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EXERCISE NO.

1
From the lives of great men we learn many things, 1 0 much
that is of value to us in our own 2 0 lives. Not the least important thing,
perhaps, which the life 3 0 of almost any great man teaches us, is that
we 4 0 have time to do those things which we most want 5 0 to do. As
young people we talk lightly of what 6 0 if only we had the time; as 7 0 old
people we look back upon lost opportunities and wish 8 0 that we had
had the time to follow this course 9 0 of action, that line of training. But
again and again, 1 0 0 as we read the stories of the lives of those 1 1 0 who
have done great things, of those whose names will 1 2 0 be forever
remembered, the knowledge is forced upon us 1 3 0 that our trouble is not
that we have too little 1 4 0 time but that we have too little desire. Our
desire 1 5 0 to move in a certain direction is not strong enough 1 6 0 to
influence us to take the necessary steps, to use 1 7 0 for that purpose the
hours which are being spent in 1 8 0 other and possibly less profitable
ways. If the desire to 1 9 0 act and the will to work are there, then we 2 0 0
shall find both the time and the opportunity.
These thoughts 2 1 0 come to the mind upon reading a
recently published book 2 2 0 in which the writer tells in outline the story
of 2 3 0 the lives of 15 great men. From the many remarkable 2 4 0 men who
have lived during the past five hundred years 2 5 0 the writer has taken
those men who, by their thought 2 6 0 and by their labor, were able to
discover a great 2 7 0 principle, some deep truth about the laws of nature
which had 2 8 0 not before been known----men who in this way 2 9 0 added
greatly to the knowledge and learning of the world 3 0 0 and so took all
men one big step forward in 3 1 0 the long march towards a better
understanding of the forces 3 2 0 which govern our world. It is not
possible to read 3 3 0 this book or indeed any book of this nature---
without 3 4 0 feeling an increased respect for the power of man’s mind, 3 5 0
an increased respect for his learning, for his continued attempts 3 6 0 to
find the truth even when faced with great difficulties. 3 7 0 The life of
each of these men, it need hardly 3 8 0 be said, differs in detail. Some of
them showed themselves 3 9 0 even as children to have reasoning powers
beyond what we 4 0 0 regard as usual; others were just simple children
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showing no 4 1 0 special powers of any kind during their early years.


Some 4 2 0 were “one idea” men, working only in their special field; 4 3 0
others developed remarkable minds and became better than most
men 4 4 0 in most fields of learning. But common to them all 4 5 0 was the
power to work for very long hours, hours 4 6 0 spent in deep thought, in
careful planning, in the perfecting 4 7 0 of ideas, and the putting of
results together piece by 4 8 0 piece to make the whole a whole which
was to 4 9 0 surprise the world. Most of them lived to an old 5 0 0 age, few
dying before reaching 70 years of age and 5 1 0 several living to be over
80. Naturally, the thought must 5 2 0 come: “Was there any connection
between these two facts? Did 5 3 0 these men work beyond the powers of
common people because 5 4 0 they were strong in body beyond the
common person? Or 5 5 0 did they owe their long lives to the fact that 5 6 0
they lived principally for their ideas, paying little attention to 5 7 0 the
many pleasures which interest the masses, caring little for 5 8 0 food and
drink or for the company of other men 5 9 0 and women?” It is difficult to
attempt an answer. We 6 0 0 cannot be certain. But long as was the life
of 6 1 0 the man himself, it was short when measured by the 6 2 0 life of his
work. That work has influenced the thoughts 6 3 0 and the labors of many
men for many years. It 6 4 0 will continue to influence man’s thought and
man’s action as 6 5 0 long as man is a thinking being, using the
knowledge 6 6 0 of the past to increase in the present his control 6 7 0 over
natural forces. (673)
EXERCISE NO. 2
The life story of the great man must end on 1 0 the same
note as the life story of the least 2 0 important of men. We must come in
our reading to 3 0 the point where the great man gives up his work, 4 0
leaving it to others to carry on what he has 5 0 begun. His life with all its
wonderful interest is past, 6 0 and we who read are left with the memory
of 7 0 his life and with the results of his work. We 8 0 know that this must
be so, but we do not 9 0 always like a thing better because we know that
it 1 0 0 is certainly waiting for us and it is not surprising 1 1 0 to find that
there are people who can take no 1 2 0 pleasure in this form of reading
because they know from 1 3 0 the outset what the end must be. It is,
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however, 1 4 0 no more profitable to run away, to turn our face 1 5 0 from


facts, in reading than it is in life itself, 1 6 0 and it is better to take the
wider view and 1 7 0 to read for the pleasure and the profit to be 1 8 0 found
in the consideration of the whole life, with its 1 9 0 many difficulties and
its many successes. In this way 2 0 0 we can find both comfort and help
for ourselves, whose lives 2 1 0 may seem without set purpose, to have
little value? We 2 2 0 discover perhaps that some person whose name has
been to 2 3 0 us like a great white light, far away, beyond our 2 4 0 touch---
that that person met in his early days with many 2 5 0 of the same
difficulties which we are facing now, 2 6 0 that he, like us, had no special
advantages, no clearly 2 7 0 marked course to follow; like us he had to
make 2 8 0 his own way, step by step, learning as he went. 2 9 0 We find, for
example, that one man who became world-known 3 0 0 began his working
life as a teacher, helping his 3 1 0 brother in a small country school.
Another worked on a 3 2 0 farm, and a third made his first special
observation while 3 3 0 holding a small and not important position on a
ship 3 4 0 which was making its way to the South Seas. But 3 5 0 these men
did not wait for opportunity to come to 3 6 0 them; they took immediate
advantage of their conditions to make 3 7 0 their own opportunity. In the
book which we have specially 3 8 0 in mind we find that in most cases the
man’s 3 9 0 work was valued during his life time. But the world is 4 0 0 not
always ready to take new ideas warmly to its 4 1 0 heart. In every age
there are those who feel certain 4 2 0 that there is nothing left for man to
discover; there 4 3 0 are others who see in the new ideas danger 4 4 0 to
their own special interests. It is not always easy 4 5 0 to look at
something new with clear eyes, to judge 4 6 0 truly the value either of our
own work or 4 7 0 the work of others. We find ourselves thinking that
because a 4 8 0 thing has always been done in such and such a 4 9 0 way in
the past then that must be the best 5 0 0 possible way for it to be done, or
because a 5 1 0 certain thing has not been done before than it should 5 2 0
not be done now. We have to keep a careful 5 3 0 watch upon ourselves
in this respect, and try to keep an 5 4 0 open mind. If we try new methods
in our 5 5 0 own work we shall sometimes be wrong, possibly we
shall 5 6 0 often be wrong, but sometimes we shall meet with success 5 7 0
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which makes worthwhile all our earlier labors. Probably no 5 8 0 more


than one or two men out of all the 5 9 0 millions living today can hope to
do something so 6 0 0 important that it will influence world thought and
world action 6 1 0 throughout the ages to come, but the methods which
have 6 2 0 served the great men of any age and helped them 6 3 0 in their
great work have value for us today 6 4 0 in our less important work. By
marking the course taken 6 5 0 by those who have been successful in
their special fields 6 6 0 we can learn better how to deal with our own 6 7 0
situation, our own difficulties, in the fiel d of thought and 6 8 0 of action in
which we are ourselves most interested.(689)
EXERCISE NO. 3
Time plays an important part in every action of every 1 0
person throughout the day, yet time is something about which 2 0 we
know very little and about which we understand even 3 0 less. If, in our
desire to understand a little better 4 0 the real meaning of time, we read
a modern book 5 0 on the subject, it is probably the experience of
many 6 0 of us that we understand it even less at the 7 0 end of our
reading than at the beginning that we know, 8 0 indeed, very little about
the world in which we 9 0 live. We read, for example, that everything that
has been 1 0 0 still is, that everything which is to come in the 1 1 0 future
already exists. We read that the events which make 1 2 0 up life are like
the stations along the railway line. 1 3 0 A train is running along that line
towards one of these 1 4 0 stations. It reaches the station, it perhaps
waits there 1 5 0 for a very little while, and then it passes on, 1 6 0 leaving
the station behind it. But the station existed before 1 7 0 the train reaches
it and it continues to exist after 1 8 0 the train has left it. In the same way,
it 1 9 0 is said, the things which happen in life are there 2 0 0 all the time,
waiting for us to reach them. We 2 1 0 reach them and experience them
and pass on, leaving them 2 2 0 behind us. According to the writers of
these modern books, 2 3 0 these events existed before we knew of them
and will 2 4 0 continue to exist when we ourselves are no more. They 2 5 0
will exist, in fact, for as long as anything as 2 6 0 we understand it exists.
We read these statements and think 2 7 0 carefully about them and at first
it seems that 2 8 0 the statements cannot be true, that we cannot
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seriously be expected 2 9 0 to believe them. Then, perhaps, we remember


