etter of complaint_ should never be written hastily or angrily. It
should go directly to the root of the trouble and should state as nearly
as possible when and where and how it came about. One should be
especially careful about placing the blame or charging to an individual
what was really the fault of an unfortunate train of circumstances. The
tone should never be sharp, no matter how just the complaint. "Please"
goes further than "Now, see here."

_Collection letters_ are hardest to write. They should appeal to a man's
sense of honor first of all. It is a cheap (and ineffective) method to
beg him to pay because you need the money, and rarely brings any
reaction except rousing in his mind a contempt for you. The first letter
in a series (and the series often includes as many as six or eight)
should be simply a reminder. Drastic measures should not be taken until
they are necessary, and at no time should the letters become abrupt or
insulting. In the first place, it is ungentlemanly to write such
letters, in the second it antagonizes the debtor, and if he gets angry
enough he feels that it is hardly an obligation to pay the money; that
it will "serve 'em right" if he does not do it.

Advertising is a sort of letter writing. Each advertisement is a letter
set before the public or some part of the public in the hope that it
will be answered by the right person. It enters into an over-crowded
field and if it is to attract attention it must be vivid, unusual, and
convincing. Increasingly--and there is cause to be thankful for
this--exaggerated statements are being forced to disappear. In the first
place the ballyhoo advertisers have shouted the public deaf. They no
longer believe. In the second place advertisers themselves have waked to
the menace of the irresponsible and dishonest people who are
advertising and are taking legal measures to safeguard the honor of the
profession.

One of the most successful advertisers of modern times was a man who
carried the idea of service into everything he did. For a while he had
charge of soliciting advertising for automobile trucks for a certain
magazine. Instead of going at it blindly he made a careful study of the
map of the United States and marked off the areas where automobile
trucks were used, where they could be used, and where they should be
used, and sent it to the manufacturers along with a statement of the
circulation of the magazine and the advantages of reaching the pu