GENERAL PRACTICE in all Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky State and Federal Courts I suppose that there is no man in this room who does not in his heart at least vaguely believe that what Lincoln best epitomized as government of the people, by the people and for the people is the best form of government that the human race has been able to devise in the long millenniums of its existence, but I wonder how many realize what a tremendous revolution this relatively new idea is producing in all human relationships, or even how new the idea itself is and how little it has been tested. Nor is that all. Only a trifling minority of the peoples of the world understand it. I doubt if even in Europe there is a majority which supports it, certainly there is not a majority which understands it. I would like to be convinced that there was a majority really understandingly is to continue without a serious setback we who believe in it will have to stand firmly together, for there are powerful forces opposed to it. So far as we know, the millions of Asia have opposed the idea throughout all their history, although a small number of Asiatics are now loud in its support. Islam necessarily is opposed to it. The Bolsheviki are naturally violently opposed to it. So, too is everyone in every land who has what incalculable good which he or she wishes to force upon the people whether they wish it or no. So, too, in all countries are many of those who have great possessions. So of course is everyone who makes the demand that he is outside the law. I do not mean that all these people are conscious of their fundamental hostility to the democratic idea. I have listened to a labor leader with the mentality of a medieval robber baron argue in the same breath that might was right and that his union should be outside the law and that the voice of the people must prevail, though I could not help suspecting him of mentally spelling people with a capital P. But let us state this idea again in different ways so that we may see it in some of its bearings and see if we really are wholehearted supporters of it ourselves. First the easy question: Is the power of a gov ernment whether it be an individual or a committee of some sort-a cabinet-derived directly from God or indirectly through the will of the people? We can all answer that. Do we believe that the laws of a nation interpreted by its judges constitutes the supreme earthly power over man's conduct and that before the law governors and governed are equal, subject to its provisions, controlled by its statutes? And believing do we all so conduct ourselves? Do we believe neither wealth nor fame nor influence nor social position diminishes the utter subordination of their happy owners to the law? Do we believe neither poverty nor weakness nor friendliness increases the unfortunate's subjection to the law? Or again can we say this: Do we believe that knowingly to break the law is the great crime against society? The state is truly the commonwealth. If its service so requires my house and lands, my wealth, my life are now and always freely at its disposal. Or this: Except though the law I have nothing; except through the law I am nothing. Can we go further and say the law marks merely the line which separates conduct which may be good or bad from conduct which is so bad that society has to take active steps to discipline offenders, that merely not to break the law is not the whole duty of man to the society which protects and nurtures him from the cradle to the grave. If we believe all these things and practice them we are moving on in the direction which I believe to be the only hopeful one-the direction in which humanity must pass to escape from the hopeless treadmill of the millenniums with their wearying repetition of struggle, some prosperity, war, slaughter, chaos and struggle again. Theocracy and autocracy forceful application of the big idea, inevitably leads to inequality before the law and so to tyranny, revolution, and chaos or to decadence conquest and chaos. That way lies no hope. ANNOUNCING 1920 New Third Edition OF WATKINS ON Shippers and Carriers of Interstate and By EDGAR WATKINS Sometime Attorney-Examiner Interstate Commerce Commission A Treatise on: Interstate Commerce Law, Practice and Procedure, Interstate and Intrastate Commerce, Duties and Obligations of Carriers under the Common Law and under the Federal Statutes, Principles of Rate Making, The Transporation Act of 1920. The Bill of Lading Act, The Adamson Eight Hour Law, as affected by the Transportation Act of 1920, The Federal Trade Commission Act, The Shipping Bill, The Conference Rulings. All the Federal Statutes governing the Subject of Interstate Transportation. Two Volumes 1920 $18.00 Delivered Published and For Sale by THE HARRISON COMPANY ATLANTA, GEORGIA LAW BOOK PUBLISHERS Let the Bolsheviki and their supporters in all Important to Corporations lands prate as they will of reactionaries and imperialists. They themselves are the reactionaries. Their admitted doctrine is to establish a privileged class which they call the proletariat but they mean by that term a select body of their own supporters. Their whole creed is to force on society a great idea which has been revealed to them and to them alone and like it or dislike it, society is to swallow it whole-and that is nothing but pure theocracy. But remember that in the theocratic theory might is right because it is divine and apply that remembrance to the position of affairs today. But let us not forget that though the Bolshevik creed is one of reaction, there are others who in their hearts believe almost exactly what the Bolsheviki believe though they pass as good democrats-people who claim privilege on account of birth or wealth. We have in fact to maintain the heritage of freedom against assault from within and without, the priceless heritage of a great idea conceived by the Nordic people and slowly and painfully brought into practice in workable form in England, then brought here and developed and strengthened then passed to British dominions, then transplanted into countries that never have understood it and though at each transplantation it has been modified, its original catchwords have spread far and wide. Its superficial glamour has dazzled many misunderstanding eyes. It is now in danger from its popularity. Even its enemies try to conceal their actions behind its phrases. Whatever difficulties might arise between our nations, I believe that nothing is more important than this, that you and we stand together to defend the hard-won hope of mankind that through law made by the people for their own disciplining man will at last escape from the toils that have