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.
CHAPTER XIII
STATIONERY, CRESTS AND MONOGRAMS
Social Correspondence
For all social correspondence use plain sheets of paper, without lines, of white or cream, or perhaps light gray or a very dull blue. But white or cream is the safest. Select a good quality. Either a smooth vellum finish or a rough linen finish is correct. For long letters there is the large sheet, about five by six and one half inches, or it may be even larger. There is a somewhat smaller size, about four and one half by five and one half or six inches for formal notes, and a still smaller size for a few words of congratulation or condolence. The social note must be arranged so as to be contained on the first page only.