barometers. As long as the house will "The credit man should meet his cus- T HE average credit manager seldom has an opportunity of meeting his men personally, and therefore he must find other means of determining whether or not a customer is entitled to credit courtesy. One credit manager whom I know carries on quite an extensive correspondence with all the customers of his concern. This is done largely through form letters, individually typed. He tells me that by studying the replies he is able to gather a used freely whenever needed. They good deal of information about the men contain no opiates. Sold only in Boxes--never in bulk, 25c, 50c, and $1.00. Sample Free. JOHN I. BROWN & SON Boston, Mass. Famous Acousticon You must not confuse the Acousticon with on any other instrument The Acousticon is the instrument you regulate instantly to clearly free near or distant-loud or low, indoors or out- 48 Degrees of Deafness Unless "stone deaf" the Acousticon enables you to hear every soundperfectly. Not a theory-not new or untried-but a world-known success for many years. NO DEPOSIT TEN DAYS FREE TRIAL Write for Special Limited Offer-no money down -not even a promise to buy. Let us prove the Acousticon is the instrument you must use. EASY TERMS Learn how to secure an Acousticon on easy month ly payments before special offer expires. judges and hundreds of others everywhere. trial for the DEAF themselves, about the condition of their The credit manager must work with As a general rule, few of the hazards and risks are in new accounts if the new customer buys in small amounts. Even the dishonest buyer will pay promptly at first, and the honest buyer will strive to keep his credit by paying small bills on time. It is far more important to watch the rapidly growing account and the account of the customer who has been buying from time to time, and has been reasonably prompt, but who suddenly or gradually slips in his payments. Then is the time to investigate and without delay. A Now Direct By Mail credit manager should not be so hide UHL ART STEEL TABLE-CABINET trade-mark. Indestructible steel frame-built-up wood platforms. Firm, rigid and noiseless under operation. Slight move of steel lever puts casters in position. Moved easily from room to room or out of way when idle. Steel, dust-proof, self-locking roll-top. Proof against mice and prying eyes. GUARANTEED 100% PRACTICAL Closed If your dealer can't supply you, write us on your Toledo Metal Furniture Co., 2571 Dorr St., Toledo,0. UHL ART STEEL FURNITURE bound that he cannot ask his competitor about his customers. Too much credit has caused the downfall of many an otherwise good customer. If you cannot collect an account when it is small, it isn't any easier to collect when it is larger. This is a self-evident truism, and yet how frequently it is overlooked and good merchandise is sent to collect a bad account. If a customer is justly entitled to a rating of $5,000, and seven concerns are each allowing a credit of $1,500 to $2,000, somebody is treading on dangerous ground. Better get together and compare figures. This is true not only of small concerns but of large ones as well. Too much credit wrecked the Claflin Company and it resulted in failure for the Siegel Company, just as it has ruined the corner grocer and the village dry-goods dealer. There are two kinds of discontent in this world: The discontent that works, and the discontent that wrings its hands. The first gets what it wants, and the second loses what it has. There's no cure for the first but success; and there's no cure at all for the second.-Lorimer. HOW TO PUT THE MATTER TO AN EMPLOYEE D AVID GIBSON, of Cleveland, says: "If you have anybody working for you and they lie down on their job, don't fire them at once just call them in and tell this story: "Down in Virginia a farmer had an ox and a mule that he hitched together to a plow. One night, after several days of continuous plowing, and after the ox and mule had been stabled and provendered for the night, the ox said. to the mule, 'we've been workin' pretty hard, let's play off sick to-morrow and lie here in the stalls all day.' 'You can if you want to,' returned the mule, 'but I believe I'll go to work.' So the next morning when the farmer came out the ox played off sick; the farmer bedded him down with clean straw, gave him fresh hay, a bucket of oats and bran mixed, left him for the day and went forth alone with the mule to plow. All that day the ox lay in his stall, chewed his cud and nodded, slowly blinked his eyes and gently swished his tail. That night, when the mule came in, the ox asked how they got along plowing alone all day. 'Well,' said the mule, 'it was hard and we didn't get much done, and-' 'Did the old man have anything to say about me?' interrupted the ox. 'No,' replied the mule. 'Well, then,' went on the ox, 'I believe I'll play off again to-morrow; it was certainly fine lying here all day and resting.' 