granted, bargained, sold, remised, released, conveyed and confirmed, and by these presents does grant, bargain, sell, remise, release, convey and confirm-in other words, sells "B."

Use Natural English.

Today much correspondence is a hybrid of law English. The cumbersome, meaningless and now useless terms of law English are retained in business letters. The salutation with its "Dear Sir:"; the opening paragraph with its "We have your favor of the 16th and in reply beg to state." The vapid, complimentary close, "trusting that we will receive an early reply, we beg to remain, Yours very truly," are all relics of law English and the time when letters were events in a life, written with a quill pen, blotted with sand, sealed with scaling wax and sent at 25 cents apiece postage. That is what the English of much business correspondence is. What it should be is courteous, easy, expressive and forceful language, cordial, but not familiar.

Mr. Williams:

Please inform us why you refuse to pay our sight draft of $76.00.

Our records show that this account was due on the 15th.

Important to Corporations

Your attention is called to the importance of following the requirements of the statutes of other States than your own where these statutes have, as in many cases, made requirements upon "foreign" corporations, and affixed penalties for failure to comply therewith. In many cases, statutes recite that where the requirements of the law are not strictly followed "foreign" or outside corporations shall not have the privilege of enforcing contracts in the local courts. Many corporations doing business beyond the limit of their own State are negligent in this matter, and frequently find themselves unable to maintain their rights because of their failure to take the steps necessary. The publishers of this magazine have printed below a list of Attorneys, one for each State, residing in an important business center, who are unquestionably competent to see that your papers conform to the requirements of the law, attend to having them properly fled, and obtain your certificate. Where it is required that you shall have an office in the State, we would suggest that you make arrangements with the attorneys named to designate their office as your particular place or office of business in the States named, and make arrangements with them that they or some member of their firm may be named as the person upon whom process may be served. Make arrangements with them for annual fee for attending to this service, which ought not to be less than $10, nor more than $25 per annum. Neglect in attending to this matter may deprive you of the right to do business in some desirable territory or to bring suit in some important matter. These attorneys would then inform you what it is necessary that you do, and whether or not the provisions of the law refer to corporations who sell within the State by means of traveling salesmen, while having no branch or factory or other business office in the State

CORPORATION ATTORNEYS. ALABAMA-E. W. Godbey, Albany. CALIFORNIA-Henry G. W. Dinkelspiel, 412 Chronicle Bldg., San Francisco. COLORADO-Grant & Wellington, Equitable Bldg., Denver.

CONNECTICUT-Chase, Mathewson &
Chase, 865 Chapel and 121 Church Sts.,
New Haven.
DELAWARE-Marvel, Marvel, Layton &
Hughes, 3165-3174 Du Pont Building,
Wilmington.

FLORIDA-Salem K. David, 401 Law Ex

You have not asked for an extension nor reported that there was anything incorrect about it. If there is, let us know.

You'll not have to wait for an adjustment of a claim and you should not ask us to wait for a settlement without a good reason.

Be systematic, frequent and regular with requests for settlement from the time accounts mature, and until you get your money or a new agreement has been reached as the time for payment. Be prompt to reply. When a customer makes promises, confirm them, that he may have your letter as a reminder.

Mr. Brown:

All right, Mr. Brown! we shall wait until the weather conditions are more favorable for threshing, so that you will be able first to collect some of your accounts.

We thank you for writing us.

You may defer remitting until November 1st. Ask for remittances and replies for a specified time "next Friday;" "by the first;" "the forepart of the coming week." Not "by return mail," "immediately," "at once," or "forthwith." Give the man a chance. A fellow never likes to have a whip cracked over his head. Mr. Anderson:

Maison Blanche Bldg., New Orleans.
MAINE-Harry L. Cram, 102 Exchange
St.. Portland.
MARYLAND-Edward S. Delaplaine, City
Attorney, Frederick.

