1. Am I to understand that no other foods than those you mention contain these vitamines?
2. Are all the classes of vitamines necessary to life and will a child fed on foods containing all the known vitamines be better conditioned than one fed on only one kind?
I shall greatly appreciate your answering my questions. The members of the club have shown surprising interest in this matter of food.
Yours sincerely,
Mabel Manners.
New York, N. Y.,
June 15, 1922.
The Prentiss Candy Co.,
Long Island City, N. Y.
Gentlemen:
The Better Food Magazine, to which I am a contributor, has asked me to make an investigation of the manufacture of the most widely advertised foods, with a view to writing an article on foods for the magazine.
I should like if possible to talk with someone and to make a short visit to the factory. If you can arrange an appointment for me during the next week, will you let me know? I shall greatly appreciate it.
Very truly yours,
(Miss) Vera Henderson.
Answers to letters of inquiry
THE PRENTISS CANDY CO.
LONG ISLAND CITY, N. Y.
June 17, 1922.
Miss Vera Henderson,
128 East Forty-Sixth Street,
New York, N. Y.
Dear Madam:
We have your letter of 15th June and we shall be glad to give you any assistance in our power.
If you will call at the factory office next week on Tuesday the 22nd or Wednesday the 23rd and present the enclosed card to Mr. Jones, you will get all the information you desire.
Very truly yours,
(Handwritten) B. J. Clark,
The Prentiss Candy Co.
PINE GROVE LODGE, STANTON, N. Y.
ABSOLUTELY FIREPROOF OPEN ALL THE YEAR
THE FINEST RESORT HOTEL IN THE COUNTRY
May 6, 1921.
Mr. Charles Keith,
4000 Madison Ave.,
New York, N. Y.
Dear Sir:
We have your letter of May 4th and in answer we are enclosing some of our descriptive literature.
We can offer you absolute comfort together with an almost matchless environment in the points of beauty and of suitability for all sports.
Our rates are on the American plan. We have the finest American plan kitchen and table anywhere. We enclose a menu. Our single rooms with private bath are $50, $62, and $70 per week up for one person. Rooms without bath, but with hot and cold running water and adjacent to bath are $45 per week. Double rooms with private bath and furnished with two single beds are $95, $105, and $115 per week up for two persons. Rooms for two without bath are $80 per week. These rates hold until September 1st.
The difference in rates is caused by the size and location of rooms, but every room is furnished with taste and care. The decorations have been carefully thought out. There are no undesirable rooms at the Lodge and every room is an outside room. Those on the east overlook the 120-acre golf course with a magnificent view of the mountains, and those on the west front the wooded slopes of Sunset Mountain.
Stanton affords the greatest combination of scenery, health-giving climate, and facilities for enjoyment. Add to this the comforts and luxuries of a modern hotel such as Pine Grove Lodge and the result is perfect.
We feel quite sure you will find a visit here restful or lively—as you will. One of the attractions of the place is its facilities for occupying oneself in one's own way. We shall be glad to make reservation for you at any time or to answer any further inquiries.
Yours very truly,
Pine Grove Lodge.
If you should receive an inquiry for advice, opinion, or information, which you do not care, for some reason, to give, you should at least reply stating that you cannot comply with the request, in as courteous a manner as possible.
A considerable part of the day's run of correspondence in a business office has to do with not more than half-a-dozen subjects. Quotations will be asked for. Tenders will be made. Complaints will be made and received. Adjustments of various kinds will be done, and so on, through a list that varies with the particular business of the office. It is advisable to keep the tone of correspondence on a fairly uniform level. Therefore if each letter has to be individually dictated, only a man mentally equipped to write letters can do the dictating. The time of such a man is expensive and often might better be devoted to other matters. Hence the invention of what is known as a form paragraph, which is a standardized paragraph that can be used with slight variations as a section of a great many letters.
The result is that most routine mail does not have to be dictated. A letter is merely read, the essential facts dictated or noted on the letter itself, and certain symbols added which tell the stenographer the form paragraphs that are to be used. The letter is then almost mechanically produced. Some companies have gone so extensively into the writing of form paragraphs that they have sections covering practically every subject that can arise. This possibly carrying the idea too far. Convenience may become inconvenience, and there is of course always the danger of getting in a slightly unsuitable paragraph which will reveal to the reader that the letter has not been personally dictated. However, a certain number of form paragraphs considerably reduces the cost of letter writing and also conduces to the raising of the standards, for the mere reading of well-phrased form letters will often induce in an otherwise poor correspondent a certain regard for clear expression.