some of the 3 0 0 things we were told as children and which we have 3 1 0
always believed to be true. As children we learned that 3 2 0 many of the
little points of light which appeared above 3 3 0 us at night are really
great bodies which are millions 3 4 0 of miles away from the earth. Light,
we were told, 3 5 0 moves at the rate of about 186,000 3 6 0 miles a second,
but so far distant are 3 7 0 these bodies from us that the light which we
see 3 8 0 coming from them is the light which left them thousands, 3 9 0 and
in some cases millions, of years ago. Because of 4 0 0 this fact, we
learned, if we could discover some method 4 1 0 by which our eyes could
see what was happening on 4 2 0 one of these distant bodies, we should
see not what 4 3 0 is happening today but what was happening ages
and 4 4 0 ages ago. If people something like ourselves lived on those 4 5 0
little points of light and if they could see what 4 6 0 was happening on our
earth they, looking at us today, 4 7 0 would see not what is happening
now but what 4 8 0 happened thousands or millions of years ago,
according to 4 9 0 the distance they are away. But even when we
remember these 5 0 0 facts it is for most of us difficult to get 5 1 0 more than
the smallest suggestion of an idea of what is 5 2 0 meant when we are
told that everything that has 5 3 0 been still is and always will be. It is
difficult 5 4 0 to believe that there will always be somewhere the picture 5 5 0
of you as you sit reading these words.
If we 5 6 0 think of sound it helps us to understa nd this
point 5 7 0 a little better. We see a movement very much more 5 8 0 quickly
than we hear the should resulting from that movement, 5 9 0 for sound
comes to us at only 1,100 6 0 0 feet a second as against the 186,000 6 1 0
miles a second of light. Let us 6 2 0 say that I live half a mile from a big 6 3 0
manufacturing plant, so that the sounds which come to me 6 4 0 from the
plant reach me about two and a half 6 5 0 seconds after the sounds were
in fact made. Let us 6 6 0 say also that you live another half a mile
down 6 7 0 the road, away from the plant. You would hear the 6 8 0 same
sounds two and a half seconds after I heard 6 9 0 them, that is five
seconds after they were made. (699).
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EXERCISE NO. 4
You would therefore make the statement that a certain 1 0
sound took place at, say, five seconds past the hour, I 2 0 would say that
it happened at about two or three 3 0 seconds past the hour, while the
people at the works 4 0 would say that it took place just at the hour. 5 0 So
that when we say that a certain thing happened 6 0 at a certain time we
really mean that it happened 7 0 at that time in relation to our own
position at that 8 0 moment.
The relation of time to distance and the 9 0 relation of
immediate time to time as a whole are 1 0 0 subjects in which people grow
more and more interested. Recently 1 1 0 two plays have been written
round the idea that everything 1 2 0 that has happened in the past is still
in existence, 1 3 0 the point made by the plays being that a person 1 4 0 who
has a certain special sense highly developed can go 1 5 0 back into the
past and experience old and past events. 1 6 0 But interesting as these
ideas may be, there is another 1 7 0 and much more usual point of view
from which to 1 8 0 consider time. For all the general purposes of
everyday life 1 9 0 we all understand time quite well. We know that
each 2 0 0 day is made up of 24 hours, that there 2 1 0 are never 23 hours to
the day and never 2 2 0 25. We know that the little hands marking the 2 3 0
passing of the minutes and hours move on and on 2 4 0 at their even rate,
and that although they work in 2 5 0 our service they work without any
regard to our personal 2 6 0 and special interests. They will work no more
quickly when 2 7 0 life is taking us towards some specially pleasing event,
and 2 8 0 they will not lessen their rate when we are moving 2 9 0 towards
something less pleasing. We know that time influences us 3 0 0 in the
doing of every piece of work for all 3 1 0 work, to have its highest value,
has to be “done 3 2 0 to time.” The Chief who calls the members of the 3 3 0
Board together for a certain time must be ready when the 3 4 0 Board
meets with the facts, figures, or questions which 3 5 0 he wishes to put to
the members. He depends not 3 6 0 only upon his own work in this
connection but upon 3 7 0 the work of all directly wording with him, from
the 3 8 0 most experienced man in his employ to the most recent 3 9 0 of the
office-boys. The motor manufacturer must so organize 4 0 0 the year’s
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work of all his men that he not 4 1 0 only supplies the day to day demand
of the public 4 2 0 for his product but also has his new goods quite 4 3 0
ready for the market at the expected time. The manufacturer, 4 4 0
whatever his product may be, must supply present demand and 4 5 0 at
the same time organize future work. Goods made for 4 6 0 shipment
overseas must be ready for shipment by the date 4 7 0 on which the ship
is leaving the country. The kind 4 8 0 of market in which we are interested
makes little difference 4 9 0 ---goods must be put on the market when the
market 5 0 0 is ready to receive them. But the principal difficulty of 5 1 0 all
planning comes from the fact that we cannot see 5 2 0 time. We have
perhaps five months in which to do 5 3 0 a piece of work; there seems to
be no need 5 4 0 for an immediate start and the papers in connection
with 5 5 0 it are put on one side. When the papers again 5 6 0 see the light of
day we find possibly that we need 5 7 0 information from another person.
But to the second man 5 8 0 this piece of work is something just received,
and he 5 9 0 in his turn “sits on it” for a little while, 6 0 0 only to find when he
looks seriously at the work 6 1 0 that it requires the attention of a third
party. And 6 2 0 valuable days pass until we find that the work is 6 3 0 either
put through to time as a result of much 6 4 0 work and running about on
the part of everyone interested 6 5 0 or it is not put through with resulting
loss of 6 6 0 money and good will. Even when man has done his 6 7 0 best
Nature sometimes lets us down, and weather conditions hold 6 8 0 up
trains, airplanes, and ships and the “perfect” piece of 6 9 0 planning
works out less perfectly than we had hoped and 7 0 0 expected.(701)
EXERCISE NO. 5
While we rest peacefully in our beds at night great 1 0
machines are at work turning out thousands and sometimes millions 2 0
of copies of our morning newspapers, at the rate of 3 0 four hundred or
more copies a minute. The late hours 4 0 of the night and the early hours
of the morning 5 0 are times of hard work for most of those who 6 0 have
any connection with the first general distribution of newspapers. 7 0 But
so regularly does the paper appear on the streets 8 0 that we usually buy
it and read it through as 9 0 a matter of course, giving little or no thought
to 1 0 0 the means used to bring it to us or to 1 1 0 the great care and
8

planning and organization behind its daily 1 2 0 sale. Success in the


newspaper world depends in very large 1 3 0 measure upon being “on
time.” News which is late is 1 4 0 generally news which has lost its value.
Papers which are 1 5 0 late are generally papers which will not be bought.
All 1 6 0 good newspaper men will tell us that in their trade 1 7 0 there is
little truth in the old saying “Better late 1 8 0 than never.”
All day long news and general information reaches 1 9 0 the
newspaper office. It is sent into the office by 2 0 0 road and by railway, by
sea and by air, by wire 2 1 0 and by hand. Thousands of advertisements,
and hundreds of 2 2 0 letters from readers, are received daily, and in
addition there are 2 3 0 the pictures which are sent in with the hope 2 4 0
that they will appear next day on the “picture” page 2 5 0 of the paper.
Some of the news received is of 2 6 0 world-wide importance; some of it
has very little value, 2 7 0 but all this mass of “copy” must be read
through 2 8 0 by trained men who can immediately judge its worth, and 2 9 0
either put it on one side or give it a place 3 0 0 in the paper according to
its special value or 3 1 0 purpose. Headlines must be considered the size
and the position 3 2 0 on the page of the principal and of the secondary 3 3 0
headlines. There is the last-minute work the reports brought 3 4 0 in,
perhaps, by the men sent out to “cover” the 3 5 0 big stories of the day:
the write-up of a new 3 6 0 play on that evening: the story of a 3 7 0 fire
which breaks out just before the paper is ready 3 8 0 for the machines.
And what of the life of the 3 9 0 newspaper men who are sent
out to cover the big 4 0 0 stories, the important events, the last -minute
happenings? We like 4 1 0 to think of them as leading lives very full of 4 2 0
interest; we picture them living near to the heart of 4 3 0 history, often
knowing of some world-important fact long before 4 4 0 it is made known
to the public. In the case 4 5 0 of newspaper writers who are sent out to
all parts 4 6 0 of the world to report the news of the moment, 4 7 0 we may
picture them as not only near to the 4 8 0 heart of history but even at
times helping to make 4 9 0 history. But the “old hands” at the work tell
us 5 0 0 that this picture of their lives exists only in the 5 1 0 minds of those
who have had no connection with the 5 2 0 newspaper world. The truth,
they say, is very different. While 5 3 0 sometimes they are put on to a
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story which holds 5 4 0 for them a personal interest, while always it is


necessary 5 5 0 for them to work quickly and with care, they are 5 6 0
working often under difficult conditions, and generally without coming
into 5 7 0 direct touch with the great happenings or the great men 5 8 0 of
the world.(583)
EXERCISE NO. 6
Few of us go through life without having, at some 1 0 time or
another, to speak in public. We may hope 2 0 very much that such an
experience will not fall to 3 0 our lot, we may even take steps sometimes
to make 4 0 sure that such an experience does not happen to us. 5 0 But,
early or late in life, there usually comes a 6 0 day when we get up in the
morning with 7 0 the knowledge that we have that day to stand up and 8 0
face a number of people while we “say a few 9 0 words.” Perhaps you
can look back now without feeling to 1 0 0 the moment when you first had
to stand up and 1 1 0 speak, to the moment when it seemed to your
troubled 1 2 0 mind that the eyes of thousands of people were watching 1 3 0
you, that thousands of people were waiting to hear your 1 4 0 words and
that you had nothing whatever to say. But 1 5 0 perhaps your first
experience of public speaking is till before 1 6 0 you, an experience to
which you look forward with pleasure 1 7 0 or with fear according to you
nature, an experience possibly 1 8 0 which you think never could happen
to you. But often 1 9 0 it is the least likely thing that happens to us 2 0 0 as
we go through life, and some quite small event 2 1 0 may one day force
this experience upon you. Perhaps your 2 2 0 brother is to be married and
you are among those 2 3 0 “asked to speak”; perhaps it is the end of your
school 2 4 0 year and you are asked to say a few words 2 5 0 thanks to the
teaches; or it may be 2 6 0 that you are asked to do a little political
speaking. 2 7 0 You may go to a meeting where your special knowledge 2 8 0
makes it possible for you usefully to add something 2 9 0 to what has
already been said. But whatever the events which 3 0 0 lead up to your
first experience of this kind, you 3 1 0 will naturally wish to do well and to
appear at 3 2 0 ease. It is therefore well worthwhile to give some 3 3 0
consideration to this subject, so that when the time comes 3 4 0 you will
10

have no cause to feel you will have not cause to feel anything but
pleasure 3 5 0 at the thought of what is before you.
There are 3 6 0 two points of principal importance to
remember the first that 3 7 0 you should be able to express your thoughts
and ideas 3 8 0 in clear language in a clear voice; the second 3 9 0 that the
thoughts and ideas which you express should be 4 0 0 thoughts and ideas
in which you have a personal belief. 4 1 0 It has been said that words
were given to us 4 2 0 in order that we might keep to ourselves the real 4 3 0
nature of our thoughts. Like many such general statements, this 4 4 0
particular saying has some measure of truth in it, for 4 5 0 we all know
that words can be, and often are, 4 6 0 used in such a way as to express
something quite 4 7 0 different from the thoughts which are passing
through the mind 4 8 0 at the time of speaking. But while those who
hear 4 9 0 us speak may not at once know when we are 5 0 0 expressing
ideas in which we have little or no belief, 5 1 0 it is the case, on the other
hand, that they 5 2 0 “sense” it immediately when we are expressing ideas
in which 5 3 0 we believe, for such belief adds force and power to 5 4 0 our
words. Therefore, use those thoughts and ideas in which 5 5 0 you
believe. First write down all the different points which 5 6 0 you think are
worth consideration; out of all these points 5 7 0 take those which you
think are best for your purpose 5 8 0 and put them into order so that you
ideas follow 5 9 0 one another naturally. From these short notes write out
your 6 0 0 full talk just as you would like to be able 6 1 0 to deliver it. But do
not depend upon using these 6 2 0 full notes, as if you read the whole of
your 6 3 0 talk you will find that you lower your head over 6 4 0 your papers
and your voice will probably not carry well. 6 5 0 It is better to take out
form these full notes, 6 6 0 say, ten headings giving your principal points.
Read through these 6 7 0 headings a number of times, making sure that
you can 6 8 0 remember from the headings what you wish to say. Make 6 9 0
quite certain that you know just what your opening remarks 7 0 0 are to
be. If you can open your talk easily 7 1 0 and lightly you will find it simple
to carry through 7 2 0 to the end successfully. Do not use your voice on
too 7 3 0 high a note: try to keep it a little 7 4 0 lower than your usual
speaking voice, and speak to the 7 5 0 people at the back of the room.
11

