa- 
 sionally with persons of a nature quite different from his 
 own. To very few are given all the qualities requisite 
 to form a good man of business. Thus a man may have 
 the sternness and the fixedness of purpose so necessary 
 in the conduct of affairs, yet these qualities prevent him, 
 perhaps, from entering into the characters of those about 
 him. He is likely to want tact. He will be unprepared 
 for the extent of versatility and vacillation in other men. 
 But these defects and oversights might be remedied by 
 consulting with persons whom he knows to be possessed 
 of the qualities supplementary to his own. Men of much 
 depth of mind can bear a great deal of counsel; for it 
 does not easily deface their own character, nor render 
 their purposes indistinct. 
 
 2. DEALING WITH THE BUSINESS ITSELF. 
 
 The first thing to be considered in this division of the 
 subject is the collection and arrangement of your mate- 
 rials. Do not fail to begin with the earliest history of 
 the matter under consideration. Be careful not to give 
 way to any particular theory, while you are merely col- 
 lecting materials, lest it should influence you in the 
 choice of them. You must work for yourself; for what 
 you reject may be as important for you to have seen and 
 thought about, as what you adopt; besides, it gives you 
 a command of the subject, and a comparative fearless- 
 ness of surprise, which you will never have if you rely 
 on other people for your materials. In some cases, how- 
 ever, you may save time by not labouring much, before- 
 hand, at parts of the subject which are nearly sure to be 
 worked out in discussion. 
 
22 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 When you have collected and arranged your informa- 
 tion, there comes the task of deciding upon it. To make 
 this less difficult you must use method, and practice 
 economy in thinking. You must not weary yourself by 
 considering the same thing in the same way; just oscil- 
 lating over it, as it were ; seldom making much progress, 
 and not marking the little that you have made. You 
 must not lose your attention in reveries about the sub- 
 ject, but must bring yourself to the point by such ques- 
 tions as these: Y\ 7 hat has been done! What is the state 
 of the case at present ? What can be done next ? What 
 ought to be done? Express in writing the answers to 
 your questions. Use the pen there is no magic in it, 
 but it prevents the mind from staggering about. It 
 forces you to methodize your thoughts. It enables you 
 to survey the matter with a less tired eye. Whereas in 
 thinking vaguely, you not only lose time, but you acquire 
 a familiarity with the husk of the subject, which is ab- 
 solutely injurious. Your apprehension becomes dull; 
 you establish associations of ideas which occur again and 
 again to distract your attention; and you become more 
 tired than if you had really been employed in mastering 
 the subject. 
 
 When you have arrived at your decision, you have to 
 consider how you shall convey it. In doing this, be sure 
 that you very rarely, if ever, say anything which is not 
 immediately relevant to the subject. Beware of indulg- 
 ing in maxims, in abstract propositions, or in anything 
 of that kind. Let your subject fill the whole of what 
 you say. Human affairs are so wide, subtle, and com- 
 plicated that the most sagacious man had better content 
 himself with pronouncing upon those points alone upon 
 which his decision is called for. 
 
THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 23 
 
 It will often be a nice question whether or not to state 
 the motives for your decisions. Much will depend upon 
 the nature of the subject, upon the party whom you have 
 to address, and upon your power of speaking out the 
 whole truth. When you can give all your motives, it 
 will in most cases be just to others, and eventually good 
 for yourself, to do so. If you can only state some of 
 them, then you must consider whether they are likely to 
 mislead, or whether they tend to the full truth. And 
 for your own sake there is this to be considered in giving 
 only a part of your reasons : that those which you give 
 are generally taken to be the whole, or at any rate, the 
 best that you have. And, hereafter, you may find your- 
 self precluded from using an argument which turns out 
 to be a very sound one, which had great weight with you, 
 but which you were at the time unwilling, or did not 
 think it necessary, to put forward. 
 
 When you have to communicate the motives for an 
 unfavorable decision, you will naturally study how to 
 convey them so as to give the least pain, and to insure 
 least discussion. These are not unworthy objects; but 
 they are immediate ones, and therefore likely to have 
 their full weight with you. Beware that your anxiety to 
 attain them does not carry you into an implied false- 
 hood; for, to say the least of it, evil is latent in that. 
 Each day's converse with the world ought to confirm us 
 in the maxim that a bold but not unkind sincerity should 
 be the groundwork of all our dealings. 
 
 It will often be necessary to make a general statement 
 respecting the history of some business. It should be 
 lucid, yet not overburdened with details. It must have 
 
24 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 method not merely running through it, but visible upon 
 it it must have method in its form. You must build 
 it up, beginning at the beginning, giving each part its 
 due weight, and not hurrying over those steps which 
 happen to be peculiarly familiar to yourself. You must 
 thoroughly enter into the ignorance of others, and so 
 avoid forestalling your conclusions. The best teachers 
 are those who can seem to forget what they know full 
 well; who work out results, which have become axioms 
 in their minds, with all the interest of a beginner, and 
 with footsteps no longer than his. 
 
 It is a good practice to draw up, and put on record, an 
 abstract of the reasons upon which you have come to a 
 decision on any complicated subject; so that if it is re- 
 ferred to, there is but little labour in making yourself 
 master of it again. Of course this practice will be more 
 or less necessary, according as your decision has been 
 conveyed with a reserved or with a full statement of the 
 reasons upon which it was grounded. 
 
 Of all the correspondence you receive, a concise record 
 should be kept ; which should also contain a note of what 
 was done upon any letter, and of where it was sent to, or 
 put away. Documents relating to the same subject 
 should be carefully brought together. You should en- 
 deavor to establish such a system of arranging your 
 papers, as may insure their being readily referred to, 
 and yet not require too much time and attention to be 
 carried into daily practice. Fac-similes should be kept 
 of all the letters which you send out. 
 
 These seem little things: and so they are, unless you 
 neglect them. 
 
The Choice and Management of Agents 
 
In the choice of instruments, it is better 
 to choose men of a plainer sort, that are 
 like to do what is committed to them, and to 
 report back again faithfully the success, 
 than those who are cunning to contrive out 
 of other men's business somewhat to grace 
 themselves, and will help the matter in re- 
 port for satisfaction sake. Also use such 
 persons as affect the business wherein they 
 are employed; for that quickeneth much; 
 and such as are fit for the matter; as bold 
 men for expostulation, fair-spoken men for 
 persuasion, crafty men for inquiry and ob- 
 servation. Use also such as have been lucky 
 and prevailed before in things wherein you 
 have employed them; for that breeds confi- 
 dence, and they will strive to maintain this 
 precedent. BACON. 
 
The Choice and Management 
 of Agents 
 
 TTHE choice of agents is a difficult matter, but any 
 labour that you may bestow upon it is likely to be 
 well repaid ; for you have to choose persons for whose 
 faults you are to be punished; to whom you are to be 
 the whipping-boy.' 
 
 In the choice of an agent, it is not sufficient to ascer- 
 tain what a man knows, or to make a catalogue of his 
 qualities: but you have to find out how he will perform 
 a particular service. You may be right in concluding 
 that such an office requires certain qualities, and you 
 may discern that such a man possesses most of them; and 
 in the absence of any means of making a closer trial, you 
 may ha\v done the best that you could do. But some 
 deficiency, or some untoward combination of these quali- 
 tirs, may unfit him for the office. Hence the value of 
 any opportunity, however slight, of observing his con- 
 duct in matters similar to those for which you want him. 
 
 Our previous knowledge of men will sometimes mis- 
 lead us entirely, even when we apply it to circumstances 
 but little different, as we think, from those in which we 
 have actually observed their behaviour. For instance, 
 you might naturally imagine that a man who shows an 
 
28 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 irritable temper in his conversation, is likely to show a 
 similar temper throughout the conduct of his business. 
 But experience does not confirm this ; for you will often 
 find that men who are intemperate in speech are cautious 
 in writing. 
 
 The best agents are, in general, to be found amongst 
 those persons who have a strong sense of responsibility. 
 Under this feeling a man will be likely to grudge no 
 pains ; he will pay attention to minute things ; and what 
 is of much importance, he will prefer being considered 
 ever so stupid, rather than pretend to understand his 
 orders before he does so. 
 
 You should behave to your subordinate agents in 
 such a manner that they would not be afraid to be frank 
 with you. They should be able to comment freely upon 
 your directions, and may thus become your best counsel- 
 ors. For those who are intrusted with the execution of 
 any work are likely to see things which have been over- 
 looked by the person who designed it, however sagacious 
 he may be. 
 
 You must not interfere unnecessarily with your 
 agents, as it gives them the habit of leaning too much 
 upon you. Sir Walter Scott says of Canning, 'I fear he 
 works himself too hard, under the great error of trying 
 to do too much with his own hand, and to see everything 
 with his own eyes. Whereas the greatest general and 
 the first statesman must, in many cases, be content to 
 use the eyes and fingers of others, and hold themselves 
 contented with the exercise of the greatest care in the 
 choice of implements. ' Most men of vigorous minds and 
 nice perceptions will be apt to interfere too much; but 
 
CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 29 
 
 it should always be one of the chief objects of a person 
 in authority to train up those around him to do without 
 him. He should try to give them some self-reliance. It 
 should be his aim to create a standard as to the way in 
 which things are to be done not to do them all himself. 
 That standard is likely to be maintained for some time, 
 in case of his absence, illness, or death; and it will be 
 applied daily to many things that must be done without 
 a careful inspection on his part, even when he is in full 
 vigour. 
 
 With respect to those agents whom you employ to 
 represent you, your inclination should be to treat them 
 with hearty confidence. In justice to them, as well as 
 for your own sake, the limits which you lay down for 
 their guidance should be precise. Within those limits 
 you should allow them a large discretionary power. You 
 must be careful not to blame your agent for departing 
 from your orders, when in fact the discrepancy which 
 you notice is nothing more than the usual difference in 
 the ways in which different men set about the same 
 object, even when they employ similar means for its 
 accomplishment. For a difference of this kind you 
 should have been prepared. But if you are in haste to 
 blame your representative, your captiousness may throw 
 a great burden upon him unnecessarily. It is not the 
 success of the undertaking only that he will thencefor- 
 ward be intent upon : he will be anxious that each step 
 should be done exactly after your fancy. And this may 
 embarrass him, render him indecisive, and lead to his 
 failing altogether. 
 
 ^\^V 
 
 UNIVERSITY j 
 
30 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 The surest way to make agents do their work is to 
 show them that their efforts are appreciated with nicety. 
 For this purpose, you should not only be careful in 
 your promotions and rewards : but in your daily dealings 
 with them, you should beware of making slight or hap- 
 hazard criticisms on any of their proceedings. Your^ 
 praise should not only be right in the substance, but put 
 upon the right foundation ; it should point to their most 
 strenuous and most judicious exertion. I do not mean 
 that it should always be given at the time of those ex- 
 ertions being made, but it should show that they had not 
 passed by unnoticed. 
 
Interviews 
 
It is generally better to deal by speech 
 than by letter; or by the mediation of a 
 third person than by one's self. Letters are 
 good when a man would draw an answer by 
 letter; or when it may serve for a man's jus- 
 tification afterwards to produce his own let- 
 ter; or where it may be danger to be inter- 
 rupted, or heard by pieces. To deal in 
 person is good, when a man's face breedeth 
 regard, as commonly with inferiors; or in 
 cases where a man's eye upon him with 
 whom he speaketh may give him intuition 
 how far to go. 
 
 If you would work any man, you must 
 either know his nature and habits, and so 
 lead him; or his aims, and so persuade him; 
 or his weakness and disadvantages, and so 
 awe him; or those that have interest in him, 
 and so govern him. In dealing with cun- 
 ning persons, we must ever consider their 
 ends, to interpret their speeches; and it is 
 good to say little to them, and that which 
 they least look for. BACON. 
 
Interviews 
 
 HP HERE is much that cannot be done without inter- 
 views. It would often require great labour, not 
 only on your part, but also on the part of others whom 
 you cannot command, to effect by means of writing what 
 may easily be accomplished in a single interview. The 
 pen may be a surer, but the tongue is a nicer instru- 
 ment. In talking, most men sooner or later show what 
 is uppermost in their minds; and this gives a peculiar 
 interest to verbal communications. Besides, there are 
 looks, and tones, and gestures which form a significant 
 language of their own. In short, interviews may be 
 made very useful; but many people look upon them 
 rather as the pastime of business than as a part of it re- 
 quiring great discretion; however, they are, in general, 
 somewhat hazardous things. 
 
 Interviews are perhaps of most value when they bring 
 together several conflicting interests or opinions, each 
 of which has thus an opportunity of ascertaining the 
 amount and variety of opposition which it must expect, 
 and so is worn into moderation. It would take a great 
 deal of writing to effect this. 
 
 Interviews are to be resorted to when you wish to 
 prevent the other party from pledging himself upon a 
 matter which requires much explanation; when you see 
 3 
 
34 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 what will probably be his answer to your first proposi- 
 tion, and know that you have a good rejoinder, which 
 you would wish him to Hear before he commits himself 
 by writing upon the subject. In cases of this kind, how- 
 ever, there is the similar danger of a man talking him- 
 self into obstinacy before he has heard all that you have 
 to say. 
 
 Interviews are very serviceable in those matters where 
 you would at once be able to come to a decision, if you 
 did but know the real inclination of the other parties 
 concerned: and, in general, you should take care occa- 
 sionally to see those with whom you are dealing, if the 
 thing in question is likely to be much influenced by their 
 individual peculiarities, and you require a knowledge of 
 the men. Now this is the case with the greatest part of 
 human affairs. 
 
 You frequently want verbal communication in order 
 to encourage the timid, to settle the undecided, and to 
 bring on some definite stage in the proceedings. 
 
 The above are instances in which interviews are to be 
 sought for on their own account ; but they are sometimes 
 necessary, merely because people will not be satisfied 
 without them. There are persons who can hardly be- 
 lieve that their arguments have been attended to, until 
 they have had verbal evidence of the fact. They think 
 that they could easily answer all your objections, and 
 that they should certainly succeed in persuading you, if 
 they had an opportunity of discussing the matter orally ; 
 and it may be of importance to remove this delusion by 
 an interview. 
 
 On the other hand interviews are to be avoided, when 
 you have reasons which determine your mind, but which 
 
INTERVIEWS. 35 
 
 you cannot give to the other party. If you do accede to 
 an interview, you are almost certain to be tempted into 
 giving some reasons, and these not being the strong 
 ones, will very likely admit of a fair answer; and so, 
 after much shuffling, you will be obliged to resort to an 
 appearance of mere wilfulness at last. 
 
 You should also be averse to transacting business 
 verbally with very eager, sanguine persons, unless you 
 feel that you have sufficient force and readiness for it. 
 There are people who do not understand any dissent or 
 opposition on your part, unless it is made very manifest. 
 They are fully prepossessed by their own views, and 
 they go on talking as if you agreed with them. Perhaps 
 you feel a delicacy in interrupting them, and undeceiv- 
 ing them at once. The time for so doing passes by ; and 
 ever afterwards they quote you as an authority for all 
 their folly. Or it ends by your going away pledged to 
 a course of conduct which is anything but what you 
 approve. 
 
 But perhaps there are no interviews less to be sought 
 after than those in which you have to appear in connec- 
 tion with one or two other parties who have exactly the 
 same interest in the matter as your own, and must be 
 supposed to speak your sentiments, but with whom you 
 have had little or no previous communication ; or whose 
 judgment you find that you cannot rely upon. In such 
 a case you are continually in danger of being compro- 
 mised by the indiscretion of any one of your associates. 
 For you do not like to disown one of your own side 
 before the adverse party ; or you are afraid of taking all 
 the odium of opposition on yourself. You may perhaps 
 be quite certain that your indiscreet ally would be as 
 
36 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 anxious as yourself to recall his words if he could per- 
 ceive their consequences : but these are things which you 
 cannot explain to him in that company. 
 
 The men who profit least by interviews are often those 
 who are most inclined to resort to them. They are 
 irresolute persons, who wish to avoid pledging them- 
 selves to anything, and so they choose an interview as 
 the safest course which occurs to them. Besides it looks 
 like progress: and makes them, as they say, see their 
 way. Such persons, however, are very soon entangled 
 in their own words, or they^ are oppressed by the earnest 
 opinions of the people they meet. For to conduct an 
 interview in the manner which they intend, would re- 
 quire them to have at command that courage and 
 decision which they never attain, without a long and 
 miserly weighing of consequences. 
 
 Indolent persons are very apt to resort to interviews ; 
 for it saves them the trouble of thinking steadily, and 
 of expressing themselves with precision/ which they are 
 called upon to do, if they come to write about the sub- 
 ject. Now they certainly may learn a great deal in a 
 short time, and with very little trouble, by means of an 
 interview ; but if they have to take up the position of an 
 antagonist, of a judge, or indeed any but that of a 
 learner, then it is very unsafe to indulge in an interview, 
 without having prepared themselves for it. 
 
 To conduct an interview successfully, requires not 
 only information and force of character, but also a cer- 
 tain intellectual readiness. People are so apt to think 
 that there are but two ways in which a thing can termi- 
 nate. They are ignorant of the number of combinations 
 
INTERVIEWS. 37 
 
 which even a few circumstances will admit of. And 
 perhaps a proposal is made which they are totally un- 
 prepared for, and which they cannot deal with, from 
 being unable to apprehend with sufficient quickness its 
 main drift and consequences. 
 
 There are cases where the persons meeting are upon 
 no terms of equality respecting the interview ; where one 
 of them has a great deal to maintain, and the other 
 nothing to lose. Such an instance occurs in the case of 
 a minister receiving a deputation. He has the interests 
 of the public to maintain, and the intentions of the 
 Government to keep concealed. He has to show that he 
 fully understands the arguments laid before him; and 
 all the while to conceal his own bias, and to keep him- 
 self perfectly free from any pledge. Any member of 
 the deputation may utter anything that he pleases with- 
 out much harm coming of it; but every word that the 
 minister says is liable to be interpreted against him to 
 the uttermost. There are similar occasions in private 
 life, where a man has to act upon the defensive, and 
 where the interview may be considered not as a battle, 
 but as a seige. A man should then confine himself to a 
 few words. He should bring forward his strongest 
 arguments only, and not state too many of them at a 
 time: for he should keep a good force in reserve. Be- 
 sides, it will be much more difficult for the other party 
 to mystify and pervert a few arguments than a set 
 speech. And he will leave them no room for gaining a 
 semblance of victory by answering the unimportant 
 parts of his statement. 
 
 Again, whatever readiness and knowledge of the sub- 
 ject he may possess, he should have somebody by him 
 
38 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 on his side. For he is opposed to numbers, and must 
 expect that amongst them there will always be some one 
 ready to meet his arguments, if not with argument, at 
 any rate with the proper fallacies ; or at least that there 
 will be some one stupid enough to commence replying 
 without an answer. He should therefore have a person 
 who would be able to aid him in replying ; and there will 
 be a satisfaction in having somebody in the room who is 
 not in hostile position towards him. Besides he will 
 want a witness : for he must not imagine that the number 
 of his opponents is any safeguard against misrepresenta- 
 tion, but rather a cause, in most people, of less attention, 
 and less feeling of responsibility. And lastly, the most 
 precise man in the world, if he speaks much on any 
 matter, may be glad to hear what was the impression 
 upon another person 's mind: in short, to see whether he 
 conveyed exactly what he meant to convey. 
 