The proper form paragraphs that any concern may profitably use are a matter of specific investigation. The way to get at the list of useful forms is to take all of the letters received and all of the letters written during, say, one or two months and then classify them. A number of letters will have to do with purely individual cases. These letters should be discarded. They are letters which would have to be personally dictated in any event and there is no use wasting time composing forms for them. The remaining letters will fall into divisions, and through these divisions it will become apparent what points in the correspondence arise so frequently and in so nearly the same form as to be capable of being expressed in form paragraphs.
There will probably be a number of subjects which can be covered fully by two or three form letters, but a nicer adjustment will usually be had by thinking of form paragraphs rather than of form letters, for skillfully drawn and skillfully used form paragraphs will so closely simulate the personal letter as to leave no doubt in the mind of the reader that considerable trouble has been taken to put the matter before him courteously and exactly.
Children's letters may be written on ordinary stationery, but it adds a good deal of interest to their letter writing if they may use some of the several pretty, special styles to be had at any good stationer's.
The following examples of children's letters include:
Letter of invitation from a child to a child.
Letter of invitation from a parent to a child.
Letter from a parent to a parent inviting a child.
Letter of thanks to an aunt for a gift.
Letter to a sick playmate.
Letter to a teacher.
Letter to a grandmother on her birthday.
Invitation to a birthday party
April 14, 1921.
Dear Frank:
I am going to have a birthday party next Friday afternoon, from three-thirty until six o'clock. I hope you will come and help us to have a good time.
Sincerely yours,
Harriet Evans.
500 Park Avenue
439 Manhattan Avenue,
April 16, 1921.
Dear Harriet:
It is so kind of you to ask me to your birthday party next Friday afternoon. I shall be very glad to come.
Sincerely yours,
Frank Dawson.
Regretting
439 Manhattan Avenue,
April 16, 1921.
Dear Harriet:
I am very sorry that I cannot go to your birthday party on next Friday. My mother is taking me to visit my cousin, so I shall be away.
Thank you for asking me. I hope you will all have a great deal of fun.
Sincerely yours,
Frank Dawson.
Invitation from a parent to a child
Dear Ethel:
The twins are going to have a little party on Friday afternoon and they would like you to come. Can you come at three-thirty?
Tell your mother we will arrange that you get home at six.
Cordially yours,
Katherine G. Evans.
From a parent to another parent
Dear Mrs. Heywood:
Dorothy will have a birthday on Tuesday, the thirteenth of June. We are planning, if the weather is fine, to have a lawn party. Otherwise we shall have it in the house. She hopes that you will let Madeline come and I am sure they will all have a good time.
If you send Madeline at four I will see that she returns home at six.
Cordially yours,
Bernice Lawson Grant.
To a friend
Bellville,
Lancaster County, Pa.,
June 14, 1922.
Dear Bob:
Will you visit us on the farm during your summer vacation? Father has bought me a boat and we can go fishing and swimming. Mabel has a pony and I know she will let us ride him.
Please let me know if you may come and if you may stay two weeks.
Sincerely yours,
Roger Palmer.
Thanks for a gift:
159 West Tenth Street.
December 12, 1921.
Dear Aunt Louise:
You were wonderful to think of sending me those fine skates for my birthday. They are just the kind I wanted and I wish to thank you. I shall take good care of them.
Your affectionate nephew,
John Orr.
46 Elmwood Avenue,
June 16, 1922.
Dear Dorothy:
I am so sorry you are ill, but your mother says you are getting better. If you like, I shall let you have my book with the poem called "The Land of Counterpane." It is about a sick little boy who is playing with his toy soldiers and people and villages. In the picture they seem to be making him forget he is sick.
All the boys and girls hope you will soon be out to play again.
Sincerely yours,
Betty Foster.
To a teacher
500 Park Avenue,
New York, N. Y.,
February 8, 1920.
Dear Miss Sewell:
I want to thank you for your kindness in helping me with my studies, especially arithmetic. Without your help I should not have been able to pass my examinations.
