Though information cards like that depicted in Fig. 216 are used principally by the man who plots the curves, they are filed in such convenient location that they may be referred to by any executive who wishes to know the source of the data plotted on any curve card, or who wishes to see just what figures are included and what are excluded in making up any grand totals. The use of the serial numbered information card gives full information in condensed and easily accessible form.

Chapter XIV RECORDS FOR THE EXECUTIVE

A GOOD executive has been described as a man who decides cjuickly and who is sometimes right. Probably ninety per cent of the answers "Yes" or "No" given by a business man are based on opinion rather than on fact. The trouble is that the average executive cannot obtain and analyze facts quickly enough to base his decision on them. He is forced to decide quickly and his one hope is that he will guess "right".

The problems confronting the executives have grown, in the last few years, to such an extent in volume and in complexity that it is increasingly difficult to find men with endurance and capacity great enough to match the jobs. The executives of our corporations, the men who are mayors of our cities, and the men in active charge of the government of our country are, without exception, the hardest worked men in the world. The stoker heaving coal into the furnaces of an express steamer has a better chance for long life than the man who accepts the presidency of even our best managed railroads and industrial corporations. The stoker can at least sleep soundly at the end of his day's work. The railroad president is likely to be kept awake wondering whether his guess was a good one, whether his decision was "right".