 The best precaution, however, which any man can 
 take under these circumstances, is to state in writing, at 
 the conclusion of the interview, the substance of what 
 he apprehends to have been said, and of what he intends 
 to do. This would require great readiness and the most 
 earnest attention; but, in the end, it would save very 
 much trouble and misapprehension. A similar practice 
 might be adopted in most interviews of business, where 
 the subject would warrant such a formality. It would 
 not only be good in itself, but its influence would be felt 
 throughout the interview; and people would come pre- 
 pared, and would speak with precision, when there was 
 an immediate prospect of their statements being re- 
 corded. 
 
The Treatment of Suitors 
 
In speech, the man who makes Truth his 
 watchword is careful in his words, he seeks 
 to be accurate, neither understating nor 
 overcoloring. He never states as a fact 
 that of which he is not sure. What he says 
 has the ring of sincerity, the hall-mark of 
 pure gold. 
 
 Men who split hairs with their conscience, 
 who mislead others by deft, shrewd phras- 
 ing which may be true in letter yet lying in 
 spirit and designedly uttered to produce a 
 false impression, are untruthful in the most 
 cowardly way. Such men would cheat even 
 in solitaire. Like murderers they forgive 
 themselves their crime in congratulating 
 themselves on the cleverness of their alibi. 
 JORDAN. 
 
The Treatment of Suitors 
 
 THE maxim, 'Pars beneficii est, quod petitur si bene 
 neges/* is misinterpreted by many people. They 
 construe 'bene' kindly, which is right; but they are in- 
 clined to fancy that this kindness consists in courtesy, 
 rather than in explicitness and truth. 
 
 You should be very loth to encourage expectations in 
 a suitor, which you have not then the power of fulfilling, 
 or of putting in a course of fulfilment; for Hope, an 
 architect above rules, can build, in reverse, a pyramid 
 upon a point. From a very little origin there often 
 arises a wildness of expectation which quite astounds 
 you. Like the Fisherman in the 'Arabian Nights/ 
 when you see 'a genie twice as high as the greatest of 
 giants/ you may well wonder how he could have come 
 out of so small a vessel; but in your case, there will be 
 no chance of persuading the monster to ensconce himself 
 again, for the purpose of convincing you that such a feat 
 is not impossible. 
 
 In addition also to the natural delusions of hope, there 
 is sometimes the artifice of pretending to take your 
 words for more than they are well known to mean. 
 
 There is a deafness peculiar to suitors : they should 
 therefore be answered as much as possible in writing. 
 
 *You partly grant a favor when you refuse it kindly. 
 
42 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 The answers should be expressed in simple terms; and 
 all phrases should be avoided which are not likely to 
 convey a clear idea to the man who hears them for the 
 first time. There are many persons who really do not 
 understand forms of writing which may have become 
 common to you. When they find that courteous expres- 
 sions mean nothing, they think that a wilful deception 
 has been practiced upon them. And in general, you 
 should consider that people will naturally put the largest 
 construction upon every ambiguous expression, and 
 every term of courtesy which can be made to express 
 anything at all in their favour. 
 
 It will often be necessary to see applicants ; and in this 
 case you must bear in mind that you have not only the 
 delusions of hope and the misinterpretation of language 
 to contend against, but also the imperfection of men's 
 memories. If possible, therefore, do not let the inter- 
 view be the termination of the matter: let it lead to 
 something in writing, so that you may have an opportu- 
 nity of recording what you wished to express. Avoid a 
 promising manner, as people will be apt to find words 
 for it. Do not resort to evasive answers for the purpose 
 only of bringing the interview to a close; nor shrink 
 from giving a distinct denial, merely because the person 
 to whom you ought to give it is before you, and you 
 would have to witness any pain which it might occasion. 
 Let not that balance of justice which Corruption could 
 not alter one hair's breadth, be altogether disturbed by 
 Sensibility. 
 
 To determine in what cases the refusal of a suit should 
 be accompanied by reasons, is a matter of considerable 
 
THE TREATMENT OF SUITORS. 43 
 
 difficulty. It must depend very much on what portion 
 of the truth you are able to bring forward. This was 
 mentioned before as a general principle in the transac- 
 tion of business, and it may be well to abide by it in 
 answering applications. You will naturally endeavor 
 to give somewhat of a detailed explanation when you are 
 desirous of showing respect to the person whom you are 
 addressing; but if the explanation is not a sound or a 
 complete one, it would be better to see whether the re- 
 spect could not be shown in some other way. 
 
 In many cases, and especially when the suit is a mere 
 project of effrontery, it will perhaps be prudent to re- 
 fuse, without entering at all upon the grounds of your 
 refusal. In an explanation addressed to the applicant, 
 you will be apt to omit the special reasons for your re- 
 fusal, as they are likely to be such as would mortify his 
 self-love ; and so you lay yourself open to an accusation 
 of unfairness, when he finds, perhaps, that you have 
 selected some other person, who came as fully within the 
 scope of your general objections as he did himself. 
 Therefore, where you are not required, and do not like, 
 to give special reasons, it may often be the best course 
 simply to refuse, or to couch your refusal in impregna- 
 ble generalities. 
 
 Remember that in giving any reason at all for refus- 
 ing, you lay some foundation for a future request. 
 
 Those who have constantly to deal with suitors are in 
 danger of giving way too much to disgust at the intru- 
 sion, importunity, and egotism which they meet with. 
 As an antidote to this, they should remember that the 
 suit which is a matter of business to them, and which, 
 
44 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 perhaps, from its hopelessness, they look upon with little 
 interest, seems to the suitor himself a thing of absorbing 
 importance. And they should expect a man in distress 
 to be as unreasonable as a sick person, and as much occu- 
 pied by his own disorder. 
 
Councils and Commissions 
 
Experience has shown that whatever may 
 be the merits of boards of directors as coun- 
 selors and advisors, they do not possess that 
 prompt judgment that is so often needed in 
 emergencies. If in much counsel there is 
 much wisdom, there is also much delay, and 
 while undue haste is bad, unreasoning hesi- 
 tation is even worse, for mistakes may be 
 remedied, but lost opportunities do not pre- 
 sent themselves again. It is a trite saying 
 that "Councils of war never fight," and it is 
 not recorded that Napoleon ever submitted 
 his judgment to that of his marshals. He lis- 
 tened to their advice, and then took the de- 
 cision upon himself. 
 
 If a reckoning be made of the most suc- 
 cessful concerns in this country, especially 
 among manufacturers, it will be found that 
 almost without exception success has been 
 due to the dominating influence of one mas- 
 ter mind, who has impressed his individu- 
 ality upon the concern and imparted his 
 spirit to its members. He often has asso- 
 ciated with him an equally strong charac- 
 ter, dissimilar, yet of like nature, thus form- 
 ing the needed complement. IRON AGE. 
 
Councils and Commissions 
 
 AND, IN GENERAL, 
 
 BODIES OF MEN CALLED TOGETHER TO COUNSEL, 
 OR TO DIRECT 
 
 OUCH bodies are the fly-wheels and safety-valves of 
 ^ the machinery of business. They are sometimes 
 looked upon as superfluities, but by their means the mo- 
 tion is equalized, and a great force is applied with little 
 danger. 
 
 They are apt contrivances for obtaining an average of 
 opinions, for insuring freedom from corruption, and the 
 reputation of that freedom. On ordinary occasions they 
 are more courageous than most individuals. They can 
 bear odium better. The world seldom looks to personal 
 character as the predominating cause of any of their 
 doings, though this is one of the first things which occurs 
 to it when the public acts of any individual are in ques- 
 tion. The very indistinctness which belongs to their 
 corporate existence adds a certain weight to their 
 decisions. 
 
 Councils are serviceable as affording some means of 
 judging how things are likely to be generally received. 
 It is seldom that any one person, however capable he 
 may be of framing, or of executing a good measure, can 
 come to a satisfactory conclusion as to the various ap- 
 pearances which that measure will present, or can be 
 made to present, to others. In some instances he may 
 
48 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 be so little under the influence of the common prejudices 
 around him, as not to understand their force, and there- 
 fore not to perceive how a new thing will be received. 
 Now, if he has the opportunity of consulting several 
 persons together, he will not only have the advantage of 
 their common sense and joint information, but he will 
 also have a chance of hearing what will be the common 
 nonsense of ordinary men upon the subject, and of pro- 
 viding as far as possible against it. 
 
 On the other hand, these bodies are much tempted by 
 the division of responsibility to sloth; and therefore to 
 dealing with things superficially and inaccurately. 
 Another evil is the want of that continuity of purpose in 
 their proceedings which is to be found in those of an 
 individual. 
 
 As it tends directly to diminish many of the advan- 
 tages before mentioned, it is, in general, a wrong thing 
 for a member of a council or commission to let the outer 
 world know that his private opinion is adverse to any of 
 the decisions of his colleagues ; or indeed to indicate the 
 part, whatever it may have been, that he has taken in 
 the transaction of the general body. 
 
 The proper number of persons to constitute such 
 bodies must vary according to the purpose for which 
 they are called together. Such a number as would afford 
 any temptation for oratorial display should in general 
 be avoided. Another limit, which it may be prudent to 
 adopt, is to have only so many members as to make it 
 possible in most cases for each to take part in the pro- 
 ceedings. By having a greater number, you will not in- 
 sure more scrutiny into the business. It will still be 
 
COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 49 
 
 done by a few: but with a feeling of less responsibility 
 than if they were left to themselves, and with the inter- 
 ruptions and inconvenience arising from the number of 
 persons present. Besides, the greater the number, the 
 more likelihood there is of parties being formed in the 
 council. 
 
 Whether the members are many or few, there should 
 be formalities, strictly maintained. This is essential in 
 the conduct of business. Otherwise there will be such 
 a state of things as that described by Pepys in his 
 account of a meeting of the Privy Council; which, like 
 most of his descriptions, one feels to be true to the life. 
 "Went to a Committee of the Council to discourse con- 
 cerning pressing of men; but Lord! how they meet; 
 never sit down : one comes, now another goes, then comes 
 another ; one complaining that nothing is done, another 
 swearing that he hath been there these two hours and 
 nobody come. At last my Lord Annesley says, 'I think 
 we must be forced to get the King to come to every 
 Committee ; for I do not see that we do anything at any 
 time but when he is here. ' 3 
 
 The great art of making use of councils, commissions, 
 and such like bodies, is to know what kind of matter to 
 put before them, and in what state to present it. ' There 
 be three parts of business, the preparation ; the debate, 
 or examination ; and the perfection ; whereof, if you look 
 for dispatch, let the middle only be the work of many, 
 and the first and last the work of few. '* 
 
 There is likely to be a great waste of time and labour 
 when a thing is brought in all its first vagueness to be 
 
 *Bacon's Essay on Dispatch. 
 4 
 
50 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 debated or examined by a number of persons. And 
 there will be much in the ' preparation ' and 'perfection' 
 of a matter which, will only become confused by being 
 submitted to a full assembly. You might as well think 
 of making love by a council or a board. It should 
 therefore be the business of some one, either in the 
 council or subordinate to it, to bring the matter forward 
 in a distinct and definite shape. Otherwise there will 
 be a wilderness of things said before you arrive at any 
 legitimate point of discussion. And hence Bacon adds, 
 'Proceeding upon something conceived in writing for 
 the most part facilitates dispatch; for though it should 
 be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more pregnant 
 of direction than an indefinite action. ' 
 
 In order to bring the responsibility of any act of the 
 general body home to the individuals composing it, no 
 method seems so good as that requiring the signatures of 
 a large proportion of the council or commission to the 
 directions given in the matter. Even the most careless 
 people have a sort of aversion to signing things which 
 they have never considered. This plan is better than 
 requiring the signatures of the whole body. For it is 
 less likely to degenerate into a mere formality: and 
 besides, the other course .would give any one crotchety 
 man too great a power of hinderance. 
 
 The responsibility, also, of those persons who settle 
 the details of a matter, whether secretaries, or commit- 
 tees of the council, should be clearly attested either by 
 their signatures, or by a memorandum showing what 
 part of the business has been intrusted to them. 
 
COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 51 
 
 As to the kind of men to be specially chosen or reject- 
 ed, it would be trifling to lay down any minute rules. 
 You often require a diversity of natures in order that 
 the various modes of acting, congenial to different minds 
 and tempers, should have an opportunity of being can- 
 vassed. 
 
 When a man's faults are those which come to the 
 surface in social life, they must be noted as certain 
 hinderances to his usefulness as a member of any of 
 these bodies. A man may be proud or selfish, and yet 
 a good councillor; he may be secretly ill-tempered, and 
 yet a reasonable man in his converse with the world; 
 capable of bearing opposition, and an excellent coad- 
 jutor; but if he is vain, or fond of disputes, or dicta- 
 torial, you know that his efficiency in a council must to a 
 certain extent be counteracted. 
 
 Those men are the grace and strength of councils who 
 are of that healthful nature which is content to take de- 
 feat with good humour, and of that practical turn of 
 mind which makes them set heartily to work upon plans 
 and propositions which have been originated in opposi- 
 tion to their judgment; who are not anxious to shift 
 responsibility upon others; and who do not allude to 
 their former objections with triumph, when those objec- 
 tions come to be borne out by the result. In acting with 
 such persons you are at your ease. You counsel sincerely 
 and boldly, and not with a timorous regard to your own 
 part in the matter. 
 
 The men who have method, and, as it were, a judicial 
 intellect, are most valuable councillors. Without some 
 such in council, a great deal of cleverness goes for 
 
52 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 nothing : as there is nobody to see what has been stated 
 and answered, to what their deliberations tend, and what 
 progress has been made. Such persons can gather the 
 sense of a mixed assembly, and suggest some line of 
 action which m#y honestly meet the different views of 
 the various members. They will bring back the subject- 
 matter when it has all but floated away, while the others 
 have been looking for sea-weed, or throwing stones at 
 one another on the shore. 
 
 *The Value of Counsel 
 
 IVA ANY a king has lost his head who would have re- 
 tained it upon his shoulders if there had been 
 someone about him with the courage and the chance to 
 speak the plain truth, and many a manufacturer has 
 failed for precisely the same reason. There are many 
 owners of manufacturing establishments who cannot 
 bear to think that any ideas but their own are good for 
 anything in the conduct of their business and who, by a 
 process of natural selection, gather about themselves a 
 set of men who have no ideas of their own, don't want to 
 have any, believe that their own interests will be best 
 served by sycophancy or 'ready acquiescence with the 
 ideas of the old man 7 and never speak to him otherwise 
 
 *The pertinency of this short article, from the American 
 Machinist, is so apparent that we feel that no apology is 
 necessary for interpolating it here. EDITOR. 
 
THE VALUE OF COUNSEL. 53 
 
 than in flattery or humble adulation. If the 'old man's' 
 ideas are all right, this does not work so very badly, but 
 if they are wrong, in whole or in part, there is no check 
 upon them, nor any tendency within the establishment 
 itself to correct wrong things. 
 
 How often do we see a shop proprietor who is an 
 adept in the art of meeting and dealing with customers, 
 but who does not get along well with his employees. 
 This is usually not because his customers are a different 
 sort of men, but because a customer, being usually quite 
 independent, is free to express his opinion and freely 
 does so when he thinks he is not properly treated, and 
 sometimes takes his custom elsewhere. In other words, 
 a man who has no natural tact or perhaps little disposi- 
 tion to consider the rights or feelings of others is soon 
 taught by his customers to regard these things so far as 
 they are concerned, but his employees usually have no 
 such opportunities, and yet by bad relations with his 
 employees a manufacturer may lose as much as by bad 
 relations with his customers. There is usually a decided 
 advantage in one's having an associate who dares to 
 speak his mind freely and who has a right to do so. 
 When such an associate is not provided for by the or- 
 ganization of the business its head must depend upon the 
 chance man who can do it, or must suffer for the lack of 
 such a man. 
 
 Corporations usually have an advantage in this re- 
 spect. Their organization gives to more than one man 
 the right and the duty to hold views and express 
 opinions regarding the conduct of the business, es- 
 pecially when no one man owns sufficient of the stock to 
 enable him to dominate all other stockholders. 
 
54 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 A very prominent publishing house failed a while 
 ago, and those familiar with its affairs declared that one 
 of the chief reasons for its decline was that a man who 
 dominated it chose to be so grumpy and disagreeable 
 with authors that all the best ones kept clear of him and 
 his house got only the leavings of others, and very little 
 of the best work. He needed a man who could talk 
 plainly to him, or the house needed a new man in his 
 place. Failing in both these, the house failed. In 
 manufacturing lines especially, but in all other lines of 
 business in greater or less degree, the man who guides 
 the destinies of any large business needs the counsel of 
 others, needs to know how they regard matters of policy 
 from their more or less different standpoints, and it is 
 safe to say that no man can be himself so able as to make 
 the ideas or opinions of others of no importance to him. 
 A man having responsibility must of course make the 
 final decision in matters for which he is responsible, but 
 he who thinks that ultimate responsibility is inconsistent 
 with the careful weighing of the opinions of other in- 
 telligent men makes a great and sometimes fatal mis- 
 take. 
 
Advice 
 
The greatest trust between man and man 
 is the trust of giving counsel. BACON. 
 
 He who calls in the aid of an equal under- 
 standing doubles his own; and he who prof- 
 its by a superior understanding raises his 
 powers to a level with the height of the 
 superior knowledge he unites with. BURKE. 
 
 'Nothing is less sincere than our mode of 
 asking and giving advice. He who asks 
 seems to have deference for the opinion of 
 his friend, while he only aims to get appro- 
 val of his own and make his friend respon- 
 sible for his action. And he who gives 
 repays the confidence, supposed to be placed 
 in him, by a seemingly disinterested zeal, 
 while he seldom means anything but his 
 own interest.' 
 
Advice 
 
 A DVICE is sure of a hearing when it coincides with 
 our previous conclusions, and therefore comes in 
 the shape of praise or of encouragement* It is not un- 
 welcome when we derive it for ourselves, by applying 
 the moral of some other person's life to our own, though 
 the points of resemblance which bring it home may be 
 far from flattering and the advice itself far from pala- 
 table. We can even endure its being addressed to us 
 by another, when it is interwoven with regret at some 
 error, not of ours, but of his ; and when we see that he 
 throws in a little advice to us, by way of introducing, 
 with more grace, a full recital of his own misfortunes. 
 
 But in general it is with advice as with taxation; we 
 can endure very little of either, if they come to us in the 
 direct way. They must not thrust themselves upon us. 
 We do not understand their knocking at our doors; be- 
 sides, they always choose such inconvenient times, and 
 are for ever talking of arrears. 
 
 There is a wide difference between the advice which is 
 thrust upon you, and that which you have to seek for; 
 the general carelessness of the one, and the caution of 
 the other, are to be taken into account. In sifting the 
 latter, you must take care to separate the decorous part 
 
58 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 of it. I mean all that which the adviser puts in, because 
 he thinks the world would expect it from a person of his 
 character and station all that which was to sound well 
 to the third party, of whom, perhaps, the adviser stands 
 somewhat in awe. You cannot expect him to neglect 
 his own safety. The oracles will Philippize, as long as 
 Philip is the master : but still they have an inner mean- 
 ing for Athenian ears. 
 
