The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-04-05
YANKEE AND BR|TON IN BUSINESS
James H. Collins Compares The Two In An Interest
ing Article In Saturday Evening Post
THE POINTS EACH NoTEI-HUMoRoUs ANECDOTES EN-
PIANAToRY DIFFERENT BUSINESS METHODS.
, NE night, in the smoking com
partment of Pullman, travel
ing through a Western state,


ter and ordered a whisky-and-soda
Sorry, boss, but you'll have to
wait bout an hour" said the colored
brother. yves agoin' through a
prohibition belt"
The Briton became rather bitter
in his comments on teetotalism and
the Yankee idea of personal liberty;
and went on to scold steam heat
ing, American manners and other
outstanding features of what we
fondly imagine to be our civilization.
Nobody took up the issue with him
until he began to criticise our wom-
en-. Then an elderly Westerner put
Q question:
young man, isn't this your first
visit to the United States?'
"Yes, it is" replied the critic;
and | hope it will be the last
"Well, | reckon l know how you
feel about it," said the Westerner.
"On this first trip you'll miss a
whole lot of things you're accustom-
cd to at home. 1t was so the first
time l went to England. l couldn't
keep warm, couldn't find a decent
barber shop, didn't like the weather,
or the ways, or the people. Your
country lacked so many conveniences
were in the Middle Ages. When
went back a second time it was as
tonishing how many excellent things
and ways / found that we hadn't
got-and it has been so on several
trips I've made since. Young man,
you come back to America again if
you have chance and you'll begin
to see that we have a lot of good
things in this country too"
The Relation of Precedent to Profit.
The first time an American busi-
Aess man goes to London either for
a vacation or to carry out some pro-
ject he finds the town slow and an
tiquated. British business is often
transacted in dingy offices that might
not be passed as sanitary COW stables
by one of our milk inspectors. Sol
emn "clerks" explore huge old-fash-
ioned ledgers under one wretched
gaslight and their boss sits in a
private Office that is really a cell by
our standards, in keeping with the
prevalent British belief that business
is form of penal servitude, with
hard labor. There is much secrecy
the Briton has traditional belief
that the best business is the kind
that can be hidden. There is much
sloom-he complains of lack of
trade when, to the Americans eye,
possibilities lie dormant all around.
The whole business fabric seems full
of inconsistency, inefficiency and cir
oumlocution on this first visit.
By-and-by the Yankee goes over
again or his project keeps him in
London long enough to enable him
to get below the more obvious sur
IiffnnAranE hA IL,
many methods and principles to ad-
She cell-like private office held off
suspiciously the first few times the
American called upon him, but at
last they entered upon few trans
actions and grew to know one anoth-
or. Presently the American got a
conception of the immense solidity
of British connections. The British
er in the cell seemed pretty small po-
tatoes when measured by our houses
at home, and the Yankee suspected
that there might be something crook
ed about his rating. In time, how
ever, he found that British CONNER
cial standing is not gauged by the
oriental rugs of a private office, and
that the pettiness and shabbiness OF
business quarters give no clue what
ever to magnitude. 1t developed
that the Britisher in the cell had a
great warehouse down near the
docks and connections running back
two generations in Calcutta, Shang-
hal and Yokohama. The American
began to grasp the worldwide scope
of British trade and to bring tC
light the vast hidden machinery fol
handling it.
The British business mind travels
in curious rut There is an ole
story about Yankee in London who
saw silk hat moving through the
mud down the middle of Fleet
street. Looking closer, he discover,
ed there was the face of an English
man under it.
"Well. my friend" said the Amer
ican, you seem to be in rather deeI
out there"
"Deep!" was the Englishman's re
ply. "You may we'll say that-I'n II
on top of an omnibus"
The British business mind is il
even deeper. 1t travels in ways
worn by the past. The American
business mind, still largely of the
first or second generation, operating
far from the older commercial com
munities and often innocent of in
tCIndllOndl CuSIOllS, uO6
not easily grasp the underlying
senses of British affairs, for there il
so much nonsense on the surface.
On the day an American arrives il
London he begins to encounter thi
strange factor-the past. At hom,
there isn't any past. He has alway
gone ahead in a direct line, by him
self. If he wanted to reach the con
Eumer, and an old trade custom
intervened, he walked through ii
If he thought he had better way o
doing anything he was not at all dis
turbed by what others had done o
were doing. But in London h
finds the past everywhere, thick a
mud, and deals with an English fac
under topper" which assure
him that it is on top of an omnibus
If the Yankee protests that this is
roundabout way of doing busines
the face assures him that it is quit
regular, and that it has always bee
done just that way, and that this
the hat its father wore and goo
enough for IT,