Occasional Telegrams
A graceful, concise, pertinent, and well-worded "occasional" telegram is frequently not easy to write. The following forms are suggested for the composition of some of these telegrams. The longer forms can be sent most cheaply as Night Letters or Day Letters. A Night Letter of fifty words can be sent for the cost of a ten-word full-rate telegram, i.e., from 30 cents to $1.20, depending on the distance. A Day Letter of fifty words can be sent for one and one half the cost of a ten-word full-rate message, i.e., from 45 cents to $1.80, depending on the distance.
New Year greetings
Best wishes for the New Year. May it bring to you and your family health, happiness, peace, and prosperity. May it see your hopes fulfilled and may it be rich in the successful accomplishment of your highest aims.
Best wishes for a Happy New Year.
May peace and happiness be yours in the New Year. May fortune smile upon you and favor you with many blessings.
I (We) wish you a Happy New Year, a year big with success and achievement, a year rich with the affection of those who are dear to you, a year mellow with happiness and contentment.
What the coming year may hold we can none of us foresee. It is my (our) earnest wish that for you it may bring forth a generous harvest of happiness and good fortune.
May the coming year and all that succeed it deal lightly and kindly with you.
May the coming year bring you happiness in fullest measure.
We think of you with the affection born of our long friendship which the recurring year only strengthens.
May the New Year bring you health, happiness, and all other good things.
Health, happiness, and contentment, may these be yours in the New Year.
May health, happiness, and prosperity be yours in bountiful measure in the year to come.
May the New Year be a good year to you and yours—full of health and happiness.
May each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the New Year be a happy one for you.
The happiest of New Years to you and yours.
May the New Year find you in the enjoyment of health and happiness.
Easter greetings
Our thoughts turn to you with affection and best wishes at this Easter season with the hope that peace, prosperity, and plenty may attend your life to-day and through all your days to come.
Easter Greeting from a friend who thinks of you with constant affection.
This Easter Greeting carries to you the affection of an old friend.
May this Easter Day find you in the enjoyment of health and happiness.
Best wishes for a happy Easter.
Best wishes for a happy Easter Day. May your future ever be as bright as the Springtime.
Just a message to a friend, to convey to you my wish that this Easter may bring you happiness and good fortune.
May Easter gladness fill your heart to-day and may all good attend you.
I (We) Wish you joy and happiness at this Eastertide.
May happiness and health be yours on this Easter Day and in the days to come.
We all join in best wishes for a happy Easter Day to you and your family.
Easter Greetings to you and yours.
May your Easter be a bright and happy one.
We all wish you and yours a happy Easter.
Love and best wishes for a happy Easter.
My (Our) Easter Greetings go to you. May the day be a joyful one for you.
Thanksgiving Day greetings
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving Day.
Good cheer and plenty, the love of your dear ones, the affection of your friends, may all these contribute to a happy Thanksgiving Day.
May your Thanksgiving Day be a day of happiness and contentment.
May your Thanksgiving Day be full of happiness and all good cheer.
That I am (we are) not at home to-day to join in the festivities is a great sorrow to me (us). Love to all the dear family.
I never forget the joy of this day at home. Love from one far away.
Although I (we) cannot be with you to-day I (we) have the memory of past Thanksgiving Days at home. God bless you all.
Think of me (us) as being with you in spirit. My (Our) love to you all.
Let us never fail to be thankful that the years only increase the strength of our long friendship.
It is with great thanksgiving that I (we) think of my (our) dear ones at home.
My (Our) one wish this Thanksgiving Day is that I (we) might be with you. Affectionate wishes for your happiness.
Though I (we) cannot be with you at the Thanksgiving Day board, my (our) thoughts are with you to-day.
Around the family table think of me (us) as I (we) absent, shall think of you. My (Our) love to all.
I (We) can picture you all at home. How I (we) long to be with you. My (Our) love to all the family.
Christmas greetings
Every good wish for a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. I need not tell you with what affection we are thinking of you and yours at this Christmas season. God bless you all.
Every good wish for a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.
My (Our) very best wishes for a Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
May your Christmas be a very happy one.
Merry Christmas to you and all the family.
We all join in wishing you a Merry Christmas.
