"I saw that," was the reply, "but it seems to me that when possible it is better to have all the details carried out to the full. However, even that is not the most serious difficulty of these questions." "No," said Hamilton, "that one hasn't given much trouble. The hitch usually comes just at the point you're looking at now--the cost of materials." "That's just exactly it. Our non-productive departments consume a great deal of material, mill-supplies and fuels, but if we include those with all the rest of it, our figures will not show a right proportion." "What do you mean by your non-productive departments?" asked the boy. "That seems rather a curious phrase." "Those in which the work done is not directly a part of the making of guns or ammunition. For example, we have a large force of draughtsmen working on new models of rifles and mechanisms and on machinery to enable us to make the new types. We make all the machinery that we use, right here in the plant. We make our own tools, too, so that there is a great deal of designing." "Those are not non-productive," commented Hamilton. "We call them so," was the reply. "I don't think the Census Bureau considers them as such," said Hamilton, feeling rather proud of this opportunity to explain some of the workings of the Bureau; "it seems to me more satisfactory to consider that these works not only manufacture guns, rifles, and ammunition, but also machinery and tools." "But those are for our own use!" objected the manager. "Yes, of course, I see that," said the boy. "But even if you do use them yourselves, you make them yourselves. If you leave them out in the schedule it would make the figures all wrong." "How would it?" "Well, the schedule wouldn't show anything paid out for machinery, and you've got to have machinery, and you'd seem to be paying wages, without getting anything for it. It seems to me that even if you do use the machinery yourselves you really sell it to yourselves, only at cost price or at whatever figure you name." "I suppose in a sense we do," said the business manager, "but that seems a very roundabout way of getting at it." "I don't think it is," Hamilton replied. "If you bought the machinery you would have to pay the manufacturer his profit. Instead of that you make the profit yourselves. The value, of course, should also be carried to the capital account." "Well," the older man said, "I'm willing to put it down either way, and in that light these departments might be called productive, although not directly productive. You seem to have figured this sort of business out pretty well for a youngster," he added. "I suppose that's natural," Hamilton answered, "because I've been doing nothing else for the past two weeks." "Then how about advertising," the manager suggested; "perhaps you can tell me where that is usually listed? As part of the sales force?" "No, sir," was the prompt reply; "it is reported as a miscellaneous expense."