You can judge 7 6 0 from the expression on their faces whether they are
hearing 7 7 0 you. (771)
EXERCISE NO. 7
The value of the passing moment----from our earliest
days 1 0 we are told by loving mothers and by our teachers 2 0 that each
golden minute is made up of sixty little 3 0 seconds and that a minute
lost is a minute gone 4 0 from us forever. If, at the end of one 5 0 flying
minute, we can show “sixty seconds’ worth of distance 6 0 run,” then, we
are told, we shall become great men 7 0 and women, ours “will be the
earth and everything that 8 0 is in it.” But when we are children the
days 9 0 are long; an hour is not made up of sixty 1 0 0 golden minutes it is
a life-time in itself. Each 1 1 0 day, we are quite sure, will be followed by
another 1 2 0 day, and all life is waiting for us, reaching away 1 3 0 into the
far, far future. As children we cannot cut 1 4 0 up our day into so many
seconds and minutes and 1 5 0 hours; we do not measure time, and the
words of 1 6 0 our mothers and the lines in our copybooks hold 1 7 0 no real
meaning for us. But there comes a day 1 8 0 when we find that we have
“grown up,” and life 1 9 0 itself teaches us at once what we could not
learn 2 0 0 at school. We find that the days are passing all 2 1 0 too quickly,
that our happiest hours are those which seem 2 2 0 most short and we
learn, too, that our employers expect 2 3 0 us to follow the rules of the old
copybooks 2 4 0 and to make each minute hold sixty seconds’ worth of 2 5 0
work well done. We find that in most worth-while 2 6 0 work the time taken
to do the work is as 2 7 0 important as the quality of the work itself, that
there 2 8 0 is a time for the completing of every piece of 2 9 0 work, and that
if the work is not ready at 3 0 0 that time much of its value is lost. The
value 3 1 0 of the second, the importance of the minute, are things 3 2 0
which are part of every shorthand writer’s experience. The man 3 3 0
driving the train does not need his copybook to 3 4 0 tell him of the value
of the passing moment. He 3 5 0 cannot stop his train on the line and look
at 3 6 0 the beautiful country-side. The fireman working at his side 3 7 0
must put coal on the great fire when the requirements 3 8 0 of the engine
call for it, not when he feels 3 9 0 that he would like to do it. A committee,
asked 4 0 0 to report on certain conditions, is expected to get out 4 1 0 the
12

report while those conditions still exist. A writer, trying 4 2 0 to write a


masterpiece on some special subject, must complete 4 3 0 his work while
there are people still interested in that 4 4 0 subject. And right through life
this rule holds good. Not 4 5 0 only must we do the work which is
expected of 4 6 0 us we must do that work within the time expected 4 7 0
also. Planning in industry has become one of the principal 4 8 0 facts of
our age. Almost all systems of planning for 4 9 0 increased or better work
have as their object the saving 5 0 0 of seconds or minutes in the time
taken to complete 5 1 0 a certain operation. While this is a good thing
in 5 2 0 itself, there is a danger that, as with other good 5 3 0 things, it may
be carried so far that it becomes 5 4 0 a bad thing. The picture Modern
Times, shown a year 5 5 0 or two ago, showed us an organization which
provided the 5 6 0 perfect example of planning carried too far. We saw
the 5 7 0 employees working at a great rate, each one making 5 8 0 particular
movement thousands and thousands of time, with rest and 5 9 0 with
change. The little man who was the principal character 6 0 0 of the story
went through the movements which were expected 6 1 0 of him over and
over again, until at last he 6 2 0 went out of his mind, and, to the great
pleasure 6 3 0 of all the other workers, was the cause of a 6 4 0 great deal of
trouble among the machines that afternoon. While 6 5 0 all this was put
before us lightly and easily, very 6 6 0 few of us could watch it without
thinking of the 6 7 0 deeper side of the whole question. (676)
EXERCISE NO. 8
(a) Gentlemen, We find it necessary to call your immediate 1 0
attention to the very serious difference in the quality of 2 0 goods
recently supplied to us by your company. We are 3 0 quite at a loss to
understand this difference of quality 4 0 as our relations with you over
many years have been 5 0 on such a satisfactory basis. In order that you
may 6 0 yourselves test the quality of these goods we are returning 7 0 to
you today part of the last delivery which you 8 0 made to us. We feel that
you will certainly 9 0 agree that these goods are not of the quality we
have 1 0 0 a right to expect from you.
This matter is 1 1 0 one of great importance both from our
point of view 1 2 0 and from your. As a direct result we have personally 1 3 0
13

already had considerable trouble with our customers, and we are 1 4 0


quite sure that any immediate profit you may make from 1 5 0 putting out
such poor quality goods will be very quickly 1 6 0 off-set by a wide loss of
trade throughout the 1 7 0 country. We ourselves could not possibly
continue to supply such 1 8 0 goods to our customers. Will you kindly
write to us 1 9 0 at an early date giving us your opinion of the 2 0 0 returned
goods and will you please supply goods of usual 2 1 0 quality in place of
those returned today? Yours truly, 2 2 0
* * *
(b) Gentlemen, Your letter reached us this morning and
although 2 3 0 we have not yet seen the goods in question we are 2 4 0
answering immediately. You will understand the difficulty of the 2 5 0
position in which we find ourselves when we tell you 2 6 0 that yours is
the fifth letter of the kind to 2 7 0 be received by us within the past few
days. In 2 8 0 no case has this company supplied the goods in
question. 2 9 0 Such goods carry our trade-mark and, on the face 3 0 0 of it,
come from this company; but the real position 3 1 0 is that they are being
supplied by some other manufacturer 3 2 0 ----yet to be discovered---who
is using our trade-mark. 3 3 0 When we received the first letter stating
that the quality 3 4 0 of our goods had changed we looked into the
matter 3 5 0 and found that no order had been received by us 3 6 0 from that
company. We immediately sent a representative to find 3 7 0 out the facts
at first hand. He found, as he 3 8 0 has since found in further cases, that
the goods delivered 3 9 0 look in every way like those which we ourselves
manufacture 4 0 0 and that they carry our special trade-mark. It
appears 4 1 0 that a young man, stating that he is one of 4 2 0 our
representatives, calls upon a customer, offers very quick delivery 4 3 0
and special low prices in return for payment on delivery 4 4 0 of goods. In
the four cases we have looked into 4 5 0 within the last day or two this
has been the 4 6 0 method followed, and you will probably report the
same method 4 7 0 in your own case. Moreover, the list of special
prices 4 8 0 shown to customers was written on what appeared to 4 9 0 be
our letter paper. Our customers saw nothing strange in 5 0 0 the offer as
14

you will remember that we made a 5 1 0 special offer of this kind about
this time last year. 5 2 0
Perhaps you will be good enough to write to us, informing
us 5 3 0 of the date on which you were offered 5 4 0 the goods, the date on
which delivery was made, the 5 5 0 price paid for the goods, and if
possible at the 5 6 0 same time give us a few details regarding the
young 5 7 0 man who called. The matter has, of course, been placed 5 8 0 in
official hands. We are today sending out a 5 9 0 letter to all the customers
on our books calling their 6 0 0 attention to this matter and asking them to
report to 6 1 0 the authorities if they have goods on order for delivery 6 2 0
within the next few days. We do not expect to 6 3 0 get results in this way,
however, as the manufacturer of 6 4 0 the goods would depend upon
quick action for the success 6 5 0 of his plan, and he will no doubt by
now 6 6 0 be interesting himself in quite a different line of goods. 6 7 0
We do not wish you to experience any personal loss 6 8 0 and
we will supply you with goods to take the 6 9 0 place of those in question.
No doubt you will in 7 0 0 your turn supply your customers with the new
goods in 7 1 0 place of the poor quality goods bought from you. We 7 2 0
know that you will understand our very difficult positions, and 7 3 0 we
trust that you will not let the matter influence 7 4 0 you in any way against
this company. Yours truly, (749)
EXERCISE NO. 9
“Keep that school-girl----”: we can all supply the missing 1 0
word, for we have become so used to seeing and 2 0 hearing this and
other expressions that they have become part 3 0 of our everyday life.
Advertising is an art to which 4 0 some of the best minds of the country
are given. 5 0 It is an art which plays an increasingly important part 6 0 in
modern life, bringing the seller and the buyer into 7 0 more and more
immediate touch one with the other. Day 8 0 by day advertisements
speak to us with a powerful voice, 9 0 a voice which we cannot help
hearing, a voice from 1 0 0 which we could not free ourselves if we
wished. Along 1 1 0 the roads, along the railway lines, in most of our 1 2 0
reading matter between the acts of the play---everywhere and 1 3 0 from
all quarters the voice comes to us. Few places 1 4 0 are now so distant
15

that they are out of reach 1 5 0 of the influence of the advertisement. For
good or for 1 6 0 bad, advertising is with us and is likely to continue 1 7 0 to
be with us. We cannot free ourselves of it: 1 8 0 it would be useless to
attempt to do so, 1 9 0 and for the most part we do not wish to.
From 2 0 0 advertisements we may learn much about the
forces which move 2 1 0 men. The advertisement copy-writer,
understanding these forces, knowing 2 2 0 the desires which influence the
masses, uses his knowledge to get 2 3 0 our attention, to hold our
interest, to touch our hearts. 2 4 0 He offers to waiting men and women
just those things 2 5 0 which they most desire. The beautiful woman is
told how 2 6 0 she may continue to be beautiful; the woman who has 2 7 0
never been beautiful is told how she can become beautiful. 2 8 0 The
strong man is told how he may keep strong 2 9 0 and young, while the
less able man is shown how 3 0 0 he may add to his powers. We are
shown how 3 1 0 we can make more money, how from being an
employee 3 2 0 we can become an employer. We can, we learn, easily 3 3 0
buy a house of our own, and, having bought the 3 4 0 house, put into it
beautiful and lasting things. Nor does 3 5 0 the copy-writer stop here. He
plays upon our fear 3 6 0 of the future. Plans for insurance are put before
us, 3 7 0 insurance to help us while we live and insurance to 3 8 0 make sure
that should we die those who depend upon 3 9 0 us will not be left without
means. Form advertisements we 4 0 0 learn details about cars, about
labor saving machines, about books, 4 1 0 and about all the other many
interests of modern life. 4 2 0 Some people read these advertisements
with more belief and with 4 3 0 more interest than others, but few of us
could say 4 4 0 that we pay no attention whatever to them. It is 4 5 0 not
surprising that the good copy-writer should be considered 4 6 0 a most
valuable employee in the advertising office.
Wide and 4 7 0 general advertising has its advantages for
the public. It provides 4 8 0 us with the opportunity to weigh up the good
points 4 9 0 and the bad points of different products. We can form 5 0 0
judgments upon what is offered to us and make up 5 1 0 our minds as to
what we will buy. Without advertising 5 2 0 it is probable that, because we
knew little of what 5 3 0 was in the market, we would as a rule be 5 4 0
16