All affection and good wishes for a Merry Christmas to you and yours.
That your Christmas be a very happy one is the wish of your sincere friend.
May Christmas bring you joy and happiness.
You are constantly in my (our) thoughts which carry to you to-day all affectionate wishes for a Happy Christmas.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Love and a Merry Christmas to you all.
May your Christmas be a merry one and the New Year full of happiness.
Affectionate greetings for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
May this Christmas find you well and happy. Love and best wishes to you and yours.
May Christmas bring you naught but joy and banish all care and sorrow.
—— joins me in very best wishes for a Merry Christmas.
A Merry Christmas to all the dear ones at home.
It is my (our) dearest wish that I (we) might be with you at this season of happiness and good-will—Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Birthday greetings
Many happy returns of the day. My (Our) affectionate thoughts and every good wish go to you on this your birthday.
May each succeeding year bring to you the best satisfaction which life holds.
Many happy returns of the day.
Best wishes for a happy birthday.
Best wishes for your birthday. May all your ways be pleasant ways and all your days be happy days.
Birthday greetings. I (We) wish you a long life and everything that makes a long life worth living.
Best wishes for your birthday. May you live long and prosper.
My (Our) thoughts are with you on your birthday. May all your days be happy days.
I (We) wish you many happy years blessed with health, success, and friendship and filled with all the best that life can hold.
We all join in best wishes for a very happy birthday and many years of health and prosperity.
We all join in best wishes for a very happy birthday.
May your birthday mark the dawn of a year of health, happiness, and good fortune.
Wedding messages
Sincerest congratulations to the bride and groom from an old friend who wishes you both years of health, happiness, and prosperity. May the future hold only the best for you that this world can give.
Heartiest congratulations. I (We) wish you many years of happiness.
Mrs. —— and I join in heartiest congratulations.
Hearty congratulations. May your years be many and happy ones.
My (Our) sincerest and best wishes for your happiness.
We all join in hearty congratulations and best wishes.
May happiness, health, and prosperity be with you through the years to come.
May all good fortune attend you, may your sky ever be bright, may no clouds of sorrow or trouble shadow it, and may your path be long and filled with joy.
Every happiness be yours dear —— on this your Wedding Day.
Let an old family friend send his (her) love and congratulations to the bride and groom.
May all good fairies watch over you. May they keep far from you all care and sorrow and brighten your path with sunshine and happiness.
To the bride and groom, love and congratulations from an old friend.
May this day be the beginning of a long, happy, and prosperous life for you both.
On the birth of a child
Love to the dear mother and her little son (daughter).
Heartiest congratulations and love to mother and son (daughter).
We rejoice with you in the happiness that has come into your lives. Love to mother and son (daughter).
My best wishes to the newly arrived son (daughter) and to his (her) mother.
We are all (I am) delighted to hear the news. Hearty congratulations.
A warm welcome to the new arrival and best wishes for his (her) health and happiness.
To the dear mother and her little son (daughter) love and every good wish.
Hearty congratulations on the arrival of the new son (daughter).
Messages of condolence
You have my heartfelt sympathy in this hour of your bereavement. I wish I might find words in which to express my sorrow at your loss which is also mine. May you have the strength to bear this great affliction.
You have my (our) heartfelt sympathy.
My (Our) heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow.
I (We) want you to know with what tender sympathy I am (We are) thinking of you in these days of your bereavement.
My (Our) sincere and heartfelt sympathy.
I (We) have just heard of your great affliction. Let me (us) send to you my (our) heartfelt sympathy.
My (Our) sincere sympathy.
In the death of your dear father (mother—wife—sister—brother) I (we) have lost one whom it was my (our) privilege to call my (our) friend. My (our) heartfelt sympathy goes out to you in your sorrow.
—— joins me in the expression of our deepest sympathy.
My (Our) love and sympathy go out to you in your great sorrow.
I (We) share your sorrow for I (we) have lost a dear friend. All love and sympathy to you and yours.
I (We) send you my (our) heartfelt sympathy. To have enjoyed the friendship of your father (husband—brother) I (we) hold one of the greatest privileges of my life (our lives).
My (Our) sincere sympathy goes out to you in your heavy affliction.
My (Our) love and sympathy in your sudden affliction.
