Correspondence school

“ The tongue rests and the curve of writer's cramp takes a sharp turn upward, as if we were making scribes, reporters, and proof-readers. In some schools, teachers seem to be conducting correspondence classes with their own pupils. It all makes excellent busy work, keeps the pupils quiet and orderly, and allows the school output to be quantified, and some of it gives time for more care in the choice of words. But is it a gain to substitute a letter for a visit, to try to give written precedence over spoken forms? ”

“ If there is doubt as to his ability to enter some classes he has a private examination by the teacher in elementary subjects. If he shows ability to enter the correspondence school he receives material and lesson blanks, and works out his exercises in his own cell in his spare time, sending his answers to the school office. ”

“ They hold that the art of reading and writing can be as well taught by letter as in the school room. In England and Germany correspondence schools have long existed, and been remarkably successful. The Chautauqua school is growing in numbers and interest, and we look for a large increase through the new plan. ”

“ Letters from the wives of presidents, from prominent bankers and men in the public eye he has reproduced in miniature, and two or three of these are enclosed with every sales letter.
An office appliance firm with a wealth of good testimonials to draw on sends each prospect letters of endorsement from others in his particular line of business. A correspondence school strengthens its appeal by having a number of booklets of testimonials each containing letters from students in a certain section of the country. ”

“ They will tell you a great deal about their Academy, and talk big about other things. As to the Academy, it has got reduced, and most of the pupils who do attend, either belong to the upper village where they have a post-office now, or have to pass right by this door in going to school. But few of them being from abroad, they have but little correspondence any way. ”

“ The education you get from a correspondence course is of a kind which, while useful for acquiring a knowledge of facts, is of very little value in the development of that culture which is the first and essential element in obtaining a 'Varsity—above all, a Balliol—scholarship. If a boy decides to go in for a history scholarship, the Dulwich authorities ought to provide him with adequate tutorship as part of his school training. ”

“ While making no attempt to teach letter writing, suggestions are made which, it is hoped, will prove of assistance to those whose duty it is to handle correspondence. Among those whom it is hoped a study of this book will benefit, are the incoming-mail clerk, the correspondent, the stenographer, the private secretary, the file clerk, and, in fact, every person who has anything to do with handling and preserving business or professional correspondence. ”

“ I propose, therefore, without invading the province of any of the gifted teachers who act as Directors of the different Departments and Schools in the Chautauqua School of Liberal Arts, as we shall hereafter call what has been known as the University, to show, if possible, how a person of good natural endowment, at the maximum of his mental strength, and with earnest devotion to his work can acquire a knowledge of a language, literature, or science by correspondence alone. ”

“ We are now certainly furnishing recruits to their school. If it be asked what are we to do, or said we cannot give the last lift to the University without stopping our primary schools, and these we think most important ”

“ But remember that no one would have the ghost of a chance for an Oxford scholarship on the knowledge gained from a correspondence course taken by itself. Finally, any honour gained by a Dulwich boy ought to redound to the credit of Dulwich; the school alone should have the credit of the achievements of its members. ”

“ The correspondence schools are teaching hundreds of thousands of young people at work in machine-shops, mills, mines, and factories, who believe that they can advance themselves in their several occupations by supplementing their elementary education with correspondence courses, taken while they are at work earning a livelihood in industries that rest ultimately on applications of science. ”

“ The response which has come [Pg 15] in establishing correspondence study as part of modern university extension is of tremendous significance. The enrollment in correspondence schools of a million grown-up men and women eager to continue their education, and willing to expend more than fifty million dollars a year in furtherance of that desire, is a factor that challenges attention. It is a new expression of an old impulse. Eighty years ago the working people and artisan classes of Great Britain took part in a similar movement. ”

“ Of considerable importance in every large organization is the interdepartment correspondence—the notes from one department head to another. Every department head finds it necessary at times to request information from other departments. ”

“ Every concern, except possibly the small establishment doing a strictly neighborhood business, uses the mails more and more in the transaction of its business; we buy, sell, pay bills, collect money, make contracts, and execute all sorts of transactions by mail—all of which necessitates writing letters. Not only is it necessary to answer letters promptly, but the increasing accumulation of correspondence must be preserved and filed in a manner that will permit of easy reference; all of which emphasizes the necessity of systematic methods in the conduct of this very important department. ”

“ Such teachers are rare, even in comparison with the multitudes of those who already fill the places in our hundreds of thousands of schools, and still more rare in the ranks of the throng which, filling the avenues leading to them, is expectantly awaiting the constantly occurring vacancies. For this reason we have said that the growing demand for correspondence schools constitutes their principal danger ”

“ If the chief purpose of college attendance be to gain a diploma, one must acknowledge that they are all quite right. Students enrolled in correspondence have not reached the dignity of a place in the catalogue, but they need not feel discouragement; correspondence schools, like the summer schools, can not be ignored, and soon the enrollment in some American universities will rival that of medieval Italian universities. ”

“ In the belief that a demand exists for a library which shall embrace the best practice in all branches of business—from buying to selling, from simple bookkeeping to the administration of the financial affairs of a great corporation—these volumes have been prepared. Prepared primarily for [9] use as instruction books for the American School of Correspondence, the material from which the Cyclopedia has been compiled embraces the latest ideas with explanations of the most approved methods of modern business. ”