offered that particular product which gave the biggest profit to 5 5 0 the
seller. But, as we all know, the good thing 5 6 0 becomes a bad thing
when it is overdone, and this 5 7 0 attempt on the part of each
manufacturer to be most 5 8 0 in the public eye has led to advertisements
appearing in 5 9 0 what most people feel to be the wrong places. We 6 0 0
see great boards set up in a lovely country-side 6 1 0 , for example, or in
an otherwise pleasing little street. For 6 2 0 this reason the movement
which has as its object the 6 3 0 control of advertising in public places, so
that the restfulness 6 4 0 of the country or the orderly quality of a town 6 5 0
is not taken away, is a movement which should have 6 6 0 the support of
all thinking people.(666)
EXERCISE NO. 10
Advertisements, we all agree, are sometimes too much
with us. 1 0 But we are agreed also that they play an important 2 0 and
valuable part in modern life, offering us some very 3 0 real advantages.
Not the least of these advantages is the 4 0 fact that through
advertisements a very large part of our 5 0 cheap reading matter is made
possible. We do not need 6 0 to be told that the money which we hand
to 7 0 the newsboy in the street does not cover the 8 0 cost of bringing out
the paper we receive in return. 9 0 Much labor, thought, and material
have gone to the making 1 0 0 of the paper; much money has been spent
in order 1 1 0 to provide us with that interesting and up-to-the- 1 2 0 minute
news service which we have grown to expect and 1 3 0 which we take as a
natural part of our life. 1 4 0 The very low price of the newspaper,
delivered to our 1 5 0 house early in the morning or bought by us 1 6 0 at the
station as we go home at night, would not 1 7 0 be possible were it not for
the money received by 1 8 0 the newspaper-owners for the advertisements
which take up so 1 9 0 large a part of the paper each day. A
manufacturer 2 0 0 will pay heavily for a full-page advertisement of his 2 1 0
products, or for the smaller advertisement appearing side by side 2 2 0
with the principal news of the day. Most weekly and 2 3 0 monthly papers
also depend for their existence upon the income 2 4 0 received from the
advertisements they carry, so that as a 2 5 0 direct result of wide and
general advertising more daily, weekly 2 6 0 and monthly papers can be
17

published. Of course, some people 2 7 0 regard the ready supply of cheap


reading matter as the 2 8 0 principal cause of many of our present-day
troubles and 2 9 0 difficulties; others go even further and find the cause
in 3 0 0 the fact that in these days we all learn 3 1 0 to read and to write but
the readers of this page 3 2 0 will not, I think, be numbered among those
who hold 3 3 0 such views. This mass of cheap reading matter provides
us 3 4 0 with the means of following our own particular interests and 3 5 0
keeping in touch with developments in different fields of work 3 6 0 and
play. We do not pay directly in the cost 3 7 0 of the paper. We perhaps
pay finally and less directly 3 8 0 in the increased cost of the goods which
have been 3 9 0 so advertised, although the manufacturer says that this is
not 4 0 0 so as the advertising increases the amount of goods he 4 1 0 sells
and so makes it possible for him to sell 4 2 0 at a lower price.
Many big stores have, through newspaper 4 3 0 advertising,
built up a highly valuable and profitable connection in 4 4 0 all parts of
the country. At one time city people 4 5 0 agreed without question that
country people were “behind the times,” 4 6 0 they were out of touch with
things, and the goods 4 7 0 they bought both for the home and for
personal use 4 8 0 were bought from small and out-of-dates stores. But 4 9 0
newspaper advertising has changed this. The big stores are no 5 0 0
longer dependent for their customers upon the people living within 5 1 0
easy reach of them---their customers may live hundreds 5 2 0 of miles
away from the stores. City people and country people 5 3 0 now have
equal opportunities for buying goods of high quality 5 4 0 at reasonable
prices. It is true that the city people 5 5 0 can first see what they are
buying, but the country 5 6 0 people have learned that they can order
goods from these 5 7 0 stores with safety, and such goods are delivered
direct to 5 8 0 their doors, in most cases without delivery charge. As 5 9 0 a
result of this general advertising peo ple in different parts 6 0 0 of the
country can buy the same goods at the 6 1 0 same prices and can make
equal use of the products 6 2 0 of industry. (622)
EXERCISE NO. 11
The two letters which follow are examples of the many 1 0
letters which have been sent out during the past week 2 0 or two.
18

(a) No doubt you, in common with several 3 0 million other


people at this special time of the year, 4 0 are watching carefully and
hopefully for suggestions for presents, and 5 0 particularly for ideas
regarding present for children. Knowing perhaps that young 6 0 children
love books and picture books in particular, you 7 0 probably take the
course of going to your nearest big 8 0 stores and looking round. There
you see thousands and thousands 9 0 of books, and if you are like most
people you 1 0 0 experience a feeling of complete helplessness in the
face of 1 1 0 these masses of books. You feel that you cannot possibly 1 2 0
hope to find “the right book for the right person,” 1 3 0 and it is more than
likely that in the end 1 4 0 you buy something at the suggestion of the
person serving 1 5 0 in the store, a person who has no knowledge of
the 1 6 0 requirements of the children you are considering.
Why put 1 7 0 yourself in this position again? Our wide
experience---an experience 1 8 0 covering 35 years---places us in a
position to 1 9 0 help you in this respect. We put forward our
suggestions, 2 0 0 believing that you will find them particularly helpful.
This year 2 1 0 there need be no careless buying; there need be no 2 2 0
question of taking a book from those set out at 2 3 0 the store. We are
sending with this letter a complete 2 4 0 list of our Children’s Books.
There are ten divisions in 2 5 0 the list, each division in list, each division
covering a special kind of book. 2 6 0 In those cases where the nature of
the story is 2 7 0 not clearly shown by the name of the book, we 2 8 0 have
added a short outline of the story. This makes 2 9 0 it simple and easy for
you to make up your 3 0 0 mind. We send the list to you because we
know 3 1 0 how important it is, if your presents are to give 3 2 0 the pleasure
which you wish them to give, that you 3 3 0 should secure “the right book
for the right person.” We 3 4 0 suggest that after looking carefully through
the list you write 3 5 0 out the names of the books in which you are 3 6 0
interested and ask at your store if they can be 3 7 0 bought there. If not,
put them on order through your 3 8 0 store or order direct from us, with
the knowledge that, 3 9 0 whatever the size of your order, we will forward
the 4 0 0 books to you within two days of receiving instructions.
19

We 4 1 0 take this opportunity of wishing you a very happy


New 4 2 0 Year.
* * *
(b) May we ask for your support for our 4 3 0 “Poor Children’s
Party” which is to take place on December 4 4 0 23, at the High School?
We hope to have 4 5 0 at least six hundred children at this party, children
who 4 6 0 come from some of the poorest homes in the town. 4 7 0 Our
desire is to make the party a really happy 4 8 0 event for these poor
children, an event which they will 4 9 0 carry in their memories for a very
long time. Many 5 0 0 of the important business men and tradesmen of
the 5 1 0 town have already offered their help, but we need your 5 2 0 help
also. Will you send something, however small in amount, 5 3 0 towards
the cost of the party? Write to: Miss J. 5 4 0 Read, 27 New Market Street,
marking your letter “Poor 5 5 0 Children’s Party.” By doing you will bring
pleasure and 5 6 0 happiness into lives with from day to day know too 5 7 0
little of both.
We are sure that you will like 5 8 0 the thought of starting the
New Year with the best 5 9 0 wishes of the six hundred small children you
have helped. (600)
EXERCISE NO. 12
“How many people present themselves at the door of
your 1 0 house during the course of each day? If we consider 2 0 the
question from the point of view of the woman 3 0 of the house, we find
that only too often during 4 0 the course of the day is she expected to
leave 5 0 whatever she may be doing to answer the door, generally 6 0 to
be offered something in which she is not interested 7 0 for which she has
no use, or for which she 8 0 has not the money to pay. But what of the 9 0
men who make these calls, calls which to the woman 1 0 0 of the house
merely mean a forced and not important 1 1 0 break in her work of running
the house? To the 1 2 0 men these calls are not a break in their work, 1 3 0
they are a very real part of that work. The 1 4 0 question of house-to-
house calling has, like most questions, 1 5 0 two sides to it. Let us now
look at it 1 6 0 from the other point of view, and ask ourselves: At how 1 7 0
many houses does any one of these men call, 1 8 0 only to be met eight
20

or nine times out of 1 9 0 ten with the too well-known reply: “No thank
you, 2 0 0 not today”? He will hear these words over and 2 1 0 over again
throughout the day, six days a week, and 2 2 0 upon hearing them he will
perhaps try to change the 2 3 0 mind of the person speaking, but if he
cannot he 2 4 0 must, with good-nature say: “Well, thank you, and good-
morning,” 2 5 0 and turn hopefully to the next house, where there 2 6 0 may
be a less strong will or a less hard 2 7 0 heart.
Why does he put himself to so much trouble? 2 8 0 The work
is hard; he often carries a heavy case 2 9 0 as he goes from door to door.
He is to 3 0 0 be seen on the streets in all kinds of weather; 3 1 0 many of
the doors at which he calls are not 3 2 0 opened to him, or are opened
only for him to 3 3 0 hear a short “No thank you,” with no regard
whatever 3 4 0 to the value of what he has to offer. He does 3 5 0 it because
he is trying to make a living 3 6 0 for himself. He wants employment. He is
working often for 3 7 0 very little return in money, finding additional
comfort in the 3 8 0 knowledge that he is employed, that he is standing
on 3 9 0 his own feet, that he is still a useful citizen. 4 0 0 While it is not in
our natures a ways to consider 4 1 0 both sides to a question, we have to
agree that, 4 2 0 a thought the calls of such men may cause a woman 4 3 0
some small trouble, her work of running the house is 4 4 0 very much
better than their work of going from house 4 5 0 to house, from street to
street, from town to town. 4 6 0
One important fact operates against these men. They are
forced 4 7 0 by conditions to call upon those who least need their 4 8 0
services. Their calls are usually made where houses are near 4 9 0
together, either in or quite near to a town. The 5 0 0 people in these
houses are within reasonable distance of stores, 5 1 0 and in addition the
tradesmen are most willing to deliver 5 2 0 goods. They have therefore
very little need for further service 5 3 0 of this nature. But there are other
people who live 5 4 0 in some distant place, somewhere off the important
roads and 5 5 0 away from towns of any kind. These are the people 5 6 0 who
would be pleased to have men call upon them with 5 7 0 goods of different
kinds. But in their case the 5 8 0 distance between the houses is great,
and so many miles 5 9 0 would have to be covered in going about that
21

