“I’ll give you fellows business only when I’m in a hole and cannot do otherwise!”
form the subject of this communication and are exactly the text and sense of part of two conversations which occurred between you and myself—involuntarily on my part—and only because I was acting on orders while in the capacity of an employee of a “U.S.A.” railway seeking a share of the routing of the freight traffic you purchased in the United States or shipped westward, and which, unfortunately, you controlled.
No longer situated where behavior and language like yours has opportunity to grievously test the patience of myself, (and several others), permit me to allude to the impression you create.
When people of your calibre, quite devoid of consideration and finesse, receive a business proposition with a verbal attack couched in the tone and vernacular of your moulding shop, they are, no doubt, running true to form, but they take refuge behind the assumption that there is no one to question their attitude.
In doing so they indulge in a cowardly advantage over gentlemen who, by the nature of their employment, from president down, always have to remember the officials higher up; remember also, that in giving free rein to their human resentment, they may be rewarded with a letter of complaint, half true and half garbled, sent in by some cad to an officer disloyal enough to first believe the outsider.
Reflect on how disconcerted your son might feel were he to experience the misfortune of meeting a sour tempered individual like yourself when first coming in contact with the commercial public. He could not do himself justice nor serve you well.
The proverb says “One cannot make a silken purse out of a sow’s ear,” and although it is difficult to rebuild what the man in the street characterizes as a “rough neck,” it is never too late to mend.
The isolated class referred to are known by representatives of all businesses and are tacitly ostracized when the army of decent fellows is being discussed.
“Please heed the handwriting on the wall”
That man was “misfit” who should have been polishing apples for a Greek—to quote Jack Rose, an original wit.