provide for checking instead of writing whenever a check mark will serve.

When a busy executive has a number of papers to pass along, the addressing of them for the inter-organization delivery and the noting upon each the directions required becomes a considerable task. The use of such a blank as here shown simpli fies the process materially.

Use of Both Hands

Use both hands whenever the work can thereby be expedited. Just because a man happens to be right-handed is no reason for the left hand to serve only as a paper weight.

Head versus Heels

In a wholesale grocery house which was suffering from rapid growth, each individual order was turned over to a clerk who checked off the items of that order consecutively as he filled them. This plan required many clerks and the stockroom was a scene of incessant activity with much rushing back and forth. The clerks were paid a very low wage ($8 per

week), but the cost of filling orders was high; still they "had always done it that way." Finally the congestion and delay became too great and as the next move, each clerk was given six orders to fill simultaneously as he went from place to place. This and the installation of a general trucking system, caused a decided improvement. Following this, the stockroom was departmentalized, the required number of order fillers stationed in each section, and the items of the order itself were distributed from the office to the departments and assembled in the shipping room. Wages were advanced twenty-five per cent, but the cost of filling orders was reduced fifteen per cent, because the clerks spent less time in walking and more time in taking goods from the shelves.

Dispatch several items on one trip.

Starting and Stopping

The office manual and the office clock call for every minute of the business man's time-with an interval for lunch-from 9 in the morning till 5 in the evening. During these hours he should be pushing the business incessantly. But the average man is a trimmer. He starts tardily and quits over-early. It is true that the foes of system-the seven little devils perched upon the desk all day long-are especially insistent at these times; nevertheless, they can and should be ousted.

Get under way promptly: keep under way to the close.

Day's Work Plan for the Secretary

The time spent in giving the secretary his directions can be cut down by arranging with him a day's work plan.

Such

a plan will care for all regular items and its flexibility permits the handling of specials.

Filing Short-Cuts

In filing large numbers of cards or other material, a preliminary assorting cuts down considerably the time required.

A box fitted with press-board guides serves very well for arranging correspondence for filing, a distributor with fanlike leaves is handy if the classes are not numerous. An ordinary sheet of cardboard properly ruled will handle small cards very well. Should the cards be 3 x 6-inch squares for example, mark off a 24 x 30-inch cardboard into 4 x 6-inch squares and letter these in alphabetical order, the latter in each case being placed near the top line of the square. Sort the cards out upon the proper squares, then file them into the card index.

Use of Symbols

Multum in parvo is attained by using symbols.

E. St. Elmo Lewis by jotting a figure on the pages of a trade paper in effect tells his secretary, "Clip this article at your convenience, place it among the other papers in the file basket, and later on when you dispose of these see that this one gets into the proper cabinet, behind the tab marked '21'" Figures express his filing system in code.

Professor Hotchkiss in correcting his English themes provides his students a full lesson on the principles of business composition though he jots only a few figures on the page. These figures in each case refer to rules and references which appear in printed form upon the margin, and hence can readily be consulted.

Standarize, then express the standard by a symbol.

Preparation for Dictation

When about to take up a batch of letters for disposal, many men without first ascertaining that they are ready to dictate, press the buzzer for a stenographer. It is only after the young lady appears, ready for her part of the task, that they discover that some necessary folder has not yet been secured from the file, that certain estimates are still to be decided upon,

or perhaps that a required conference remains to be held. In short, they are not ready to dictate and they discover this fact too late.

Always be ready to dictate when the stenographer is called.

It is true that her time is less expensive than an official's, yet even less expensive time should not be wasted. Moreover, some of the worst offenders in this respect are usually men whose salaries are little beyond that of a first-class stenographer.

Speed in Dictating

Dictate rapidly. The attempt itself stimulates thought, and is conducive to that quick, vigorous diction before which correspondence melts away.

Elimination of Wasteful Details

In answering a number of letters do not dictate the full name and address of each correspondent. This is time-consuming because the stenographer must write much of it in long hand, and quite needless since such details can readily be copied from the letter replied to, if this is turned over to her. As you reply to letter after letter, number each in order and dictate merely this number.

Dispatch in Handling Correspondence

Men commonly read their mail twice, once to get a general idea of its import and urgency, and the second time to give it detailed consideration. Condense most of this into the first reading. Dispatch the easy ones with finality; assort the remainder into the day's work file, at the same time underscoring significant words or phrases. In dictating later on you will be saved time which would otherwise be spent upon irrelevant details.

Color Schemes

A color scheme in the office can at times be made to serve a most useful purpose. One general manager, for example, assigns each department a color-red for the purchasing, blue for the accounting, green for the production, etc.—and the departmental color identifies all the forms and memoranda which are issued. Another employs colors to indicate different degrees of urgency. Papers in red must receive immediate attention, those in blue are to be disposed of today, and the white in the regular routine. The scheme is really nothing more than a color code, the various colors as symbols, representing whatever information has been previously decided

upon.

Carbon Copies

Copying, which the use of carbon might have obviated, is unbusinesslike. It has become almost second nature for typists in transcribing dictation to make one or more copies at the same time, but this is only one of the many uses to which carbon sheets can be put. In most offices there are many other chances for saving by means of carbon copies, which as yet are overlooked.

Machines for Dictation

The dictating machine possesses certain advantages.

It is always ready; whether one gets down to the office an hour ahead of his stenographic force or prefers to dictate after office hours or at home in the evenings, he need only start the machine and talk.

The machine has no speed limit. The man who dictates like a "whirlwind" finds no brakes set upon his pace; the man who makes long stops in order to think out a hard letter or to hunt some necessary data, may do so without wasting anyone else's time.