Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1915 — WILL INSIST ON COURTESY [ARTICLE]

WILL INSIST ON COURTESY

Railroad Managers Have Systematic Rules for the Governance of Their Employees. “Courtesy meetings," it appears, are to be organized by one of the great railroad systems of the country- It is felt that rudeness and boorlshness on the part of conductors, brakemen, porters, clerks and other employees of a carrier are neither essential nor unavoidable, and that neither strenuosity nor efficiency requires the sacrifice of good manners. If “safety first” is a good slogan "courtesy secorid” is just as good. Time was in this country when busy and energetic men assumed tacitly that in trade and commerce manners were of no consequence. So long as the goods were "delivered,” what did mere words matter? Why waste precious moments —which any statistician could multiply into staggering periods of time and enormous losses of money —on “please” and “thank you?” Why riot leave all such empty and useless formalities to the absurdly ceremonious Latins and show the world that business can be transacted in a downright and swift manner? These notions have been relegated to the limbo of crude ignorance. There has been a veritable rediscovery of manners in business. Efficiency is being separated from brusque discourtesy. Statisticians to the contrary notwithstanding, a billion “thank yous” will not “waste” a single second. Manners may take time, but they bring money instead of taking it. Politeness and affability pay—and pay on trains and cars as in dry goods stores and restaurants. Public utilities need not be places of public exhibitions of vulgarity and ruddriess. The negligent and careless employee is a menace; the rude and insolent one a nuisance. All nuisances are bad for business. The time is ripe for schools 'of manners and courtesy meetings in the so-called hard and practical world. —Chicago Tribune.