In a business of ordinary size, the yearly outlay for an office like that described and a man to run it would be comparatively small. It would probably be best to get a young man graduated within a few years from one of the technical schools, or from one of the schools of business administration now established as separate departments in several of the large universities. If a man of the right type were told that he would report directly to the chief executive, and that he would have a confidential position with complete access to the records of every department of the whole business including both manufacturing and selling, he would be quite willing to start the work at a reasonable salary, knowing full well that the opportunities given would soon permit him to demonstrate his ability. A recent college graduate could be obtained for $20 or $25 per week, as he would see for himself that there would be chances for him to make himself worth much more inside of the first year or so.
A man starting a record department of the type described would at first find his chief work in getting records for a series of years so that comparisons would be possible. In most corporations it is extremely difficult to get any kind of good records further than two years back, because of constant changes in personnel and changes in accounting systems without any reliable notes to tell just what these changes were and when they were made. In large manufacturing companies, sub-*divisions and changes in the expense accounts are likely to occur as new departments are added or as new men of different training in accounting come into control of the accounting procedure of the company. After the back records have been fairly well tabulated and plotted in the form of curves, the work of keeping the curves up to date would be comparatively simple. One man can add one more point monthly to several thousand different curves, and do also a certain amount of the clerical work involved in making up ratios, grand totals, etc. If a record file of curves like that shown in Fig. 217 is once made thoroughly up to date, for any business, it is easy to keep it up to date with only routine work such as any man of even ordinary mental caliber can do. Information cards 4-by-6-inch, such as are shown in Fig. 216, explain every step of the work required in plotting any curve, and even a new man just out of college would be able to follow the instructions well enough to take charge of a record system which some one else started. Thus, if it is desired after a year or two to promote a man who has built up a record system of this kind, it would be quite easy to have him break