the 6 0 0 market is not considered to be worth the trouble. Years 6 1 0 ago


men did call regularly in such places, and they 6 2 0 would become known
and be considered as old friends. Their 6 3 0 calls would be looked
forward to and they would deliver 6 4 0 goods put on order several weeks
earlier. But newspaper advertising 6 5 0 has made these calls less and
less profitable, and now 6 6 0 it is not often that we meet these men on
the road. (672)
EXERCISE NO. 13
When we reach the end of a really good book 1 0 we
sometimes sit with it in our hands for a 2 0 little while before putting it on
one side, and think 3 0 about the writer of it. We feel that it would 4 0 be
interesting to meet him, to know the conditions in 5 0 which he works,
and the steps he takes to plan 6 0 his books before beginning to write.
We know that some 7 0 writers can write anywhere, that they carry about
with them 8 0 a mass of notes written on little pieces of paper, 9 0 notes of
things they have seen and thought interesting, of 1 0 0 people they have
met or seen in the streets---notes 1 1 0 made with the hope that one day
an opportunity will 1 2 0 present itself to make use of them in their
writing. 1 3 0 Another writer can work only in the peace of his 1 4 0 own
room. He also has seen, but he has made 1 5 0 notes in his head, not on
paper. The methods which 1 6 0 writers use to commit their thoughts to
paper also differ. 1 7 0 There is the writer who has a mind so well-
balanced, 1 8 0 and who has such complete control over his thoughts, 1 9 0
that he can sit down at his writing-table and 2 0 0 put on to paper just
what he wishes to say 2 1 0 in just the words he wishes to use. He has 2 2 0
no need to go over his “copy” a second or 2 3 0 a third time, changing a
word here and there, adding 2 4 0 something from another page. 2 5 0 He
knows what he has to say, and he says 2 6 0 it at one in the best possible
language. Another writer 2 7 0 finds that his best course is first to make
a 2 8 0 number of notes as the thoughts come to his mind. 2 9 0 Afterwards
he puts these notes into order and quickly writes 3 0 0 out something on
the lines of the notes. When this 3 1 0 is done he will work very carefully,
and will do 3 2 0 a piece of first-rate writing. A third writer may 3 3 0 also
22

first plan in note from what he has to 3 4 0 say, out when the notes are
made he will try 3 5 0 to make his writing perfect at the first attempt.
These 3 6 0 different methods bring equally good results,
and 3 7 0 in teaching and learning we find the same thing. One teacher
may use 3 8 0 methods different from those used by another teacher, but
both 3 9 0 teachers may get good results. One learner may have a 4 0 0 very
good memory and may be able easily to learn 4 1 0 by heart a great many
facts even though these facts 4 2 0 may appear at first to have little or no
relation 4 3 0 to one another. Another learner must know the reason for 4 4 0
everything. He learns most easily if he understands what is 4 5 0 behind
the facts. But while methods of teaching and learning 4 6 0 may differ,
there is one fact common to all: the 4 7 0 learner is taken step by step
from the known to 4 8 0 the new. The learner beginning to write words for
the 4 9 0 first time is asked to write only simple little words 5 0 0 which he
already knows how to use. A teacher giving 5 1 0 instruction in the
language of another country first teaches the 5 2 0 children words which
they already know very well in their 5 3 0 own language. In the same way,
when learning shorthand we 5 4 0 do not at first want to learn the outlines
for 5 5 0 long and difficult words. The natural first step is to 5 6 0 learn to
write in shorthand those words which we may 5 7 0 be expected to know
how to write in longhand. In this 5 8 0 way learning is made simple for us,
and we are 5 9 0 taken step by step to the writing of more 6 0 0 difficult
words. (602)
EXERCISE NO. 14
We all know the person who, not liking the existing 1 0 order
of things, says that “he is quite sure that 2 0 he is not going to let his
employer make a 3 0 profit out of him,” and each day he does the 4 0 least
possible amount of work. But if an employer is 5 0 not making a profit out
of his employees his undertaking cannot continue, he will have to go
out of business, and the employees will themselves be left without
work. An employer must depend upon each one of his employees to
help him to make a profit made from another, but always there must be
this profit. The profit made from the work of one employee may be
23

more direct than the profit made from another, but always there must
be this profit in one form or another.
If an employee does bad work, of set purpose, because he
does not like his present conditions, he is first of all acting badly
towards himself and his own work, he is acting badly towards his
employer, and finally he is acting badly towards all the other
employees who work with him. It never pays to turn out work of poor
quality. We have to train ourselves to do our best work in all
conditions. If we do not train ourselves to work well under conditions
which we do not like we shall not be able to do our best work under
conditions which we like better. For we cannot reach a desired end by
the use of wrong means: if the means used to bring about a certain
desired end are bad means, then the end itself will be found after all to
be an endless worth-while than we had hoped.
It is probable that many readers of this page have quite
recently taken up employment in an office. Others may be hoping very
soon to leave school and to take their place in business life. Most
young people, beginning their working life, do so with a good will ---with
a real desire to do well, with the hope that their employer will be
pleased with their work, and with the belief that they will be very
successful. But sometimes success does not come so easily or quickly
as they expected, and this feeling of good will begins to grow less.
Perhaps a young girl who knows that she is an expert in her work may
meet one evening another girl who is not so expert, and she may find
that this girl is being paid more than she herself is getting. If you
should have some such experience, don’t make up your mind not to try
so hard in future. Go home and think about the matter, “weigh” things
up, try to find the reason for your friends, success. And if after this you
still feel that you ought to be doing better, that you are not likely to
meet with success in your present position, don’t begin to turn out
work of poorer quality. Remember that while you are working for your
employer you are at least making a living, and he has to right to expect
good work from you. If you can, do even better work, but all the time
watch for an opportunity to improve your position. Look at the
24

advertisements each day in the newspaper and keep on looking at


them until you find a position more to your liking. Don’t just sit and
wait for an opportunity to come to you.
It is always worth-while to do one’s best. (594)
EXERCISE NO. 15
Should women working side by side with men in industry
and in offices, employed upon the same kind of work, be put upon a
basis of real equality with the men? Should they, in fact, receive the
same rate of pay for their services? The demand for “equal pay for
equal work” is no longer new. It has been brought forward many times
by organized bodies of women representing some particular line of
work. But, strangely enough, if an important issue is made of this
question, it is sometimes the women who come down most heavily
against equality. The reasons given for the lower rates of pay for
women are many. The first reason usually offered is that a man has
more dependants that a woman and therefore requires higher payment.
This is sometimes true but not always. A married man usually carries
more responsibility than the young woman wo rker, but generally no
difference is made in the rates of pay offered to the man who is
married and to the man who is not married. In most cases, therefore,
the rate of pay cannot be said to have any real relation to the question
of the amount of responsibility carried by the worker. Further, the
responsibility carried by the young man and the young woman still
living at home is on the whole equal; according to the position of the
family they are expected to help to support other member of it, or they
expect the others to help to support them. But the young man will
generally be receiving higher payment for his work than the young
woman. A reason with perhaps more weight behind it is that a woman,
although doing the same quality of work as a man is often not able to
turn out an equal amount during the same number of hours. Also, it is
said that women are less able to stand long hours of work, and that
they break down more easily when it is necessary to work a
considerable amount of overtime. Tests made over a number of years
and in different countries appear to show beyond reasonable doubt
25

that woman can, as a general rule, do only about two-thirds of the


amount of work which would be done by a man in the same time. If the
work is of a very heavy nature t hey can do less than half the work of a
man. If we may judge from published figures, it would seem that this
fact has been known and taken in consideration for many hundreds of
year. According to these figures, the rates of pay offered to women
farm workers since about the year 1000 A.D. have been about two-
thirds of those offered to men, whether payment was made in money or
in food. On the other hand, experts tell us that women on piece-work
will sometimes turn out more work than men during an eight -hour day,
as they keep interested the work for longer. A third reason often put
forward by business men is that women in offices do not take the same
interest in their work as the men, and that in any case it is not worth-
while to train women to take up the more responsible positions as they
usually leave to be married just when they begin to be really useful.
But perhaps there is another and a deeper reason, a reason which,
moreover, accounts for the fact that women themselves do not come
strongly to the support of any movement for equality. Out of working
hours they do not expect and do not want equality with men. Out of
working hours they demand and for the most part receive very much
more than a mere equality. (632)
EXERCISE NO. 16
To The Small Goods Company.
Gentlemen: We see from a short note in today’s issue of
THE TIMES that you expect to market a new product at the end of the
summer. If the advertising of this product is not already receiving the
attention of an advertising expert, may we offer our expert services in
this respect? While “It pays to Advertise” are four rather over -worked
words, the truth of the statement cannot be seriously questioned. The
“pulls” of past advertisement s sent with this letter will show you the
kind of work we do and will give you an idea of the products which we
regularly advertise. If you think that we can be of service to you our
Mr. Pointing will call upon you at any time which you may care to
suggest. Yours truly,
26

To The Modern Advertising Office.


