Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1901 — The Responsibility of the Typewriter. [ARTICLE]

The Responsibility of the Typewriter.

With all due respect to the makers of typewriting machines, I think they are largely responsible for a tedious, diffusive style of business correspondence. In the old days when letters were written by hand, they were as concise as politeness allowed. Writing was laborious and time was valuable. But talking to a stenographer is easy, and letters have the rambling, careless style of conversation. Ideas are beaten out thin. I have seen a message sprawled over two pages which, in the days of manuscript correspondence, would have been boiled down to less tlian one page. While 1 am on the subje , I wonder how much advertising is lost through blunders and omissions in routine correspondence. I believe that in every large establishment there is room for a good letter writer, who will give attention not alone to the substance, but to the form of correspondence. This work calls for qualities not to be found in ordinary clerks.—National Advertiser.