Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-11-03

IL my SituO ~ Woulu nave tdhtu a
man about four days to do what that
machine does in one hour" said the
merchant, musingly.
"But this isn't your day; it's ours
said the new manager.
"What next?" asked the merchant
of the past.
"Next comes the envelope sealing
machine" said the new manager re.
morselessly. "Now in your day one
office boy using single tongue power
would probably stick down about forty
envelopes in an hour. This little ma.
chine seals nine thousand in that time.
You see. it is quite small. You just
put the pile OF letters in at the end and
turn this handle. Then the letters
(now typed, duplicated, addressed and
sealed by machinery fall out on the
table. Oh. l wouldn't try to count
them. 1t might strain your arithme-
tic to keep pace with the machine"
The rotary duplicator and the "Ad-
dressograph" were still working mer.
rily. Would you like to see the other
things? asked the new manager.
"Now this machine" he said, NOV.
ing over to another instrument in a
neat-looking case, "not only prints let.
ters in exact imitation of typewriting,
but it also prints a diffelent name and
address on each and adds a perfect
imitation Of your signature in black
ink at the bottom"
Il begin to feel very DID," said the
former owner of the business. "I sup
pose your chief cashier is made of
levers and sprockets and your conf.
dental clerk is driven by a main.
spring?"
"Well, l think there are cog wheels
and spacing gears in them, too," said
the new manager. Now, here is the
book typewriter, with which We keep
our ledgers, and, in fact, all the books
in our firm. We only use pens here
as pipe cleaners. You lay the book on
the table, so, draw the machine over
it, and make your entries cleanly and
neatly.
But bound books are now out of
date. The loose leaf book is the mod
ern idea. DIR. and Cr. sheets are OF
different colored papers, and the
leaves can be removed and reinserted
in the binder at moments notice."
"Then all you have to do is to cast
up the figures" said the old merchant.
"Pardon me, we do nothing OF the
kind" With calculating machines that
will tell you in ten seconds that 1885,.
S34 multiplied by 456,S73 amount to,
and which will extract the square root
of 5S7,S67, ,9Ol with a few turns of q
handle, the human brain becomes too
slow for practical purposes.
"Now, il you will look at this 'Arith.
mometer' for a moment, you will see
that al! you have to do is to place the
pointers at the figures which you wish
to pultiply, subtract from or add TO-
gether, then turn this handle, and the
result will appear in that row OF spaces
at the top"
An office boy now came up and re.
ported that the two thousand letters
had left the Office at 3 80.
at seems to me that brains are
quite obsolete" said the antediluvisn
merchant.
"And that is the biggest mistake OF
ALL" returned the twentieth. century
manager. Brains are what We want,
and all we want. We are freed of the
old grinding routine that business men
used to break their hearts over; now
we have time to think. Our clerks
have shorter hous and are better paid
but those we do employ have brains
otherwise we should have no use for
them.
"No, brains are not at discount,
but brainless haudwork is."