Business English Part 61

2. The new device, the adding machine, has greatly lessened office drudgery.

3. Wall street, the great center of business life, fixes stock prices.

4. The people in moderate circ.u.mstances, the excellent middle cla.s.s of a country, suffer most from the strain of high prices.

5. The Montreal Tramways Company, the first company to introduce pay-as-you-enter cars, started its business in the winter of 1861 with a very simple equipment, two horse-drawn sleighs.

6. The Early Gem musk melon, one of the best s.h.i.+pping melons grown, is a cross between the Rocky Ford and the Emerald Green varieties.

7. In making up our collections and bargain offers for this year, we have arranged to put up a "Surprise Box," one hundred packages of selected vegetable and flower seeds.

8. The Chinese Giant, a new variety of sweet pepper, produces branching plants about two feet in height.

9. Amundsen, the discoverer of the south pole, is a native of Norway.

=Rule 6.--The comma is used to separate an appositive from the rest of the sentence.=

Write five sentences ill.u.s.trating the use of the comma to set off an appositive.

=Exercise 183--Explanatory Expressions=

Similar in use to appositives are--

B. Words, phrases, or clauses that separate the subject from the predicate verb, the verb from its object, or the like.

In the natural order of the sentence the verb immediately follows the subject and the object follows the verb. When, for the purpose of explanation, something is inserted between the two, it should be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas. Words that are thus inserted are called appositive or parenthetical expressions and are ill.u.s.trated in the following:

In Ohio and Kentucky enterprising individuals, _evidently taking the suggestion from the popular rural delivery service_, have established ice cream routes. Ice cream wagons travel the country roads at stated times so that, _with no more trouble than is required to answer the postman's whistle_, dwellers on the farms can now secure the hot weather luxury at reasonable prices. The plan, _so far as one can tell from present indications_, gives promise of meeting with great success.

=Rule 7.--Parenthetical expressions should be set off by commas.=

Punctuate the following:

1

The politics of the city as well as those of the nation must be kept clean. The most intelligent men of the community not the least intelligent should make our political speeches and be our political leaders.

The very opposite we must confess is what we see too often. Many business men steadily pursuing their own ends during the day feel that they cannot devote time to politics. We need not search far to discover that too many of them even if they have the time do not care to give it. At election the most influential business and professional men either through lack of interest or through laziness stay at home instead of going to the polls. The men who are elected in nine cases out of ten are not fit to hold office. The blame belongs every one will agree to those who do not vote.

2

England as most people know is becoming vastly interested in the production of cotton in the Soudan.

This state of affairs for more reasons than one is a matter of interest to the American manufacturer as well as to the American cotton planter. Egyptian cotton ranking next to our own sea-island in length and strength of fiber is wanted because of the brilliant finish it gives. For the manufacture of fine goods including sateens India linens and mercerized goods as well as for mixing with silk it has been found very valuable. Cotton growers expect that the enlargement of the a.s.souan dam will eventually redeem about a million acres from the desert in Lower Egypt and although not more than half will probably be planted to cotton it will increase Egypt's output about twenty-five per cent. Our Department of Agriculture after having experimented for years has developed and acclimated in California a variety of Egyptian cotton superior several experts say to the real Egyptian. It now rests with the planters any one can see to decide whether American manufacturers will get their fine cotton at home or abroad.--_The Wall Street Journal._

3

For several reasons some of them certainly unworthy people on both sides of the Atlantic are talking of the perils of a "yellow" invasion. It is true that in the past various invasions have been attended with evil but civilization has pa.s.sed on into an age when migrations even the mightiest that the world has seen are taking place silently and steadily for the good of all. There is no reason to suppose that the overflow and interflow of nations heretofore synonymous with the progress of humanity should bring to us anything but good. Commerce is to lead the van in the new movement of the nations as it has in the past and the merchant consciously or unconsciously is going to antic.i.p.ate and guide the statesman.--_The Commercial and Financial Chronicle._

4

The prevailing spirit at least among a certain cla.s.s of young business men seems to be that the saving of little things in the course of the day consumes time entirely out of proportion to the value of the things saved but like all general rules it is carried too far by young men who could hardly employ their time to better advantage than in saving good though minor materials that would otherwise be lost. The man who originated the idea probably found it correct for himself but like all principles catering to indifference regarding details the idea is too readily adopted by many young men who can ill afford its practice. No one wishes a man to be parsimonious but he should not allow anything to be wasted which can with a reasonable exercise of effort be saved.

