Arizona republican., 1905-04-22
The Vice and Value of System.

A timely and courageous voice against the tyranny of system" is raised by a writer in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle His protest is timely. because a great deal of un
 necessary noise is made these days by the one-idea apostles of system" as the royal highway to fortune. system is essential to success" is one of those old established aphorisms like Early to bed and early to rise" that every body accepts as wise and true. The Rochester paper points out that every young person is taught that in order to attain success along any path in life he must first of all be systematic. The doctrine is costantly preached by the leaders of public opinion. Whenever the editor of one of the fireside period icals that circulate hundreds of thou sands of copies. though you never heard of them, finds himself short of a subject he turns out an editorial about the beauties of system" There is even most prosperous looking per iodical. with all things handsome about it, devoted solely to the consideration and laudation of system" in business. It is not at all surprising, therefore. that there should exist a very general impression that all a man need do to achieve fame and fortune in any line of business is to buy all the filing cab inets and all the card indexes there are and spend all his business hours in docketing, filing, indexing and cross indexing every scrap of paper with writing on it that comes to or eman- ates from him in the course of busi- ness, until he has made enough money in this way to hire an expensive office force to do the docketing, filing, index ing and cross s-indexing for him.
 It appears to be an accepted article of faith that when you can lay your hand instantly on every letter, note, bill, memorandum, clipping, circular, postcard, pamphlet, that ever found its way to your desk your commercial future is assured. The fact that there is no human possibility that you will ever want to lay your hand on a given lELLEIs liOlts Dllls iileIllOA dlluuAllg Cilp- ping. circular, postcard, pamphlet, or what not, and that the waste basket is the only place for it. doesn't count. Bankruptcy, ruin and the contempt of all thinking persons. await you unless you or your clerks spend an hour or two in elaborately folding. docketing, filing. indexing. cross-index- ing, recording, listing that morsel of printed worthlessness. Mrs. ToodIes with her handy to have in the house" rule of conduct may have been the or iginator of this now prevalent idea, and 1t is probable that no disciple of modern system in business can see anything humorous in MT Micawber's habit of carefully docketing and filing every Statement of account" received by him from a tradesman with the re- mark, Thank heaven! That bilrs paid"
 System may be a good servant but it Is a bad master. and it easily be- comes the master of those who tri1e with it. The Chronicle writer says he has seen more than one man of ability fail utterly in an executive position be- cause of his slavery to the vile habit of being systematic. Whatever the emergency, it always found these men clipping and docketing, filing and in- dexing, copying and recording, with no time nor thought to spare for their real work. System is all very well when you can afford to hire people to be systematic. for you, and the present mania for system has it's usefulness in that it provides a means of livelihood for persons who are good for nothing except being systematic, which really doesn't require any great amount of