The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1904-02-02
$l,OOO,OOO
A DAY FOR BLUNDERS.
Some Estimates as to the
Cost of Employees Inac-
curacy--How One Care
less Mans Error May Held
Up the Business of Big
Concern Accuracy is in
Demand and is Paid For

49, the observations of Earl M.
flIaI lGlE Pratt, of Oak Park. the
natural inaccuracies of
such an army of employees in one bust
ness day will bring upon at least 500
employees a personal censure from SUI
periors, which will arouse in these 500
clerks disposition to vent their anger
or chagrin upon 5000 customers of the
house The question is: Under such
condition, whit would be the value
Of absolute accuracy in every employee
In such an establishment?
'Inaccuracy costs Chicago 81 10000
a day" says Mr.. Pratt, in his sweep
Ing arraignment of the methods of the
city's business world This, too, is an
estimated loss based upon the visible
and material showing; the losses sug-
gested in the first proposition may be
SO remote as to make an estimate inn
possible.
Because of this first proposition Mr..
Pratt places the employee of the lowest
grade. the department head, the gen.
eral manager, the employer and finally
the customer, all upon the same plane
of interest in his efforts to establish
bureau having for its purpose the dis
semlnation of accuracy training for
those who may be brought to see the
need of it.
AS indicating the necessity of accu-
racy in the least important places in
the world of business, Mr.. Pratt shows
how the least of employees in the office
of the great captains of industry may,
through the inaccuracy congenital to
him, irritate the head of the institution
to an extent rejecting all the way
down through the days business of a
great company or corporation, perhaps
finally TO react upon the patronage of
the concern in a hundred ways, costing
the establishment thousands of dollars
before the effect of the one blunder of
the small Office boy has been dissipated
and forgotten.
'4Time and again l have seen the
effect of kick made by the head of a
great establishment" said Mr.. Pratt.
Somebody's blunder comes to the at
tention of the chief. / scipline causes
him to charge it to the general man
ager, and when the manager has taken
his kick he probably passes it on to
a half dozen heads of departments.
From these the kicks are passed on
down the line until perhaps that one
blunder, which really amounted to lit
tie in the beginning, has put half the
people of great house upon the
ragged edge of ruffied 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 called 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 bit of
censure is at least open to mistakes
and inaccuracies. which will go on pro-
voking more of this same feeling 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 its man
agement and conduct"
To inculcate tue principles of accu-
racy into those open to it is the task
which Mr. Pratt has set for himself,
and which the business men of Chicago
have accepted in no small degree
through his thought methods and his
lectures. In bringing the seriousness
of inaccuracies to the attention of bust
ness men in the city Mr.. 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 slight mistake in the billing of n
package of merchandise to the Philip /
pines cost the house shipping the pack
age 100 days effort in righting the err
ror Another package shipped by an
other house to Canton, and which was
to have arrived there before last
Christmas has just reached its desti-
nation. all through fault in billing it.
A piece of freight sent from Spring
field to Chicago last June is now some
where in Indiana, with the house still
trying to trace it.
AS to accuracy within the meaning Of
Mr.. Pratt, it has many forms. In a re-
cent case he connects the inaccuracy |
Of the banker with that of the laborer
when the banker left valise contain
ing $1,000 in the seat of an elevated
train on the South Side. while the
laborer simply left his dinner pail in
the surface car in which Mr.. Pratt /
was a passenger.
! II know a woman who will not go
into certain store in Chicago to buy
goods said Mr. Pratt. "The reason is
of the slightest. too. She had been
shopping there just before st. valan-
tines Day, and as she went home that
afternoon che remarked that everybody |
almost everywhere was looking at her
with either wonderment or open |
smiles When she got home she found
that in passing under a display of val
entines her hat had caught one of them |