Mother asks that you will come some day next week to take tea with us.
Sincerely yours,
Susan Evans.
To a grandparent
Dear Grandmother:
I wish you a very happy birthday and I hope you will like the present I sent you. Mother helped me to make it.
I send you my best love.
Your loving grandchild,
Evelyn.
Here is a charming letter[17] that Helen Keller when she was ten years of age wrote to John Greenleaf Whittier on the occasion of his birthday:
South Boston, Dec. 17, 1890.
Dear Kind Poet,
This is your birthday; that was the first thought which came into my mind when I awoke this morning; and it made me glad to think I could write you a letter and tell you how much your little friends love their sweet poet and his birthday. This evening they are going to entertain their friends with readings from your poems and music. I hope the swift winged messengers of love will be here to carry some of the sweet melody to you, in your little study by the Merrimac. At first I was very sorry when I found that the sun had hidden his shining face behind dull clouds, but afterwards I thought why he did it, and then I was happy. The sun knows that you like to see the world covered with beautiful white snow and so he kept back all his brightness, and let the little crystals form in the sky. When they are ready, they will softly fall and tenderly cover every object. Then the sun will appear in all his radiance and fill the world with light. If I were with you to-day I would give you eighty-three kisses, one for each year you have lived. Eighty-three years seems very long to me. Does it seem long to you? I wonder how many years there will be in eternity. I am afraid I cannot think about so much time. I received the letter which you wrote to me last summer, and I thank you for it. I am staying in Boston now at the Institution for the Blind, but I have not commenced my studies yet, because my dearest friend, Mr. Anagnos, wants me to rest and play a great deal.
Teacher is well and sends her kind remembrance to you. The happy Christmas time is almost here! I can hardly wait for the fun to begin! I hope your Christmas Day will be a very happy one and that the New Year will be full of brightness and joy for you and every one.
From your little friend
Helen A. Keller.
[17] This and the letter following are from "The Story of My Life," by Helen Keller. Copyright, 1902, 1903, by Helen Keller. Published in book form by Doubleday, Page & Co.
And the distinguished poet's reply:
My dear Young Friend:
I was very glad to have such a pleasant letter on my birthday. I had two or three hundred others and thine was one of the most welcome of all. I must tell thee about how the day passed at Oak Knoll. Of course the sun did not shine, but we had great open wood fires in the rooms, which were all very sweet with roses and other flowers, which were sent to me from distant friends; and fruits of all kinds from California and other places. Some relatives and dear old friends were with me through the day. I do not wonder thee thinks eighty-three years a long time, but to me it seems but a very little while since I was a boy no older than thee, playing on the old farm at Haverhill. I thank thee for all thy good wishes, and wish thee as many. I am glad thee is at the Institution; it is an excellent place. Give my best regards to Miss Sullivan, and with a great deal of love I am
Thy old friend,
John G. Whittier.
Perhaps the most important thing to guard against in the writing of telegrams is a choice of words which, when run together, may be read two ways. As there should be no punctuation (and telegraph companies do not hold themselves responsible for punctuation) the sentences must be perfectly clear. There are instances where the use of punctuation has caused trouble.
In cases where punctuation is absolutely necessary, as for instance when more than one subject must be covered in the same message, the word "stop" is employed to divide the sentences, as:
Will arrive eight-thirty Wednesday stop telephone Gaines am coming stop will be at Hotel Pennsylvania
Therefore write sentences so that when they are run together there is only one interpretation.
Use no salutation or complimentary closing. Leave out all words that are not necessary to the meaning. Omit first-person pronouns where they are sure to be understood. Do not divide words in a telegram. Compound words are accepted as one word. Numbers should be spelled out, principally because it is more likely to insure correct transmission, and secondly because it costs less. For example, in the ordinal 24th the suffix th is counted as another word.
The minimum charge for telegrams is the cost of ten words, not counting the name, address, and signature. Nothing is saved by cutting the message to less than ten words. There is a certain fixed rate of charge for every word over ten.
