do all the signing yourself. Always dictate deliberately. Remember that a goodly percentage of letters dictated in this world circulate widely beyond the person addressed. Most every letter and most every person has more influence than any of us imagine.

When I was with the Larkin Company, we used to get letters time and time again, requesting a piano or an organ for a church, a carpet for a new lodge room, and a variety of other things. We always turned down those requests, with a detailed letter that would enable the recipient to appreciate the sanity and the justice of our declination.

If a young man should come into my office to-morrow morning and ask this question-"Mr. Wiers, may I go to the ball game?" I wouldn't fumble around with some papers while he was talking to me, as many a busy employer would do, and let him go out and advertise me in some such way as, "I just had a talk with the old bear, the old nut; he doesn't appreciate ball games, or golf, or anything else." Instead, I would have him sit down-and here I catch the psychology of a letter, tooand I would say, "Now, John, look here. That ball team is to be in town all this week. You know we are very busy. You know how much we depend upon you. I wonder if you couldn't defer the pleasure you have in mind until, say, Thursday or Friday when perhaps I shall be able to go with you."

Now let's apply the same ethics to a letter. I wouldn't write a letter and say bluntly, "We cannot do so-and-so." I would soften it a bit and say, "Much as we should like to comply with your request, we find it impossible, for such-and-such reasons." I would do this in order to show the sympathy of the writer, to show that the writer has a heart.

Thirteenth: Be a lover of people.

Before you leave Boston I suggest that you go out in front of that magnificent church made sacred by the memory of Phillips Brooks, and pause for a few minutes before his statue, on the base of which you will find these significant words: "Lover of mankind." Do you suppose anybody in all this world could have paid a more fitting tribute to that wonderful preacher than to put those words there, "Lover of mankind"? My friends, do you love mankind? If you don't, I say to

you this morning that you may as well quit your letter writing business, because it will never be a success in a thousand years. Love people. Study them in churches, offices, factories, workshops, wherever you find them. Familiarize yourself with their ideas, their ideals and ambitions, ever remembering that the closer you get to those upon whom you are dependent for your progress, the more opportunity there will be for delivering a degree of service that will be sensible, economical and lasting. A few months ago I happened to be coming from Chicago with a college professor. We sat talking in the buffet smoker. Suddenly we started on the subject of dealing with the other fellow. As we progressed he told me that he had the largest classes in Shakespeare at his university. I said, "How under the sun are you able to interest red-blooded fellows in Shakespeare ?"

He said, "I will tell you. I first get them to like me and if they like me they will like the things for which I stand."

"Why," I said, "my dear sir, you have summarized the basic principles of salesmanship in a very few words: 'I first get them to like me, and if they like me they will like the things for which I stand.'"

Fourteenth: Be human.

There is nothing more or less to that than being a "regular guy." That is all there is to it. Be a "regular guy" in all of your contacts with other folks. It will soon reflect itself, and others will find in your leadership something worth following through storm and sunshine.

On that score, may I just add this? As you go ahead with your publicity work, whether it is upon the written sheet or in some other form, I plead with you to get a better vision of your personal influence. The older I grow, the more I become convinced that very few men or women ever comprehend their individual influence.

I heard a story a short time ago which I must pass along to you. A little boy went out one Sunday morning and putting his feet in some tracks in the snow made by his father, said, "Daddy, look, I am walking in your footsteps." His father raised his hand to his head and said, "My God, where are my footsteps leading my boy?"

That is a question you and I can well afford to ask ourselves every day: Where are my footsteps leading my boy, my friend, my fellow-worker?

Fifteenth and last: Be a student.

We do not read enough. We are getting to be slaves to newspapers and strange as it may seem, we revel over the details, particularly if they are vulgar or gruesome. If John Jones shoots his wife, what under the sun do you care about all the details? He shot her. You get that in the headlines, and that is enough. She is shot, isn't she? [Laughter.] Why spend a day and a half going over the details of that story?