MASSACHUSETTS-Bernard A. Doherty,
105 Granite Block, Fall River.
MICHIGAN-Selling & Brand, 502-3-4-5-6
7-8-9-10 Hammond Building, Detroit.
MISSISSIPPI-R. H. & J. H. Thompson,
Thompson Building. Jackson.
MONTANA-Kotz, Molumby & Barlow,
414 Ford Bldg., Great Falls.
NEVADA-Breeze & Hinman, Las Vegas.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Branch & Branch,
Amoskeag Bank Bldg., Manchester.
NEW YORK-Lester T. Hubbard, 37
Arkav Bldg.. State and Pearl Sts., Albany.
NORTH CAROLINA-Cochran & Beam,
305 Law Bldg., Charlotte.
OKLAHOMA-Andrew B. Riddle, Ard-

more.

PENNSYLVANIA-Conard, Middleton Orr, Lincoln Building, Philadelphia.

THE FINISHING TOUCHES

VOLUME 28 AND
GENERAL INDEX

NOW ON THE PRESS
ADD THE FINISHING
TOUCHES TO

Ruling Case Law

The last stage has been reached-Volume 28 covering Weights and Measures to Workmen's Compensation Acts and the CROSS REFERENCE INDEX to the complete set will soon be available.

It is but a matter of days before R. C. L. owners will have the complete alphabetically arranged text statement of the law from principle.

Any subject from A to Z can then be found as easily as a word in the dictionary.

The Lawyers Co-op. Publishing Co. Rochester, N. Y.

Can tell you more about the complete set.

In order to take care of our own bills in the way that we planned to do when our statement went out the first of this month, we are asking our customers to cover past due balances promptly with remittances.

The writer set a certain mark for collections this month, and is going to be in the "crack of the door" if many of our good customers are tardy. You owe $.. and I shall depend upon you to help me.

Will you please send the $........ to reach us next Tuesday?

Do not tamper with a customer's feelings. Do what you say you will do. Let him know and comprehend the policy and methods of your house by inference from their constant and regular operations. On the other hand, be quick to heed complaints and meet reasonable requests of customers in a fair way. Endeavor to draw from them their own fair offer in reference to settlements that cannot be made according to regular terms, and then demand that the customer live up to his own proposition. Mr. Swanson:

You may rest assured, Mr. Swanson, that if you do the right thing by us, we are not going to embarrass you, yes, it has been a hard winter, but we feel just as you do, that when the crops this year pull through to a time of safety that the oldtime Minnesota prosperity will return.

Would you like to give us your note for what you owe us, payable in sixty or ninety days? Perhaps you would like to make two notes, one-half payable in sixty days, and the other half in ninety days.

This will meet with your approval, we know, and we send you the notes to sign.

I said, do not tamper with a customer's feelings, but sometimes we find a man who apparently has none. Bob Fitzsimmons was asked once how to hit, and he said, "hit where the hand is." You are going to discontinue the account anyway. You have never yet stirred him to action and you wonder if you can. Try this: Mr. Angel:

Sponges are of two kinds-Animal and Human. The animal sponge is a soft, porous, felt-like individual, born at the bottom of the Mediterranearn and Caribbean seas.

The human sponge has no such good recommendation. He is born in every soil and every climate; he is the unbusiness-like indivdual who won't answer letters, has no regard for a contract; who soaks up your profits by not paying his bills when due.

Quite likely, you have had experiences with human sponges, and we are sure that you do not like such experiences any better than we do.

By the way, you have been written to six times about your past due account with us, amounting to $200, without a reply. We want a settlement. Don't be a sponge.

I call this a safety-valve letter-one that you write and read: makes you feel better but never mail it.

Injecting into a letter some true incident in connection with your day's work and making your letter ring in a personal way, I have found to bring good results. Like this: Mr. Cooper:

Our general manager came in this morning and said, Mr. Atwood, I find you are short on your estimate for collections this month. Can't you speed up collections?

Of course, I said "Yes." For I was sure that you and some others would help me out. Can't I count on you for $400? You need not send it today, but I would like it by next Monday morning.