In counting the words, count as one word the following:
| I— | Every word in the name of an individual or a concern as: Clive and Meyer Co. (four words) DeForest and Washburn Co. (four words also, as DeForest is counted as one word). |
| II— | Every dictionary word. In the case of cablegrams, words of over fifteen letters are counted as two words. |
| III— | Every separate letter as the "M" in "George M. Sykes" (three words). |
| IV— | Every figure in a number as 598 (three words). |
| V— | Names of states, territories, counties, cities, and villages. |
| VI— | Weights and measures, decimal points, punctuation marks within the sentence. |
To save expense in long messages codes can be used in which one word stands for several words. The Western Union has an established code—or private codes can be arranged. Five letters are allowed as one code word. A word of six or seven letters will thus count as two words.
In cablegrams the use of codes is common on account of the higher rate for cablegrams. Since the name, address, date, and signature are all counted, code words are frequently used for the name and address. Code language is allowed only in the first class of cable messages.
A graceful, concise, pertinent, and well-worded "occasional" telegram is frequently not easy to write. The following forms are suggested for the composition of some of these telegrams. The longer forms can be sent most cheaply as Night Letters or Day Letters. A Night Letter of fifty words can be sent for the cost of a ten-word full-rate telegram, i.e., from 30 cents to $1.20, depending on the distance. A Day Letter of fifty words can be sent for one and one half the cost of a ten-word full-rate message, i.e., from 45 cents to $1.80, depending on the distance.
New Year greetings
Best wishes for the New Year. May it bring to you and your family health, happiness, peace, and prosperity. May it see your hopes fulfilled and may it be rich in the successful accomplishment of your highest aims.
Best wishes for a Happy New Year.
May peace and happiness be yours in the New Year. May fortune smile upon you and favor you with many blessings.
I (We) wish you a Happy New Year, a year big with success and achievement, a year rich with the affection of those who are dear to you, a year mellow with happiness and contentment.
What the coming year may hold we can none of us foresee. It is my (our) earnest wish that for you it may bring forth a generous harvest of happiness and good fortune.
May the coming year and all that succeed it deal lightly and kindly with you.
May the coming year bring you happiness in fullest measure.
We think of you with the affection born of our long friendship which the recurring year only strengthens.
May the New Year bring you health, happiness, and all other good things.
Health, happiness, and contentment, may these be yours in the New Year.
May health, happiness, and prosperity be yours in bountiful measure in the year to come.
May the New Year be a good year to you and yours—full of health and happiness.
May each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the New Year be a happy one for you.
The happiest of New Years to you and yours.
May the New Year find you in the enjoyment of health and happiness.
Easter greetings
Our thoughts turn to you with affection and best wishes at this Easter season with the hope that peace, prosperity, and plenty may attend your life to-day and through all your days to come.
Easter Greeting from a friend who thinks of you with constant affection.
This Easter Greeting carries to you the affection of an old friend.
May this Easter Day find you in the enjoyment of health and happiness.
Best wishes for a happy Easter.
Best wishes for a happy Easter Day. May your future ever be as bright as the Springtime.
Just a message to a friend, to convey to you my wish that this Easter may bring you happiness and good fortune.
May Easter gladness fill your heart to-day and may all good attend you.
I (We) Wish you joy and happiness at this Eastertide.
May happiness and health be yours on this Easter Day and in the days to come.
We all join in best wishes for a happy Easter Day to you and your family.
Easter Greetings to you and yours.
May your Easter be a bright and happy one.
We all wish you and yours a happy Easter.
Love and best wishes for a happy Easter.
My (Our) Easter Greetings go to you. May the day be a joyful one for you.
Thanksgiving Day greetings
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving Day.
Good cheer and plenty, the love of your dear ones, the affection of your friends, may all these contribute to a happy Thanksgiving Day.
May your Thanksgiving Day be a day of happiness and contentment.
May your Thanksgiving Day be full of happiness and all good cheer.
That I am (we are) not at home to-day to join in the festivities is a great sorrow to me (us). Love to all the dear family.
I never forget the joy of this day at home. Love from one far away.
Although I (we) cannot be with you to-day I (we) have the memory of past Thanksgiving Days at home. God bless you all.
Think of me (us) as being with you in spirit. My (Our) love to you all.
Let us never fail to be thankful that the years only increase the strength of our long friendship.
It is with great thanksgiving that I (we) think of my (our) dear ones at home.
