Curve "B" thus shows that, though there are not many large orders, about 69 per cent of all the revenue comes from those orders which contain more than twenty -five packages. Fifty-six per cent of the business (and the revenue) is due to orders containing more than fifty packages. Twenty -nine per cent of all of the revenue comes from orders containing more than one hundred packages, yet none of the revenue for the ten-days time considered came from orders larger than two hundred packages, since there were no such orders during the period.

It is by reading curves "A" and "B " in conjunction with each other that the manager may obtain the greatest information relating to his business. Considering first the orders which contain more than ten pieces, curve "A" shows that 55 per cent of the orders contain more than ten packages, while curve "B" shows that 91 per cent of the reve-

FREQUENCY CURVES 187

nue comes from those orders which are larger than ten pieces each. In other words, the manager, because of handhng so many small orders, is doing 45 per cent of the total clerical work in order to obtain 9 per cent of the revenue. Since clerical work depends chiefly on the number of separate orders, the manager would be able to reduce his clerical work on this particular class of orders somewhere near 45 per cent if he would refuse to handle orders of less than ten packages, and, by such a decision, he would lose only 9 per cent of his revenue. For most businesses, it would pay handsomely to neglect entirely 9 per cent of the revenue if 45 per cent of the clerical work could be avoided. In freight handling, the work is of course mostly under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, so that even if the manager should wish to refuse orders of small size, he would not be permitted to do so.