hioned in his ideas. While his management
was safe and sane, it had not produced a very large return upon the
capital investment. For this reason, the owner determined to engage, as
advertising manager, a young man who had several years' successful
experience in advertising, but no first-hand knowledge of the mail-order
business. The young man did brilliant work. The business of the house
began to grow, dividends began to come in, and the owner was delighted.
But the new advertising manager and the old general manager did not get
along well together. The young man was progressive, optimistic, had ideas
of expansion and growth, while the old man was conservative, careful, and
somewhat out of date in his ideas as to business.

There could be no result of such a combination except the final
resignation of the old general manager. This was only too gladly accepted,
and the young man who had come in as advertising manager was placed in
full charge. Following his appointment there was a period of rapid
expansion. Many new lines were added; the concern rented two more floors
in the building where it was located, and eventually purchased ground and
built a fine new building. The payroll doubled, then trebled, then
quadrupled. All these things, of course, took more capital, and the owner
was compelled to add many thousands of dollars to his original investment,
first, for permanent improvement; then, from time to time, for working
capital. He was glad to do this, because the business was growing. There
seemed to be every prospect that in the near future there would be profits
far in excess of anything the owner had ever dreamed of under the old
management.

SUPERSTRUCTURE WITHOUT FOUNDATION

Then came a time when other ventures of the owner compelled the use of all
of his spare capital. He could no longer add to the funds invested in his
mail-order business. He called his new general manager in and said: "I
have put a great deal of money into this mail-order business. You have
your beautiful new building; you have a goodly amount of working capital;
you have expanded and added new lines; and I think the time has come when
you ought to be able not only to run along without any more investment on
my part, but very soon to show me a nice little profit. I assure you that
it will come in exceedingly handy in the new venture which I have
undertaken."

"Oh, certainly," the young man said, "there is no doubt that we shall soon
be