'That's up to you,' said the mule, 'but I'll go out and plow.' So the next day the ox played off again, Nabisco Sugar Wafers are tempting morsels. Ne'er were fairy sandwiches more delectable than these cream-centered dessert confections. Serve them with ices, creams or beverages. In tencent and twenty-five-cent tins. ADORA Sugar Wafers-Another dessert confection with sweetened-cream filling. NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY Current Opinion Scholarship Fund FOR COLLEGE AND HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS Service of Specialists Built Kahn System was bedded down with clean straw, provendered with hay, bran and oats, and lay all day nodding, blinking, chewing his cud and gently swishing his tail. "When the mule came in at night the ox asked again how they got along without him. 'About the same as yesterday,' replied the mule coldly. 'Did the old man have anything to say about me?' again inquired the ox. 'No,' replied the mule, 'not to me, but he did have a long talk with the butcher on the way home.' I think it rather fine, this necessity for the tense bracing of the will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by the fire.-Arnold Bennett. OUR BUSINESS PROBLEMS A FRIEND in St. Paul, who holds a real man-sized job, tells me that a big business problem isn't Plus Superior Building Products really a big problem-it's just a col The cooperation of our specialists in reinforced concrete construction is of inestimable value to engineer, architect and owner. Our practical experience, gained from thousands of important structures, is available in every building operation where Kahn Products are used. Kahn System of Reinforced Concrete, including all types of design and all forms of reinforcement, ensures fireproofness, permanence and economy. Utilized wherever good buildings are built, it gives universal satisfaction. Hy-Rib is the ideal reinforcement for roofs, sidings, walls, partitions, ceilings, floors, etc. This steel sheathing with rigid deep ribs eliminates forms, studs, and channels, saving labor and expense. The light weight of Hy-Rib construction, its saving in space, and its fireproofness assure efficiency and economy. United Steel Sash are in a class by themselves, characterized by superior strength, weight, and workmanship. Manufactured by the cold welding process, and equipped with improved hardware made in our own shops. United Steel Sash are especially designed to meet individual requirements in any type of sliding and pivoted sash or casements. No matter when or what you intend to build, write to us now for special literature and valuable suggestions, free. TRUSSED CONCRETE STEEL COMPANY, Dept. G101, American Optical Company Youngstown, Ohio Built Kahn System Reinforced Concrete Ten Thousand High-School Students in every way qualified for a higher education are obliged to forego its advantages because of lack of funds to gratify their ambition. If you are one of these students, the Current Opinion Scholarship Fund can help you. It is helping hundreds of ambitious high-school boys and girls earn the funds for a complete four years' college course. You choose your own college. The Fund offers to well-qualified students Cash Scholarships, renewable and non-forfeitable, ranging in value from $300 up. Send today for a free booklet, "The Open Door to a College Education." lection of little problems. In order to solve the big problem, the shortest and best way is to analyze it into a lot of little problems, and go after each one separately. This is a good point to remember when we come to wrestle with some important question affecting our business. Instead of trying to cover it with one sweeping answerlet's pick it to pieces and find the answer to each little separate problem. While some men have minds broad, quick and comprehensive enough to grapple and solve a big question in toto, the majority of us are apt to save time and money by going at the question piecemeal. After all, the two processes are the same, only the exceptional man has the power to analyze almost by instinct, and pick out from the mass the vital factors which we others must pick out after separating the mass into its various constituents. The average head of a business has laid before him, at least once a month, a carefully compiled result sheet of some sort, showing business done, gross profits, department overhead, general expense and selling expense. This report is, as a rule, subdivided according to the needs of the business, and shows the value of certain facts in determining policies. In fact, without such a sheet, any business man is up against a stone wall the minute he attempts to do any analyzing requiring reference to the past history of his business. F SUCH a compilation of figures has any value, it is to give the business man a chance to analyze his big problem (increased cost of manufacturing, increasing cost of