of $15,000,000 of Northern Pacific stock in 1901. The financier sat on one side of the table; the lawyer on the other. "How much did that stock cost?"

"Haven't any idea."

"How much did your firm make out of it?"

"I don't know."

"Well, did you make one million or ten million?"

"I tell you I don't know. I don't attend to the details. I said 'Buy it.' Steele knows about the details; he'll tell you about that!"

Now it is important not to miss the point here. There are those who quickly read into the attitude of the financier an easy solution for the problem of details. Ignore them, scorn them as nuisances to be brushed aside! Such observers overlook the closing sentence of the significant little dialogue. Although Mr. Morgan did not know the details, Steele did!

Mr. Morgan when he made those remarks was a battlescarred veteran of finance, the ripened product of a career of masterly administration. Years before, as a young bank clerk, he dug relentlessly into the details of each task with which he was entrusted. Now he selected competent and capable men to watch those details with close care so that he no longer needed to give them his personal attention.

Business Knowledge Which Gets Down to Bed-Rock

The man who at no time in his career pays attention to detail builds his house upon the sand. The storms of adversity which some time or other test every business structure will detect certain weaknesses in his organization and it will fall.

"Although everything is being done on a larger scale," observes James Logan of the United States Envelope Company, "there never was a time when the smallest details of a business had to be watched so closely as at present."

The organizations which forge ahead today in the race for

business supremacy tolerate less and less, on the part of those connected with them, rash undertakings, "I believe's," and "Guess so's." Their executives find it increasingly true that in order to carry their responsibilities they must possess a business knowledge which gets down to bed-rock. Bed-rock in this particular sense means the stratum of fundamental, unavoidable details which lies at the bottom of every great business structure. In order to do his own work well, it is essential for the executive to know the various elements and processes which enter into the business.

It is a symptom of wasteful nervousness and inefficiency for a department manager to sharpen pencils, fill fountain pens, or run errands. It is just as wasteful for him to spend his strength on the minute steps of production, distribution, etc. But in order to arrange work for subordinates it is necessary to comprehend their duties.

The executive sees the duties of his subordinates, not as they see them, but in the bigger relation of all the different cogs and wheels to the vast business machine. The essential thing is not so much that the chief should be able to put himself in the employee's place as that he should be able to place the employees, every one, in their proper place.

Systematic Care for Details

That is to say, if the executive engulfs himself in a sea of details, it is fatal to the business and to his career; if he ignores them, it is equally fatal. The solution of the problem must come through standardization, proper distribution of responsibility, system. Details must be watched, but plans must be devised for watching them with maximum accuracy and minimum effort.

This subject, it should be noted, is of even greater importance for the executive who is on his way up-a department manager or the head of a small but growing concern-than

for the man already at the top of a great organization. For such an ambitious, growing man the following maxims may serve as a guide in his work of organizing and standardizing his activities:

1. However deep an immersion in details a man's present duties require, the business career permits a consistent rise until like Morgan, apprenticeship served, he may eventually hold easy mastery.

2. The rate of his progress, whatever the stage of advancement already reached, depends largely upon his handling so efficiently the details which fall within his care-either personally or through wisely directed subordinates-as to have leisure to do the big thing just above.

A First Aid to the Memory-the Memo

The first rule for economy of time and effort is this: Keep the big things in mind, the details on paper. The man who does not "make a note of it" is an intellectual prodigal. He wishes to give his time and attention to the big things—the $50,000 contract, the proposed trade advance in South America, the new branch in St. Louis-but scarcely does he concentrate upon these big things when a forgotten house conference, a broken luncheon engagement, or a misplaced letter brings him sharply back to routine again.

He needs a first aid to the memory.

Such is the memo system; "make a note of it."

The method is very important in note-making. Henry Ward Beecher jotted down incessantly upon scraps of paper and the backs of old envelopes the various points he wanted to remember; but however brilliant Mr. Beecher's sermons were made by this plan, the medium he employed is open to criticism. Paper can be arranged in such convenient forms that no one is justified in using odds and ends.

The Defects of a Bound Note-Book

The bound note-book is, as a usual thing, unsatisfactory. If printed or indexed according to dates, it may prove convenient as an appointment memo, or, indexed alphabetically, it serves well enough for names and addresses. But it soon becomes filled with useless, out-of-date material, through which one must thumb in order to find what one wants. Worse still, only by chance does one make notes of things in the same order in which he prefers to take them up later on; yet notes which are bound are continually seeking to dictate the order in which they shall receive attention. What you want is consecutive order in doing things, not in making notes of things to do.

The Loose-Leaf Memo System

Loose-leaf, ringed note-books avoid inflexibility, the chief defect of the bound form. They can be obtained in a variety of sizes and styles. If you carry the book in your inside coat pocket, as is commonly done, you should avoid the larger and more bulky styles. It would be advisable also in selecting the size to consider its relation to a filing system. The book can easily be fitted with an index, according to date, as for appointments; according to alphabet, as for names and addresses and telephone numbers; or according to subject, as in the grocery salesman's price book. It is possible, of course, to use two, or possibly more, indexes in one book.

A simple leather folder, in which loose sheets may be placed, forms about as practical a system as any. The 4x6 size is easy to carry in the inside coat pocket and as the supply of sheets can be replenished at will, it need not be made bulky. The used sheets are kept on top, the fresh sheets at the bottom, with a blotter, trimmed to the proper size, as a partition between them.

Still more simple is the vest-pocket note system, merely

loose sheets of 3 x 5 paper carried in one of the upper vest pockets and replenished at need. When a note has been made, the sheet is placed in another pocket, awaiting its final disposal. The elaborate note systems which we often see have all, no doubt, their uses; but to many men a brief trial may prove that a few 3 x 5 cards slipped into the vest pocket constitute the most convenient method.

Ruled and Printed Memo Sheets

But "system" can be pushed a little further with advantage. In looking over old memos, a man often discovers himself recording the same sort of information.

Perhaps he is a contractor reporting upon jobs, perhaps a salesman turning in credit information. In any case, the frequent occurrence of certain items to be jotted down should warn him that standardization is possible, and lead to the adoption of a ruled or printed form. The makers of ringed books are able to supply from stock the forms prepared for day-books, journals, ledgers, sales records, expense accounts, pay-rolls, mortgage loan records, real estate listings, and the like. Forms devised for special purposes can be run off by any printing establishment.

How to Dispose of Memoranda-The Tickler

Less difficulty usually is experienced in making memoranda than in caring for them after they are made. Not a few men keep a note-book always handy, religiously jotting down items which they thereupon proceed to forget-a quite correct procedure, of course. But they then go one step further and completely ignore the memo. The memo ignored is worse than unmade, because it is deceptive. Use the tickler!

The tickler is a little filing device, indexed according to dates. It has usually two sets of guide cards, the tabs of one being printed with figures for the thirty-one days of the