I am (We are) greatly shocked at the sad news. You have my (our) deepest sympathy.
My (Our) deepest sympathy in your great loss. If there is anything I (we) can do, do not hesitate to let me (us) know.
Congratulation to a school or college graduate
May your future be as successful as have been your school (college) days. Heartiest congratulations upon your graduation.
I am (We are) proud of your success. May the future grant you opportunity and the fulfillment of your hopes.
I (We) hear that you have taken class honors. Sincerest congratulations and best wishes.
May your Class Day be favored with sunny skies and your life be full of happiness and success.
Sincerest congratulations upon your graduation.
Congratulations upon your school (college) success, so happily terminated to-day.
I (We) regret that I (we) cannot be with you to-day to see you take your new honors. Sincerest congratulations.
Congratulation to a public man
Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.
We have just heard of your success. Sincere congratulations and best wishes for the future.
Heartiest congratulations on your nomination (election).
Your nomination (election) testifies to the esteem in which you are held by your fellow citizens. Heartiest congratulations.
Congratulations on your victory, a hard fight, well won by the best man.
Your splendid majority must be a great satisfaction to you. Sincerest congratulations on your election.
Congratulations upon your nomination. You will have the support of the best element in the community and your election should be a foregone conclusion. I wish you every success.
You fought a good fight in a good cause. Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.
Nothing in your career should fill you with greater satisfaction than your successful election. I congratulate you with all my heart.
No man deserves success more than you. You have worked hard for your constituents and they appreciate it. Heartiest congratulations.
Your nomination (election) is received with the greatest enthusiasm by your friends here and by none more than myself. Heartiest congratulations.
I congratulate you upon your new honors won by distinguished services to your fellow citizens.
Your campaign was vigorous and fine. Your victory testifies to the people's confidence in you and your cause. Warmest congratulations.
Congratulations upon your well-won victory and best wishes for your future success.
You deserve your splendid success. Sincerest congratulations.
I cannot refrain from expressing my personal appreciation of your eloquent address. Warmest congratulations.
Your address last night was splendid. What a gift you have. Sincerest congratulations.
Heartiest congratulations on your splendid speech of last night. Everybody is praising it.
CHAPTER XI
THE LAW OF LETTERS—CONTRACT LETTERS
There are forty-eight states in this Union, and each of them has its own laws and courts. In addition we have the Federal Government with its own laws and courts. In one class of cases, the Federal courts follow the state laws which govern the particular occasion; in another class of cases, notably in those involving the interpretation or application of the United States statutes, the Federal courts follow Federal law. There is not even a degree of uniformity governing the state laws, and especially is this true in criminal actions, for crimes are purely statutory creations.
Therefore it is extremely misleading to give any but the vaguest and most elementary suggestions on the law which governs letters. To be clear and specific means inevitably to be misleading. I was talking with a lawyer friend not long since about general text-books on law which might be useful to the layman. He was rather a commercially minded person and he spoke fervently:
"If I wanted to build up a practice and I did not care how I did it, I should select one hundred well-to-do people and see that each of them got a copy of a compendium of business law. Then I should sit back and wait for them to come in—and come in they would, for every mother's son of them would decide that he had a knowledge of the law and cheerfully go ahead getting himself into trouble."
Sharpen up a man's knowledge of the law and he is sure to cut himself. For the law is rarely absolute. Most questions are of mixed fact and law. Were it otherwise, there would be no occasion for juries, for, roughly, juries decide facts. The court decides the application of the law. The layman tends to think that laws are rules, when more often they are only guides. The cheapest and best way to decide points of law is to refer them to counsel for decision. Unless a layman will take the time and the trouble most exhaustively to read works of law and gain something in the nature of a working legal knowledge, he had best take for granted that he knows nothing whatsoever of law and refer all legal matters to counsel.
There are, however, a few principles of general application that may serve, not in the stead of legal knowledge, but to acquaint one with the fact that a legal question may be involved, for legal questions by no means always formally present themselves in barristers' gowns. They spring up casually and unexpectedly.
