The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-31

young lady that don't believe she has ever read one of pr. Cranes art'c'es since.
 This incident came to my mind when I received a request from reader the other day to print something he sent me obout answering letters promptly. The piece is really worth while. It contains pointed arguments and useful suggestions.
 But, before quoting from 1t. I must confess that I do not always live up to the excellent advice 1t contains IT I were to answer every day all the letters received during the day then there would be days when this column would be blank. When you receive something like 15,000 in the course or a year, all wanting personal replies the admirable rule that ones desk should be cleared every day can't al- ways be lived up to, especially as many of the letters ask for information which has to be hunted up.
 With this confession, let me ptss on to you parts of the letter-answering . advice, written by w. G. Sibley and forwarded by John W. Hall or Cnicago:
 Postal service began with the trained runners or couriers who car ried official and military message between ancient Athens and Rome and outlying districts. Post lines were es- tablished in England in 1885, and in 1873 mail coaches first took the high ways. Trade and business expansion made communications between distant points more and more important.
 It is one of the curious vagaries of human nature that many business men who would indignantly protest if their letters were unnecessarily delayed either in going or coming, are htem- selves guilty of the offense of neglect ing and postponing their replies to correspondents. Selfishness, disrespect or bad manners underIies this behavior usually all three when letters re- main unanswered because prompt re- plies are not important to the man who has received an inquiry, and he cares nothing for the convenience or importance of his reply to the one who has written him.
 'Time is a hugely important element in all commercial transactions. The government exerts itself to save time for business. It has jumped from the stage coach to the steamboat and railroad and from them to the air, where possible. to hasten the delivery of business letters. It follows, therefore, that when business men delay replies to letters received they fail in a first principle of sound business conduct, put in peril their anicable relations with others and may justly faii under condemnation as inefficient, dilatory, disrespectful or Iazy-four faults which seriously impair the credit and good will of any business man.
 ".The only sale rule for any business man or organization is either to reply to or acknowledge every letter received which is to be answered on the day f~ nrdf fra al virtue of business. A correspondence desk cleared before it is closed for the day is evidence of a business well conducted. Bacon said 300 years ago: True dispatch is a rich thing; for time Is the measure of business as money is of war and business is bought at a dear hand where there Is small dis
 "Therefore be prompt"
 Now, the truth is that none of us likes to be ignored. What would you or think if we spoke to man and he did not reply? Does not a letter a amount to the same thing?
 My experience is that among the most prompt repliers to letters are our bankers. do not recall one important banker who does not. give prompt at- - tention to letters. Apparently they strictly IolioW tne ruie ot answering all letters on the day of receipt.
 Some of our big industrial men, however, haven't quite as good man. ners. I could name Q few. I used to be friendly with the President of one of the Americas largest industrial corporations, but when I found that polite letters, written as much in his interest as my own, were rudely ignored, I simply dropped him-al- though I think his secretary is more at fault than he is.
 J. ogden Armour years ago remarked to me: "The richer a man is the more careful he has to be not to ap- pear uppish or snobbish." Some of our men of affairs who have attained high place in the world haven't learned this.
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