My (Our) one wish this Thanksgiving Day is that I (we) might be with you. Affectionate wishes for your happiness.
Though I (we) cannot be with you at the Thanksgiving Day board, my (our) thoughts are with you to-day.
Around the family table think of me (us) as I (we) absent, shall think of you. My (Our) love to all.
I (We) can picture you all at home. How I (we) long to be with you. My (Our) love to all the family.
Christmas greetings
Every good wish for a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. I need not tell you with what affection we are thinking of you and yours at this Christmas season. God bless you all.
Every good wish for a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
My (Our) very best wishes for a Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
May your Christmas be a very happy one.
Merry Christmas to you and all the family.
We all join in wishing you a Merry Christmas.
All affection and good wishes for a Merry Christmas to you and yours.
That your Christmas be a very happy one is the wish of your sincere friend.
May Christmas bring you joy and happiness.
You are constantly in my (our) thoughts which carry to you to-day all affectionate wishes for a Happy Christmas.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Love and a Merry Christmas to you all.
May your Christmas be a merry one and the New Year full of happiness.
Affectionate greetings for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
May this Christmas find you well and happy. Love and best wishes to you and yours.
May Christmas bring you naught but joy and banish all care and sorrow.
—— joins me in very best wishes for a Merry Christmas.
A Merry Christmas to all the dear ones at home.
It is my (our) dearest wish that I (we) might be with you at this season of happiness and good-will—Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Birthday greetings
Many happy returns of the day. My (Our) affectionate thoughts and every good wish go to you on this your birthday.
May each succeeding year bring to you the best satisfaction which life holds.
Many happy returns of the day.
Best wishes for a happy birthday.
Best wishes for your birthday. May all your ways be pleasant ways and all your days be happy days.
Birthday greetings. I (We) wish you a long life and everything that makes a long life worth living.
Best wishes for your birthday. May you live long and prosper.
My (Our) thoughts are with you on your birthday. May all your days be happy days.
I (We) wish you many happy years blessed with health, success, and friendship and filled with all the best that life can hold.
We all join in best wishes for a very happy birthday and many years of health and prosperity.
We all join in best wishes for a very happy birthday.
May your birthday mark the dawn of a year of health, happiness, and good fortune.
Wedding messages
Sincerest congratulations to the bride and groom from an old friend who wishes you both years of health, happiness, and prosperity. May the future hold only the best for you that this world can give.
Heartiest congratulations. I (We) wish you many years of happiness.
Mrs. —— and I join in heartiest congratulations.
Hearty congratulations. May your years be many and happy ones.
My (Our) sincerest and best wishes for your happiness.
We all join in hearty congratulations and best wishes.
May happiness, health, and prosperity be with you through the years to come.
May all good fortune attend you, may your sky ever be bright, may no clouds of sorrow or trouble shadow it, and may your path be long and filled with joy.
Every happiness be yours dear —— on this your Wedding Day.
Let an old family friend send his (her) love and congratulations to the bride and groom.
May all good fairies watch over you. May they keep far from you all care and sorrow and brighten your path with sunshine and happiness.
To the bride and groom, love and congratulations from an old friend.
May this day be the beginning of a long, happy, and prosperous life for you both.
On the birth of a child
Love to the dear mother and her little son (daughter).
Heartiest congratulations and love to mother and son (daughter).
We rejoice with you in the happiness that has come into your lives. Love to mother and son (daughter).
My best wishes to the newly arrived son (daughter) and to his (her) mother.
We are all (I am) delighted to hear the news. Hearty congratulations.
A warm welcome to the new arrival and best wishes for his (her) health and happiness.
To the dear mother and her little son (daughter) love and every good wish.
Hearty congratulations on the arrival of the new son (daughter).
Messages of condolence
You have my heartfelt sympathy in this hour of your bereavement. I wish I might find words in which to express my sorrow at your loss which is also mine. May you have the strength to bear this great affliction.
You have my (our) heartfelt sympathy.
My (Our) heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow.
I (We) want you to know with what tender sympathy I am (We are) thinking of you in these days of your bereavement.
My (Our) sincere and heartfelt sympathy.
I (We) have just heard of your great affliction. Let me (us) send to you my (our) heartfelt sympathy.
My (Our) sincere sympathy.