 It is a disingenuous thing to ask for advice, when you 
 mean assistance; and it will be a just punishment if you 
 get that which you pretend to want. There is still a 
 greater insincerity in affecting to care about another's 
 advice, when you lay the circumstances before him only 
 for the chance of his sanctioning a course which you had 
 previously resolved on. This practice is noticed by 
 Rochefoucauld, who has also laid bare the falseness of 
 those givers of advice who have hardly heard to the end 
 of your story, before they have begun to think how they 
 can advise upon it to their own interest, or their own 
 renown. 
 
 It is a maxim of prudence that when you advise a man 
 to do something which is for your own interest as well as 
 for his, you should put your own motive for advising 
 him full in view, with all the weight that belongs to it. 
 If you conceal the interest which you have in the matter, 
 and he should afterwards discover it, he will be reso- 
 lutely deaf even to that part of the argument which 
 fairly does concern himself. If the lame man had en- 
 deavoured to persuade his blind friend that it was pure 
 charity which induced him to lend the use of his eyes, 
 you may be certain that he never would have been car- 
 ried home, though it was the other's interest to carry him. 
 
ADVICE. 59 
 
 To get extended views, you should consult with per- 
 sons who differ from you in disposition, circumstances, 
 and modes of thought. At the same time, the most prac- 
 ticable advice may often be obtained from those who are 
 of a similar nature to yourself, or who understand you so 
 thoroughly that they are sure to make their advice per- 
 sonal. This advice will contain sympathy ; for as it has 
 been said, a man always sympathizes to a certain extent 
 with what he understands. It will not, perhaps, be the 
 soundest advice that can be given in the abstract, but it 
 may be that which you can best profit by ; for you may 
 be able to act up to it with some consistency. This ap- 
 plies more particularly when the advice is wanted for 
 some matter which is not of a temporary nature, and 
 where a course of action will have to be adopted. It is 
 observed in The Statesman with much truth, 'Nothing 
 can be for a man's interest in the long run which is not 
 founded on his character. ' 
 
 For similar reasons, when you have to give advice, you 
 should never forget whom you are addressing, and what 
 is practicable for him. You should not look about for 
 the wisest thing which can be said, but for that which 
 your friend has the heart to undertake, and the ability 
 to accomplish. You must sometimes feel with him, be- 
 fore you can possibly think for him. There is more need 
 of keeping this in mind, the greater you know the differ- 
 ence to be between your friend's nature and your own. 
 Your advice should not degenerate into comparisons be- 
 tween what would have been your conduct, and what was 
 your friend's. You should be able to take the matter up 
 at the point at which it is brought to you. It is very well 
 to go back, and to show him what might, or what ought 
 
60 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 to have been done, if it throws any light upon what is to 
 be done ; or if you have any other good purpose in such 
 conversation. But remember that comment, however 
 judicious, is not advice; and that advice should always 
 tend to something practicable. 
 
 The advice which we have just been speaking of, is of 
 that kind which relates to points of conduct. If you 
 want to change a man 's principles, you may have to take 
 him out of himself, as it were ; to show him fully the in- 
 tense difference between your own views and his, and to 
 trace up that difference to its source. Your object is not 
 to make him do the best with what he has, but to induce 
 him to throw something away altogether. 
 
 There are occasions on which a man feels that he has 
 so fully made up his mind that hardly anything could 
 move him ; and, at the same time, he knows that he shall 
 meet with much blame from those whose good opinion is 
 of value to him, if he acts according to that mind. Let 
 him not think to break his fall by asking their advice 
 beforehand. As it is, they will be severe upon him for 
 not having consulted them ; but they will be outrageous, 
 if after having consulted them, he then acts in direct 
 opposition to their counsel. Besides, they will not be so 
 inclined to parade the fact of their not having been con- 
 sulted, as they would of their having given judicious 
 advice which was unhappily neglected. I am not speak- 
 ing of those instances in which a man is bound to consult 
 others, but of such as constantly occur, where his con- 
 sulting them is a thing which may be expected, but is not 
 due. 
 
 In seeking for a friend to advise you, look for upright- 
 ness in him, rather then for ingenuity. It frequently 
 
ADVICE. 61 
 
 happens that all you want is moral strength. You can 
 discern consequences well enough, but cannot make up 
 your mind to bear them. Let your Mentor also be a per- 
 son of nice conscience, for such a one is less likely to fall 
 into that error to which we are all so liable, of advising 
 our friends to act with less forbearance, and with less 
 generosity, than we should be inclined to show ourselves, 
 if the case were our own. 'If I were you* is a phrase 
 often on our lips; but we take good care not to disturb 
 our identity, nor to quit the disengaged position of a by- 
 stander. We recommend the course we might pursue if 
 we were acting for you in your absence, but such as you 
 never ought to undertake in your own behalf. 
 
 Besides being careful for your own sake about the per- 
 sons whom you go to for advice, you should be careful 
 also for theirs. It is an act of selfishness unnecessarily 
 to consult those who are likely to feel a peculiar difficulty 
 or delicacy in being your advisers, and who, perhaps, had 
 better not be informed at all about the matter. 
 
Secrecy 
 
'Secrecy has well been termed the soul of 
 all great designs. Perhaps more has been 
 effected by concealing our own intentions, 
 than by discovering those of our enemy. 
 But great men succeed in both.' 
 
 Washington, having been asked by an of- 
 ficer, on the morning of a battle, what were 
 his plans for the day, replied in a whisper, 
 'Can you keep a secret?' On being answered 
 in the affirmative, the general answered 
 'So can I.' 
 
 A resolution that is communicated is no 
 longer within thy power; thy intentions be- 
 come now the plaything of chance; he who 
 would have his commands certainly carried 
 out must take men by surprise. GOETHE. 
 
Secrecy 
 
 C OR once that secrecy is formally imposed upon you, 
 it is implied a hundred times by the concurrent cir- 
 cumstances. All that your friend says to you, as to his 
 friend, is intrusted to you only. Much of what a man 
 tells you in the hour of affliction, in sudden anger, or in 
 any outpouring of his heart, should be sacred. In his 
 craving for sympathy he has spoken to you as to his own 
 soul. 
 
 To repeat what you have heard in social intercourse 
 is sometimes a sad treachery, and when it is not 
 treacherous it is often foolish. For you commonly relate 
 but a part of what has happened, and even if you are 
 able to relate that part with fairness, it is still as likely 
 to be misconstrued as a word of many meanings, in a 
 foreign tongue, without the context. 
 
 There are few conversations which do not imply some 
 degree of mutual confidence, however slight. And in 
 addition to that which is said in confidence, there is 
 generally something which is peculiar though not con- 
 fidential; which is addressed to the present company 
 alone, though not confided to their secrecy. It is meant 
 for them, or for persons like them, and they are expected 
 to understand it rightly. So that when a man has no 
 
 scruple in repeating all that he hears to anybody that 
 5 
 
66 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 he meets, he pays but a poor compliment to himself ; for 
 he seems to take it for granted that what was said in 
 his presence, would have been said, in the same words, 
 at any time, aloud, and in the market place. In short, 
 that he is the average man of mankind; which I doubt 
 much whether any man would like to consider himself. 
 
 On the other hand, there is an habitual and unmean- 
 ing reserve in some men, which makes secrets without 
 any occasion; and it is the least to say of such things 
 that they are needless. Sometimes it proceeds from an 
 innate shyness or timidity of disposition; sometimes 
 from a temper naturally suspicious; or, it may be the 
 result of having been frequently betrayed or oppressed. 
 From whatever cause it comes, it is a failing. As cun- 
 ning is some men's strength, so this sort of reserve is 
 some men's prudence. The man who does not know 
 when, or how much, or to whom to confide, will do well 
 to maintain a Pythagorean silence. It is his best course. 
 I would not have him change it on any account. I only 
 wish him not to mistake it for wisdom. 
 
 That happy union of frankness and reserve which is 
 to be desired, comes not by studying rules, either for 
 candor or for caution. It results chiefly from an up- 
 rightness of purpose enlightened by a profound and 
 delicate care for the feelings of others. This will go 
 very far in teaching us what to confide, and what to con- 
 ceal, in our own affairs; what to repeat and what to 
 suppress in those of other people. The stone in which 
 nothing is seen, and the polished metal which reflects all 
 things, are both alike hard and insensible. 
 
SECRECY. 67 
 
 When a matter is made public, to proclaim that it had 
 ever been confided to your secrecy may be no trifling 
 breach of confidence, and it is the only one which is 
 then left for you to commit. 
 
 With respect to the kind of people to be trusted, it 
 may be observed that grave, proud men are very safe 
 confidants, and that those persons who have ever had to 
 conduct any business in which secrecy was essential, are 
 likely to acquire a habit of reserve for all occasions. 
 
 On the other hand, it is a question whether a secret 
 will escape sooner by means of a vain man or a simple- 
 ton. There are some people who play with a secret 
 until at last it is suggested by their manner to some 
 shrewd person who knows a little of the circumstances 
 connected with it. There are others whom it is unsafe 
 to trust; not that they are vain, and so wear the secret 
 as an ornament ; not that they are foolish, and so let it 
 drop by accident; not that they are treacherous, and 
 so sell it for their own advantage. But they are simple- 
 minded people, with whom the world has gone smoothly, 
 who would not themselves make any mischief of the 
 secret which they disclose and, therefore, do not see 
 what harm can come of telling it. 
 
 Before you make any confidence, you should consider 
 whether the thing you wish to confide is of weight 
 enough to be a secret. Your small secrets require the 
 greatest care. Most persons suppose that they have 
 kept them sufficiently when they have been silent about 
 them for a certain time ; and this is hardly to be won- 
 dered at, if there is nothing in their nature to remind 
 a person that they were told to him as secrets. 
 
68 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 There is sometimes a good reason for using conceal- 
 ment even with your dearest friends. It is that you may 
 be less liable to be reminded of your anxieties when you 
 have resolved to put them aside. Few persons have tact 
 enough to perceive when to be silent and when to offer 
 you counsel or condolence. 
 
 You should be careful not to intrust another unneces- 
 sarily with a secret which it may be a hard matter for 
 him to keep, and which may expose him to somebody's 
 displeasure, when it is thereafter discovered that he was 
 the object of your confidence. Your desire for aid, or 
 for sympathy, is not to be indulged by dragging other 
 people into your misfortunes. 
 
 There is as much responsibility in imparting your own 
 secrets, as in keeping those of your neighbor. 
 
Practical Wisdom 
 
The successful man, he who brings things 
 to pass, grows stronger and more deter- 
 mined when the way looks darkest. Instead 
 of becoming discouraged as the obstacles 
 which bar his progress grow more and more 
 formidable, he arouses himself like a lion 
 to meet and finally overcome them. He 
 does not waste his energies and time in 
 trying to evade or go around obstructions; 
 he ploughs his way through them. 
 
 When you have a disagreeable, perplexing 
 thing to do, don't put off the doing. Antici- 
 pation will clothe it with new difficulties, 
 and fear, of what after all may be more 
 imaginary than real, will steal your peace of 
 mind, and perhaps destroy your strength 
 and ability to do the thing required. Prompt, 
 vigorous action robs a dreaded task of half 
 its terrors. SUCCESS. 
 
Practical Wisdom 
 
 D RAG TIC AL wisdom acts in the mind, as gravitation 
 does in the material world: combining, keeping 
 things in their places, and maintaining a mutual depend- 
 ence amongst the various parts of our system. It is for- 
 ever reminding us where we are, and what we can do, 
 not in fancy, but in real life. It does not permit us to 
 wait for dainty duties, pleasant to the imagination, but 
 insists upon our doing those which are before us. It is 
 always inclined to make much of what it possesses, and 
 is not given to ponder over those schemes which might 
 have been carried on, if what is irrevocable had been 
 other than it is. It does not suffer us to waste our 
 energies in regret. In journeying with it we go towards 
 the sun, and the shadow of our burden falls behind us. 
 
 In bringing anything to completion, the means which 
 it looks for are not the shortest, nor the neatest, nor the 
 best that can be imagined. They have, however, this 
 advantage, that they happen to be within reach. 
 
 We are liable to make constant mistakes about the 
 nature of practical wisdom, until we come to perceive 
 that it consists not in any one predominant faculty or 
 disposition, but rather in a certain harmony amongst 
 all the faculties and affections of the man. Where this 
 harmony exists, there are likely to be well-chosen ends, 
 and means judiciously adapted. But, as it is, we see 
 
72 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 numerous instances of men who, with great abilities, 
 accomplish nothing, and we are apt to vary our views of 
 practical wisdom according to the particular failings of 
 these men. Sometimes we think it consists in having a 
 definite purpose, and being constant to it. But take 
 the case of a deeply selfish person: he will be constant 
 enough to his purpose, and it will be a definite one. 
 Very likely, too, it may not be founded upon unreason- 
 able expectations. The object which he has in view may 
 be a small thing, but being as close to his eyes as to his 
 heart, there will be times when he can see nothing above 
 it, or beyond it, or beside it. And so he may fail in 
 practical wisdom. 
 
 Sometimes it is supposed that practical wisdom is not 
 likely to be found amongst ' imaginative persons/ And 
 this is very true, if you mean by l imaginative persons, ' 
 those who have an excess of imagination. For in the 
 mind, as in the body, general dwarfishness is often 
 accompanied by a disproportionate size of some part. 
 The large hands and feet of a dwarf seen to have de- 
 voured his stature. But if you mean that imagination, 
 of itself, is something inconsistent with practical wisdom, 
 I think you will find that your opinion is not founded 
 on experience. On the contrary, I believe that there 
 have been few men who have done great things in the 
 world who have not had a large power of imagination. 
 For imagination, if it be subject to reason, is its ' slave 
 of the lamp/ 
 
 It is a common error to suppose that practical wisdom 
 is something epicurean in its nature, which makes no 
 difficulties, takes things as they come, is desirous of 
 getting rid rather than of completing, and which, in 
 
PRACTICAL WISDOM. 73 
 
 short is never troublesome. And from a fancy of this 
 kind, many persons are considered speculative merely 
 because they are of a searching nature, and are not 
 satisfied with small expedients and such devices as serve 
 to conceal the ills they cannot cure. And if to be prac- 
 tical is to do things in such a way as to leave a great deal 
 for other people to undo at some future, and no very 
 distant period then, certainly, these scrutinizing, pains- 
 taking sort of persons are not practical. For it is their 
 nature to prefer a good open visible rent to a timeserv- 
 ing patch. I do not mean to say that they may not resort 
 to patching as a means of delay, but they will not permit 
 themselves to fancy that they have done a thing when 
 they have only hit upon some expedient for putting off 
 the doing. 
 
 Bacon says, 'In this theatre of man's life, God and 
 angels only should be lookers-on; that contemplation 
 and action ought ever to be united, a conjunction like 
 unto that of the two highest planets Saturn, the planet 
 of rest, and Jupiter, the planet of action. ' It is in this 
 conjunction, which seems to Bacon so desirable, that 
 practical wisdom delights, and on that account it is sup- 
 posed by some men to have a tinge of baseness in it. 
 They do not know that practical wisdom is as far from 
 what they term expediency as it is from impractica- 
 bility itself. They see how much of compromise there 
 is in all human affairs. At the same time, they do not 
 perceive that this compromise, which should be the nice 
 limit between wilfulness and a desertion of the light 
 that is within us, is the thing of all others which requires 
 the diligent exercise of that uprightness, which they 
 
74 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 fear to put in peril, and which, they persuade them- 
 selves, will be strengthened by inactivity. They fancy, 
 too, that high moral resolves and great principles are not 
 for daily use, and that there is no room for them in the 
 affairs of this life. This is an extreme delusion. For 
 how is the world ever made better? Not by mean little 
 schemes which some men fondly call practical, not by 
 setting one evil thing to counteract another, but by the 
 introduction of those principles of action which are 
 looked upon at first as theories, but which are at last 
 acknowledged and acted upon as common truths. The 
 men who first introduce these principles are practical 
 men, though the practices which such principles create 
 may not come into being in the life-time of their 
 founders. 
 
The Education of a Man of Business 
 
 ^Aim.v/ 
 
 / OF THE ' 
 
 f WNIVERSITY 
 
 ITY 
 
 OF 
 
In these days of elaborate education in all 
 lines, the fact has been forgotten that the 
 mental faculty called 'judgment' is one that 
 is inherent and congenital, and can neither 
 be induced nor improved by education. Of 
 the many thousands that annually graduate 
 from the world's collegiate and technical in- 
 stitutions but a minute fraction are ever 
 heard of again, while of the men who attain 
 celebrity as capables in all lines, more than 
 90 per cent, statistically, have never had an 
 education in their youth in anything but the 
 fundamentals, but have attained success be- 
 cause of the possession of an inherent capa- 
 bility in their line and because they were 
 gifted from birth by that invaluable quality 
 we call 'judgment.' This is not an argu- 
 ment against education but against an un- 
 warranted dependence upon it. The world is 
 beginning to find out that not only poets 
 but all kinds of notables are born and not 
 made. MINING REPORTER. 
 
The Education of a Man of 
 Business 
 
 "F HE essential qualities for a man of business are of a 
 moral nature ; these are to be cultivated first. He 
 must learn betimes to love truth. That same love of 
 truth will be found a potent charm to bear him safely 
 through the world's entanglements I mean safely in the 
 most worldly sense. Besides, the love of truth not only 
 makes a man act with more simplicity, and therefore 
 with less chance of error; but it conduces to the highest 
 intellectual development. The following passage in The 
 Statesman gives the reason : ' The correspondence of wis- 
 dom and goodness are manifold; and that they will ac- 
 company each other is to be inferred, not only because 
 men's wisdom makes them good, but also because their 
 goodness makes them wise. Questions of right and wrong 
 are a perpetual exercise of the faculties of those who are 
 solicitious as to the right and wrong of what they do and 
 see ; and a deep interest of the heart in these questions 
 carries with it a deeper cultivation of the understanding 
 than can be easily effected by any other excitement to 
 intellectual activity/ 
 
 What has just been said of the love of truth applies 
 also to other moral qualities. Thus, charity enlightens 
 the understanding quite as much as it purifies the heart. 
 And indeed knowledge is not more girt about with power 
 than goodness is with wisdom. 
 
78 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 The next thing in the training of one who is to become 
 a man of business will be for him to form principles ; for 
 without these, when thrown on the sea of action, he will 
 be without rudder and compass. They are the best re- 
 sults of study. Whether it is history, or political econ- 
 omy, or ethics, that he is studying, these principles are 
 to be the reward of his labour. A principle resembles a 
 law in the physical world ; though it can seldom have the 
 same certainty, as the facts which it has to explain and 
 embrace do not admit of being weighed or numbered 
 with the same exactness as material things. The prin- 
 ciples which our student adopts at first may be unsound, 
 may be insufficient, but he must not neglect to form 
 some; and must only nourish a love of truth that will 
 not allow him to hold to any, the moment that he finds 
 them to be erroneous. 
 
 Much depends upon the temperament of a man of 
 business. It should be hopeful, that it may bear him up 
 against the faintheartedness, the folly, the falsehood, and 
 the numberless discouragements which even a prosperous 
 man will have to endure. It should also be calm; for 
 else he may be driven wild by any great pressure of 
 business, and lose his time, and his head, in rushing from 
 one unfinished thing, to begin something else. Now this 
 wished-for conjunction of the calm and the hopeful is 
 very rare. 
 