Should a collection letter be long or short? That is one of those answerless questions like "How old is Ann?" As well ask, should a maiden be petite, or divinely tall?

That depends. It depends on what there is to say and who says it. Avoid stock phrases. Be pleasant, courteous and interesting. All stereotyped words which are not used in talking should be avoided in letter writing. A letter is a communication written or printed-it is talking on paper. Make your letters natural communications. The test of a word or phrase or method

818-816 Hammond Building

me:

ters.

of expression should be: "Is it what I should say to my customer if I were talking to him?" Common Faults of Letters.

Common faults of collection letters are: saying too much; sending unsigned; marked "dictated but not read"; signed with a rubber stamp or by a stenographer.

I do not like printed forms. They tend to indicate that the firm has a good many delinquent or slow accounts. You should give the delinquent customer the impression that everybody else pays up promptly.

"Please" and "thanks" are good words to use in business-in correspondence or otherwise. These words soften the friction of every transaction like oil on a wheel. Like the dot on the i, though a small thing, it is missed when it is gone.

There are almost as many kinds of English written as there are people who write. Just as a man has a distinctive way of thinking, moving, walking-so each writer has similarly his manner of expressing himself in English.

Among words and phrases to be tabooed in letters are: Esteemed, valued, beg to advise, beg to remain, permit me, surprised, hoping, trusting, at an early date, at once, immediately, we take the liberty, we are at a loss to understand, we call your special attention, we venture ot remind you. These are overworked words and phrases.

Don't make yourself the most prominent feature in your letter by overworking "I" and "we." Don't crowd the other fellow out entirely. Put it up to him-"You should do this or that," not "I" or "we" should like to have you.

Discussing Accounts with Salesmen. How long a correspondence should be carried on with a delinquent customer depends upon the value of the account, your experience with the customer and his financial condition. It is more profitable many times for a salesman to collect an account for his house than to sell a good bill of goods. Salesmen should be taught to have a pride in keeping their territory as clean of delinquents as possible. I like to discuss accounts with salesmen at every available opportunity and learn from them all I can about their customers, and then use my information in my collection letters. It is very valuable to know something about your customers besides their names. The name itself does not mean anything. The

meanest, miserliest cuss I ever met rejoiced in the misfit title of Charlie Goodfellow.

Your remittance came this morning covering your six months overdue account. Thank you for payment. You state that other houses do not charge interest and you can see no reason why we should.

There is quite a contrast as to the value of two kinds of accounts-the prompt payer and the slow one, unless the slaw payer pays for the extra time he takes. When both pay the same price, it is like giving avoirdupois weight to the long credit customer without interest and troy weight to the customer who pays promptly. It should be the reverse. Otherwise the prompt payer gets the worst of it as well as ourselves.

It is not right to give preferences, is it? You get from us the same prices that the discounter does and you put an unjust burden on the business that you ask to carry you without interest. Furthermore, you put us in a position of being unfair with the fellow who pays when his bills are due.

You should readily understand the situation, and we believe you will, and that you will send us your check for the interest charge of $15.

A customer may not pay promptly, and yet have the makings of a good merchant in him; he may be a misfit, a man without the commercial sense that is necessary to success in buying, selling and financing a business. Is the cause of his trouble something that can be corrected and educated out of him, or is the cause fundamental in himself?

There comes a time when forbearance is not a virtue. Don't let your customer find out that you are easy. It is remarkable how quickly some debtors will find out by comparison whom they may take advantage of.

Think carefully in advance what you want to say and then say it as briefly as possible.

Complete your appeal. But not with such a mass of verbiage as to bury completely the essential point-that you want a settlement of an overdue account.

LAW PARTNER.

Wanted by lawyer with a good office and growing practice. Address Grover P. Watkins, Sallisaw, Oklahoma.

WRIGHT WILLINGHAM

LEON COVINGTON

BARRY WRIGHT

WILLINGHAM, WRIGHT & COVINGTON

Attorneys and Counsellors at Law
Rome, Georgia

Organized Collection Department

LEIN OF
MILWAUKEE

KI