What you and I need more and more every day is an active contact with good books. I am frank to tell you that I haven't much time to spend on fiction. However, I am not here to speak disparagingly of fiction because I know it strengthens our imagination and affords us a certain degree of rest and recreation. I like to read biographies. I like to read human stories. I like to read about the things pertaining directly or otherwise to my job. I like to have something choice stuffed into my bag when I travel, something by means of which I can enrich my mind, broaden my vision and enlarge my sympathies. It is just putting into practice that little couplet,

"Lost yesterday between sunrise and sunset two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered because they are gone forever."

Finally, there are "yes" words and there are "no" words. The "yes" words which a correspondent should always keep prominently in mind are: Courteous, sincere, pleasant, friendly, cheerful, warm and helpful. The "no" words which should not be a part of his vocabulary or a part of his activities are: Discourteous, curt, sarcastic, sharp, impertinent, peevish, cold, over-bearing, and harsh.

It isn't the thing you do, dear, it's the thing you leave undone
That gives you a bit of heartache at the setting of the sun.

The tender word forgotten, the letter you did not write,

The flower you might have sent, dear, are your haunting ghosts at night.

C. K. WOODBRIDGE

SALESMANSHIP AND ADVERTISING

This address was made before various business organizations in 1925 by Mr. C. K. Woodbridge who was then president of the Dictaphone Sales Corporation.

ADVERTISING and Selling in all lines needs re-firing. Directors, presidents, manufacturers, jobbers and retailers have been too greatly concerned with the problem of production, and not distribution or consumption. Now we are facing changed conditions. Goods must be sold. The masters of the market-advertising men and salesmen-have come again into their own. Their services are needed. Their counsel is sought.

It is easier to handle material than men. The factors are the same in one case, but in the other not so. Sales must be made every day under constantly varying conditions. For years we've been hitting the high spots. Now we are confronted with the need of constructive selling, of finding a market through strenuous and continuous advertising and sales effort.

Production without adequate distribution is without avail. Production of itself fills no pay envelope. Wage money comes from sales at a profit. Wholesalers and retailers have experienced an entire change in their clientele in the last few years. Customers have been drawn to them largely because they, at the time, had the kind of merchandise needed for the extension of the individual business, and now the wholesaler and retailer are put to the test to see if they can retain this clientele against the competitive field produced by a buyers' market.

There is a good rule of business that goes like this. Find out what the people want-what they can afford to pay for it— then manufacture a quality product to fit that want at the price. It is conceded that all may not want the same thing. Location,

custom, utility, earnings, ambitions, all these things enter into the wants of people. This fact produces a variety in quality, style and price of merchandise. Our products are highly diversified. This great diversification of business is perfectly natural for we meet constantly changing conditions internationally, nationally and locally, and the effect of these changes is felt right down the line. The conditions we now face in business are just what we must expect for the law of Supply and Demand goes on working all the time.

Advertising and Selling in developing future markets faces constant changes. In Birmingham, England, there is a great series of manufacturing plants, which during the War were engaged in the manufacture of guns. Now that gun demand is gone, plants, many of them greatly enlarged during the War, are for the most part idle. Shall we wait for a new war or find out what the public wants and what they can afford to buy and market something that has real present service value?

Too many industries are over-equipped and so long as this continues bargain sales and bankrupt sales continue. Never mind how much you can make. Find out what you can sell at a profit. Preparation for the future is essential now. Every business, big and small, needs what I call a Forward Looking Department. The crow's nest, if you please, of the business ship. You have a Planning Department in the factory. Why not a Planning Department in sales administration?

Many a fine idea is allowed to go into discard because it is no one man's particular job to follow that idea through to a conclusion. Each one of us is cluttered up with the daily details of his job. Who does the advance reading for your company? Who keeps abreast of the changing selling problems produced by changing market? Would you fire a man who was caught reading a book in the day time in an endeavor to get a broader vision of his job?

How many executives sit down in their office in the morning and read over some of the latest editorials in the trade journals, or search the columns of the daily press, or the Journal of Commerce, or some other business man's paper? Whom have we in our organization delegated to study the newest problems of