The age and permanence of a firm does not influence its success so much as its business methods. And an index of its efficiency in this respect is its methods of accounting. These are shown in the means used for keeping accounts Negro business men were asked whether or not they used ledger, journal, cash-book, day-book, or other records. Some enterprises such as grocery stores, would have need of a mechanical register. If a firm had one, it was inspected. Facts about 49 establishments were not available. Of these, 35 firms had no means of keeping accounts, other than the memories of those running the place. These were, however, very small enterprises. Of the 260 remaining, 60, or 23 per cent, kept a ledger, 122, or 46.9 per cent, kept a cash-book, and 33.5 per cent had day-books. Thus showing that 37 more firms kept day-books than kept ledgers, and 62 more firms kept cash-books than ledgers. Of the 260, 28 had mechanical cash registers and 64 had some form of record in addition to or other than those named. In a phrase, the Negro business man is learning the methods of the business world in keeping track of his business affairs, though in most cases they are small. Table XXVII gives the details on this point. (See p. 121.) TABLE XXVII. MEANS FOR KEEPING ACCOUNTS USED BY 309 NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES, MANHATTAN, 1909. --------------------------+----------------------------------------------- |Means used in accounting by Negro business | enterprises. +-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- Class of | Ledger. | Journal. | Cash-book.| Day-book. establishment. | | | | --------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- | Yes.| No. | Yes.| No. | Yes.| No. | Yes.| No. --------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----- Barber shops | 2 | 43 | -- | 45 | 23 | 22 | 7 | 38 Brokers | 13 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 16 | -- | 8 | 8 Coal, wood and ice | -- | 13 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 6 Dressmaking and millinery | 1 | 7 | -- | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 7 Employment agencies | 3 | 11 | 2 | 12 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 10 Express and moving vans | -- | 10 | -- | 10 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 Groceries | 10 | 25 | 3 | 32 | 12 | 23 | 21 | 14 Hairdressing, etc. | 1 | 4 | -- | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 Hotels and lodging houses | 4 | 6 | -- | 10 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 6 Pool and billiard rooms | 1 | 9 | -- | 10 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 Printers | 2 | 3 | -- | 5 | 3 | 2 | -- | 5 Restaurants and | | | | | | | | lunch rooms | 2 | 10 | -- | 12 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 11 Saloons and cafés | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3