Gentlemen: I wish to thank you for your letter of May 15 t h .
A great part of our advertising matter is supplied by our own
copywriter. I quite agree, however, that the question of the expert
advertising of our new product is a matter of great importance, and I
shall be willing to see your Mr. Pointing at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Yours
truly,
To The Modern Advertising Office.
Gentlemen: I have given careful thought to the talk which I
had yesterday with your Mr. Pointing, and as a result I have asked my
copy-writer to list for you those points which we consider to be of
principal importance in the advertising of our product and also to
suggest the form which the advertisements should take. I am sending
his work to you with this letter, and I shall be very pleased if you will
consider his suggestions from the point of view of possible
development.
I quite agree with you that it would be both to my
advantage and to yours if the advertisements could be planned well
into the future, with copy on hand for at least six months’ advertising. I
think that the copy should follow the same general lines throughout the
first six months, with only small changes here and there according to
weather conditions from week to week. I suggest that your Mr.
Pointing, when considering the copy sent with this letter, does so with
this in mind. If he will call on me on Tuesday or W ednesday of next
week I shall be pleased to see him and to go into the matter with him
in detail. Yours truly,
To the Mr. G. Price, the small goods company.
Dear Mr. Price: thank you for your letter and for the
suggestions for copy. We think that the basic idea running through the
copy is very good indeed, as it is the sort of thing which quickly takes
the public eye. We think, however, that the carrying through of the idea
is not strong enough. Also we are of opinion that the amount of reading
matter which you suggest is too great if you are using quarter-page
advertisements only. One of our experts is working on the copy today,
27

and Mr. Pointing will bring two or three suggestions round to your
office on Tuesday morning. We are sending with this letter a list of the
newspapers in which your advertisements would appear, together with
a list of the smaller daily and weekly papers which are known to bring
good result for products such as yours. Yours truly, (581)
EXERCISE NO. 17
We often hear it said of a man that he had had a long life
or that his life had been “cut short.” What do we really mean when we
use the expressions “long life” and “short life”? In relation to what is
the life of a particular man long or short? We are, of course, measuring
the life of the man in relation to the number of years which men in the
mass can reasonably expect to live. When we speak of the life of one
man in relation to the life of most men we can with some degree of
truth say that it was a long life. But can we use such an expression if
we think of the life of one man in relation to the time during which man
has lived on earth, and, further, can we use such an expression
regarding the life of man on earth if we think of it in relation to the time
during which the earth itself has been in existence and in relation to
the time during which the earth is likely to continue in existence? The
life of one man and the life of man as a whole are short beyond
statement when considered in this way.
Experts tell us that the different kinds of material found
upon earth show beyond question that the earth has existed in a form
more or less like its present form for at least two or three thousand
million years. When we consider that we place events in history by
using a measurement of time which finds expression in date such as
1000 a.d. and 1500 a.d. and the our present date is less than 2000
a.d., we get some idea of how very short our own history is when
considered in relation to the history of the earth upon which we live.
The mind of man is small, and it is impossible for him to picture the
passing of two or three thousand million years. When we ask, How
long has man lived on earth? The experts give us widely differing
answers. Their answers, in fact, differ from the statement that man
has lived possibly for a million years to the statement that he has lived
28

for three hundred thousand years . It is always difficult not to feel some
doubt when faced with such figures, but it seems that we must at any
rate believe that man—certainly a very different man from present man
but at all events the beginning of man as he now is ---has lived on earth
for three hundred thousand years . Taking this figure, man is quite a
recent development, something strange on the face of the good old
Earth. But we cannot stop our questioning at this interesting point. We
go further and ask, For how long is the earth likely to continue in its
present state? From the answer given to us it is clear that we need not
fear the immediate end of the world. There is every reason to believe
that life will be possible on earth, in very much the same forms as at
present, for millions of millions of years to come. Man is but a baby,
just starting out in life. It is said that if we take the possible life of the
earth as just one million million years ---a low figure---then man has at
least a million times as long as to live as he has already lived. He is
like a baby who came into the world a little over half an hour ago and
who has before him a life of 75 years.
It is a wonderful thing to think that man has perhaps
several million; million years in front of him in which to develop. He
has already shown that he can do wonderful things, and we cannot
picture the wonderful future whic h may be before him. Life day by day
is wonderful, the development of the future ---they almost certainly will
be more wonderful---and we feel that our own lives are too short, and
we wish that it were possible for us to see more than just a very little
of that development before we too become part of the past---a past,
however, which perhaps lives on . (730)
EXERCISE NO. 18
We can see therefore that the common expressions “a long
life” and “a short life” have real meaning only when thought of in
relation to the life of the man in the street, the number of years on
which insurance companies base their figures. But we seem at present
ready to ask questions and willing to hear the answers, so let us ask
one or two further questions. What do the words “long” and “short”
mean when used in regard to distances? What do we mean when we
29

say a place is near or far, when we say a thing is of light weight or is


heavy, when we say that we are moving more or less quickly? What do
we mean when we say that an object is great or is small? We find that
all these expressions have real meaning only when one object is
considered in relation to some other object. Nothing can be long or
short, big or small, light or heavy, of itself. It can be these things only
when considered in relation to some other object.
The life of a man is short almost beyond measure when
considered side by side with the life of man upon earth, past and
future. So, too, is any distance we have upon earth short beyond
measure when considered side by side with the distances which are
beyond the earth. If we move round the earth in a straight line the
biggest distance we can cover is about 25 thousand miles are as
nothing. The most distant object of which observations can at present
be made is thought to be 140 million light-years away from the earth.
Light, as we know, moves at 186,000 miles a second which, it is
agreed, is a considerable rate. One light -year is the distance which
light covers moving throughout the year at a rate of 186,000 miles a
second. When therefore it is stated that something is at a distance
from us of 140 million light-years a distance is represented which is
beyond our powers to picture. Our earth is large if measured by o ther
objects upon the earth, but it is a small thing of no importance
whatever when measured by objects outside the earth when measured
by the size of some of the great masses of burning matter which we
see as points of light above us at night.
We tell our friends, perhaps, that our weight is this or is
that, but here again we meet with difficulties. Our weight is different in
different parts of the world, while if we found ourselves on a body
smaller than the earth we should be so light that we could move about
with an ease impossible here. On the other hand, if we found ourselves
on a body much bigger than the earth we should be so heavy that we
could hardly move at all.
We read in the newspaper that an airplane had reached the
wonderful rate of over 400 miles an hour, but what is a rate like this
30

when thought of side by side with the rate at which light moves? As for
movement to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, we
know that our movement can be judged only in relation to some other
object which is at rest or which can be said to be moving at a given
rate away from or towards us. The earth itself is turning at a great rate
and we do not feel this movement of itself. We can judge the
movement of the earth only in relation to the some other object which
is not moving with it. We have probably all had the experience of not
being able to tell which way a train is moving at right when we cannot
see anything out of the windows. We cannot tell which way we are
moving or at what rate we are moving except in relation to the another
object which is not moving with us.
And so we find that many of the common expressions of
daily life have no meaning in themselves and become real for us only
when considered in relation to some other fact or object. (751)
EXERCISE NO. 19
Are you one of those people who “put off” doing things? Do
you take the words from your old copy –book: “Never put off until
tomorrow the work which you can do today”—words written so carefully
but, perhaps, sometimes against your will ---and turn them into: “Never
do today the work which you can put off until tomorrow,” taking too
little account of the statement to be found on the next line of the copy
– book that “Tomorrow never comes”?
On other pages of the copy -book were other statements,
statements for example, telling us that “Great cities are not built in a
day” and Success does not come over a night.” If, as we children, we
thought about these last two statements at all, as we copied them, it is
quite possible that our thoughts moved along the wrong lines and that
we saw in them not a reason for making more serious attempts, for
working day by day to build up our success, but rather a reason for
putting off the moment for taking action, for putting off today’s work
until tomorrow. In some fields of work such putting off of action may
have no serious results and may, indeed, have no r eally bad influence
on a person’s life viewed as a whole. But you, as a shorthand writer,
31

are working in a field where any putting off of action must have an
immediately bad effect, a field where it is of the first importance that
you should not “put off.” You have been learning shorthand, probably,
because you think—and think rightly—that it will be of service to you in
your attempt to make a way for yourself in the world of business or of
industry, and in responsible shorthand writing there can be no “putting
off”. When you are acting as a shorthand writer you must, from second
to second and from minute to minute, put on to paper outlines
representing the words you are hearing, and these outlines must be
written almost at the same time as the words are said. Until you can do
this at any reasonable rate of talking you cannot be said to be a
responsible shorthand writer. You cannot put off until the next minute
and writing of the words which are said in any particular minute, and if
you cannot “put off” at the moment of writing shorthand notes, nor can
you, if you are to be successful, put off certain parts of your training
until some future date. Many young girls and boys try to put off
learning certain things, expecting that in some way they will be able to
do these things, when required without the trouble of learning how to
do them. Nothing worth-while can be learned without trying. Do not,
therefore, “put off”---do not, for example, put off learning the rules of
the system; do not put off learning the special signs of the langua ge;
do not put off making a note of outlines which are written on the
blackboard. Your teacher has not put them there in order to do a little
shorthand writing himself. He has put them there to help you. Do not
put off getting as much real writing of shorthand as possible; and do
not put off reading back your own shorthand notes. This last point is of
very great importance to you because, as you will at one agree, it is of
little advantage to you to be able to write even at the high rate of two
hundred words a minute if you cannot afterwards read back the notes
which you have written. The shorthand writer who can write and can
read back with certainly at 80 words a minute would be considered a
far more satisfactory employee from the business man’s point of view.
Do not therefore put off reading back you r own notes “until tomorrow”:
start today.
32

