Principles of business

Front matter

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Preface

This book I have written for the experienced business man and for the young man just stepping out into business life.

The man of experience will read it, I think, because his experience has gradually made him a specialist in certain phases of business activity and has limited his outlook to those things which from day to day he is compelled to do. He needs to have his vision broadened, to be taken out of the rut of everyday duties and to be shown the business machine as a whole.

The book is offered the young student on the ground that we see an object in its entirety before we begin to see its details. First, we see the building, then the doors and windows, then the details of design about the doors and windows, and last we bring all the elements together again and see how they are related to one another and perform their functions in making the building accomplish the purposes for which it stands.

Moreover, the young student should have his new studies connected with his studies in the sciences and arts that have been pursued in the preparatory school or in the University college of pure arts and sciences. Busi- / ness, after all, consists in turning all of man*s knowledge and power to the end of making profits. I am fond of paraphrasing Henry Ward Beecher's definition of oratory— "truth pressed home with all the resources of the living man" — thus, business is profits brought home with all the resources of the living man. For this reason iv PREFACE

business science, in this book, is not conceived as knowledge of the narrow fields of production, marketing, finance and accounting, but as a science whose relation to the other sciences is so intimate that the division line between them is hard to draw. In the first part of the book, then, will be found a discussion of scientific method generally as it may be applied to business, and also a brief treatment of the debt which business owes to chemistry, engineering, the natural and the social sciences.

Had it not been for the assistance of friends and colleagues I should never have attempted to bring the whole science of business within the scope of a single volume. Their work has been indispensable. To my colleague, Mr. Gould L. Harris, and to Mr. Henry Brach, C.P.A., I am indebted for assistance in the chapter on Accounting, and to Mr. William Longino for the chapters on Advertising and Traffic. Professor Richard P. Ettinger has read the manuscript and given valuable suggestions for improvement. Messrs. J. W. Stannard, of the Standard Parts Company, Louis M. Levine, with Ladenburg, Thalmann and Company, and Mr. E. E. Jackson, have helped in the construction of the book at one point or another. But to Mr. John L. Sinclair, who has been untiring in his assistance and whose criticisms while always kindly have never been superficial or lacking in discernment, I am chiefly indebted for whatever the book contains that may commend itself to the business man, the business student, or the business teacher.

C. W. G.

Contents

CHAPTER PACK

I The Science of Business i

What is business — The science of business — The Scientific spirit in business — Content of the science of business— The environment of business — Kinds of business — The true nature of business — Securing profits.