 It is, however, in every man's power to study well his 
 own temperament, and to provide against the defects 
 in it. 
 
 A habit of thinking for himself is one which may be 
 acquired by the solitary student. But the habit of de- 
 
EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 79 
 
 ciding for himself, so indispensable to a man of business, 
 is not to be gained by study. Decision is a thing that 
 cannot be fully exercised until it is actually wanted. 
 You cannot play at deciding. You must have realities 
 to deal with. 
 
 It is true that the formation of principles, which has 
 been spoken of before, requires decision ; but it is of that 
 kind which depends upon deliberate judgement: where- 
 as, the decision which is wanted in the world 's business 
 must ever be within call, and does not judge so much as 
 it foresees and chooses. This kind of decision is to be 
 found in those who have been thrown early on their own 
 resources, or who have been brought up in great freedom. 
 
 It would be difficult to lay down any course of study, 
 not technical, that would be peculiarly fitted to form a 
 man of business. He should be brought up in the habit 
 of reasoning closely : and to insure this, there is hardly 
 anything better for him than the study of geometry. 
 
 In any course of study to be laid down for him, some- 
 thing like universality should be aimed at, which not 
 only makes the mind agile, but gives variety of inform- 
 ation. Such a system will make him acquainted with 
 many modes of thought, with various classes of facts, 
 and will enable him to understand men better. 
 
 There will be a time in his youth which may, perhaps, 
 be well spent in those studies which are of a metaphysical 
 nature. In the investigation of some of the great ques- 
 tions of philosophy, a breadth and tone may be given 
 to a man 's mode of thinking, which will afterwards be of 
 signal use to him in the business of everyday life. 
 
80 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 We cannot enter here into a description of the techni- 
 cal studies for a man of business, but I may point out 
 that there are works which soften the transition from the 
 schools to the world, and which are particularly needed 
 in a system of education, like our own, consisting of 
 studies for the most part remote from real life. These 
 works are such as tend to give the student that interest 
 in the common things about him which he has scarcely 
 ever been called upon to feel. They show how imagina- 
 tion and philosophy can be woven into practical wisdom. 
 Such are the writings of Bacon. His lucid order, his 
 grasp of the subject, the comprehensiveness of his views, 
 his knowledge of mankind the greatest perhaps that has 
 ever been distinctly given out by any uninspired man 
 the practical nature of his purposes, and his respect for 
 anything of human interest, render Bacon's words un- 
 rivaled in their fitness to form the best men for the con- 
 duct of the highest affairs. 
 
 It is not, however, so much the thing studied, as the 
 manner of studying it. Our student is not intended 
 to become a learned man, but a man of business; not 
 'a full man/ but 'a ready man.' He must be taught 
 to arrange and express what he knows. For this pur- 
 pose let him employ himself in making digests, arrang- 
 ing and classifying materials, writing narratives, and 
 in deciding upon conflicting evidence. All these ex- 
 ercises require method. He must expect that his early 
 attempts will be clumsy ; he begins, perhaps, by dividing 
 his subject in any way that occurs to him, with no other 
 view than that of treating separate portions of it sepa- 
 rately ; he does not perceive, at first, what things are of 
 
EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 81 
 
 one kind, and what of another, and what should be the 
 logical order of their following. But from such rude 
 beginnings, method is developed; and there is hardly 
 any degree of toil for which he would not be compen- 
 sated by such a result. He will have a sure reward in 
 the clearness of his own views, and in the facility of 
 explaining them to others. People bring their atten- 
 tion to the man who gives them most profit for it ; and 
 this will be one who is a master of method. 
 
 Our student should begin soon to cultivate a fluency 
 in writing I do not mean a flow of words, but a habit 
 of expressing his thoughts with accuracy, with brevity, 
 and with readiness; which can be acquired only by 
 practice early in life. You find persons who, from 
 neglect in this part of their education, can express them- 
 selves briefly and accurately, but only after much care 
 and labor. And again you meet with others who cannot 
 express themselves accurately, although they have 
 method in their thoughts, and can write with readiness ; 
 but they have not been accustomed to look at the pre- 
 cise meaning of words, and such people are apt to fall 
 into the common error of indulging in a great many 
 words, as if it were from a sort of hope that some of 
 them might be to the purpose. 
 
 In the style of a man of business nothing is to be 
 aimed at but plainness and precision. For instance, 
 a close repetition of the same word for the same thing 
 need not be avoided. The aversion to such repetitions 
 may be carried too far in all kinds of writing. In 
 literature, however, you are seldom brought to account 
 for misleading people ; but in business you may soon be 
 6 
 
82 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 called upon to pay the penalty for having shunned the 
 word which would exactly have expressed your meaning. 
 
 I cannot conclude this essay better than by endeavor- 
 ing to describe what sort of person a consummate man 
 of business should be. 
 
 He should be able to fix his attention on details, and 
 be ready to give every kind of argument a hearing. 
 This will not encumber him, for he must have been 
 practiced beforehand in the exercise of his intellect, and 
 be strong in principles. One man collects materials 
 together, and there they remain, a shapeless heap; 
 another, possessed of method, can arrange what he has 
 collected; but such a man as I would describe, by the 
 aid of principles, goes farther, and builds with his 
 materials. 
 
 He should be courageous. The courage, however, 
 required in civil affairs, is that which belongs rather to 
 the able commander than to the mere soldier. But any 
 kind of courage is serviceable. 
 
 Besides a stout heart, he should have a patient tem- 
 perament and a vigorous but disciplined imagination; 
 and then he will plan boldly, and with large extent of 
 view, execute calmly, and not be stretching out his hand 
 for things not yet within his grasp. He will let oppor- 
 tunities grow before his eyes, until they are ripe to be 
 seized. He will think steadily over possible failure, in 
 order to provide a remedy or a retreat. There will be 
 the strength of repose about him. 
 
 He must have a deep sense of responsibility. He 
 must believe in the power and vitality of truth, and in 
 all he does or says* should be anxious to express as much 
 truth as possible. 
 
EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 83 
 
 His feeling of responsibility and love of truth will 
 almost inevitably endow him with diligence, accuracy 
 and discreetness those commonplace requisites for a 
 good man of business, without which all the rest may 
 never come to be ' translated into action.' 
 
Our Judgments of Other Men 
 
Of all the sensible things lawyers have 
 said it is hard to find a prettier truth than 
 was said by Mr. Choate: 'There is not half 
 so much naughtiness as people believe. 
 There is a general conspiracy to believe 
 that certain circumstances indicate some- 
 thing terrible because something terrible 
 has at sometime accompanied these circum- 
 stances. But circumstances constantly oc- 
 cur without the crime and reputations are 
 blasted by precedence. 
 
 There is probably no single function 
 which men are in the habit of exercising 
 with less sense of responsibility than that 
 of judging other men. The conversation 
 which one hears day by day is only the ex- 
 plicit or implicit judgements upon others, 
 the criticisms of actions and of habits, sug- 
 gested changes in management of affairs, 
 with downright and often relentless con- 
 demnation. The men are extremely few who 
 do not habitually, although in many cases 
 without malice, pass judgment upon their 
 fellows, being themselves entirely incompe- 
 tent judges for lack of knowledge of the 
 facts in the case.' 
 
Our Judgments of Other Men 
 
 I N forming these lightly, we wrong ourselves, and those 
 whom we judge. In scattering such things abroad 
 we endow our unjust thoughts with a life which we can- 
 not take away, and become false witnesses to pervert the 
 judgments of the world in general. Who does not feel 
 that to describe with fidelity the least portion of the en- 
 tangled nature that is within him would be no easy 
 matter ? And yet the same man who feels this, and who, 
 perhaps, would be ashamed of talking at hazard about 
 the properties of a flower, of a weed, of some figure in 
 geometry, will put forth his guesses about the character 
 of his brother-man, as if he had the fullest authority for 
 all that he was saying. 
 
 But perhaps we are not wont to make such rash re- 
 marks ourselves: we are only pleased to receive them 
 with the most obliging credence from the lips of any per- 
 son we may chance to meet with. Such credulity is 
 anything but blameless. We cannot think too seriously 
 of the danger of taking upon trust these off-hand say- 
 ings, and of the positive guilt of uttering them as if they 
 were our own, or had been assayed by our observation. 
 How much we should be ashamed if we knew the slight 
 grounds of some of those uncharitable judgments to 
 which we lend the influence of our name by repeating 
 
88 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 them! And even if we repeat such things only as we 
 have good reason to believe in, we should still be in no 
 hurry to put them forward, especially if they are sen- 
 tences of condemnation. There is a maxim of this kind 
 which Thomas a Kempis has given with all the force of 
 expression that it merits. 'A part of this (prudence) 
 is not to believe anything and everything that men say ; 
 and not to be in a hurry to pour into the ears of others 
 what you hear, or even what you believe/ 
 
 There are certain things quite upon the surface of a 
 man's character: there are certain obvious facts in any 
 man's conduct: and there are persons who, being very 
 much before the world, offer plenty of material for 
 judging about them. Such circumstances as these may 
 fairly induce you to place credence in a general opinion, 
 which, however, you have no means of verifying in any 
 way for yourself : but in no case should you suffer your- 
 self to be carried away at once by the current sayings 
 about men's characters and conduct. If you do, you are 
 helping to form a mob. Consider what these sayings 
 are : how seldom they embody the character discussed ; or 
 go far to exhaust the question, if it is one of conduct. 
 It is well if they describe a part with faithfulness, or 
 give indications from which a shrewd and impartial 
 thinker may deduce some true conclusions. Again, these 
 sayings may be true in themselves, but the prominence 
 given to them may lead to very false impressions. Be- 
 sides, how many of them must be formed upon the 
 opinion of a few persons, and those, perhaps, forward 
 thinkers. 
 
 You feel that you yourself would be liable to make 
 mistakes of all kinds if you had to form an independent 
 
OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 89 
 
 judgment in the matter : do not too readily suppose that 
 the general opinions you hear are free from such mis- 
 takes merely because they are made, or appear to you to 
 be made, by a great many people. 
 
 If we come to analyze the various opinions we hear of 
 men's character and conduct, there must be many which 
 are formed wrongly, though sincerely, either from im- 
 perfect information, or erroneous reasoning. There will 
 be others which are the simple result of the prejudices 
 and passions of the persons judging, of their humours, 
 and sometimes even of their ingenuity. There will be 
 others grounded on total misrepresentations which arise 
 from imperfect hearing, or from some entire mistake, or 
 from a report being made by a person who understood so 
 little of the matter that it was not possible for him to 
 convey, with anything like accuracy, what he heard 
 about it. Then there are the careless things which are 
 said in general conversation, but which often have as 
 much apparent weight as if they had been well consid- 
 ered. Sometimes these various causes are combined ; 
 and the result is, that an opinion of some man's charac- 
 ter and conduct gets abroad which is formed after a 
 wrong method, by prejudiced persons, upon a false 
 statement of facts, respecting a matter which they can- 
 not possibly understand; and this is then left to be in- 
 flated by Folly, and blown about by Idleness. 
 
 There is an excellent passage in Wollaston's Religion 
 of Nature upon this subject, where he says, 'The good 
 or bad repute of men depends in a great measure upon 
 mean people, who carry their stories from family to 
 family, and propagate them very fast : like little insects, 
 
90 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 which lay apace, and the less the faster. There are few, 
 very few, who have the opportunity and the will and 
 the ability to represent things truly. Besides the matters 
 of fact themselves, there are many circumstances which, 
 before sentence is passed, ought to be known and 
 weighed, and yet scarce ever can be known, but to the 
 person himself who is concerned. He may have other 
 views, and another sense of things, than his judges have : 
 and what he understands, what he feels, what he intends, 
 may be a secret confined to his own breast. Or perhaps 
 the censurer, notwithstanding this kind of men talk as if 
 they were infallible, may be mistaken himself in his opin- 
 ion and judge that to be wrong which in truth is right. ' 
 Few people have imagination enough to enter into the 
 delusions of others, or indeed to look at the actions of 
 any other person with any prejudices but their own. 
 Perhaps, however, it would be nearer the truth to say 
 that few people are in the habit of employing their im- 
 agination in the service of charity. Most persons require 
 its magic aid to gild their castle in the air; to conduct 
 them along those fancied triumphal processions in which 
 they themselves play so conspicuous a part; to conquer 
 enemies for them without battles; and to make them 
 virtuous without effort. This is what they want their 
 imagination for: they cannot spare it for any little er- 
 rand of charity. And sometimes when men do think 
 charitably, they are afraid to speak out, for fear of being 
 considered stupid or credulous. 
 
 We have been considering the danger of adopting 
 current sayings about men's character and conduct; but 
 suppose we consider, in detail, the difficulty of forming 
 
OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 91 
 
 an original opinion on these matters, especially if we 
 have not a personal knowledge of the men of whom we 
 speak. In the first place, we seldom know with sufficient 
 exactness the facts upon which we judge, and a little 
 thing may make a great difference when we come to 
 investigate motives. But the report of a transaction 
 sometimes represents the real facts no better than the 
 labored variation does the simple air; which, amidst 
 so many shakes and flourishes, might not be recognized 
 even by the person who composed it. . Then, again, how 
 can we insure that we rightly interpret those actions 
 which we exactly know? Perhaps one of the first mo- 
 tives that we look for is self-interest, when we want to 
 explain an action; but we have scarcely ever such a 
 knowledge of the nature and fortunes of another, as to 
 be able to decide what is his interest, much less what it 
 may appear to him to be, besides, a man's fancies, his 
 envy, his wilfulness, everyday interfere with, and over- 
 ride his interests. He will know this himself, and will 
 often try to conceal it by inventing motives of self- 
 interest to account for his doing what he has a mind 
 to do. 
 
 It is well to be thoroughly impressed with a sense of 
 the difficulty of judging about others; still, judge we 
 must, and sometimes very hastily ; the purposes of life 
 require it. We have, however, more and better mate- 
 rials, sometimes, than we are aware of; we must not 
 imagine that they are always deep-seated and recondite 
 they often lie upon the surface. Indeed, the primary 
 character of a man is especially discernible in trifles, 
 for then he acts, as it were, almost unconsciously. It is 
 
92 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 upon the method of observing and testing these things 
 that a just knowledge of individual men in great meas- 
 ure depends. You may learn more of a person even 
 by a little converse with him than by a faithful outline 
 of his history. The most important of his actions may 
 be anything but the most significant of the man, for 
 they are likely to be the results of many things besides 
 his nature. To understand that, I doubt whether you 
 might not learn more from a good portrait of him than 
 from two or three of the most prominent actions of his 
 life. Indeed, if men did not express much of their 
 nature in their manners, appearance and general bear- 
 ing, we should be at a sad loss to make up our minds 
 how to deal with each other. 
 
 In judging of others, it is important to distinguish 
 those parts of the character and intellect which are 
 easily discernible from those which require much obser- 
 vation. In the intellect, we soon perceive whether a 
 man has wit, acuteness, or logical power. It is not easy 
 to discover whether he has judgment. And it requires 
 some study of the man to ascertain whether he has prac- 
 tical wisdom ; which, indeed, is a result of high moral, as 
 well as intellectual, qualities. 
 
 In the moral nature, we soon detect selfishness, ego- 
 tism, and exaggeration. Carelessness about truth is soon 
 found out; you see it in a thousand little things. On 
 the other hand, it is very difficult to come to a right con- 
 clusion about a man's temper, until you have seen a 
 great deal of him. Of his tastes, some will lie on the 
 surface, others not; for there is a certain reserve about 
 most people in speaking of the things they like best. 
 Again, it is always a hard matter to understand any 
 
OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 93 
 
 man's feelings. Nations differ in their modes of ex- 
 pressing feelings, and how much more individual men! 
 
 There are certain cases in which we are peculiarly 
 liable to err in our judgments of others. Thus, I think, 
 we are all disposed to dislike in a manner dispropor- 
 tionate to their demerits, those who offend us by pre- 
 tension of any kind. "We are apt to fancy that they 
 despise us; whereas, all the while, perhaps, they are 
 only courting our admiration. There are people who 
 wear the worst part of their characters outwards: they 
 offend our vanity; they rouse our fears; and under 
 these influences we omit to consider how often a scornful 
 man is tender-hearted, and an assuming man, one who 
 longs to be popular and to please. 
 
 Then there are characters of such a different kind 
 from our own, that we are without the means of measur- 
 ing and appreciating them. A man who has no humour, 
 how difficult for him to understand one who has ! 
 
 But of all the errors of judging of others, some of the 
 worst are made in judging of those who are nearest to 
 us. They think that we have entirely made up our 
 minds about them, and are apt to show us that sort of 
 behaviour only which they know we expect. Perhaps, 
 too, they fear us, or they are convinced that we do not 
 and cannot sympathize with them. And so we move 
 about in a mist, and talk of phantoms as if they were 
 living men, and think that we understand those who 
 never interchange any discourse with us but the talk of 
 the market-place ; or if they do, it is only as players who 
 are playing a part set down in certain words, to be eked 
 out with the stage gestures for each affection, who would 
 deem themselves little else than mad if they were to say 
 out to us anything of their own. 
 
How to Win Fortune 
 
 ANDREW CARNEGIE 
 
Do not hesitate to engage in any legiti- 
 mate business, for there is no business in 
 America, I do not care what, which will not 
 yield a fair profit if it receive the unremit- 
 ting, exclusive attention, and all the capital 
 of capable, industrious men. 
 
 Every business will have its seasons of 
 depression years during which manufac- 
 turers and merchants are severely tried 
 but every legitimate business producing or 
 dealing in an article which man requires is 
 bound in time to be fairly profitable, if prop- 
 erly conducted. 
 
 And here is the prime condition of suc- 
 cess, the great secret: concentrate your en- 
 ergy, thought and capital upon the business 
 in which you are engaged. Having begun 
 in one line, resolve to fight it out on that 
 line, to lead in it; to adopt every improve- 
 ment; to have the best machinery, and 
 know the most about it. CARNEGIE. 
 
How to Win Fortune 
 
 T ABOUR is divided into two great armies the agri- 
 cultural and the industrial. In these diverse forces 
 are in operation. In the former everything tends to a 
 further distribution of land among the many ; in the lat- 
 ter everything tends to a concentration of business in the 
 hands of the few. One of the two great fallacies upon 
 which 'Progress and Poverty' Mr. George's book- 
 is founded, is that the land is getting more and more into 
 the hands of the few. Now the only source from which 
 Mr. George could obtain correct information upon this 
 point is the census; and this tells us that in 1850 the 
 average extent of farms in the United States was 203 
 acres; in 1860, 199 acres; in 1870, 153 acres, and that 
 in 1880 it was still further reduced to 134 acres. The 
 reason is obvious for this rapid distribution of the land. 
 The farmer who cultivates a small farm by his own la- 
 bour is able to drive out of the field the ambitious cap- 
 italist who attempts to farm on a large scale with the 
 labour of others. In Great Britain nothing has been 
 more significant than that the tillers of small farms have 
 passed through the agricultural depression there far bet- 
 ter than those who cultivated large farms. So in both 
 countries we have proof that under the free play of 
 
 From The New York Tribune, April 13, 1890. 
 7 
 
98 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 equal laws land is becoming more and more divided 
 among the masses of the people. In the whole range of 
 social question no fact is more important than this, and 
 nothing gives the thoughtful student greater satisfaction. 
 The triumph of the small proprietor over the large pro- 
 prietor insures the growth and maintenance of that ele- 
 ment in society upon which civilization can most securely 
 depend, for there is no force in a nation so conservative 
 of what is good, so fair, so virtuous, as a race of men who 
 till the soil they own. Happily for mankind experience 
 proves that man cannot work more soil profitably than 
 he can till himself with the aid of his own family. 
 