In the death of your dear father (mother—wife—sister—brother) I (we) have lost one whom it was my (our) privilege to call my (our) friend. My (our) heartfelt sympathy goes out to you in your sorrow.
—— joins me in the expression of our deepest sympathy.
My (Our) love and sympathy go out to you in your great sorrow.
I (We) share your sorrow for I (we) have lost a dear friend. All love and sympathy to you and yours.
I (We) send you my (our) heartfelt sympathy. To have enjoyed the friendship of your father (husband—brother) I (we) hold one of the greatest privileges of my life (our lives).
My (Our) sincere sympathy goes out to you in your heavy affliction.
My (Our) love and sympathy in your sudden affliction.
I am (We are) greatly shocked at the sad news. You have my (our) deepest sympathy.
My (Our) deepest sympathy in your great loss. If there is anything I (we) can do, do not hesitate to let me (us) know.
Congratulation to a school or college graduate
May your future be as successful as have been your school (college) days. Heartiest congratulations upon your graduation.
I am (We are) proud of your success. May the future grant you opportunity and the fulfillment of your hopes.
I (We) hear that you have taken class honors. Sincerest congratulations and best wishes.
May your Class Day be favored with sunny skies and your life be full of happiness and success.
Sincerest congratulations upon your graduation.
Congratulations upon your school (college) success, so happily terminated to-day.
I (We) regret that I (we) cannot be with you to-day to see you take your new honors. Sincerest congratulations.
Congratulation to a public man
Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.
We have just heard of your success. Sincere congratulations and best wishes for the future.
Heartiest congratulations on your nomination (election).
Your nomination (election) testifies to the esteem in which you are held by your fellow citizens. Heartiest congratulations.
Congratulations on your victory, a hard fight, well won by the best man.
Your splendid majority must be a great satisfaction to you. Sincerest congratulations on your election.
Congratulations upon your nomination. You will have the support of the best element in the community and your election should be a foregone conclusion. I wish you every success.
You fought a good fight in a good cause. Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.
Nothing in your career should fill you with greater satisfaction than your successful election. I congratulate you with all my heart.
No man deserves success more than you. You have worked hard for your constituents and they appreciate it. Heartiest congratulations.
Your nomination (election) is received with the greatest enthusiasm by your friends here and by none more than myself. Heartiest congratulations.
I congratulate you upon your new honors won by distinguished services to your fellow citizens.
Your campaign was vigorous and fine. Your victory testifies to the people's confidence in you and your cause. Warmest congratulations.
Congratulations upon your well-won victory and best wishes for your future success.
You deserve your splendid success. Sincerest congratulations.
I cannot refrain from expressing my personal appreciation of your eloquent address. Warmest congratulations.
Your address last night was splendid. What a gift you have. Sincerest congratulations.
Heartiest congratulations on your splendid speech of last night. Everybody is praising it.
There are forty-eight states in this Union, and each of them has its own laws and courts. In addition we have the Federal Government with its own laws and courts. In one class of cases, the Federal courts follow the state laws which govern the particular occasion; in another class of cases, notably in those involving the interpretation or application of the United States statutes, the Federal courts follow Federal law. There is not even a degree of uniformity governing the state laws, and especially is this true in criminal actions, for crimes are purely statutory creations.
Therefore it is extremely misleading to give any but the vaguest and most elementary suggestions on the law which governs letters. To be clear and specific means inevitably to be misleading. I was talking with a lawyer friend not long since about general text-books on law which might be useful to the layman. He was rather a commercially minded person and he spoke fervently:
"If I wanted to build up a practice and I did not care how I did it, I should select one hundred well-to-do people and see that each of them got a copy of a compendium of business law. Then I should sit back and wait for them to come in—and come in they would, for every mother's son of them would decide that he had a knowledge of the law and cheerfully go ahead getting himself into trouble."
Sharpen up a man's knowledge of the law and he is sure to cut himself. For the law is rarely absolute. Most questions are of mixed fact and law. Were it otherwise, there would be no occasion for juries, for, roughly, juries decide facts. The court decides the application of the law. The layman tends to think that laws are rules, when more often they are only guides. The cheapest and best way to decide points of law is to refer them to counsel for decision. Unless a layman will take the time and the trouble most exhaustively to read works of law and gain something in the nature of a working legal knowledge, he had best take for granted that he knows nothing whatsoever of law and refer all legal matters to counsel.
