the one made famous by Mr. Vanderbilt, and posted
it all about, had pamphlets distributed, and made a speech on courtesy
in railroad management and elsewhere. Since that time, not altogether
because of the precedent which had been established, but because people
were beginning to realize that with this new element creeping into
business the old regime had to die because it could not compete with it,
there have been all sorts of courtesy campaigns among railroad and bus
companies, and even among post office and banking employees, to mention
only two of the groups notorious for haughty and arrogant behavior. The
effects of a big telephone company have been so strenuous and so well
planned and executed that they are reserved for discussion in another
chapter.

Mr. McAdoo tells a number of charming stories which grew out of the
Hudson Tubes experiment. One day during a political convention when he
was standing in the lobby of a hotel in a certain city a jeweler came
over to him after a slight moment of hesitation, gave him one of his
cards and said, "Mr. McAdoo, I owe you a great debt of gratitude. For
that," he added, pointing to "The Public be Pleased" engraved in small
letters on the card just above his name. "I was in New York the day the
tunnel was opened," he continued, "and I heard your speech, and said to
myself that it might be a pretty good idea to try that in the jewelry
trade. And would you believe it, my profits during the first year were
more than fifty per cent bigger than they were the year before?" And we
venture to add that the jeweler was more than twice as happy and that it
was not altogether because there was more money in his coffers.

Mr. McAdoo is a man with whom courtesy is not merely a policy: it is a
habit as well. He places it next to integrity of character as a
qualification for a business man, and he carries it into every part of
his personal activity, as the statesmen and elevator boys, waiters and
financiers, politicians and stenographers with whom he has come into
contact can testify. "I never have a secretary," he says, "who is not
courteous, no matter what his other qualifications may be." During the
past few years Mr. McAdoo has been placed in a position to be sought
after by all kinds of people, and in nearly every instance he has given
an interview to whoever has asked for it. "I have always felt," we quote
him again, "that a public servant should be as accessible to the public
as pos