 When we turn to the other army of labour the in- 
 dustrial we are obliged to confess that it is swayed by 
 the opposite law, which tends to concentrate manufac- 
 turing and business affairs generally in a few vast estab- 
 lishments. The fall in prices of manufactured articles 
 has been startling. Never were the principal articles of 
 consumption so low as they are to-day. This cheapen- 
 ing process is made possible only by concentration. "We 
 find 1,700 watches per day turned out by one company, 
 and watches are sold for a few dollars apiece. We have 
 mills making many thousand yards of calico per day, and 
 this necessary article is to be had for a few cents a yard. 
 Manufacturers of steel make 2,500 tons per day, and 
 four pounds of finished steel are sold for 5 cents. And 
 so on through the entire range of industries. Divide the 
 huge factories into smaller establishments, and it will be 
 found impossible to manufacture some of the articles at 
 all, the success of the process being often dependent on 
 its being operated upon a large scale, while the cost of 
 such articles as could be produced in small establish- 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. 99 
 
 ments would be two or three times their present prices. 
 There does not appear to be any counteracting force to 
 this law of concentration in the industrial world. On 
 the contrary, the active forces at work seem to demand 
 greater and greater output, or turn-over, from each es- 
 tablishment in order that the minimum of cost should be 
 reached. Hence comes the rapid and continuous in- 
 crease of the capital of manufacturing and commercial 
 concerns, five, ten, fifteen, and even twenty millions be- 
 ing sometimes massed in one corporation. 
 
 HAS THE YOUNG MAN NOW A CHANCE ? 
 
 This has given rise to a complaint which is often 
 heard, but which I hope to show has no foundation. The 
 young practical man points to these, and says to him- 
 self: 'It is no longer possible for our class, without 
 capital, to rise beyond the position of employes upon 
 salaries. There is a lion in the path which leads to inde- 
 pendent commands or to partnership, and this lion is 
 the hugh establishments already existing, which are an 
 impassable barrier to our advancement.' The man en- 
 gaged in the agricultural army, as we have seen, has 
 nothing to fear from capital. With a small sum, which 
 is not very difficult for him to save or borrow, he can 
 begin farming, the only competition with which he has 
 to contend being that of others of his own class situated 
 like himself. It is certainly more difficult for a mechanic 
 or practical man to establish a new business, or to win 
 partnership in one that exists, than it is for the young 
 farmer to begin his business; yet the difficulties are not 
 insuperable, nor greater than have hitherto existed. 
 They are such as to stimulate the ambitious ; and this is 
 
100 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 always to be taken into account, that if the race in the 
 industrial and business world be harder to win, the prize 
 is infinitely greater. 
 
 Before considering the prospects of the mechanic in 
 the industrial, of the clerk in the mercantile, commercial 
 and financial worlds, let me show that no classes other 
 than these two have had much to do with establishing 
 the factories, business houses and financial institutions 
 which are best known in the United States to-day. And 
 first, as to the part of trained mechanics. I select the 
 best-known industrial establishments in each depart- 
 ment, many of them the most extensive works of their 
 kind and of world-wide reputation : Baldwin Works, 
 for locomotives ; Sellers & Co. , Bement & Dougherty, for 
 mechanical tools; Disston's Works, for saws; works of 
 the Messrs. Dobson, and of Thomas Dolan, Philadelphia, 
 and Gary, of Baltimore, textile fabrics; Fairbanks, for 
 scales ; Studebakers, for wagons, who count their wagons 
 by the acre ; Pullman, of Chicago , Allison, Philadelphia, 
 for cars; Washburn & Moen, and Cleveland Rolling 
 Mills, steel wire, etc. ; Bartlet, iron founder, Baltimore ; 
 Sloanes, also Higgins, carpets; Westinghouse, electrical 
 apparatus; Peter Henderson & Co., and Landreth & Co., 
 seeds; Harper Bros., publishers, Babbitt, for Babbitt's 
 metal ; Otis Works, Cleveland, boiler steel ; the Reming- 
 ton Works, and Colt's Works, Hartford, firearms; Sin- 
 ger Company, Howe, Grover, sewing machines; McCor- 
 mick Works, of Chicago, Balls, of Canton, and Walter 
 A. Woods, for agricultural implements ; steamship build- 
 ing, Roach, Cramp, Neafie, on the Atlantic ; Scott on the 
 Pacific; Parkhurst, Wheeler, Kirby, McDugal, Craig, 
 Coffinberry, Wallace, the leading officials of shipbuilding 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. 101 
 
 companies on our great lakes; horseshoes, Burdens; At- 
 terbury Works, for glass; Groetzingers, tanning; Ames 
 Works, for shovels; Steinway, Chickering and Knabe, 
 pianos. , 
 
 Everyone of these great works was founded and man- 
 aged by mechanics, men who served their apprentice- 
 ship. The list could be greatly extended, and if we were 
 to include those which were created by men who en- 
 tered life as office-boys or clerks, we should embrace al- 
 most every famous manufacturing concern in the coun- 
 try. Edison, for instance, was a telegraph operator. 
 Corliss, of Corliss engine; Cheney, Cheney silk; Eoeb- 
 ling, of wire fame ; Spreckels, in sugar refining all and 
 many more captains of industry were poor boys with 
 natural aptitude, to whom a regular apprenticeship was 
 scarcely necessary. 
 
 In the mercantile, commercial and financial branches 
 of business, which are all under the law which drives 
 business affairs into large concerns, the poor clerk takes 
 the place of the trained mechanic in the industrial 
 world. Claflin's, Jaffray's, Sloan's, the Lords, the Tay- 
 lors, the Phelpses, the Dodges, the gigantic houses of 
 Jordan & Marsh in Boston ; of Field in Chicago ; Barr in 
 St. Louis ; Wanamaker in Philadelphia ; Meldrum & An- 
 derson, Buffalo; Newcomb, Endicott & Co., Detroit; 
 Taylor, Cleveland; Daniels & Fisher, Denver; Home, 
 and Campbell & Dick, Pittsburg ; all these and the corre- 
 sponding houses throughout the country, as far as I am 
 able to trace their history, have the same story to tell. 
 Wanamaker, Claflin, Jordan, Lord, Field, Barr and the 
 others, all poor boys in the store, and Phelps and Dodge, 
 both poor clerks. 
 
102 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 In banking and finance, it is an oft repeated story 
 that our Stanfords, Rockefellers, Goulds, Sages, Fields, 
 Dillons, Seligmans, Wilsons and Huntingtons came from 
 the ranks. The millionaires who are in active control 
 started as poor boys, and were trained in that sternest 
 but most efficient of all schools poverty. 
 
 WHERE IS THE COLLEGE-MADE MAN? 
 
 I asked a city banker to give me a few names of presi- 
 dents and vice-presidents and cashiers of our great New 
 York City banks who had begun as boys or clerks. He 
 sent me thirty-six names, and wrote he would send me 
 more next day. I cannot take the reader's time with a 
 complete list, but here are a few of the best known: 
 Williams, president Chemical Bank; Watson & Lang, 
 Bank of Montreal ; Tappen, president Gallatin National ; 
 Brinkerhoff, president Butchers' and Drovers' Bank; 
 Clark, vice-president American Exchange ; Jewitt, presi- 
 dent Irving National; Harris, president Nassau Bank; 
 Crane, president Shoe and Leather Bank; Nash, presi- 
 dent Corn Exchange Bank; Cannon, president Chase 
 National ; Cannon, vice-president Fourth National ; 
 Montague, president Second National; Baker, president 
 First National; Hamilton, vice-president Bowery Bank, 
 and so on. 
 
 The absence of the college graduate in this list should 
 be deeply weighed. I have inquired and searched every- 
 where in all quarters, but find small trace of him as the 
 leader in affairs, although not seldom occupying posi- 
 tions of trust in financial institutions. Nor is this sur- 
 prising. The prize-takers have too many years the start 
 of the graduate, they have entered for the race invari- 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. 103 
 
 ably in their teens in the most valuable of all the years 
 for learning from fourteen to twenty; and while the 
 college student has been learning a little about the bar- 
 barous and petty squabbles of a far-distant past, or try- 
 ing to master languages which are dead, such knowledge 
 as seems adapted for life upon another planet than this, 
 as far as business affairs are concerned the future cap- 
 tain of industry is hotly engaged in the school of expe- 
 rience obtaining the very knowledge required for his 
 future triumphs. 
 
 I do not speak of the effect of college education upon 
 young men training for the learned professions, for 
 which it is, up to a certain point, almost indispensable 
 in our day for the average youth, but the almost total 
 absence of the graduate from high position in the busi- 
 ness world seems to justify the conclusion that college 
 education as it exists seems almost fatal to success in that 
 domain. It is to be noted that salaried officials are not 
 in a strict sense in business a captain of industry is one 
 who makes his all in his business and depends upon suc- 
 cess for compensation. It is in this field that the grad- 
 uate has little chance, entering at twenty, against the 
 boy who swept the office or who begins as shipping clerk 
 at fourteen. The facts prove this. There are some in- 
 stances of the sons of business men, graduates of col- 
 leges, who address themselves to a business life and suc- 
 ceed in managing a business already created, but even 
 these are few compared with those who fail in keeping 
 the fortune received. 
 
 There has come, however, in recent years, the poly- 
 technic and scientific school, or course of study, for 
 boys, which is beginning to show most valuable fruits in 
 
104 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 the manufacturing branch. The trained mechanic of 
 the past, who has, as we have seen, hitherto carried off 
 most of the honours in our industrial works, is now to 
 meet a rival in the scientifically educated youth, who 
 will push him hard very hard indeed. Three of the 
 largest steel manufacturing concerns in the world are 
 already under the management of three young educated 
 men students of these schools who left theory at school 
 for practice in the works, while yet in their teens. 
 Walker, Illinois Steel Company, Chicago; Schwab, 
 Edgar Thompson Works; Potter, Homestead Steel 
 Works, Pittsburg, are types of the new product not 
 one of them yet thirty. Most of the chiefs of depart- 
 ments under them are of the same class. Such young 
 educated men have one important advantage over the 
 apprenticed mechanic they are open-minded and with- 
 out prejudice. The scientific attitude of mind, that of 
 the searcher after truth, renders them receptive of new 
 ideas. Great and invaluable as the working mechanic 
 has been, and is and will always be, yet he is disposed to 
 adopt narrow views of affairs, for he is generally well 
 up in years before he comes into power. It is different 
 with the scientifically trained boy ; he has no prejudices, 
 and goes in for the latest invention or newest method, no 
 matter if another has discovered it. He adopts the plan 
 that will beat the record and discards his own devices or 
 ideas, which the working mechanic-superintendent can 
 rarely be induced to do. Let no one, therefore, under- 
 rate the advantage of education ; only it must be educa- 
 tion adapted to the end in view, and must give instruc- 
 tion bearing upon a man's career if he is to make his 
 way to fortune. 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. 105 
 
 Thus in the financial, commercial and mercantile 
 branches of business, as in manufacturing, we have to 
 ask, not what place the educated mechanic and practical 
 men occupy, but what these two types have left for 
 others throughout the entire business world. Very 
 little, indeed, have they left. 
 
 In the industrial department the trained mechanic is 
 the founder and manager of famous concerns. In the 
 mercantile, commercial and financial it is the poor office 
 boy who has proved to be the merchant prince in dis- 
 guise, who surely comes into his heritage. They are the 
 winning classes. It is the poor clerk and the working 
 mechanic who finally rule in every branch of affairs, 
 without capital, without family influence, and without 
 college education. It is they who have risen to the top 
 and taken command, who have abandoned salaried posi- 
 tions and boldly risked all in the founding of a business. 
 College graduates will usually be found under salaries, 
 trusted subordinates. Neither capital, nor influence, 
 nor college learning, nor all combined have proved able 
 to contend in business successfully against the energy 
 and indomitable will which spring from all-conquering 
 poverty. Lest anything here said may be construed as 
 tending to decry or disparage university education let 
 me clearly state that those addressed are the fortunate 
 poor young men who have to earn a living; for such as 
 can afford to obtain a university degree and have means 
 sufficient to insure a livelihood the writer is the last man 
 to advise its rejection compared with which all the 
 pecuniary gains of the multi-millionaire are dross but 
 for poor youth the earning of a competence is a duty and 
 duty done is worth even more than university education, 
 
106 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 precious as that is. Liberal education gives a man who 
 really absorbs it higher tastes and aims than the acquisi- 
 tion of wealth, and a world to enjoy, into which the 
 mere millionaire cannot enter ; to find, therefore, that it 
 is not the best training for business is to prove its claim 
 to a higher domain. True education can be obtained 
 outside of the schools ; genius is not an indigenous plant 
 in the groves academic a wild flower found in the 
 woods all by itself, needing no care from society but 
 average man needs universities. 
 
 ARE CORPORATIONS TO DISAPPEAR ? 
 
 The young practical man of to-day working at the 
 bench or counter, to whom the fair goddess, Fortune, has 
 not yet beckoned, may be disposed to conclude that it is 
 impossible to start business in this age. There is some- 
 thing in that. It is, no doubt, infinitely more difficult 
 to start a new business of any kind to-day than it was. 
 But it is only a difference in form, not in substance. It 
 is infinitely easier for a young practical man of ability to 
 obtain an interest in existing firms than it has ever been. 
 The doors have not closed upon ability ; on the contrary 
 they swing easier upon their hinges. Capital is not 
 requisite. Family influence, as before, passes for noth- 
 ing. Keal ability, the capacity for doing things, never 
 was so eagerly searched for as now, and never command- 
 ed such rewards. 
 
 The law which concentrates the leading industries and 
 commercial, mercantile and financial affairs in a few 
 great factories, or firms, contains within itself another 
 law not less imperious. These vast concerns cannot be 
 successfully conducted by salaried employes. No great 
 
HOW -TO WIN FORTUNE. 107 
 
 business of any kind can score an unusually brilliant, 
 and permanent success which is not in the hands of the 
 practical men pecuniarily interested in its results. In 
 the industrial world the days of corporations seem likely 
 to come to an end. It has been necessary for me to 
 watch closely the most of my life the operations of great 
 establishments owned by hundreds of absent capitalists, 
 and conducted by salaried officers. Contrasted with 
 these I believe that the partnership conducted by men 
 vitally interested and owning the works will make satis- 
 factory dividends when the corporation is embarrassed 
 and scarcely knows upon which side the balance is to be 
 at the end of a year's operations. The great dry goods 
 houses that interest their most capable men in the profits 
 of each department succeed, when those fail that en- 
 deavor to work with salaried men only. Even in the 
 management of our great hotels, it is found wise to take 
 into partnership the principal men. In every branch of 
 business this law is at work, and concerns are prosper- 
 ous, generally speaking, just in proportion as they suc- 
 ceed in interesting in the profits a larger and larger pro- 
 portion of their ablest workers. Co-operation in this 
 form is fast coming in all great establishments. The 
 manufacturing business that does not have practical 
 manufacturing partners had better supply the omission 
 without delay, and probably the very men required are 
 the bright young mechanics who have distinguished 
 themselves while working for a few dollars per day, or 
 the youth from the polytechnic school. Instances con- 
 stantly occur where the corporation unwilling to interest 
 a promising practical man loses his services, and sees an 
 interest given him by some able individual manufacturer 
 
108 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 or commercial firm who are constantly on the lookout for 
 that indispensable article ability. It has not hitherto 
 been the practice for corporations properly to reward 
 these embryo managers, but this they must come to, if 
 they are to stand the competition of works operated by 
 those interested in the profits. 
 
 Corporations, on the other hand, as I desire to point 
 out to practical young men, have one advantage. Their 
 shares are sold freely. If a worker wishes to become in- 
 terested in any branch of manufacturing in America to- 
 day, the path is easy. For $50 or $100 he can become a 
 stockholder. It is becoming more and more common for 
 workers so to invest their savings. There are many well- 
 managed corporations whose assets and prestige enable 
 them to earn satisfactory returns, and no better evidence 
 of capacity and of good judgment can a workman give 
 to his employer than that furnished by the presence of 
 his name upon the books as a share-holder in the concern. 
 
 Workingmen have a prejudice against showing their 
 employers that the wages they earn suffice to enable 
 them to save; but this is a mistake. The saving work- 
 man is the valuable workman, and the wise employer 
 regards the fact that he does save as prima facie evi- 
 dence that there is something exceptionally valuable in 
 him. It should be the effort of every incorporation to 
 induce its principal workers to invest their savings in 
 its shares. Only in this way can corporations hope to 
 cope successfully with individual manufacturers who 
 have already discovered one of the valuable secrets of 
 unusual success, viz. : to share their profits with those 
 who are most instrumental in producing them. The day 
 of the absent capitalist stockholder, who takes no inter- 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. 109 
 
 est in the operation of the works beyond the receipt of 
 his dividend, is certainly passing away. The day of the 
 valuable active worker in the industrial world is coming. 
 Let, therefore, no young practical workman be discour- 
 aged. On the contrary, let him be cheered. More and 
 more it is becoming easier for the mechanic or practical 
 man of real ability to dictate terms to his employers. 
 Where there was one avenue of promotion there are now 
 a dozen. The enormous concern of the future is to 
 divide its profits, not among hundreds of idle capitalists 
 who contribute nothing to its success, but among hun- 
 dreds of its ablest employes, upon whose ability and 
 exertions success greatly depends. The capitalist absent 
 stockholder is to be replaced by the able and present 
 worker. 
 
 As to the qualification necessary for the promotion of 
 young practical men, one cannot do better than quote 
 George Eliot, who put the matter very pithily: 'I'll 
 tell you how I got on. I kept my eyes and ears open, 
 and I made my master's interest my own/ 
 
 The condition precedent for promotion is, that the 
 man must first attract notice. He must do something 
 unusual and especially must this be beyond the strict 
 boundary of his duties. He must suggest, or save, or 
 perform some service for his employer which he could 
 not be censured for not having done. When he has thus 
 attracted the notice of his immediate superior, whether 
 that be only the foreman of a gang, it matters not ; the 
 first great step has been taken, for upon his immediate 
 superior promotion depends. How high he climbs is his 
 own affair. 
 
 We often hear men complaining that they get no 
 chance to show their ability, and when they do show 
 
110 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 ability that it is not recognized. There is very little in 
 this. Self-interest compels the immediate superior to 
 give the highest place under him to the man who can best 
 fill it, for the officer is credited with the work of his 
 department as a whole. No man can keep another down. 
 It will be noticed that many of the practical men who 
 have earned fame and fortune have done so through 
 holding on to improvements which they have made. Im- 
 provements are easily made by practical men in the 
 branch in which they are engaged for they have the 
 most intimate knowledge of the problems to be solved 
 there. It is in this way that many of our valuable im- 
 provements have come. The man who has made an im- 
 provement should always have an eye upon obtaining 
 an interest in the business rather than increase of salary. 
 Even if the business up to this time has not become very 
 prosperous, if he has the proper stuff in him, he believes 
 that he could make it so, and so he could. All forms of 
 business have their ups and downs. Seasons of depres- 
 sion and buoyancy succeed each other, one year of great 
 profits, several years with little or none. This is a law 
 of the business world, into the reason of which I need 
 not enter. Therefore the able young practical man 
 should not have much regard as to a choice of the branch 
 of business. Any business properly conducted will yield 
 during a period of years a handsome return. 
 