snared the feet of his ancestors and will have taken a great stride towards the solution of the problem of how he with his physical weaknesses and his mental strength shall live in communities in peace and ordered freedom one with the other. Our nations are co-trustees for humanity that the theory and practice of democracy shall not suffer distortion or diminution in spite of avalanches of assaults loosed upon it by its enemies, but all who desire to benefit humanity through some great idea of incalculable good, by all who as individuals seek for themselves privileges over their fellows and deny the quality of man before the law. But let us also remember that in a real democracy, the law merely marks the line at which society must forcibly punish, to save itself from disintegration and that democratically made laws can never hope to set the standard of life at which good citizens must aim. Each must find his star within the recesses of his own being for it is the great strength of the democratic practice of government that it sets no bounds to upward movement, it lays down no code of morals, it guarantees freedom to each though it says sternly to the wreckers, "Transgress and you will be punished." The spring of the upward movement in democracy is in religion, not in law, and that must ever be for "The children of this world are wiser in their generat' on than the children of light." 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 1st 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 ofce 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 an annual fee for attending to this service, which ought not to be less than $10. nor more than $25 per annum. Noglect in attending to this matter may deprive you of the right to do business in some desirable territory or to bring sult 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 & FLORIDA-Salem K. David, 401 Law Ex- Point. IOWA-B. J. Cavanagh, Fleming Bldg., KANSAS-O. W. Weber, Bank of Hering- MASSACHUSETTS-Bernard A. Doherty, NEW YORK-Lester T. Hubbard, 37 A Dozen Better Collection Plans From 12 Concerns' Successful Experiences in Collecting Overdue Accounts. With Money Getting By NORBERT A. WAGNER (In "System" Magazine.) In looking over the bills that his customers owed, the collection manager came across an account that had been outstanding for over seven months. He went over all the statements and letters he had sent this man. They were all friendly. The debtor could have taken no offense at any of them. Then why didn't he pay? There was apparently no reason for it. Yet the bill was grossly overdue and the money hadn't come in. So the collection man decided to write the customer a letter that would "make him feel so cheap he would come across right away." Whether he ever wrote the letter or not is a question. But if he did, was he right in doing so? Would the customer pay his bill simply because the collection manager had made him feel cheap? He might; but ten chances to one, after he had read the letter, he would put off paying his bill until he got good and ready to do so. Whose fault was the whole situation? The customer bought the goods; and he should have paid for then when the amount fell due. But maybe he couldn't. Perhaps unforeseen financial troubles prevented his straightening up the account. Or maybe he was simply letting this account run on because it was easier to stave off such a genial collector. How Can You Collect Firmly Without Arousing When a bill isn't met promptly, it all falls back on the collection manager and his letters. And the question that the harassed credit man wants answered is, "How can I write collection letters that will bring in the cash without arousing the customer's ill will?" One successful plan is based on the theory that human interest is the biggest single aid in collecting money. The man who uses this plan believes that the customer will pay his bill promptly if he is treated with the same courtesy and consideration as the credit man himself expects to receive from his creditors. A little device of his is to write across a slip of paper attached to the top of every overdue bill he sends out to his customers: "Dollars are worth so little today I am sure you will not mind sending me the few you owe. The customer inevitably notices the note the minute he opens the envelop. "This little device has done more good in collecting accounts for me than an ordinary dun ning letter possibly could," declares this executive out of his experience. Perhaps it has a personal touch that is usually lacking in the average collection letter. But whatever the reason is, it seems to make the customer feel that he should do all he possibly can to straighten up his ac count. That a heart-to-heart talk with the customer about his bill will do more good than a hundred formal statements or letters, is the belief, founded on hard-headed experience, of the credit man of one middle western concern. The customer is only human in his ability to withstand logical argument, he declares, and the executive who writes to him as a human being, in a man-to-man way, instead of sending him a piece of paper with a mere statement of his account on it, is going to get more than a mathematically proportionate share of any money that is available for creditors. In contrast with this method just described is a plan that another executive uses with good results. This man never puts a signature on his collection letters; just the firm's name and address. He says his experience has been that when a customer receives a collection letter with a personal signature on it, he usually holds the signature responsible for the "sting" that he may feel the letter carries. "A great many people," he says, "have an abhorrence of even a polite letter reminding them that they have failed to pay their bills. They resent it, no matter how courteously the letter is worded, and if it has an individual signature on it, they think that someone in the concern has a grudge against them and likes to hound the life out of them about their bills. When only the firm's name is used, the customer is less likely to get the impression that the writer is injecting his personality into the letter." Another collection plan that effectively produces worth-while results, consists of writing a friendly letter to all those customers who, for some reason or other, have neglected to settle their accounts at the time they became due. The following is a sample of one of the letters: "If it is not convenient for you to pay your account in full, we shall deeply appreciate it if you can help us out with a payment of whatever you can spare at present. We do not want to dun you, and if you can't pay just now, pay no attention |