The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-14
COST OF INAccUR.AcY.
Chicagoan Estimates, It Amounts to a Million Day to Business
 Houses in, That City.

Chicago Tribune.
 One great retail house in Chicago has 1000 employees According to the observa- tions of Earl Nj. Pratt of Oak Park. the natural inaccuracies of such an army of employees in one business day will bring upon at least employees a personal con sure from superiors which will arouse in these 800 clerks disposition to vent their anger ors chagrin upon 5000 customers of the house. The question is: Undor such . condition. what would be the value of absolute accuracy ir every em- pioye in such an establishment?
 :"fnaccuracy costs Chicago sL0oe.0oo a day" says Mir, Pratt in the sweeping ar alignment of the -nnetffods of the chy's business world. This, too. Is an estimated loss based upon the visible and material showing: the losses suggested in the first proposition may be 30 remote as to make an estimate impossible.
 Because of this first proposition, Mir. Pratt places the employe of the lowest grade, the department head, the general manager, the employer and finally the customer. all upon the same plane of in- terest in his efforts to establish a bureau having for It's purpose the dissemination of accuracy training for those who may be, brought to see the need of it.
 As indicating the necessity of accuracy in the least important places of the world of business Mfr. Pratt shows how the least of employees in the office of one of the great captains. of industry may, through the inaccuracy congenital to him, irritate the head of the institution to an extent repeating all the way down through the days business of 6 great company or corporation perhaps finally to react upon the patronage of the con cern In Q hundred ways. costing the es- taSishment thousands of dollars before the effect of the one blunder of the small ofiice boy has been dissipated and for gotten.
 Time and again have seen the effect of kick made by the head Of a great establishment" said Mir. Pratt. Some body's blunder comes to the attention of the cheif. Discipline causes him to charge the general manager, and when the man. ager has taken his kick he probably pass es 1t on to a half dozen heads of depart ments. From these the kicks are passed on down the line until perhaps that one blunder, which really amounted to little in the beginning. has put half the people of great house upon the ragged edge Of ruffled tempers. Can you estimate what such a disturbing thing has cost the house?
 Human nature is human nature. There may be individuals who will not be angry at being scalled down. but if they are not angry they are at least disturbed and hurt, making them all the less competent to carry on their tasks. A man who Is hurt at a bit of censure Is at least open to mistakes and inaccuracies, which will 40 on provoking more of this same feel ing until finally 1t will be found that where a business at last has to go to the wall the cause of its failure may be traced to the inaccuracies in It's manage nient and conduct"
 To inculcate the principles Of accuracy into those open to it Is the task which Mir. Pratt has set for himself, and which the business men of Chicago have ac- cepted in no small degree through his thought methods and his lectures. In bringing the seriousness of inaccuracies to the attention of business men of the city Mir. Pratt has brought out some striking facts and figures. For instance. the opening of trade with Manila. and the Orient in general has shown in one case that a alight mistake in the bling Of q package of merchandise to the Phihp- pines cost the house shipping the package leo days effort in fighting the error. An other package shipped by another house to Canton. and which was to have ar- rived there before last Christmas. has inst reached it's destination, all through a fault fin billing it. A piece of freight sent from Springfield to Chicago last June is now somewnere III Aho'ah1' "lIn the house still trying to trace ft
 -A4 to Accuracy within the meaning of MT. Pratt, 1t has many forms. In re- cent case he connects the inaccuracy of the banker with that of the laborsr when the banker left a valise containing $500 in the seat of the elevated train on the so,,th sIde while the labofer simply left his dinner pail in the surface car of which MT. Pratt himself was passen- ger. l a certain store in Chicago to buy goods, satS Mr Pratt ''The reason is of the siightsat too She had been shopping there just before St. valentines Day and as she went home that afternoon she re- marked that everybody almost every where was looking at % ner with y,.. either s .,o, horne she found that in passing under 2 display of valentines her hat had