If you know the rules of the system, if you know the special
signs, if you write clear notes which you can easily read back
afterwards, then you have a very satisfactory base upon which to build
up a high rate of writing. You are, in fact, well on the ways to being a
reasonable and, we hope, a well-paid shorthand writer. (732)
EXERCISE NO. 20
As children we expect our fathers and mothers to support
us. It is a principle of all family life that children shall be given support
while they are young, that they shall receive the care and attention
necessary for their comfort and well-being, and that they shall receive
training which will make them ready to take their place in the world
when the time comes for them to do so. According to the station in life
of the family such support may continue over more or less years; but in
every station of life some such su pport is given to children as their
natural right. In order to provide for such support our fathers and
mothers must spend money, and the money so spent has to be taken
either from their regular income or from the capital which they or their
own fathers and mothers have built up in the past. We all know people
who, by their own hard work and labor, have got together a little
money, and we know too how willingly they use this capital for the
advantage of their children. Where they are without capital they will go
without things in order to have the money to pay for the training of
their children. But by whatever means the money is provided, the
children take it as their natural right that the money should be sent
upon them.
If this is true of each small f amily of people, it is equally
true of the great family made up of all the people living on this earth.
We all look to Mother Earth to support us, to give us food and drink,
and we continue to look to the earth to provide us with these and other
things until our dying day. And as members of this great family, made
up of all the people of all the world, we are providing for our present
wants not only by taking from the regular income of the earth but also
by taking from the great store of capital which has been built up in the
past ages. The people of each age think themselves better than the
33

people of all past ages. It is sometimes questioned whether, in fact,


people have really improved at all during the last two thousand years,
but certainly the peopl e of each age have the great advantage of
improved material conditions, for each age builds upon the work of the
men who have gone before, and it employs the capital of the past to
provide for present needs. And year by year this capital grows less. At
present Mother Earth is offering us the use both of her income and of
her capital. We can reasonably expect that the income will continue for
as long as man continues. Year by year the earth provides us with
foods, and if we give the land reasonable care and attention we can
expect it to continue to provide us with the food necessary for life. But
wrong methods can lessen even this income, which seems to be so
safe and so certain, something upon which we can all depend. When
man discovered the “New World” he did not think of the future. He
found land which seemed ready to provide his own family and
thousands and thousands of other families with all the good things of
the earth for all the time. He use wrong methods; he over-worked the
land to such a degree that much of the goodness of the earth was
taken from it, and it has been found necessary in some places to “rest”
the land for some years in the attempt to bring it back to something
like its old value. In general, however, we can expect that the income
of the earth will continue. Indeed, it may be increased, for men are
finding more and more ways of getting better returns from the land.
New methods are in use in many places which result in man receiving
from the land many times the food value which was expected from it in
past years. (686)
EXERCISE NO. 21
Early man lived upon the income of the earth. He took fish
from the sea and he took food from the land. He had water to drink,
and his material needs were not many. He used only those things of
which there was always a regular supply. Nature was, in the everyday
course of events, hard at work making good anything taken from her by
man. But a wonderful day came when man discovered the capital of the
earth. He discovered iron and other like materials, an d learned how to
34

turn to his own advantage their many properties, how to use them so
that he and his family could live more safely and more comfortably. At
first he had only the poorest means of working the iron and other
materials which he had discovered, and the use he could make of them
was small, but in time his control over material things improved, and
he made heavier and heavier demands upon this particular part of the
capital of the earth. But his use of the capital of the earth was only at
a beginning. He discovered coal and he discovered oil, and so began
to use up capital very quickly. The story of the development of man
through the ages, the story of his increasing control over the natural
products of the earth is a long and interesting story. It is a story which
is as yet without an end. Much has been added to it during the last two
or three hundred years, during which time man has learned very much
more quickly than before how to take advantage of the natural products
of the earth and how to use them to improve his own material
conditions. He has learned both to make an ever-increasing use of the
regular income of the earth by using to better and better advantage
those products which are quickly supplied again by Nature in the
course of one year, ten years, or perhaps 40 years, and he has learned
to cut deep down into the earth and to make an ever-increasing use of
its capital by taking from it large stores of iron and coal and oil and
other valuable products. Because of these increased powers of man
the living conditions of the masses of people are better than at any
time known to history;. We have better housing, better schools, better
roads, better national services in almost every respect.
While men used only the natural and regular income of the
earth to improve their own conditions Mother Earth could give her
support for age after age with little fear for the future, but modern man
asks for more than the use of her income; he is using up the capital
which took millions of years to build up, capital which cannot be built
up again, at any rate while man is on earth. Man can grow more food
but he can never grow more coal or more iron, and at some time in the
far distant future man will have to face the fact that the capital of the
earth has been used up, and he will have then to return to the old state
35

of living only upon the income of the earth, depending upon the natural
course of events to provide him with food and drink, or he will have to
find out how, from the materials which are built up again by natural
means, he can manufacture products which will satisfactorily take the
place of the capital products which have gone forever. The experience
of the past few years teaches us that the second course of events is by
far the more probable, for already man is using his knowledge of the
qualities of capital products to manufacture goods which will
satisfactorily take the place of the real thing. Sometimes he is so
successful in his attempts that the manufactured product is better for
his purposes than the natural product. (664)
EXERCISE NO. 22
The fear of war often influences the people of different
nations to attempt the manufacture of new products, and during recent
years all sorts of things have been manufactured by man which were
before supplied only by Nature herself. There are countries which have
already used up their supplies of certain valuable materials; there are
other countries which have never had a store of such materials,
materials which they now regard as necessary for their continued
existence as nations. In times of peace this is not a very important
matter because such countries can readily buy from other countries
those things of which they are in principal need, selling in return things
which the other countries, might find it difficult, and probably
impossible, to buy these materials. Further, many countries today are
attempting to support themselves without help f rom other counties;
they wish to depend only upon their own labors to supply all their
needs. Because of these considerations men are at work in all parts of
the world trying to find out ways and means of manufacturing new
materials which can satisfactorily take the place of the capital material
which has until now been used; and these men are, as we have said,
meeting with great success in many fields.
There is the future fact that often, when there has seemed
to be a real danger of the world supply of one natural product running
short, a new natural product has been discovered which can
36

satisfactorily take the place of the old. Years ago, for example, men
began to talk of a future time when the world su pply of coal would be
used. Coal has become a necessary part of their existence. The
operation of ships, of trains, of machines, the warming of houses, the
making ready of food---all seemed to depend upon a lasting supply of
coal. Then oil was discovered in parts of the world where it had not
before been known to exist, and oil began to be used for operating
ships and machines. And, far more important probably from the point of
view of the future man discovered hot to make and how to use
electricity. Electricity can be used to supply the power for the driving
of trains, for the operation of machines, for the warming and lighting of
our houses for the making ready of our food, and for the purposes
beyond number. People in some countries may, at some time in the
distant future, come to the time when it is difficult to have a large
enough supply of electricity to meet their needs, for they depend at
present upon coal to make electricity; but there are other countries
whose supply of electricity should last as long as man lasts, for in
these countries water power is used to make electricity, and so long as
a weight of water continues to fall from high ground to low ground
these people can continue to make electricity. There are other
countries which still have great stores of coal which can be used for
the making of electricity. The known stores of coal in one country are
said to be enough to last for at least one thousand years.
And so the story of the development of man is written, day
by day and age by age. He has capital stores so great that it would
seem impossible finally to use them all, and it is likely that he has not
yet discovered the valuable properties of everything that is on the
earth and in the earth. Is it too much to hope that the story of man’s
history during the coming years will show that, side by side with the
development of his control over natural forces and his power to
manufacture new products, there was also a development of his desire
to use his knowledge for purposes of peace rather than of war, a
development of his will to make the world more beautiful and the
people of the world more happy? (679)
37

EXERCISE NO. 23
“What is happens?” This is an old, question and for which
it is very difficult to find a direct or simple answer. Indeed, a person
very careful in the use of words would say that it is impossible to
answer the question because it is without meaning as it stands --- one
can consider happiness only in relation to some other particular person
or some special set of facts or condition of living. If, we change the
question to “Are you happy?” or “Do you feel happy about such and
such a happening?” it is more essay to attempt an answer, but the
mere statement that one or is not happy does not take us any further
towards an understanding of what is necessary to bring about a state
of “happiness.”
I happened recently to overhear a talk between two men on
this subject, which is one of never-ending interest. I had taken my
place in a long-distance train, and as the train moved out of the station
the words passed through my mind: “Among the many pleasures of life
is the pleasure of doing nothing,” and I thought happily of the several
hours in front of me in which I need do little or nothing. I had with me,
it is true, the usual kind of reading matter which one buys to “ read on
the train,” but I soon found that the many “Stops and starts” of the
train made reading a less pleasing employment than usual, and I put
down my book and let myself think of anything or perhaps of nothing. I
shortly, found however, that my attention was held by a talk going on
between two men who were sitting facing one and another. As they,
made no attempt to lower their voices it was impossible for me not to
hear what was being said. Shall I try to read again, I asked myself or
shall I give myself the perhaps doubtful pleasure of hearing the
thoughts and opinions of other people? The second course was for the
moment the easier one, and I followed. The talk was not, as one
expects it to be in these days political in nature but was about
happiness one of the men was young perhaps between 25 and 30
years of age; the other was a man of about 50. The young man was
speaking and I discovered that he was doing so many have done---he
was looking back to the past to find happiness. The cry was not eh
38

more usual cry of an old man for the wonderful days when he was
young and all life was waiting for him; it was the cry of a man who was
still young but he believed that happiness could not be found by the
grown man or woman. Happiness he said, was known only to children.
The grown man could not experience happiness because he knew too
well how troubled life was for the people of the world in which he lived.
Little children lived in a wonderful and strange world of their own
making, a world which everyday brought them something new and
something interesting. They cared little for the “past,” the future meant
probably a few hours or a few days and only the present was real. The
wants of the young were few; a little food, a little warmth, a little love
and kindness. Given these they were happy.”Yes, yes,” said the
second man quickly, taking the opportunity to break in and express his
own thoughts. “That is all very well, but you have to remember two
things. In the first place, if the little pleasures of children which seem
to us so small and of so little real account, are to them of such deep
and great importance, so also are the littl e troubles and difficulties of
the children matters of great importance for them if the pleasure of
children seem real and lasting so too do their troubles. In the second
place it is of little value for us a men and women to picture ourselves a
set of conditions under which we would like to live, conditions which
cannot be brought about in this world, to picture a world in which
people think in a different way and act in a different way from the way
in which they think and act in this the existing world; a nd then to tell
ourselves how happy we should be if we lived in such a world. I would
say that happiness can be found by the grown man or woman and one
of the ways to find it is by feeling at home in the world as it is.” (795).
EXERCISE NO. 24
At this point I say something from the window which held
my attention for a few moments, and at the next station the men left
the train. But I found myself saying: “Happiness depends in part upon
our feeling at home in the world.” “At home”: for most of us life moves
round a place which we call our home, a place which we call our home,
and our happiness depends in some measure on the degree of peace
39

and comfort which we find in our home. But in another sense we have
to regard the whole world as our home. We are all members of one
great family living in one great home, the world. It may be worth-while
to ask ourselves the questions: “Do I feel at home in the world? Do I
move about easily and freely? Can I readily make friends with other
members of this large family when I meet them? Can I face up to new
and perhaps difficult situations? Am I, in fact, as much at home in the
outside world as I am in my own small home?” as a rule we like the
person who moves about the person who moves about freely, who
shows goodwill towards every one, who can turn a hand to this and to
that. We generally like a person of this kind more than we like the
person who is backward at making friends, who believes that he is of
less importance than other people, who feels that his work is a little
too much for him, who, in fact, finds difficulty in doing this and in
saying that. If we are to feel as home in the world we have first to try
to get a true idea of our place in the world. We may move only in a
small part of the world or conditions may cause us, either for purposes
of business or of pleasure, to move from country to country throughout
the worlds, but whether the world for us is large or small, whether our
friends are few or many, we must believe in ourselves and in our power
to do useful work and in our power to work with others towards some
useful end. We know from experience that the man who is good at his
work usually shows himself to be at ease. His work may not be of great
importance, he may not meet a great many people, but he has the
certain knowledge that he does well the work which he is called upon
to do day by day and that knowledge causes him to hold his head high
as he moves among other people. To know that we can do something
worth-while and do it well, to know that we can work well with others to
reach a given end---such knowledge leads us to feel sure of our own
worth and so to feel at home in the world.
If we regard the world as our home we shall naturally want
the living conditions of the people of all nations to be as good as
possible. A writer recently said that the people of the world at present
appear to be spending most of their time and labor in making better
40