There are, however, a few principles of general application that may serve, not in the stead of legal knowledge, but to acquaint one with the fact that a legal question may be involved, for legal questions by no means always formally present themselves in barristers' gowns. They spring up casually and unexpectedly.
Take the whole question of contract. A contract is not of necessity a formal instrument. A contract is a meeting of minds. If I say to a man: "Will you cut my lawn for ten dollars?" and he answers, "Yes," as valid a contract is established as though we had gone to a scrivener and had covered a folio of parchment with "Whereases" and "Know all men by these presents" and "Be it therefore" and had wound up with red seals and ribbons. But of course many legal questions could spring out of this oral agreement. We might dispute as to what was meant by cutting the lawn. And then, again, the time element would enter. Was the agreement that the lawn should be cut the next day, or the next month, or the next year? Contracts do not have to be in writing. All that the writing does is to make the proof of the exact contract easier.
If we have the entirety of a contract within the four corners of a sheet of paper, then we need no further evidence as to the existence of the contract, although we may be in just as hopeless a mess trying to define what the words of the contract mean. If we have not a written contract, we have the bother of introducing oral evidence to show that there was a contract. Most contracts nowadays are formed by the interchange of letters, and the general point to remember is that the acceptance must be in terms of the offer. If X writes saying: "I will sell you twenty tons of coal at fifteen dollars a ton," and Y replies: "I will take thirty tons of coal at thirteen dollars a ton," there is no contract, but merely a series of offers. If, however, X ships the thirty tons of coal, he can hold Y only at thirteen dollars a ton for he has abandoned his original offer and accepted Y's offer. It can be taken as a general principle that if an offer be not accepted in its terms and a new condition be introduced, then the acceptance really becomes an offer, and if the one who made the original offer goes ahead, it can be assumed that he has agreed to the modifications of the unresponsive acceptance. If X writes to Y making an offer, one of the conditions of which is that it must be accepted within ten days, and Y accepts in fifteen days, then X can, if he likes, disregard the acceptance, but he can waive his ten-day time limit and take Y's acceptance as a really binding agreement.
Another point, sometimes of considerable importance, concerns the time when a letter takes effect, and this is governed by the question of fact as to whom the Post Office Department is acting for. If, in making an offer, I ask for a reply by mail or simply for a reply, I constitute the mail as my agent, and the acceptor of that offer will be presumed to have communicated with me at the moment when he consigns his letter to the mails. He must give the letter into proper custody—that is, it must go into the regular and authorized channels for the reception of mail. That done, it makes no difference whether or not the letter ever reaches the offerer. It has been delivered to his agent, and delivery to an agent is delivery to the principal. Therefore, it is wise to specify in an offer that the acceptance has to be actually received.
The law with respect to the agency of the mails varies and turns principally upon questions of fact.
Letters may, of course, be libelous. The law of libel varies widely among the several states, and there are also Federal laws as well as Postal Regulations covering matters which are akin to libel. The answer to libel is truth, but not always, for sometimes the truth may be spread with so malicious an intent as to support an action. It is not well to put into a letter any derogatory or subversive statement that cannot be fully proved. This becomes of particular importance in answering inquiries concerning character or credit, but in practically every case libel is a question of fact.
Another point that arises concerns the property in a letter. Does he who receives a letter acquire full property in it? May he publish it without permission? In general he does not acquire full property. Mr. Justice Story, in a leading case, says:
"The author of any letter or letters, and his representatives, whether they are literary letters or letters of business, possess the sole and exclusive copyright therein; and no person, neither those to whom they are addressed, nor other persons, have any right or authority to publish the same upon their own account or for their benefit."
But then, again, there are exceptions.
Discovering the exact cost of a letter is by no means an easy affair. However, approximate figures may always be had and they are extremely useful. The cost of writing an ordinary letter is quite surprising. Very few letters can be dictated, transcribed, and mailed at a cost of much less than twelve cents each. The factors which govern costs are variable and it is to be borne in mind that the methods for ascertaining costs as here given represent the least cost and not the real cost—they simply tell you "Your letter costs at least this sum." They do not say "Your letter costs exactly this sum." The cost of a form letter, mailed in quantities, can be gotten at with considerable accuracy. The cost of letters dictated by correspondents or by credit departments or other routine departments is also capable of approximation with fair accuracy, but the cost of a letter written by an executive can really hardly be more than guessed at. But in any case a "not-less-than" cost can be had.