 DANGERS TO YOUNG MEN. 
 
 There are three great rocks ahead of the practical 
 young man who has his foot upon the ladder and is be- 
 ginning to rise. First, drunkenness, which of course is 
 fatal. There is no use in wasting time upon any young 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. Ill 
 
 man who drinks liquor, no matter how exceptional his 
 talents. Indeed, the greater his talents are the greater 
 the disappointment must be. The second rock ahead is 
 speculation. The business of a speculator and that of a 
 manufacturer or a man of affairs, are not only distinct 
 but incompatible. To be successful in the business 
 world, the manufacturer's and the merchant's profits 
 only should be sought. The manufacturer should go 
 forward steadily, meeting the market price. When 
 there are goods to sell, sell them; when supplies are 
 needed, purchase them, without regard to the market 
 price in either case. I have never known a speculative 
 manufacturer or business man who scored a permanent 
 success. He is rich one day, bankrupt the next. Be- 
 sides this, the manufacturer aims to produce articles, 
 and in so doing to employ labour. This furnishes a 
 laudable career. A man in this vocation is useful to his 
 kind. The merchant is usefully occupied distributing 
 commodities; the banker in providing capital. The 
 third rock is akin to speculation indorsing. Business 
 men require irregular supplies of money, at some 
 periods little, at others enormous sums. Others being 
 in the same condition, there is strong temptation to 
 indorse mutually. This rock should be avoided. There 
 are emergencies, no doubt, in which men should help 
 their friends, but there is a rule that will keep one safe. 
 No man should place his name upon the obligation of an- 
 other if he has not sufficient to pay it without detriment 
 to his own business. It is dishonest to do so. Men are 
 trustees for those who have trusted them, and the 
 creditor is entitled to all his capital and credit. For 
 one's own firm, 'your name, your fortune, and your 
 
112 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 sacred honour;' but for others, no matter under what 
 circumstances, only such aid as you can render without 
 danger to your trust. It is a safe rule, therefore, to give 
 the cash direct that you have to spare for others and 
 never your indorsement or guarantee. 
 
 One great cause of failure of young men in business 
 is lack of concentration. They are prone to seek outside 
 investments. The cause of many a surprising failure 
 lies in so doing. Every dollar of capital and credit, 
 every business thought, should be concentrated upon 
 the one business in which a man has embarked. He 
 should never scatter his shot. It is a poor business which 
 will not yield better returns for increased capital than 
 any outside investment. No man or set of men or cor- 
 poration can manage a business man's capital as well as 
 he can manage it himself. The rule, 'Do not put all 
 your eggs in one basket/ does not apply to a man's life 
 work. Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch 
 that basket, is the true doctrine the most valuable rule 
 of all. While business of all kinds has gone, and is still 
 going rapidly, into a few vast concerns, it is nevertheless 
 demonstrated every day that genuine ability, interested 
 in the profits, is not only valuable but indispensable to 
 their successful operation. Through corporations whose 
 shares are sold daily upon the market ; through partner- 
 ships that find it necessary to interest their ablest 
 workers ; through merchants who can manage vast enter- 
 prises successfully only by interesting exceptional 
 ability; in every quarter of the business world, avenues 
 greater in number, wider in extent, easier of access than 
 ever before existed, stand open to the sober, frugal, ener- 
 getic and able mechanic, to the scientifically educated 
 
HOW TO WIN FORTUNE. 113 
 
 youth, to the office boy and to the clerk avenues 
 through which they can reap greater successes than were 
 ever before within the reach of these classes in the 
 history of the world. 
 
 When, therefore, the young man, in any position or 
 in any business explains and complains that he has not 
 opportunity to prove his ability and to rise to partner- 
 ship, the old answer suffices : 
 
 "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings." 
 
Tactful Relations with Customers 
 
 JOHN W. FERGUSON 
 
 ASSISTANT TO CONTRACT AGENT 
 CHICAGO EDISON COMPANY 
 
'The best advertisement is a pleased cus- 
 tomer. You may sell your patron the best 
 goods the market affords, at a price which 
 he cannot better, and yet the whole of the 
 battle is not won. There is a seductive 
 fellow across the way, perhaps, who hypno- 
 tizes his customers by a gracious manner. 
 They like to trade with him because he 
 interests them. It is a grace, or a manner, 
 or a charm that it may not be easy to name 
 or to describe. He is tactful, pleasing and 
 gracious, and the influence of his manner 
 and disposition is felt throughout his estab- 
 lishment and by his customers. 
 
 'Business is not merely a "machine"; the 
 machinery of business is only an accessory; 
 it must be vitalized, if it is to be successful, 
 by a personal equation which attracts in- 
 stead of repels; which pleases instead of 
 offends. It makes no difference whether 
 this quality of pleasing is inherent, or is 
 the result of genius, or is acquired by a 
 studied effort, it is both a powerful and an 
 indispensable thing in business. You may 
 win some trade through a series of duels, 
 winning custom over and against your 
 rivals by cleverness or generalship of sell- 
 ing, but continued prosperity will largely 
 depend upon the quality of pleasing which 
 must emanate from you and dominate your 
 establishment.' PRINTERS' INK. 
 
Tactful Relations With 
 Customers 
 
 "THE question of the tactful treatment of customers, 
 while a subject which has probably occupied the 
 attention of individual members of this association, is 
 one that I believe has never been raised to the dignity of 
 a discussion or of a paper read at the convention. The 
 discussions held at the annual conventions have hereto- 
 fore been mainly on matters pertaining to the purely 
 operating departments of the business. Without in any 
 way deprecating, or wishing to take one jot or tittle of 
 importance from those departments and the technical 
 questions particularly interesting them, I maintain that 
 the time has come when the daily relations of those de- 
 partments with the public must be considered, and the 
 duties and responsibilities of the purely business depart- 
 ments (so called) should be taken into consideration. 
 
 As I am fully convinced that the subject is one in the 
 discussion of which it would hardly be possible to spend 
 too much time as it is a subject that strikes directly at 
 the life blood, i. e., the income of the central station com- 
 panyand as it is a subject that intrinsically effects the 
 standing in the community of the corporation, be it a 
 railroad, a lighting and power plant, or any other form 
 of public service, it is my opinion that a full and ample 
 discussion of the subject must sooner or later result. 
 
118 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 To central-station managers, it is a question of the ut- 
 most importance. On them devolves the duty not only 
 of defending and advancing the interests of those who 
 are financially interested in the corporation, but, and 
 almost more important, is the duty assigned them as 
 representatives of the franchise rights granted by the 
 body politic, to which body they will be held for a strict 
 accounting. 
 
 A question to-day seriously occupying the atttention 
 of the public and one that, if not provided against by 
 the just and tactful treatment of customers, will surely 
 in the near future play an important part in our politi- 
 cal life is that of municipal ownership of public utili- 
 ties. It is not my intention to discuss the pros and cons 
 of this issue, but, as you, gentlemen, or most of you, 
 represent such public utility corporations, it is fair to 
 assume that you are opposed to any legislation looking 
 to a change in existing conditions. Then you should 
 show by your methods in operating your companies that 
 you recognize the limitations, as well as the privileges, 
 vested in your franchise rights. You should show by 
 your acts your realization of the fact that those rights 
 have been granted by the people, and that they have at 
 all times the right to demand from you an account of 
 your stewardship : that your duties well and courteously 
 performed will disarm criticism, while such duties neg- 
 lected or discourteously performed will result in a just 
 upheaval that will bring disgrace to you and disaster 
 to the financial interests you are chosen to defend. 
 
 The responsible head of any company should therefore 
 see to it that there are placed at the heads of the various 
 departments under him men who will realize the neces- 
 
TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 119 
 
 sity of tactful treatment of those with whom they come 
 in contact. The methods of the various employees will 
 in most cases be found to be in line with the methods of 
 the head of the department, and for this reason suaviter 
 in modo, fortiter in re, mildness in method, force in exe- 
 cution, should be the governing principle for all heads 
 of departments in the central-station company. Never 
 losing sight of his duty to the company, though at times 
 the fulfilling of that duty may cause temporary displeas- 
 ure to the customer, it is always possible to so perform 
 the duty that the minimum amount of dissatisfaction 
 shall result, and this should be the object of the head of 
 each and every department in every company. Of course 
 we all know that it is impossible for the head of the de- 
 partment to look after every detail. He is not a success 
 unless he is a detail man, but that should mean his having 
 his department so systematized as to produce the detail 
 when he may need it. He should therefore surround 
 himself with such assistants, and so impress upon them 
 their duties to the company and the public, both by pre- 
 cept and example, that the tactful relations with the cus- 
 tomer may be maintained without jeopardizing the best 
 interests of the company. 
 
 From the office boy and the elevator conductor, 
 through all the ramifications in the organization of a 
 great company, up to the president, upon each and every 
 one depend the reputation of the company and its popu- 
 larity, or lack of it, with the public. The office boy of 
 to-day may be the president of to-morrow; the book- 
 keeper or bill clerk may later be the comptroller; but 
 this can only be if he so fulfills his duty as to impress 
 favorably the outside public, to accomplish which he 
 
120 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 must continually strive to maintain the friendly rela- 
 tions of the company with the customer. 
 
 The Perfunctory Performance of Duties Devolving 
 upon us never Produces Preferment. Every employee 
 should be ambitious to improve his position in his com- 
 pany. To secure this advancement, he should not be 
 content simply to do his duty, but should strive to do 
 it better than any one else could perform the same duty. 
 It may at first seem that I am now away from my sub- 
 ject. Not so. Much good or much harm may be done 
 the company in the minds of the public by those with 
 whom the public may never come in personal contact. 
 The introduction of the telephone in business life has 
 been at once a great blessing and a great curse. To the 
 acquisition of the telephone is attributable much of the 
 development of business possibilities. This we all know. 
 But unfortunately we also know that to the misuse or 
 careless use of the telephone is due much of the ill-feel- 
 ing exhibited by the public toward public-service corpo- 
 rations. Too much care can not be exercised by the de- 
 partment manager in impressing on the minds of those 
 under him the necessity of courteous telephone treat- 
 ment. It is one of the peculiar weaknesses of human 
 nature that we are all more or less prone to adopt, at 
 times, an acrimonious or peremptory tone on the tele- 
 phone which we would not dream of employing if deal- 
 ing with the customer in persona propria, and this is 
 particularly true of the junior clerk or office boy who 
 conceives an exaggerated idea of his own importance. 
 To school those whose duties bring them into frequent 
 daily contact with the public over the telephone, to be 
 patient, polite and exact, is a task of no small magni- 
 
TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 121 
 
 tude; but it is one that can not fail to commend itself 
 to the men in authority who carefully study the situa- 
 tion. I do not think I am overstating the case when I 
 affirm that a company 's reputation with the general pub- 
 lic depends, in the last analysis, upon the spirit exhibited 
 by the company's rank and file as much as upon the in- 
 fluence exerted by its general officers. I am pleased to 
 believe, from my observations, that the time when the 
 employee of a corporation looks upon the public as his 
 natural enemy and treats him accordingly, especially in 
 telephone communication, is rapidly passing away. But 
 in this line much yet remains to be achieved. 
 
 Thus far I have dealt altogether with the duties de- 
 volving upon the office employees in maintaining 
 friendly relations with the customers. This is, of course, 
 very important. But much more important is the rela- 
 tion to the customer of the contract agent, the inspector, 
 the collector, the meter reader and the repair man. They 
 are the ones who come in daily and close contact with 
 the customer, and on them devolves most closely the duty 
 of maintaining the friendly relations with customers. 
 The repair man may maintain the friendly relations 
 more intimately by carefully attending to his duty, be 
 it the connecting up or cutting off of a customer. I 
 have known men whose primary duty it was to cut off 
 customers for non-payment of bills, who have so per- 
 formed their duties that not only was the customer not 
 cut off (because he paid his bill), but was made a valua- 
 ble customer for the company. The meter reader can 
 make himself valuable by his suaviter in modo, while 
 answering questions asked by the customer. To say, ' ' If 
 you want to know how much your bill is, go to the 
 
122 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 office/' is one extreme of folly. To say, "Your bill for 
 this month is so much" (not regarding the previous 
 reading), is the other extreme. Between the crow's 
 monosyllable of the first, and the parrot's chatter of the 
 second, the Scylla and Charybdis, lies the road to the 
 "presidency." I have known collectors who so ap- 
 proached customers in demanding payment of a bill that 
 they not only collected the bill, but left a satisfied cus- 
 tomer after they departed. 
 
 The inspector is considered by the customer as one 
 link in the chain of his friendship with the company, 
 and much depends upon the tactful manner in which 
 he may tell the customer he can or can not be connected 
 to the station, and the reason therefor. For instance, 
 to speak to the customer in terms that he will under- 
 stand, is a delicate courtesy, and one bound to be appre- 
 ciated. Harm may sometimes be done by thoughtlessly 
 expressing one's self in technical terms. To say, "You 
 have no City," may be English to the inspector, but 
 Greek to the customer. It would not consume much 
 more time to say, "It is necessary for you to procure 
 the approval of the city inspection department and pay 
 its fee, and this may be done, etc. ' ' But still the amica- 
 ble relation might thereby be better maintained. To 
 say, "This wiring will not pass city inspection," may be 
 true. It would be more satisfactory to the customer if 
 he were told, not in technical terms, but in good every- 
 day expression and such is possible wherein exist 
 the defects that prevent that customer from furnishing 
 his share of the income due to the company. 
 
 And now I come to him who can best show the advan- 
 tage of tactful relations the agent. The time has 
 
TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 123 
 
 passed when the contract agent can be considered as a 
 result of the central station a something necessitated 
 by the inherent extension of the business. He is now a 
 prominent and necessary factor in the growth of that 
 business. He leads, let others follow. But, because he 
 leads, because he is on the firing line of the progress of 
 his company, greater duties and obligations devolve 
 upon him. To him, almost more than to any other man 
 in the company, appears to belong the right to cherish 
 ambition for advancement. Honorable ambition is the 
 right, the duty, of every man. Honorable ambition 
 means the seeking to uplift one's self only by uplifting 
 that body or people through which one seeks to be up- 
 lifted. Therefore, while the agent has a greater oppor- 
 tunity, from his daily association with the business 
 world, to find means to gratify his ambition, there rests 
 upon him, for that very reason, a greater responsibility 
 that he shall so conduct himself and so perform his 
 duties that he will advance the interests of the company 
 he represents. 
 
 I can not proceed further on this subject without re- 
 ferring to one custom that has been too common, and 
 must have brought into disrepute the companies where 
 it has been practiced. I mean using the contract de- 
 partment of the company as a catch-all for applicants 
 for positions who are backed up by personal friendship 
 of the officers or by political influence, and by nothing 
 else. I do not mean that men so vouched for are ipso 
 facto, incompetent, but unfortunately they too often 
 seek support of this kind because they have not the force 
 or ambition to advance their own fortunes. If such men 
 must be taken care of, let them at least be placed where 
 they will do the least harm. 
 
124 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 Gentlemen, take home to yourselves the question of 
 the careful choosing of solicitors. When the coal agent 
 or the man from the oil company calls on you, you will 
 instinctively judge the company by its representative 
 and govern yourselves accordingly. Choose, then, solici- 
 tors who do, in the true sense of the word, represent you. 
 Finesse and diplomacy are qualities that every solicitor 
 should cultivate, but never at the expense of good faith. 
 In the long run, it is sincerity that wins the business and 
 holds it. A customer ignored is a customer antagon- 
 ized. A mountain of contracted business may be piled 
 up by solicitors who fail to realize the vital relations of 
 promise to performance. The successful consummation 
 of a contract is only attained when the customer is made 
 to feel that his best interests and those of the company 
 are identical. 
 
 Each agent, in his district, is the company, and he 
 should so deport himself in his relations with the public 
 that he may demonstrate the good effects of Tactful Re- 
 lations with Customers. Let him not be arbitrary in 
 his statements, so as to antagonize the customer, "but 
 use all gently. " "Be not too tame, neither." "Be 
 just, and fear not." With these trite but true quota- 
 tions as his mottoes, he will maintain the tactful rela- 
 tions and may justly find himself imbued with the 
 inspiration of honorable ambition, nor will he be disap- 
 pointed. 
 
 Unfortunately, some agents show a tendency to de- 
 pend almost altogether either on their individual person- 
 ality in its securing for them an introduction to a cus- 
 tomer, or upon their ability as social entertainers in 
 inducing that prospective customer to make a contract. 
 
TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 125 
 
 This is a very great error. These may be, and some- 
 times are, necessary incidentals and serve to assist the 
 agent in the attaining of his object. The valuable agent, 
 however, is not the one who depends only on his suaviter 
 in modo, who "cons" the public by his smooth address. 
 He seldom lasts, and generally leaves the company a 
 heritage of trouble from which it finds it difficult and 
 expensive to extricate itself. The wise man will rather 
 assure himself first of his position as represented in the 
 ultimate advantage to be derived by the company. He 
 will satisfy himself that the financial terms of the con- 
 tract are fair and profitable ; that the clauses in the con- 
 tract are carefully and legally drawn. The agent is 
 often too anxious to sign his name to a contract for three 
 or four thousand lights, to study well whether the con- 
 tract is worth the paper on which it is written. But 
 with the financial terms of the contract fair and profita- 
 ble, with the clauses carefully and legally drawn, the 
 agent may cheerfully approach that customer. He may 
 then supplement the suaviter in modo with the fortiter 
 in re, and nine times out of ten he will land a customer, 
 and one who, with tactful handling thereafter, will be a 
 satisfied income-producer and a good advertiser. 
 
 I will take up one other department one so impor- 
 tant, and in its very essence depending so very much 
 upon tact, and, if tactfully administered, of such great 
 and lasting importance to the central-station company, 
 that to omit it in a paper of this kind would indeed 
 be a grievous error. I refer to the department dealing 
 with complaints from customers. I am sure you will 
 agree with me that here indeed is the opportunity for a 
 display of tact of the highest order. The customer ap- 
 
126 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 pearing before the representative of the claim depart- 
 ment is, from the very fact that he is there, almost 
 always in a state of antagonism to the company. If he 
 comes honestly to complain, he feels that he has suffered 
 an injury. He feels that, intentionally or unintention- 
 ally, the company has done him harm ; that he has been 
 asked to pay for that which he has not received, and, 
 worse than all, he comes with a premonition that, dealing 
 with a corporation, he is to receive no consideration, and 
 that he must fight his battle to the bitter end. It is, of 
 course, unnecessary before you, gentlemen, to argue why 
 he is mistaken. It would, of course, be superfluous to 
 remind you that the employees of a corporation who 
 have rendered him his bill, have done so in all honesty 
 and with fair intent; but, gentlemen, it devolves upon 
 the claim agent to convince this exasperated man that no 
 injury has been done him, or that if he has suffered an 
 unintentional harm the company is only too anxious to 
 right the wrong. 
 
