What's What in AmericaBrewster, Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine)
History
What's What in America
Brewster, Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine)
United States -- Civilization; United States -- Social life and customs
Suppose at Christmas a man has 100 presents to distribute in various
localities. A messenger for each of the 100 presents would mean an
expense of say $50 and much wasted energy. A single messenger could so
systemize the work, by mapping out the shortest routes, that he could
accomplish the work in far less time, comparatively, than the 100
messengers, and his bill would be only about $5. Now, suppose the man
should ascertain that each of his 199 neighbors in the block also had
100 presents to deliver. That would make 20,000 presents in all. If each
man should employ a separate messenger it would cost about $1,000. One
messenger would go to First street and leave a package (little knowing
that another messenger was to deliver a package at perhaps the very next
door), thence to--say Nineteenth street, thence to a distant section of
the city, thence to still another district, and so on. Each of the 200
messengers would have the same long journey to make, wearing out his
shoe leather, making the cars do useless work, and wearing and wasting
his own energy. But suppose the 200 neighbors should combine and
co-operate. They would soon find that about five messengers could
deliver their 20,000 presents in about the same time that 200 could;
and, at $5 each, or $25 in all, with a saving of $975 to themselves.
Mapping out the city in five districts and assigning one messenger to
each, they would probably find that many presents were to be delivered
in adjoining houses, and some to different residents of the same house.
Witness the many steps that have been saved, and the time, and the labor
of 95 men who have thus been freed to work in some productive vocation.
Method and system are parents of economy. They allay waste, eliminate
useless labor, and lighten and lessen the toil of the human family.
ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION.
Some morning at break of dawn witness the confusion in the simple
industry of delivering milk. A wagon rattles up to your door and leaves
a bottle of milk. It clatters down the street and leaves a bottle to a
neighbor in the next block. Then it turns down the avenue and leaves a
bottle several blocks away, and thence perhaps to a distant section.
But watch, and you behold another wagon coming. It stops at the next
house to yours and deposits a bottle on the window-sill, then dashes
down the block and leaves a bottle at some distant house, then to a
house perhaps several blocks away, and so on until it has covered, in
spots, a large territory. Soon, a third wagon appears and leaves a
bottle at the second house from yours, and then dashes away to distant
parts to cover its route.
And so on until nearly 200 different wagons, or grocer clerks, have
visited the 200 houses in your block to deliver 200 separate bottle of
milk. In every block the same scene is being enacted. Remember that
every employer has horses, wagons, harness, drivers, a store, books, a
cashier, advertising, fuel, light, and a plant to maintain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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