The American people are noted for being hasty in all they do.
Their manufactures are quickly made and cheap. They have not
hitherto had time to secure that perfection in minute details which
constitutes "quality." The slow-going Europeans still excel in
nearly all fine and high-grade forms of manufacture---fine pottery,
fine carpets and rugs, fine cloth, fine bronze and other art wares.
In our language, too, we are hasty, and therefore imperfect.
Fine logical accuracy requires more time than we have had
to give to it, and we read the newspapers, which are very poor
models of language, instead of books, which should be far better.
Our standard of business letters is very low. It is rare to
find a letter of any length without one or more errors of language,
to say nothing of frequent errors in spelling made by ignorant
stenographers and not corrected by the business men who sign the letters.
But a change is coming over us. We have suddenly taken to reading
books, and while they are not always the best books, they are better
than newspapers. And now a young business man feels that it is
distinctly to his advantage if he can dictate a thoroughly good
letter to his superior or to a well informed customer.
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