=Exercise 184--Explanatory Expressions=

C. _Independent elements_ are words, phrases, or clauses that have no direct grammatical relation with any other word in the sentence. They are really a kind of parenthetical expression, but have less connection with the sentence than those given under B.

The following is an argument against the trusts. The italicized expressions are independent elements. What different kinds do you discover?

_Gentlemen_, the big problem before us to-day, _therefore_, is the trusts. Shall the people control the trusts, or shall the trusts control the people?

_To state the question differently_, shall we all continue to keep a voice in government, or shall we turn our power over into the hands of a few and let their word be law? This centralizing of power, _by the way_, was the evil men tried to remedy by forming republics, and shall we Americans, _do you think_, be willing to sacrifice all that has been gained for us of liberty? _The answer being self-evident_, let us proceed. It seems that the little violator of law can be punished; the big violator cannot be, or, _at any rate_, is not punished. The trusts, _most people know_, are formed to destroy compet.i.tion. Their reason for destroying compet.i.tion, _evidently_, is to swell profits by charging all that the trade will bear. The trust, _finally_, is not a method of doing business, but a scheme for levying tribute.

=Rule 8.--Independent elements are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.=

Punctuate the following:

1

NEW YORK, May 12, 19--.

Mr. Thomas R. Stevenson, 5010 Prospect Ave., Milwaukee, Wis.

Dear Sir:

You are no doubt now planning your summer vacation before you make any new plans however consider the opportunity that we are offering you to see a new and marvelously beautiful world for little more very likely than the cost of an ordinary vacation at the summer hotel to which you usually go.

The idea of summer travel in the Tropics it may be is new to you comparatively few people unfortunately have yet awakened to its possibilities they do not realize at least not fully that the climate in Jamaica Panama and the Central and South American countries is practically the same throughout the year moreover the transportation rates are much lower than they are in the North and the incidental expenses of travel such as carriage fare and the cost of curios are considerably less rough weather too is almost unknown in the summer.

Possibly as you live on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Michigan you have been considering a week's cruise of the great lakes at an expense certainly of $40 or more and along coasts that you have seen doubtless many times before we offer a number of trips varying in length from twelve to twenty-four days and in cost from $50 to $130 to Jamaica Panama and Central and South America thus for ten dollars more you may sail twice as long pa.s.s sh.o.r.es much more beautiful visit cities far more strange and return with a new almost magical store of memories.

You are wondering perhaps how it is that we can offer these remarkably low rates the reason briefly told is that our s.h.i.+ps carry an exceptionally large amount of freight however do not think merely because our s.h.i.+ps carry freight that they are not splendidly equipped for pa.s.senger travel on the other hand they are so luxuriously furnished that they are especially fitted for tropical cruises you are missing an unusual opportunity we a.s.sure you if you do not more fully investigate our offer.

Yours very truly,

2

We are learning year by year that as a rule financial independence cannot be secured by most men except by saving the savings bank is of course the first place to invest savings because it will receive small sums and pay an interest on them when a man's savings however have reached $1000 for example what shall he do with his money he has not the time or the knowledge probably to watch his investments he wishes therefore to put his money where it will be safe where it will earn a fair rate of interest and if possible where he can on short notice convert it into cash.

3

A man is an investor usually at least by virtue of his savings a woman on the other hand invests because she has received a legacy this may take the form of course of property securities cash or life insurance it is the function of sound investment most people know to surround funds of this nature with strong security the selection of conservative investments it is evident must be made with care those companies naturally that deal in conservative securities are the ones a prospective investor should consult.

4

Not long ago the editor of a financial journal received a letter of inquiry from a woman she had she said only two thousand dollars if she invested it as some of her friends had advised her to do in a well-known security she could not live on the proceeds she had consequently made a connection with a brokerage house and was making a living by buying and selling speculative stocks her list by the way showed a profit of $500 in four months what she wanted to know of course was how she could make the gain a second time in effect she was told to take her profits and run as fast as she could she will not in all probability take the advice and in a few months possibly weeks she will write again for help in rescuing her last few hundred dollars she will have learned at last that the way to keep her money is to save it but she will not by that time in all likelihood have any money to save.

=Exercise 185--Explanatory Expressions=