Special Articles 
73 
The manner of conduct of its correspondence in a large or a small 
seed establishment, has a bearing of vital importance upon its successful 
administration. All letters should receive immediate and careful atten- 
tion. The best rule is to answer the same day of receipt. If there is 
occasion for delay and a full reply cannot at once be given, then a 
simple, courteous acknowledgement of receipt should immediately be 
made saying full reply will follow. 
In the good old days before the typewriter and the advent of the 
office stenographer, exceeding great care was bestowed upon business 
correspondence. In tliose times courtly pen-written letters were the 
“silent salesman,” and highly successful they were. It is a pity a book 
has not been printed of those old-fashioned, precise, beautifully com- 
posed business letters, to serve as a model for the modern correspond- 
ent. Composition of a letter by pen insures a superior, a more gram- 
matical and logical arrangement of what is said; the language which 
flows to the assistance of the slow pen is purer, smoother, more cour- 
teous than that which issues by the employment of dictation. Haste in 
dictation too often ])roduces a lackadaisical, weakly phrased letter, or 
a too curt one. There is no question of doubt that many a customer 
has been driven away, and many an order lost in consequence of brutally 
curt or weakly phrased letters hastily dictated. 
There is a psychology in letter writing which it were well to ob- 
serve. The paper itself on which the letter is written — either by pen 
or typewriter — becomes, along with the words and sentences, impreg- 
nated with the mood or temperament of the writer or dictator, and his 
emotions or state of mind are electrically conveyed to the addressee. 
It behooves, therefore, in writing or dictating, that one compose himself, 
and inspire a spirit of kindness and courtesy into the letter. This spirit 
will be imbibed when the letter is read by the addressee. 
But after all personality is that which counts most for success or 
failure in life. In business circles this is especially noticeable in the 
singularly contagious effect that the personality of the proprietor, or 
the individual who rules the store or establishment, has upon the per- 
sonalities, for the time being, of his respective employees down to 
humble office boy. Just as tbe personality of the general in command 
affects the atmosphere of the men in his army for enthusiasm or lack 
of it, for confidence in him or lack of it, for victory or for defeat, so 
does the personality of the head of a business concern affect the atmos- 
phere wherein he rules, and thus leads the business to success or failure, 
according as his own personality be pleasant or disagreeable, good or 
bad. 
How significantly this gigantic world-war has demonstrated to us 
all, in the many noteworthy changes taking place, that the difference is 
only in degree between the expression “there is no sentiment in war,” 
and that similar undemocratic one, old as the hills, “there is no senti- 
ment in business.” When democracy achieves its glorious victory over 
autocracy, as it shall and must, let us all hope in the new order of 
things that shall transpire, that there will be a solid and firm decla- 
ration, that sentiment must be put into business, and that henceforth and 
forever humanity must prevail in all affairs of trade and commerce. 