Take the whole question of contract. A contract is not of necessity a formal instrument. A contract is a meeting of minds. If I say to a man: "Will you cut my lawn for ten dollars?" and he answers, "Yes," as valid a contract is established as though we had gone to a scrivener and had covered a folio of parchment with "Whereases" and "Know all men by these presents" and "Be it therefore" and had wound up with red seals and ribbons. But of course many legal questions could spring out of this oral agreement. We might dispute as to what was meant by cutting the lawn. And then, again, the time element would enter. Was the agreement that the lawn should be cut the next day, or the next month, or the next year? Contracts do not have to be in writing. All that the writing does is to make the proof of the exact contract easier.
If we have the entirety of a contract within the four corners of a sheet of paper, then we need no further evidence as to the existence of the contract, although we may be in just as hopeless a mess trying to define what the words of the contract mean. If we have not a written contract, we have the bother of introducing oral evidence to show that there was a contract. Most contracts nowadays are formed by the interchange of letters, and the general point to remember is that the acceptance must be in terms of the offer. If X writes saying: "I will sell you twenty tons of coal at fifteen dollars a ton," and Y replies: "I will take thirty tons of coal at thirteen dollars a ton," there is no contract, but merely a series of offers. If, however, X ships the thirty tons of coal, he can hold Y only at thirteen dollars a ton for he has abandoned his original offer and accepted Y's offer. It can be taken as a general principle that if an offer be not accepted in its terms and a new condition be introduced, then the acceptance really becomes an offer, and if the one who made the original offer goes ahead, it can be assumed that he has agreed to the modifications of the unresponsive acceptance. If X writes to Y making an offer, one of the conditions of which is that it must be accepted within ten days, and Y accepts in fifteen days, then X can, if he likes, disregard the acceptance, but he can waive his ten-day time limit and take Y's acceptance as a really binding agreement.
Another point, sometimes of considerable importance, concerns the time when a letter takes effect, and this is governed by the question of fact as to whom the Post Office Department is acting for. If, in making an offer, I ask for a reply by mail or simply for a reply, I constitute the mail as my agent, and the acceptor of that offer will be presumed to have communicated with me at the moment when he consigns his letter to the mails. He must give the letter into proper custody—that is, it must go into the regular and authorized channels for the reception of mail. That done, it makes no difference whether or not the letter ever reaches the offerer. It has been delivered to his agent, and delivery to an agent is delivery to the principal. Therefore, it is wise to specify in an offer that the acceptance has to be actually received.
The law with respect to the agency of the mails varies and turns principally upon questions of fact.
Letters may, of course, be libelous. The law of libel varies widely among the several states, and there are also Federal laws as well as Postal Regulations covering matters which are akin to libel. The answer to libel is truth, but not always, for sometimes the truth may be spread with so malicious an intent as to support an action. It is not well to put into a letter any derogatory or subversive statement that cannot be fully proved. This becomes of particular importance in answering inquiries concerning character or credit, but in practically every case libel is a question of fact.
Another point that arises concerns the property in a letter. Does he who receives a letter acquire full property in it? May he publish it without permission? In general he does not acquire full property. Mr. Justice Story, in a leading case, says:
"The author of any letter or letters, and his representatives, whether they are literary letters or letters of business, possess the sole and exclusive copyright therein; and no person, neither those to whom they are addressed, nor other persons, have any right or authority to publish the same upon their own account or for their benefit."
But then, again, there are exceptions.
CHAPTER XII
THE COST OF A LETTER
Discovering the exact cost of a letter is by no means an easy affair. However, approximate figures may always be had and they are extremely useful. The cost of writing an ordinary letter is quite surprising. Very few letters can be dictated, transcribed, and mailed at a cost of much less than twelve cents each. The factors which govern costs are variable and it is to be borne in mind that the methods for ascertaining costs as here given represent the least cost and not the real cost—they simply tell you "Your letter costs at least this sum." They do not say "Your letter costs exactly this sum." The cost of a form letter, mailed in quantities, can be gotten at with considerable accuracy. The cost of letters dictated by correspondents or by credit departments or other routine departments is also capable of approximation with fair accuracy, but the cost of a letter written by an executive can really hardly be more than guessed at. But in any case a "not-less-than" cost can be had.