 The claim man, therefore, should be one who would 
 instinctively and at once be able to judge the character 
 and temperament of him with whom he is to deal. In 
 the majority of cases, I think it is a mistake to try to con- 
 vince the claimant of the correctness of his bill at the 
 first interview. Rather, I would advise that his com- 
 plaint should be carefully and respectfully listened to, 
 and then he be informed that a thorough investigation 
 would be made. When this investigation has been made, 
 the claim man should look well into the conditions and 
 satisfy himself that having once taken a position based 
 upon that investigation his ground should be so sure that 
 no evidence could afterward be brought to cause him to 
 withdraw therefrom. 
 
TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 127 
 
 Should the result of his investigation show that an 
 error had been made in the reading of the meter, or in 
 figuring the bill, or in any other way, he should at once 
 hasten to apprise the customer of this fact, state to him 
 the rebate to which he might be entitled, and make the 
 customer feel that the company is grateful to him for 
 giving it an opportunity to rectify the wrong. Where 
 the result of the investigation shows that the readings 
 are correct, and that no injustice has been done to the 
 customer, then I believe he should, as far as possible, 
 seek a personal interview in which he may explain to the 
 customer why the bill appears to be right, and in which 
 he may receive from the customer information which 
 would tend to show the justice of the company's position. 
 
 The position of claim agent is a very trying one, but 
 it has its ray of sunshine in that oftentimes the claim 
 agent can afterward point to cases where he has proven 
 to the customer's satisfaction that the bill as rendered 
 was correct ; and he will find that that honest contestant, 
 once satisfied as to the company's just treatment, ^vill 
 thereafter not only cheerfully pay his bills so long as 
 they are correct, but will at all times, in and out of sea- 
 son, bear evidence to the fair, just and tactful methods 
 pursued by the company. 
 
 Finally, let us remember, gentlemen, that the primary 
 object of our business, as of any other business, is finan- 
 cial advancement. What the citizen needs in our line 
 we must give him ; what he thinks he needs, we must find 
 for him; what he is unaware of in his needs, we must 
 show him, and all for the commercial betterment of our 
 city and the financial advancement of our company. 
 
The Importance of Audits 
 
 JOHN FARSON 
 
 FARSON, L.KACH & COMPANY 
 CHICAGO 
 
The auditing of public and private ac- 
 counts is one of the most necessary means 
 to give a quiet and satisfactory existence 
 to the men who are burdened with large 
 enterprises. No man, no matter how able, 
 is competent to manage the details and at 
 the same time successfully carry forward 
 the policies of his company. He must trust 
 the details to others and this trust is the 
 weak spot in the edifice which too often is 
 the cause of its tumbling about him. For 
 who knows the volcano on which the man 
 who implicitly trusts stands which at any 
 moment may, by a sudden upheaval, lose 
 the whole of a life's efforts. 
 
 Examinations by expert accountants are 
 never considered reflections on bookkeep- 
 ers, or other employees or officials; it is a 
 part of a system and should be so recog- 
 nized and acquiesced in by everybody con- 
 cerned. BUSINESS WORLD. 
 
The Importance of Audits 
 
 JV/l ANY keen business men seem to be surprised at the 
 number of chartered auditing companies which 
 have appeared on the commercial horizon in the past 
 few years and at the rapidly increasing demand for 
 their services. It would be far more reasonable, how- 
 ever, to be astonished that the practice of employing 
 these experts is not so extensive as to be practically 
 universal. 
 
 Speaking from the viewpoint of a man who is required 
 constantly to pass upon investment propositions of every 
 kind, I am free to confess that I would regard myself as 
 failing to exercise due and ordinary precaution in pro- 
 tecting the interests of my clients if I did not invariably 
 require, in taking up a new enterprise, an audit certifi- 
 cate by a responsible chartered company. It is one 
 thing to be morally satisfied that any enterprise offered 
 by you for investment is a "good thing " and in sound 
 condition, and quite another definitely to know every 
 factor and item in that condition as ascertained by an 
 impartial and expert inspector, who is not easily fooled 
 by the clever groupings of figures or by specious appear- 
 ances, but who knows how to go straight to the weak 
 spots in every business. 
 
 To take up an enterprise and urge it for investment 
 without first having it examined by an auditing com- 
 
132 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 pany's experts would, in my opinion, be about on a par 
 with the action of the young man who wished to go into 
 the iron business and bought a certain foundry mainly 
 because he liked the style of the blast cupola which 
 topped the building. 
 
 The necessity for audits is becoming so commonly ap- 
 preciated by men doing business in a large way that it 
 is the general practice to require an auditor's certified 
 statement. With experienced financial men this is looked 
 upon as a routine requirement and is as much expected 
 as an abstract of title in the purchase and transfer of 
 real estate. 
 
 Again, it is becoming practically impossible to dispose 
 of any kind of a business, whether in the form of a firm 
 or of a corporation, without first having its affairs ex- 
 amined by a reputable audit company. This process is 
 comparatively so inexpensive and involves so little effort 
 or trouble that there is really no excuse for failing to 
 have it done in the transfer of any business, whether 
 private or corporate. 
 
 Speaking again from my own personal viewpoint, it is 
 probably true that many of my clients would be willing 
 to take my assurance that I had looked into a business 
 and found it to be all right. If, however, such persons 
 would stop to reason out the matter, they would readily 
 see that it is manifestly impossible for any man handling 
 a large number of securities or investment enterprises 
 personally to investigate the condition of each enterprise 
 in a detailed way, even if he had the abilities and train- 
 ing to equip him for this technical task. Consequently, 
 I feel that, no matter if a client honors me with his confi- 
 dence to the extent I have indicated, this does not justify 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF AUDITS. 133 
 
 me in failing to exercise for him a precaution which I 
 would myself demand of others. 
 
 Thus far I have spoken only of the matter of audits in 
 connection with the sale, promotion or transfer of busi- 
 ness. There is another phase of this question which is 
 equally important, and that is the regular periodical 
 auditing of the books of any financial, commercial or in- 
 dustrial concern. Any man doing a business of $100,000 
 a year, is, in my opinion, guilty of gross neglect to his 
 own interests if he does not have his accounting records 
 examined by a chartered auditing company. And on 
 this score I practice what I preach, having my own books 
 and accounts frequently audited by experts. This I do, 
 not because of lack of confidence in my own employees, 
 but because I am thus able to get an analytical survey 
 of my business from the viewpoint of an unprejudiced 
 outsider, trained in this kind of investigation. Not only 
 does this give me a fresh perspective upon my affairs, 
 showing me the exact situation as it appears to the eyes 
 of a man who is wholly impartial and disinterested, but 
 frequently the expert brings me points and suggestions 
 gathered in his varied experiences which are of greatest 
 practical value. 
 
 Because a business is comparatively small, it is not 
 exempt from the need of this kind of professional ser- 
 vice. There is a tendency on the part of retail mer- 
 chants to feel that an audit is a luxury, if not a superflu- 
 ity, so far as their business is concerned. This is decid- 
 edly a mistake. The average retailer is notoriously 
 negligent of the accounting end of his business, a fact 
 which in large measure accounts for the excessive pro- 
 portion of failures in the retail trade. Any business 
 
134 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 large enough to have separate departments and subordi- 
 nates to whom the owner, or owners, must necessarily 
 delegate executive authority, is big enough to profitably 
 employ an expert auditor and have its accounts exam- 
 ined at least once a year. 
 
 How imperative is the need of an expert audit is well 
 illustrated by the failure of a large Chicago business 
 house which not long since went into liquidation. This 
 business was conducted by three partners, the nominal 
 head of the house being a gentleman too advanced in 
 years to give more than a ' ' consulting " service to the 
 business. Another partner was a man of middle age 
 who had been trained in the selling end of the house and 
 had practically no experience in the management of 
 finances. The third partner was a young man who had 
 inherited his interest in the business and was supposed 
 to be the controlling factor in the finances of the house. 
 Suddenly, and very unexpectedly, this old and well- 
 known business went to the wall. When it was too late, 
 an auditor was called in and quickly found the cause of 
 the trouble: 
 
 The business had been sapped by the outside invest- 
 ments and speculations of the youngest partner. "For 
 several years," said the oldest partner, "I have been, on 
 account of age, practically retired from business, and 
 have only been consulted occasionally by the men en- 
 trusted with the active management. I did not know 
 anything about this drain upon the resources of the con- 
 cern and supposed that we were in good condition. ' ' 
 
 "I have been busy/' explained the second partner, 
 "promoting sales and handing out goods. Of course, I 
 knew we were doing a very good business and felt that 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF AUDITS. 135 
 
 any important matter connected with the finances of the 
 house would be called to my attention by the partner in 
 charge of that department. ' ' 
 
 In other words, if within the last two or three years 
 this house had subjected its accounting records to exam- 
 ination by an audit company, both of the elder partners 
 would have been at once informed of the outside invest- 
 ments of the youngest partner and the latter would have 
 been speedily called to account and his outside invest- 
 ments and operations stopped and the failure of the 
 business averted. 
 
 So rapid have been the changes in business methods 
 within the last five years that a man who hopes to keep 
 in the race must be alert and ready at any moment to 
 change his methods and take advantage of every pro- 
 gressive step, in the matter of better system, that offers. 
 And if he is not prepared to do this he may as well shut 
 up shop and retire at once, for the business struggle has 
 become so strenuous that only those who are able to adapt 
 themselves to the conditions of to-day, no matter how 
 radically they may be at variance with those of yester- 
 day, have reasonable hope for success. 
 
Analyzing a Business Proposition 
 
 W. T. FENTON 
 
 PRESIDENT CHICAGO CLEARING HOUSE 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
'The age demands steady headed men, 
 men whose feet stand on the ground, men 
 who can see things as they really are, and 
 act accordingly.' 
 
 'At the base of all business enterprise is 
 character. If the good man were not in 
 business, and a good many of him too, trade 
 and traffic on any extensive scale would 
 be impossible. Character makes credit, and 
 credit is the stimulating atmosphere in 
 which the vast systems of modern manu- 
 facture flourish. At the base of all develop- 
 ment is character. Because so many men 
 may be relied upon to keep their word and 
 fulfill their obligations, the world of com- 
 merce ordinarily moves on in a broad sweep 
 without great friction or disturbance. 
 
 'In the practical conduct of business proof 
 is again and again afforded of the fact that 
 the man in business is more than just the 
 man of business. The personal equation 
 counts here as it does in all other relations 
 of life/ 
 
Analyzing a Business Proposition 
 
 HTHE first thing to do in bringing one's mental forces 
 to bear on a new business proposition is to abso- 
 lutely exclude everything else. Here is where the basis 
 for mistakes and failures is often laid at the very outset. 
 To take up an important business matter without com- 
 pletely removing from the mind all thought of every- 
 thing save the one subject at hand, is as absurd as it 
 would be for an admiral to take his fleet into action with- 
 out first giving the order, ' l Clear decks ! ' ' Possibly this 
 may seem too trivial a point to warrant the emphasis 
 placed upon it. Experience, however, teaches that it is 
 almost impossible to put too much stress upon this atti- 
 tude of the mind in attacking a fresh business topic. 
 Thousands of men fall just short of a large success in 
 the world of affairs through this weakness ; they are una- 
 able, at will, absolutely to drive from their minds the 
 thoughts, cares and anxieties that attach to the subject 
 which they have been considering and from which they 
 desire to turn. When they take up a new subject they 
 are haunted and annoyed by lurking anxiety relating to 
 matters other than the one under immediate considera- 
 tion. And these lurking ghosts of other things may be 
 depended upon to make mischief and prevent that acute- 
 ness of concentration imperative in the process of going 
 at once to the core of any subject. Swift and summary 
 dismissal is the only means by which these agencies of 
 
140 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 distraction may be routed; and the art of ridding one's 
 mind of the thoughts that have filled it in the preceding 
 moment or hour is one of the most vital and important 
 traits for the business executive to cultivate. 
 
 The first question that I always ask when a new busi- 
 ness proposition is presented to me is: " Where does 
 this come from ? ' ' Of course, the man who presents the 
 matter in hand will, almost invariably, at once state its 
 nominal origin; but quite often it will finally be found 
 that the matter has a beginning at a point or with an 
 individual not disclosed by the first statement of the man 
 presenting it. Frequently the real initiative of the sub- 
 ject is cunningly concealed by the person who proposes 
 the matter, for reasons and motives which he desires to 
 keep secret. The necessity of getting at the real origin 
 of the matter is in proportion to this desire to keep the 
 true source of the problem covered. While many, and 
 perhaps most, important business matters may not con- 
 tain this element of concealment, so far as their real be- 
 ginnings are concerned, it is never safe to proceed on 
 that supposition. Protection against this danger is only 
 to be had by invariable adherence to the rule that you 
 must probe to the initiative of every matter and know 
 that you have disclosed its real origin. 
 
 Almost parallel to the question, " Where did this 
 proposition originate?" is the next question, "What is 
 behind this matter?" 
 
 Not all important business problems are at first out- 
 lined with that entire frankness which lays bare all the 
 elements involved. There are few exceptions to the rule 
 that a business subject contains incidental factors and 
 conditions not disclosed by the "surface indications." 
 
OF 
 
 ANALYZING A BUSINESS PROPOSITION. 141 
 
 To get a clear view and a definite understanding of these 
 secondary or incidental considerations is at once one of 
 the most difficult and important processes in the analysis 
 of any business proposition, and this kind of investiga- 
 tion calls into action all the tact and diplomacy at the 
 command of the man whose decision is sought. Possibly 
 the thing which the person making the proposal desires 
 to conceal may be a simple matter of information, of 
 facts or figures, of market or trade conditions, of finan- 
 cial or personal responsibility or of the soundness of 
 assets or securities, but quite as likely it will be found to 
 be a matter of motive, of " ulterior purpose. M For ex- 
 ample, the enterprise submitted for consideration may 
 be sound in itself, but may be promoted mainly for the 
 purpose of the indirect effect which it will have upon 
 some other interest. The man who brings forward the 
 proposal understands clearly that you would at once de- 
 cide against the proposition if you understood how it 
 would effect the real purpose which he designs it to 
 serve; consequently his whole effort is to keep you in 
 ignorance of this ulterior purpose, this incidental 
 element. 
 
 Still another question which must be raised at the 
 outset of every business conference dealing with a fresh 
 problem is: "Why has this matter been brought to 
 me? " This is equivalent to inquiry as to the possibility 
 of a purpose on the part of the person making the pro- 
 posal to use your individual standing, connections or 
 influence in a manner and to an end that you would re- 
 gard as undesirable if his motive were clearly apparent. 
 Always the personal equation should be carefully and 
 accurately determined. Seldom does the business execu- 
 
142 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 tive fail to take this into consideration, so far as the man 
 with whom he is dealing is concerned ; but very often he 
 fails to analyze this feature of the problem as applied to 
 himself. He is careful to weigh every element con- 
 nected with the personality of the man with whom he is 
 dealing, but is inclined to overlook his own personality 
 and individual environment as related to the problem in 
 hand. Any business executive who does not wish to be 
 "used" to the advantage of others and to his own dis- 
 advantage will, I think, realize the force of this observa- 
 tion. 
 
 No general rule in regard to the consideration of im- 
 portant business problems has been of greater service 
 to me than that which may be tersely stated in the 
 words : ' ' Let the other man do the talking. ' ' The 
 soundnes of this maxim has been so conclusively demon- 
 strated, so far as my own experience goes, that I do not 
 hesitate invariably to adhere to it and to urge it as a 
 cardinal rule that will serve on all occasions. The logic 
 of this procedure is apparent when it is remembered 
 that every man who is charged with the responsibility 
 of presenting an important business proposition goes to 
 his task prepared to answer questions and objections 
 which the man with whom he desires to treat is most 
 likely to offer. I doubt if there is an exception to this 
 rule. "What questions will he ask me and what objec- 
 tions will he raise ?" furnishes the groundwork for the 
 preparation which every man makes for the presentation 
 of a business proposal to the man he hopes to interest. 
 
 When these questions are brought forward he is ready 
 to answer them; by asking the questions naturally sug- 
 gested by his statements you are playing directly into 
 
ANALYZING A BUSINESS PROPOSITION. 143 
 
 his hands and are doing precisely what he desires you 
 to do, carrying out the line of campaign which he has 
 devised. He is ready to meet you at every point with 
 the answers and arguments carefully pre-arranged and 
 best calculated to win success for his cause. 
 
 But what is the result if you place the burden of con- 
 versation on him, force him to do the talking and fail to 
 come forward with the questions which he has prepared 
 himself to answer? Simply this: He is thrown off 
 from his predetermined line of attack. This naturally 
 disconcerts him and he finds himself obliged to adopt a 
 new line of campaign. So long as you are attentive to 
 his arguments he must keep on presenting them until he 
 has literally "talked himself out." 
 
 In the course of this process he is bound, sooner or 
 later, to drop a word here and there which will give you 
 the clew to his motives and aims and which will place 
 in your hands the possibility of getting to the bottom of 
 the subject. 
 
 Consequently I would place particular emphasis on 
 the simple rule of forcing the man who submits a busi- 
 ness proposition to do the burden of the talking. This 
 is a very simple point of practice, yet so far as my own 
 observation is concerned, it is more effective than any 
 other in bringing to light the weaknesses of any business 
 proposal. 
 
Dispatch Delays 
 
 Expense Cunning 
 
 FRANCIS BACON 
 
Alert business men of today seem to be 
 in danger of forgetting that, in the hurry of 
 business, their over abundant force may too 
 often lead them to sustain an attitude to- 
 wards their fellow-men so abrupt, harsh and 
 antagonistic as to seriously reflect upon 
 their reputation. 
 
 The otherwise good man who lacks polite- 
 ness or assumes a gruff, repellant manner 
 really sacrifices a part of his gifts, for very 
 few people will discover his good qualities 
 under his unpleasant manners. The foun- 
 dation of agreeable manner is thoughtful 
 consideration of others, or true politeness. 
 This does not imply any necessary sacrifice 
 of frankness and honesty. It does not mean 
 that one shall not contradict or dispute, but 
 it does mean that when a contradiction is 
 necessary it shall be expressed courteously. 
 Every one should cultivate this kind of po- 
 liteness, for, in so far as it helps to make 
 one agreeable, it extends his opportunities 
 for usefulness, and helps to give full play to 
 his other good qualities. BALTIMORE SUN. 
 
Dispatch 
 
 A FFECTED dispatch is one of the most dangerous 
 things to business that can be. It is like that the 
 physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion ; which is 
 sure to fill the body full of crudities and secret seeds of 
 diseases. Therefore measure not dispatch by the times 
 of sitting, but by the advancement of the business. And 
 as in the race it is not the large stride or high lift that 
 makes the speed ; so in business, the keeping close to the 
 matter, and not taking of it too much at once, procureth 
 dispatch. It is the care of some only to come off speedily 
 for the time; or to contrive some false periods of busi- 
 ness, because they may seem men of dispatch. But it is 
 one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cut- 
 ting off. And business so handled at several sittings 
 or meetings goeth commonly backward and forward in 
 an unsteady manner. I knew a wise man that had it for 
 a byword, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, 
 ' Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner. ' 
 
 On the other side, true dispatch is a rich thing. For 
 time is the measure of business, as money is of wares; 
 and business is bought at a dear hand where there is 
 small dispatch. The Spartans and Spaniards have been 
 noted to be of small dispatch; Mi venga la muerte de 
 Spagna; 'Let my death come from Spain;' for then it 
 will be sure to be long in coming. 
 
