The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-06-25
WOMEN CAN'T DO THE WORK
The Place of Credit Man" Is One
Which They Are Not Fitted
to Fill.

There's one walk In business life
whore woman has made a fiat. miserable.
unIhistakabIe failure said a business
mar who employs a large number Of
young women in his store and Office, ac-
cording to the Chicago Tribune. No
woman, as far as | can find out, has ever
been a successful credit man
i don't say this as any reproacb
against the sex" he went on, because
/ have a great respect for the American
business oman But just for my own
satisfaction | must say that I'm glad
to know n place at least where a man
stands no show of being showed aside to
make room for his energetic sister. A
true woman may rightly be proud of
being a poor credit man, however, be-
cause it merely shows that she has too
much faith in mankind. and can't pre-
vent herself from being affected by a
good hard luck story, She doesn't have
to believe it to be carried away by it,
for her heart gets the better of her head
in spite Of herself. The result Is that she
extends a long line of credit to customers
that aren't a safe risk, and the house sut-
fers for it.
Il was reminded of this noted point of
weakness in the feminine business
equipment by seeing that the Federal
bank, which has just failed in New York,
had a woman to pass upon its credits
and discounts for the last four years.
don't wonder that there was a smashup,
From my experience and observation |
have found this job is beyond the nat
ural powers Of a woman just as much
as freight handling and other work re-
curing a mans physique. 1t doesn't
matter what kind of a she is,
either. It's just the same whether she
has been tested by years of experience in
confidential commercial affairs. or
whether she has been merely a cog in the
bookkeeping machinery of the firm.
Many men have stenographers who have
been with them for so long that almost
all the inner secrets Of the house are
necessarily known to them. And | think
the fact that this knowledge is saCTedly
guarded should do a great deal to Kill
the old superstition about a wOman's
inability to keep a secret. II is women
who our guard in the outer Offices of
John D. Rockefeller and H. II. Rogers,
and decide what is important enough
to go into the inner sanctum. Just think
of the responsibility of a position like
that and Of the fortunes that could be
made by betraying some of the knowl-
edge that accompanies it.
when a man finds a woman employe
that he can trust to the same degree as
Mr.. Rockefeller trusts his private sec
rotary, he is naturally inclined to think
10 at she can I'll any confidential position
in the house. But in 1893 cases out of a
thousand her heart is liable to be intiu-
encial in directing her course. For bus
mess is business, as you may have heard,
and the heart has little place in it. A
credit man need not be harsh and cruel
in fact. he should not be SO, and he
should at all times be ready to help a
worthy customer along with easy terms
and kind treatment. But it takes iudg-
ment to tell what a worthy customer is,
and to keep an unworthy and dishonest
one from imposing upon the firm by his
ingenious and pitiful tales of woe, l
know a woman who caused her house a
dead loss of several thousand dollars
because a man who was deltber-
ately d%efrauding the firm used to bring
his little girl down with him when he
came to see her about getting an extern
sion Of his credit. The child was a nice
girl with plenty Of golden curls,
and she innOcently succeeded in making
the wholesale house carry her fathers
business for three tyears, until inevita-
bic aud disastrous bankruptcy ended the
game,
There are few branches of business in
1t can be said that women have
been failures" concluded the speaker,
because they are not apt to venture
Independently upon untricd fields.
they are pretty sure that they can
they won't start in, Ifthey take
~ a new line Of work it is usually their
employer who inspires the step and fur
lishes the necessary courage for its &C
,omplishment, No one doubts that
woman has permanently won her place
II the bushes sword, and that her field
If action Is steadily increasing in width.
But | am afraid that her heart will limit
ler activities in certain directions, just
rs her physical weakness and her lack of
initiative does in others"