In recent years industrial engineers have done a great deal of work in ascertaining office costs and have devised many useful plans for lowering them. These plans mostly go to the saving of stenographers' time through suitable equipment, better arrangement of supplies, and specialization of duties. For instance, light, the kind or height of chair or desk, the tension of the typewriter, the location of the paper and carbon paper, all tend to make or break the efficiency of the typist and are cost factors. In offices where a great deal of routine mail is handled, the writing of the envelopes and the mailing is in the hands of a separate department of specialists with sealing and stamp affixing machines. The proper planning of a correspondence department is a science in itself, and several good books exist on the subject. But all of this has to do with the routine letter.
When an executive drawing a high salary must write a letter, it is his time and not the time of the stenographer that counts. He cannot be kept waiting for a stenographer, and hence it is economy for him to have a personal secretary even if he does not write enough letters to keep a single machine busy through more than a fraction of a day. Many busy men do not dictate letters at all; they have secretaries skilled in letter writing. In fact, a man whose salary exceeds thirty thousand dollars a year cannot afford to write a letter excepting on a very important subject. He will commonly have a secretary who can write the letter after only a word or two indicating the subject matter. Part of the qualification of a good secretary is an ability to compose letters which are characteristic of the principal.
Take first the cost of a circular letter—one that is sent out in quantities without any effort to secure a personal effect. The items of cost are:
(1) The postage.
(2) The paper and printing.
(3) The cost of addressing, sealing, stamping, and mailing.
The third item is the only one that offers any difficulty. Included in it are first the direct labor—the wages of the human beings employed; and, second, the overhead expense. The second item includes the value of the space occupied by the letter force, the depreciation on the equipment, and finally the supervision and the executive expense properly chargeable to the department. Unless an accurate cost system is in force the third item cannot be accurately calculated. The best that can be done is to take the salaries of the people actually employed on the work and guess at the proper charge for the space. The sum of the three items divided by the number of letters is the cost per letter. It is not an accurate cost. It will be low rather than high, for probably the full share of overhead expense will not be charged.
It will be obvious, however, that the place to send out circular letters is not a room in a high-priced office building, unless the sending is an occasional rather than a steady practice. Costs in this work are cut by better planning of the work and facilities, setting work standards, paying a bonus in excess of the standards, and by the introduction of automatic machinery. The Post Office now permits, under certain conditions, the use of a machine which prints a stamp that is really a frank. This is now being used very generally by concerns which have a heavy outgoing mail. Then there are sealing machines, work conveyors, and numerous other mechanical and physical arrangements which operate to reduce the costs. They are useful, however, only if the output be very large indeed.
The personally dictated letter has these costs:
(1) The postage.
(2) The stationery.
(3) The dictator's time—both in dictating and signing.
(4) The stenographer's time.
(5) The direct overhead expense, which includes the space occupied, the supervision, the executive overhead, and like items.
The troublesome items here are numbers three and five. If the dictator is a correspondent then the calculation of how much it costs him to dictate a letter is his salary plus the overhead on the space that he occupies, divided by the number of letters that he writes in an average month. It takes him longer to write a long than a short letter, but routine letters will average fairly over a period of a month. But an executive who writes only letters that cannot be written by correspondents or lower salaried men commonly does so many other things in the course of a day that although his average time of dictation per letter may be ascertained and a cost gotten at, the figure will not be a true cost, for the dictation of an important letter comes only after a consideration of the subject matter which commonly takes much longer than the actual dictation. And then, again, the higher executive is usually an erratic letter writer—he may take two minutes or twenty minutes over an ordinary ten-line letter. Some men read their letters very carefully after transcription. The cost of this must also be reckoned in.
The cost of any letter is therefore a matter of the particular office. It will vary from six or seven cents for a letter made up of form paragraphs to three or four dollars for a letter written by a high-salaried president of a large corporation. A fair average cost for a personally dictated letter written on good paper is computed by one of the leading paper manufacturers, after a considerable survey to be:
Postage .0200
Printing letterheads and envelopes .0062
Stenographic wages (50 letters per day, $20.00 per week) .0727
Office overhead .0727
Paper and envelopes .0054
———
$.1770
The above does not include the expense of dictation.
It will pay any man who writes a considerable number of letters to discover what his costs are—and then make his letters so effective that there will be fewer of them.