148 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 Give good hearing to those that give the first informa- 
 tion in business; and rather direct them in the begin- 
 ning, than interrupt them in the continuance of their 
 speeches ; for he that is put out of his own order will go 
 forward and backward, and be more tedious while he 
 waits upon his memory, than he would have been if he 
 had gone on in his own course. But sometimes it is seen 
 that the moderator is more troublesome than the actor. 
 
 Iterations are commonly loss of time. But there is no 
 such gain of time as to iterate often the state of the ques- 
 tion; for it chaseth away many a frivolous speech as it 
 is coming forth. Long and curious speeches are as fit 
 for dispatch as a robe or mantle with a long train is for 
 race. Prefaces and passages, and excusations, and other 
 speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of 
 time ; and though they seem to proceed of modesty, they 
 are bravery. Yet beware of being too material when 
 there is any impediment or obstruction in men's wills; 
 for pre-occupation of mind ever requireth preface of 
 speech ; like a fomentation to make the unguent enter. 
 
 Above all things, order^and distribution, and singling 
 out of parts, is the life of dispatch; so-as the distribu- 
 tion be not too subtle : for he that doth not divide will 
 never enter well into business; and he that divideth too 
 much will never come out of it clearly. To choose time 
 is to save time; and an unseasonable notion is but beat- 
 ing the air. There be three parts of business; the pre- 
 paration, the debate or examination, and the perfection. 
 Whereof, if you look for dispatch, let the middle only be 
 the work of many, and the first and last the work of few. 
 The proceeding upon somewhat conceived in writing 
 doth for the most part facilitate dispatch : for though it 
 
DELAYS. 149 
 
 should be wholly rejected, yet that negative is more 
 pregnant of direction than an indefinite; as ashes are 
 more generative than dust. 
 
 Delays 
 
 PORTUNE is like the market; where many times, if 
 you can stay a little, the price will fall. And 
 again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer; which at first 
 offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and 
 part, and still holdeth up the price. For Occasion (as it 
 is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle, after she 
 hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken ; or 
 at least turneth the handle of the bottle first to be re- 
 ceived, and after the belly, which is hard to clasp. There 
 is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the begin- 
 ning and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, 
 if they once seem light ; and more dangers have deceived 
 men that forced them. Nay, it were better to meet some 
 dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than 
 to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if 
 a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On 
 the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows 
 (as some have been when the moon was low and shone 
 on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before the 
 time; or to teach dangers to come on, by over early 
 buckling towards them, is another extreme. The ripe- 
 
150 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 ness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must 
 ever be well weighed ; and generally it is good to commit 
 the beginnings of all great actions to Argos with his 
 hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus with his hundred 
 hands ; first to watch and then to speed. For the helmet 
 of Pluto, which maketh the politic man go invisible, is 
 secrecy in the counsel and celerity in the execution, for 
 when things are once conxe to the execution there is no 
 secrecy comparable to celerity ; like the motion of a bul- 
 let in the air, which flieth so swift as it outruns the eye. 
 
 Expense 
 
 DICHES are for spending, and spending for honour 
 and good actions. Therefore, extraordinary ex- 
 pense must be limited by the worth of the occasion ; for 
 voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country as 
 for the kingdom of heaven. But ordinary expense ought 
 to be limited by a man 's estate ; and governed with such 
 regard, as it be within his compass; and not subject to 
 deceit and abuse of servants; and ordered to the best 
 show, that the bills may be less than the estimation 
 abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even 
 hand, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half 
 of his receipts; and if he think to wax rich, but to the 
 third part. It is no baseness for the greatest to descend 
 and look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not 
 
EXPENSE. 151 
 
 upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves 
 into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken. 
 But wounds cannot be cured without searching. He 
 that cannot look into his own estate at all, had need 
 both choose well those whom he employeth, and change 
 them often; for new are more timorous and less subtle. 
 He that can look into his estate but seldom, it behoveth 
 him to turn all to certainties. 
 
 A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of 
 expense, to be as saving again in some other. As if he 
 be plentiful in diet, to be saving in apparel; if he be 
 plentiful in the hall, to be saving in the stable ; and the 
 like. For he that is plentiful in expenses of all kinds 
 will hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing of a 
 man's estate, he may as well hurt himself in being too 
 sudden, as in letting it run on too long. For hasty sell- 
 ing is commonly as disadvantageable as interest. Be- 
 sides, he that clears at once will relapse; for finding 
 himself out of straits, he will revert to his customs ; but 
 he that cleareth by degrees induceth a habit of frugality, 
 and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his estate. 
 Certainly, who hath a state to repair, may not despise 
 small things; and commonly it is less dishonourable to 
 abridge petty charges, than to stoop to petty gettings. 
 A man ought warily to begin charges which once begun 
 will continue ; but in matters that return not he may be 
 more magnificent. 
 
152 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 Cunning 
 
 \17E take Cunning for a sinsister or crooked wisdom. 
 And certainly there is a great difference between 
 a cunning man and a wise man ; not only in point of hon- 
 esty, but in point of ability. There be those that can 
 pack the cards, and yet cannot play well; so there are 
 some who are good in canvasses and factions, that are 
 otherwise weak men. Again, it is one thing to under- 
 stand persons, and another thing to understand matters ; 
 for many are perfect in men's humours, that are not 
 greatly capable of the real part of business ; which is the 
 constitution of one that hath studied men more than 
 books. Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel ; 
 and they are good but in their own alley : turn them to 
 new men, and they have lost their aim ; so as the old rule 
 to know a fool from a wise man, 'Put both among 
 strangers and you will see/ doth scarce hold for them. 
 And because these cunning men are like haberdashers 
 of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop. 
 
 It is a point of cunning, to wait upon him with whom 
 you speak, with your eye; as the Jesuits give it in pre- 
 cept : for there be many wise men that have secret hearts 
 and transparent countenances. Yet this would be done 
 with a demure abasing of your eye sometimes, as the 
 Jesuits also do use. 
 
 Another is, that when you have anything to obtain of 
 present dispatch, you entertain and amuse the party 
 with whom you deal with some other discourse ; that he 
 
CUNNING. 153 
 
 be not too much awake to make objections. I knew a 
 counsellor and secretary, that never came to Queen 
 Elizabeth of England with bills to sign, but he would 
 always first put her into some discourse of estate, that 
 she mought the less mind the bills. 
 
 The like surprise may be made by moving things when 
 the party is in haste, and cannot stay to consider ad- 
 visedly of that is moved. 
 
 If a man would cross a business that he doubts some 
 other would handsomely and effectually move, let him 
 pretend to wish it well, and move it himself in such 
 sort as may foil it. 
 
 The breaking off in the midst of that one was about to 
 say, as if he took himself up, breeds a greater appetite 
 in him with whom you confer to know more. 
 
 And because it works better when any thing seemeth 
 to be gotten from you by question, than if you offer it of 
 yourself, you may lay a bait for a question, by showing 
 another visage and countenance than you are wont; to 
 the end to give occasion for the party to ask what the 
 matter is of the change? As Nehemias did; 'And I had 
 not before that time been sad before the king. ' 
 
 In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to 
 break the ice by some whose words are of less weight, 
 and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by 
 chance, so that he may be asked the question upon the 
 other's speech; as Narsissus did, in relating to Claudius 
 the marriage of Messalina and Silius. 
 
 In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it 
 is a point of cunning to borrow the name of the world ; 
 as to say, 'The world says/ or 'There is a speech 
 abroad. ' 
 11 
 
154 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 I knew one that, when he wrote a letter, he would put 
 that which was most material in the postscript, as if it 
 had been a by-matter. I knew another that, when he 
 came to have speech, he would pass over that that he 
 intended most ; and go forth, and come back again, and 
 speak of it as of a thing that he had almost forgot. 
 
 Some procure themselves to be surprised at such 
 times as it is like the party that they work upon will 
 suddenly come upon them ; and to be found with a letter 
 in their hand, or doing somewhat which they are not 
 accustomed; to the end they may be apposed of those 
 things which of themselves they are desirous to utter. 
 
 It is a point of cunning, to let fall those words in a 
 man's own name, which he would have another man 
 learn and use, and thereupon take advantage. I knew 
 two that were competitors for the secretary's place in 
 Queen Elizabeth's time, and yet kept good quarter 
 between themselves ; and would confer one with another 
 upon the business ; and the one of them said, that to be 
 a secretary in the declination of a monarchy was a tick- 
 lish thing, and that he did not affect it; the other 
 straight caught up these words, and discoursed with 
 divers of his friends, that he had no reason to desire to 
 be secretary in the * declination of a monarchy/ The 
 first man took hold of it and found means it was told the 
 Queen, who hearing of a ' declination of a monarchy/ 
 took it so ill as she would never after hear of the other's 
 suit. 
 
 There is a cunning, which we in England call 'The 
 turning of the cat in the pan ; ' which is, when that which 
 a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said 
 it to him. And to say truth, it is not easy, when such a 
 matter passed between two, to make it appear from 
 which of them it first moved and began. 
 
CUNNING. 155 
 
 Some have in readiness so many tales and stories, as 
 there is nothing they would insinuate, but they can 
 wrap it into a tale; which serveth both to keep them- 
 selves more in guard, and to make others carry with it 
 more pleasure. 
 
 It is a good point of cunning, for a man to shape the 
 answer he would have in his own words and proposi- 
 tions ; for it makes the other party stick the less. 
 
 It is strange how long some men will lie in wait to 
 speak somewhat they desire to say; and how far about 
 they will fetch; and how many other matters they will 
 beat over, to come near it. It is a thing of great 
 patience, but yet of much use. 
 
 A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth many 
 times surprise a man, and lay him open. Like to him 
 that, having changed his name and walking in Paul's, 
 another suddenly came behind him and called him by 
 his true name, whereat straightways he looked back. 
 
 But these small wares and petty points of cunning 
 are infinite; and it were a good deed to make a list of 
 them; for that nothing doth more hurt in a state than 
 that cunning men pass for wise. 
 
 But certainly some there are that know the resorts and 
 falls of business, that cannot sink into the main of it; 
 like a house that hath convenient stairs and entries, but 
 never a fair room. Therefore you shall see them find 
 out pretty looses in the conclusion, but are no ways able 
 to examine or debate matters. And yet commonly they 
 take advantage of their inability, and would be thought 
 wits of directions. Some build rather upon the abusing 
 of others, and (as we now say) putting tricks upon 
 them, than upon soundness of their own proceedings. 
 
Get Out, or Get In Line 
 
 ELBERT HUBBARD 
 
You will never be a partner unless you 
 know the business of your department far 
 better than the owners possibly can. In- 
 stead of the question, 'What must I do for 
 my employer?' substitute 'What can I do?' 
 Faithful and conscientious discharge of the 
 duties assigned to you is all very well, but 
 it will not do for the coming partner. There 
 must be something beyond this. The rising 
 man must do something exceptional, and 
 beyond the range of his special department. 
 
 He must attract attention. 
 
 There is no service so low and simple, 
 neither any so high, in which the man of 
 ability and willing disposition cannot readily 
 and almost daily prove himself capable of 
 greater trust and usefulness. CARNEGIE. 
 
Get Out, or Get In Line 
 
 J F all the letters, messages and speeches of Lincoln were 
 destroyed, except that one letter to Hooker, we 
 should still have a pretty good index to the heart of the 
 Rail-Splitter. 
 
 In this letter we see that Lincoln ruled his own spirit; 
 and we also behold the fact that he could rule others. 
 The letter shows frankness, kindliness, wit, tact, wise 
 diplomacy and infinite patience. 
 
 Hooker had harshly and unjustly criticised Lincoln, 
 his Comander-in-Chief, and he had embarrassed Burn- 
 side, his ranking officer. But Lincoln waivers all this in 
 deference to the virtues that he believes Hooker pos- 
 sesses, and promotes him to succeed Burnside. In other 
 words, the man who had been wronged promotes the man 
 who had wronged him, over the head of a man whom the 
 promotee had wronged and for whom the promoter had 
 a warm personal friendship. 
 
 But all personal considerations were sunk in view of 
 the end desired. Yet it was necessary that the man pro- 
 moted should know the truth, and Lincoln told it to him 
 in a way that did not humiliate nor fire to foolish anger ; 
 but which certainly prevented the attack of cerebral 
 elephantiasis to which Hooker was liable. 
 
 From the Cosmopolitan Magazine. 
 
160 THE TRANSACTION OP BUSINESS. 
 
 Perhaps we had better give the letter entire, and so 
 here it is : 
 
 "EXECUTIVE MANSION, 
 "WASHINGTON, January 26, 1863. 
 "MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER: 
 
 "General, I have placed you at the head of the Army of 
 the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear 
 to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you 
 to know that there are some things in regard to which I am 
 not quite satisfied with you. 
 
 "I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which of 
 course I like. 
 
 "I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, 
 in which you are right. 
 
 "You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if not 
 an indispensable quality. 
 
 "You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does 
 good rather than harm; but I think that during General Burn- 
 side's command of the army you have taken counsel of your 
 ambition and thwarted him as much as you could, in which 
 you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritor- 
 ious and honorable brother officer. 
 
 "I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your re- 
 cently saying that both the army and the government needed 
 a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, 
 that I have given you the command. Only those generals who 
 gain success can set up dictators. What I now ask of you 
 is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The 
 government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which 
 is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all 
 commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have 
 aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander 
 and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon 
 you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither 
 you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good 
 out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now 
 beware of rashness; beware of rashness, but with energy and 
 sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories. 
 
 "Yours very truly, "A. LINCOLN." 
 
GET OUT, OR GET IN LINE. 161 
 
 One point in this letter is especially worth our con- 
 sideration, for it suggests a condition that springs up 
 like deadly night-shade from a poisonous soil. I refer 
 to the habit of sneering, carping, grumbling at and criti- 
 cizing those who are above us. 
 
 The man who is anybody and who does anything is 
 surely going to be criticized, vilified and misunderstood. 
 This is a part of the penalty for greatness, and every 
 man understands it ; and understands, too, that it is no 
 proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in 
 being able to endure contumely without resentment. 
 Lincoln did not resent criticism ; he knew that every life 
 must be its own excuse for being, but look how he calls 
 Hooker's attention to the fact that the dissension Hooker 
 has sown is going to return and plague him ! ' Neither 
 you, nor Napoleon, were he alive, could get any good out 
 of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. ' Hooker 's 
 fault was on Hooker others suffer, but Hooker suffers 
 most of all. 
 
 Not long ago I met a Yale student home on a vacation. 
 I am sure he did not represent the true Yale spirit, for 
 he was full of criticism and bitterness toward the insti- 
 tution. President Hadley came in for his share, and I 
 was supplied items, facts, data, with times and places 
 for ' a peach of a roast. ' 
 
 Very soon I saw the trouble was not with Yale, the 
 trouble was with the young man. He had mentally 
 dwelt on some trivial slights until he had got so out of 
 harmony with the institution that he had lost the power 
 to derive any benefit from it. Yale is not a perfect insti- 
 tutiona fact, I suppose, that President Hadley and 
 most Yale men are quite willing to admit ; but Yale does 
 
162 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 supply certain advantages, and it depends upon the stu- 
 dents whether they will avail themselves of these advan- 
 tages or not. 
 
 If you are a student in a college, seize upon the good 
 that is there. You get good by giving it. You gain by 
 giving so give sympathy and cheerful loyalty to the 
 institution. Be proud of it. Stand by your teachers 
 they are doing the best they can. If the place is faulty, 
 make it a better place by an example of cheerfully doing 
 your work every day the best you can. Mind your own 
 business. 
 
 If the concern where you are employed is all wrong, 
 and the Old Man a curmudgeon, it may be well for you 
 to go to the Old Man and confidentially, quietly and 
 kindly tell him that he is a curmudgeon. Explain to 
 him that his policy is absurd and preposterous. Then 
 show him how to reform his ways, and you might offer 
 to take charge of the concern and cleanse it of its secret 
 faults. 
 
 Do this, or if for any reason you should prefer not, 
 then take your choice of these : Get out, or get in line. 
 You have got to do one or the other now make your 
 choice. 
 
 If you work for a man, in heaven's name work for him ! 
 
 If he pays you wages that supply your bread and but- 
 ter, work for him speak well of him, think well of him, 
 stand by him and stand by the institution he represents. 
 
 I think if I worked for a man I would work for him. 
 I would not work for him a part of the time, and then 
 the rest of the time work against him. I would give an 
 undivided service or none. 
 
GET OUT, OR GET IN LINE. 163 
 
 If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a 
 pound of cleverness. 
 
 If you must vilify, condemn and eternally disparage, 
 why, resign your position, and when you are outside, 
 damn to your heart 's content. But, I pray you, so long 
 as you are a part of the institution, do not condemn it. 
 Not that you will injure the institution not that but 
 when you disparage the concern of which you are a part, 
 you disparage yourself. 
 
 More than that, you are loosening the tendrils that 
 hold you to the institution, and the first high wind that 
 comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away in 
 the blizzard's track and probably you will never know 
 why. The letter only says: 'Times are dull and we 
 regret that there is not enough work/ et cetera. 
 
 Everywhere you will find those out-of-a-job fellows. 
 Talk with them and you will usually find out that they 
 are full of railing, bitterness and condemnation. That 
 was the trouble through a spirit of fault-finding they 
 got themselves swung around so they blocked the chan- 
 nel, and had to be dynamited. They were out of har- 
 mony with the concern, and no longer being a help they 
 had to be removed. Every employer is constantly look- 
 ing for people who can HELP him ; naturally he is on the 
 lookout among his employees for those who do not help, 
 and everything and everybody that is a hindrance has to 
 go. This is the law of trade do not find fault with it; 
 it is founded on nature. The reward is only for the man 
 who helps, and in order to help you must have sympathy. 
 
 You cannot help the Old Man so long as you are ex- 
 plaining in undertone and whisper, by gesture and sug- 
 gestion, by thought and mental attitude, that he is a 
 
164 THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 
 
 curmudgeon and his system dead wrong. You are not 
 necessarily menacing him by stirring up discontent and 
 warming envy into strife, but you are doing this : You 
 are getting yourself upon a well-greased chute that will 
 soon give you a quick ride down and out. 
 
 When you say to the other employees that the Old 
 Man is a curmudgeon, you reveal the fact you are one ; 
 and when you tell that the policy of the institution is 
 'rotten,' you surely show that yours is. 
 
 Hooker got his promotion even in spite of his failings ; 
 but the chances are that your employer does not have 
 the love that Lincoln had the love that suffereth long 
 and is kind. But even Lincoln could not protect Hooker 
 forever. Hooker failed to do the work, and Lincoln had 
 to try some one else. So there came a time when Hooker 
 was superseded by a silent Man, who criticized no one, 
 railed at nobody not even the enemy. And this Silent 
 Man, who ruled his own spirit, took the cities. He 
 minded his own business, and did the work that no man 
 ever can do unless he gives absolute loyalty, perfect con- 
 fidence and untiring devotion. 
 
 Let us mind our business, and work for self by work- 
 ing for the good of all. 
 
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