selling goods-whatever it be) into its constituent parts, and be able to say to himself or those responsible: "Here is a leak; there is an apparent bad spot. Now let's see what's the reason in each case and find a remedy if possible. Probably the sum total of our remedies will answer the big problem we are up against." The most exact system of accounting the most detailed result sheet-is valueless, however, if the results arrived at are not studied carefully, methodically and sensibly. The business man who understands figures and makes it a point to analyze his result sheet will be able to stop leaks in his business plumbing before the plaster falls about his head. Those faults in the management of any business that eventually kill profits generally start on a small scale and grow. Nobody notices them at first. And because they grow so gradually, nobody notices the fact that their effect on the business is bad and getting worse right along. Like a snowball rolling downhill, such faults accumulate momentum. When they get too big to avoid notice, someone tries to stop them. But there's a difference between stopping a snowball and an avalanch. T O KEEP a complicated system of costs and accounts, to put the results in the shape of a systematized report each day or week or month, and then to have those responsible glance at the sheet and merely remark: "Gross receipts were a little off last month. Overhead is running a little higher. Well, it might be worse," and file it all away for future referencewell, that sort of system serves about the same purpose as the morocco-bound volumes, with uncut leaves, you'll sometimes find filling the shelves of newlymade millionaires. The man who constantly uses his result-sheet to smoke out as many as possible of the little problems that are affecting adversely the volume of profits of his business is never likely to run against a problem too big to be tackled and solved. But the one who files the sheet away "for future reference" will find little consolation months or years hence in tracing back through its aid the cause of a load of grief that has suddenly landed On his shoulders. Figures often lie to the one who doesn't get beneath their surface-but they talk to the one who burrows down among them and gets acquainted. Study your result sheet. Solve the little problems while they're little. Know what's doing in your business -not what you think is doing. saves worry and profits. It Don't waste any time worrying about the soft snap you think some one else has. He is doing just as much worrying as you are. FILING IT ALL AWAY 135 The Telephone Unites the Nation AT T this time, our country looms large on the world horizon as an example of the popular faith in the underlying principles of the republic. We are truly one people in all that the forefathers, in their most exalted moments, meant by that phrase. In making us a homogeneous people, the railroad, the telegraph and the telephone have been important factors. They have facilitated communication and intervisiting, bringing us closer together, giving us a better understanding and promoting more intimate relations. The telephone has played its part as the situation has required. That it should have been planned for its present usefulness is as wonderful as that the vision of the forefathers should have beheld the nation as it is today. At first, the telephone was the voice of the community. As the population increased and its interests grew more varied, the larger task of the telephone was to connect the communities and keep all the people in touch, regardless of local conditions or distance. The need that the service should be universal was just as great as that there should be a common language. This need defined the duty of the Bell System. Inspired by this need and repeatedly aided by new inventions and improvements, the Bell System has become the welder of the nation. It has made the continent a community. AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES One Policy One System Universal Service You Have a Right to Independence Yo YOU have a right to independence, but you must have an honest purpose to earn it. Many have purpose, ambition and energy, but thorough direction and intelligent help must be supplied. My instruction supplies the first, and our Co-operation Bureau fulfills the second. Large numbers have availed themselves of both, succeeding to a remarkable degree. Investigate without prejudice this opportunity to Learn the Collection Business and escape salaried drudgery for life. If you have an idea that the collection business as I teach it is not safe, sure and dignified as a bank, or any other profitable business, you are mistaken, and I will prove it, if you earnestly desire to get ahead. No essential branch of business is so limitless, nor less crowded. No business may be built so large without investment of capital. I will gladly send you, for the asking, |