“dying conditions” people rather than better “living conditions.” If in our


own homes we try to make conditions as happy as possible for
everyone, try to find a balance between our right to free action and a
necessary consideration for the comfort and happiness of others, so
also in the world we have to find this balance between what is right for
ourselves and what is just of others. If happiness is to be found ( and
there are few of us who do not know from our own experience that it is
to be found) we have to look for at in the present. We shall find
happiness not by looking back into the past and hoping to experience
again some still-remembered pleasure of years ago, not by looking
forward to some possibly wonderful time in the future, but by living as
fully and in as worth-while a way as we can now, by feeling at home in
the world that exists now and with people who are living now.
Our past we cannot change; it is only partly within our
power to say what course our future shall follow; but the present is
ours, and each one of us has it in his power to do something to make
the present a happy time for himself and for those he moves
among.(764)
EXERCISE NO. 25
When some time ago we were giving a little thought to the
strange nature of Time, we let ourselves take some comfort from the
certainty that at least we knew that each day was made up of 24 hours.
A day, we lightly stated, had in it just 24 hours, never 23 and never 25.
But were we right in thinking that we knew this to be the case?
Perhaps not, for when the expert comes along he informs us that a day
lasts 48 hours and at the same time does not exist at all. We open our
eyes a little wider with surprise and ask, How can such things be? And
we are given a quite simple reason.
As we all learned at school, our earth is always turning
away from the west, and the nearer a place is to the east the earlier is
the hour of day-break at that place. If, for example, we were living in a
country at a point on the earth where the distance round the world is
as great as it can be, and we were to leave that country and go to
another country which is, let us say, a little over one thousand miles
41

more distant from the west (that is, a distance of 1/24 of the distance
round the world) we would find that day-break was an hour earlier in
our new home than it had been in our old home. If we moved only five
hundred miles towards the east we would find the difference to be only
half an hour, and if we moved only 50 miles we would find the
difference to be as little as three minutes. If we look at a table of
“lighting up times we note that these times differ widely for different
parts of the same country. But long, long ago, before the present age
with its airplanes and its wireless, men found that any form of
exchange between nations was made very difficult when there was no
order in the method of stating the time in different parts of the world.
So, to make it possible for anyone in any part of the world to know just
what time it was in any other part of the world, the following course
was agreed upon. Man had already “cut up” the day into 24 hours, and
he now agreed to cut up the earth into 24 divisions ---each division, of
course, measuring about one thousand miles at its widest point. The
time over the whole of each division was to be the same, the time in
each division differing by just one hour from the time in the next
division. We therefore have a system whereby the minutes and the
seconds are the same all over the world but the hour is one hour
earlier for each division as we move towards the east. Now we will say
that in the “first” of these divisions New Year’s Day begins. Hour by
hour New Year’s Day reaches and passes through one of the 24
divisions until at the end of 24 hours it is in the “last division.” By that
time the day is coming to an end in the first division, and the second of
January is beginning. But the last division too must have its full day
and 24 hours must pass before New Year’s Day really comes to an end
and dies in the last of the 24 divisions. The first of January lives for 48
hours. But while the first of January has been continuing its life in this
way the second of January has been moving round the world. The first
hour of the second of January reaches the last division just as the 24 t h
hour of the first of January dies, and at the same moment the third of
January begins in the first division. And so we are faced with the
strange truth that while a day lasts 48 hours there is between the first
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and 3 r d of January no break at all. People in one country can hear


“Five Hours Back” coming to them over the air, hearing in the evening
something that is happening in the afternoon in another country. And
the people of that country can have the equally remarkable experience
of hearing “Five Hours Forward.” They can hear the people of another
country “seeing the New Year in” while it is for them the early evening
of the last day of the old year. And if we are covering a long distance
by ship we have the experience of finding that a certain day can last
only 23 hours or for as long as 25 hours! (806)
EXERCISE NO. 26
Do you make full use of your shorthand or are you one of
those shorthand writers who go to meetings without taking along a
notebook? Do you write to your friends in longhand, although both they
and you know the same system of shorthand writing? Is shorthand
writing a natural thing with you, or is it something which you use only
when you are called upon to use it for special purposes?
Many of us have heard on the air from time to time the
talks which have been carried on with people standing about the
streets. One day the question put to these people took the form of
asking them whether they liked their work, and the suggestion was that
if they liked their work it was probably because they were good at it.
There is much truth in this suggestion, and I believe that the better the
quality of the work which we do the more we like doing it. You will not
often meet an expert in any trade or art who is not deeply interested in
his work. I have yet to meet a shorthand writer who, having a real
knowledge of the principles of our system, does not love the system.
When recently we considered “happiness” we reached the belief that
we had gone part of the way towards finding happiness if we could say
that we were “at home in the world.” I believe also that a long forward
step on the road towards happiness is taken if we really like the work
which we are paid to do day by day. But to like our work we must be
good at it, and one way in which to become good at shorthand writing,
for example, is to take every possible opportunity to write shorthand.
Shorthand is so widely used, in so many different fields of industry and
43

art, that it may not seem very necessary to suggest that more use
should be made of it, but is always surprising to find how many writers
seem not to make full use of their knowledge of shorthand. Even at
meetings of shorthand writers and teachers it is quite common to find
that only a very few of those present carry a notebook with them. In
the field of personal letter writing shorthand writers again do not take
the opportunity to use their shorthand. How many letters dose one
receive from the shorthand writer written not in shorthand but in
longhand! There are, of course, writers who has become so used to
writing shorthand that when writing, longhand he has to watch carefully
to make sure that he does not fall into shorthand, using the shorthand
sign for the full-stop and for words such as “and, to, the” and so on.
Shorthand writing can be put to many more uses than the
simple taking of notes for you Chief or your employer, or the reporting
of public meetings or committee meetings. It should be used as a help
to the memory, notes should be made of things which have to be done,
of people who have called or are expected to call. And for those who
wish to increase their rate of writing the custom of using shorthan d for
every possible purpose throughout the day is of great value. It makes
the writing of shorthand a natural thing, something which can be done
easily and without very much thought, and it increases the number of
words which can be written readily and quickly.
Recently a letter was published in a newspaper suggesting
that special shorthand tests should be read over the air. But why
should such special tests be required when already the regular and
highly interesting talks offer shorthand writers the most wonderful
opportunities for improving their rate of writing? Such talks have the
great advantage that they are much more like the real work of the
shorthand writer than are set tests, read at special rates.
I would therefore say to the shorthand writer who wishes to
become an expert: throughout the day make shorthand notes of any
points you wish to remember, make as full a note as possible of what
is said at any public meetings at which you may be present and of
other talks; write to your friends in shorthand whenever possible. In
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other words, make more use of your shorthand in every way open to
you. (752)
EXERCISE NO. 27
This is the story which my friend sometimes tells on a long
summer evening, as we sit together by the open window, finding
pleasure in the sweet clear air after the still heat of the day.
“In those days I was an even better walker than I am today,
and as you know, I still very much like a good quick walk. Well, on that
particular August morning I set out quite early, before the day was too
warm for easy walking. I carried with me enough food to meet my small
needs and was therefore able to keep away from towns of any kind. I
was healthy in the way that the young are healthy, and I walked with
quick easy steps, covering the first eight miles of the road in just under
two hours. But with the increasing warmth of the day my rate fell little
by little until in the full heat of the day I found that I was doing very
little more than two and a half miles an hour. Even the small additional
weight of the food I was carrying t roubled me, and as it was by this
time several hours since my last meal it seemed reasonable that I
should look out for a place where I could rest and have a real meal in
peace. After a time I reached a point where the road comes very near
to a small river, and I was pleased enough by that time to walk across
the field and to find near the water some undergrowth high enough to
offer me some cover from the full light and heat of the open country-
side round about. I took water from the clear quick -running river, and
built a small fire upon some stones, and so made my simple meal.
Such was the heat of the day that it was as much as I could do to keep
my eyes open but, using all my will -power, I was about to clear away
the rest of the food when I saw standing before me a little old woman.
So lined was her face that it seemed to me there was no room left
upon it for any personal expression or feeling, and her dress was as
old as her face. Standing there, she appeared to me to be not of this
day, not of yesterday, and not of tomorrow, but to represent Time
itself. But when she began to speak I found her words were common -
place enough. ‘Sir, she said, ‘Could you give me some bread and
45

perhaps some milk?’ I immediately began to the piece of ground which


had served as a table for me, making a place for the old woman to sit.
I saw, however, that she took almost nothing of the food and drink
offered to her, and as she sat without speaking I watched her fac e.
‘Tell me, old woman,’ I said, to my own complete surprise, were you
always as you are now or were you one young and beautiful? Had you
one a home and a family, or have you always walked these roads and
fields? The old woman turned her head and looked at me for a long
time without speaking. The lines on her face grew ev en deeper, and
her old blue eyes were serious as she answered: ‘ Young man, I cannot
remember. For long ages I have walked these roads and these fields. I
have walked other roads and other fields. Always I have walked and
always I shall walk. I am old, and perhaps I have never been beautiful.
You are strong and you have health. You have all the qualities of the
young. Because of these things I am speaking to you now.’ ‘Shall I tell
her to go away?’ I thought. ‘She does not know what she is talking
about anyway. I will stand up and get my things together and continue
my walk.’ I moved, but immediately the voice of this strange old woman
came to me again. ‘No, do not go. You must hear what I have to say.’
‘Yes,’ I thought, ‘I will wait and hear what she has to say, for if she is
as wise as she is old her words may be of some use to me in the
future.’ But the seconds passed and no words came. I looked again
and no one was there. Not feeling very pleased with myself at the
thought that I must have been weak enough to ‘fall off’ for a few
minutes, and believing that these things had not really happened, I
began to clear up what was left of my meal. And then I knew that the
old woman had been there, for my bread was gone and in its place was
this.
At this point in his story my friend opens his hand, and on
it rests a lovely clear blue stone, in a beautiful setting of gold. “I
always carry this about with me now,” he adds, ‘and I know that
someday I shall see that old woman again, and find out what it was she
had to say.”(887)

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