“ The principal value which is claimed for this Cyclopedia is as a reference work, but, comprising as it does the material used by the School in its correspondence courses, it is offered with the confident expectation that it will prove of great value to the trained man who desires to become conversant with phases of business practice with which he is unfamiliar, and to those holding advanced clerical and managerial positions. ”

“ A cost-keeping system tells you who are your good men, and who are your lazy men. It shows you whom to discharge, and whom to promote. It tells you whose wages are too high, and whose are not high enough. And, finally, it leads to that ideal condition of industrial organization known as profit-sharing. How often have we read in novels of Utopia, where all men share in the profits of all business ”

“ While not learning all of the secrets of one department, the stenographer obtains a much better insight into the business as a whole—far more valuable as a business training than a more intimate knowledge of a single department.
Every correspondent is benefited by having several stenographers who are familiar with his work. If a certain stenographer leaves, is ill, or takes a vacation, he is not placed under the handicap of having his work stand still until he can break in a substitute. The new stenographer can be given some dictation in each department while becoming familiar with the work. ”

“ Information that is stale is about as useless as no information at all. If you tell a foreman on Monday that the work of his gang for the week ending ten days before was not up to the mark, he will not have much respect for your cost-keeping system; he will certainly not remember sufficiently well the causes that produced his bad work, to remedy them; or he will be able to pick out of the haze of history enough excuses to let himself out of the responsibility of his bad work, and to put his manager at sea as to where this foreman and his gang really stand. ”

“ An agent's assertion of agency does not of itself constitute an agency. If A, without B's knowledge, claims to C to have authority to sell B's horse and does attempt the sale, title to the horse does not pass to C, because A had no authority to make the sale. A mere declaration of authority on the part of the agent without the knowledge or consent of the principal does not create an agency. ”

“ If the old axiom, "Goods well bought are half sold," holds true, the purchasing department may well be considered one of the most important in any business. In referring to the purchasing department we have in mind that department, or division of the business, whose duty it is to attend to the buying. In a large industrial enterprise this may mean a department headed by a purchasing agent with several assistants; in a department store, the buyers for the several departments; in a small retail business, the member of the firm who buys the goods. ”

“ The position of file clerk is a sure stepping stone to something better—a more responsible and better paid position. No clerk in the office has a better opportunity to obtain a general knowledge of the business. From the stenographer who files the manager's personal correspondence, to the clerk in charge of an extensive filing division, each is intrusted with important papers revealing the very secrets of the business. ”

“ When a business has reached a position where a large correspondence [232] is handled, it is poor business policy for an executive to assume the task of opening the mail. The natural conclusion, when a house has a large correspondence, is that its business is correspondingly large, and the executive who is fitted for his position can devote his energies to larger tasks with better results. He should be free to look after the big things—to plan greater results for his business or his department. ”

“ If sales are made by mail, the salesman supplements his salesmanship with catalogs, booklets, circulars, letters—all as surely advertising as salesmanship; in the store, he displays his goods attractively, which is a most effective form of advertising. And so, in the battle for business, victories are won by supplementing advertising with salesmanship, and salesmanship with advertising—combining the two for results. ”

“ The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the power to establish postoffices and post roads. Under this provision, the postoffice department has been created. It is a department of the government. While the postoffice department carries mail for compensation, it is a department of the government and not a common carrier. The government cannot be sued without giving its consent. It is an elementary principle that a government or sovereign power cannot be sued by its citizens. If the mail is lost, the government cannot be sued for damages. ”

“ While it is true that an agent must have authority from his principal, before he can bind his principal in the capacity of agent, and while it is equally true that third persons, in dealing with agents, must determine at their peril that the agent has actually received authority to act for his principal, a third party has the right to rely upon the implied and customary powers accompanying an actual authority conferred upon an agent. ”

“ When an agent falsely or fraudulently represents himself as agent, he binds himself and not his alleged principal.
If an agent, honestly believing he has authority to act, does not have such authority, but discloses all the facts connected with his authority, to the third person with whom he is dealing, he is not personally bound. ”

“ A corporation cannot be organized merely by agreement of the members. It must obtain permission of the government, state or national, to operate as a corporation, before it can lawfully exercise any corporate rights. ”

“ Acknowledged specialists may be employed in every branch of an enterprise, the shrewdest brains may be engaged in buying, producing, and selling, but the final conservator of the business is the credit man; others may be profit makers, but he is the profit saver in every commercial organization.
He is on guard constantly—always on the lookout for the slightest sign of danger, ever ready to take prompt and vigorous action to avert disaster to his house or to lend a helping hand to a customer. His duties make him the most misunderstood man in the entire organization. ”

“ The president may act as the executive head, and be recognized as the actual manager of the business, but in so doing he is acting in an entirely different capacity than that pertaining to the office of president. ”

“ So long as the agency is legal, a principal may create an agency of as limited an extent, or of as broad a nature as he desires. So long as the limitations which the principal places upon his agent's authority are not of a nature to mislead third persons, the agent cannot bind his principal by exceeding these limitations. But if a principal confers an authority upon an agent which impliedly embraces a number of powers, the principal cannot limit these powers by secret instructions. ”