losing customers called in a publicity
expert to build up trade for them. The man organized a splendid campaign
and things started off with a flourish. People began to come in most
gratifying numbers. But they did not stay. An investigation conducted
by the publicity man disclosed the fact that they had been driven away
by negligent and discourteous service. He went to the president of the
bank and told him that he was wasting money building up advertising so
long as his bank maintained its present attitude toward the public. The
president was a man of practical sense. There was a general clearing up,
those who were past reform were discharged and those who stayed were
given careful training in what good breeding meant and there was no more
trouble. Advertising will bring in a customer but it takes courtesy to
keep him.

Business, like nearly everything else, is easier to tear down than to
build up, and one of the most devastating instruments of destruction is
discourtesy. A contact which has taken years to build can be broken off
by one snippy letter, one pert answer, or one discourteous response over
the telephone. Even collection letters, no matter how long overdue the
accounts are, bring in more returns when they are written with tact and
diplomacy than when these two qualities are omitted. If you insult a man
who owes you money he feels that the only way he can get even is not to
pay you, and in most cases, he can justify himself for not doing it.

Within the organization itself a courteous attitude on the part of the
men in positions of authority toward those beneath them is of immense
importance. Sap rises from the bottom, and a business has arrived at the
point of stagnation when the men at the top refuse to listen to or help
those around them. It is, as a rule, however, not the veteran in
commercial affairs but the fledgling who causes most trouble by his bad
manners. Young men, especially young men who have been fortunate in
securing material advantages, too many times look upon the world as an
accident placed here for their personal enjoyment. It never takes long
in business to relieve their minds of this delusion, but they sometimes
accomplish a tremendous amount of damage before it happens. For a pert,
know-it-all manner coupled with the inefficiency which is almost
inseparable from a total lack of experience is not likely to make
personal contacts pleasant. Every young man worth his salt believes that
he