The credit department should be strong and ef-
ficient. It pays to be liberal in supplying it with every
necessary facility for securing accurate information
and quick action. But this department should not
make itself obtrusive, least of all offensive and dicta-
torial. It should rather keep a little in the background,
and a friendly and confidential attitude on the part
of the credit man is much better than a distant and
imperious bearing. While in some cases the inquisi-
torial method of investigation becomes imperative,
when doubts upset our faith or past actions call for
explanation, yet the ideal manner for the credit man
to meet the new customer is in an informal way, and
not in the capacity of an inquisitor.
The attainments of a credit man should be many
and varied, though not at all marvelous or super-
natural. He must needs be a thorough scholar, an apt
correspondent, a fair lawyer, a practiced accountant
and a good collector, besides being a sound business
man. He must possess good judgment, be quick to
read human nature and judge character, and, more
than all, he should possess strong intuitive faculties.
PETER R. EARLLNG 6

After all, our impressions of men and things seldom
proceed from logical deductions. They are intuitional
— and an ounce of intuition is worth a pound of logic
when we come to reckon with human nature and its
manifold ramifications.