In recent years industrial engineers have done a great deal of work in ascertaining office costs and have devised many useful plans for lowering them. These plans mostly go to the saving of stenographers' time through suitable equipment, better arrangement of supplies, and specialization of duties. For instance, light, the kind or height of chair or desk, the tension of the typewriter, the location of the paper and carbon paper, all tend to make or break the efficiency of the typist and are cost factors. In offices where a great deal of routine mail is handled, the writing of the envelopes and the mailing is in the hands of a separate department of specialists with sealing and stamp affixing machines. The proper planning of a correspondence department is a science in itself, and several good books exist on the subject. But all of this has to do with the routine letter.
When an executive drawing a high salary must write a letter, it is his time and not the time of the stenographer that counts. He cannot be kept waiting for a stenographer, and hence it is economy for him to have a personal secretary even if he does not write enough letters to keep a single machine busy through more than a fraction of a day. Many busy men do not dictate letters at all; they have secretaries skilled in letter writing. In fact, a man whose salary exceeds thirty thousand dollars a year cannot afford to write a letter excepting on a very important subject. He will commonly have a secretary who can write the letter after only a word or two indicating the subject matter. Part of the qualification of a good secretary is an ability to compose letters which are characteristic of the principal.
Take first the cost of a circular letter—one that is sent out in quantities without any effort to secure a personal effect. The items of cost are:
(1) The postage.
(2) The paper and printing.
(3) The cost of addressing, sealing, stamping, and mailing.
The third item is the only one that offers any difficulty. Included in it are first the direct labor—the wages of the human beings employed; and, second, the overhead expense. The second item includes the value of the space occupied by the letter force, the depreciation on the equipment, and finally the supervision and the executive expense properly chargeable to the department. Unless an accurate cost system is in force the third item cannot be accurately calculated. The best that can be done is to take the salaries of the people actually employed on the work and guess at the proper charge for the space. The sum of the three items divided by the number of letters is the cost per letter. It is not an accurate cost. It will be low rather than high, for probably the full share of overhead expense will not be charged.
It will be obvious, however, that the place to send out circular letters is not a room in a high-priced office building, unless the sending is an occasional rather than a steady practice. Costs in this work are cut by better planning of the work and facilities, setting work standards, paying a bonus in excess of the standards, and by the introduction of automatic machinery. The Post Office now permits, under certain conditions, the use of a machine which prints a stamp that is really a frank. This is now being used very generally by concerns which have a heavy outgoing mail. Then there are sealing machines, work conveyors, and numerous other mechanical and physical arrangements which operate to reduce the costs. They are useful, however, only if the output be very large indeed.
The personally dictated letter has these costs:
(1) The postage.
(2) The stationery.
(3) The dictator's time—both in dictating and signing.
(4) The stenographer's time.
(5) The direct overhead expense, which includes the space occupied, the supervision, the executive overhead, and like items.
The troublesome items here are numbers three and five. If the dictator is a correspondent then the calculation of how much it costs him to dictate a letter is his salary plus the overhead on the space that he occupies, divided by the number of letters that he writes in an average month. It takes him longer to write a long than a short letter, but routine letters will average fairly over a period of a month. But an executive who writes only letters that cannot be written by correspondents or lower salaried men commonly does so many other things in the course of a day that although his average time of dictation per letter may be ascertained and a cost gotten at, the figure will not be a true cost, for the dictation of an important letter comes only after a consideration of the subject matter which commonly takes much longer than the actual dictation. And then, again, the higher executive is usually an erratic letter writer—he may take two minutes or twenty minutes over an ordinary ten-line letter. Some men read their letters very carefully after transcription. The cost of this must also be reckoned in.
The cost of any letter is therefore a matter of the particular office. It will vary from six or seven cents for a letter made up of form paragraphs to three or four dollars for a letter written by a high-salaried president of a large corporation. A fair average cost for a personally dictated letter written on good paper is computed by one of the leading paper manufacturers, after a considerable survey to be: