ce. The accountants,
bookkeepers, cashiers, pay-masters and other persons of responsibility
are, in large offices where both sexes work together, much more
likely to be men than women; the assistants who work with these may be
of either sex, but girls and women are likely to make up the greater
portion. Of the small office this is less generally true. Boys who do
machine operating are usually clerks whose machine work, as in the
case of stenography, is merely an adjunct to other work; with girls
machine operating is either the whole of the position or the most
important part of it.

The essential difference between the clerkship which boys for the most
part hold and the general clerical work which girls do is that the
boys' work is unified and is a definite, separate responsible part of
the business, usually in line for promotion to some other clerkship;
the girls' is a miscellany of more or less unrelated jobs and is not a
preparation for specific promotion.

A GENERAL VIEW OF COMMERCIAL WORK

All commercial occupations may be roughly divided into two classes:
those which have to do with administrative, merchandising, or
productive work, and those which carry on the clerical routine which
the others necessitate. The first class of occupations may be
designated by the term "administrative work" and the second by
"clerical work." A varying relation exists between the two which
depends chiefly upon the kind of business represented. In some kinds
clerical work is the stepping stone by which administrative work is
reached; in others employment in clerical work side-tracks away from
the administrative work.

There is, of course, a future of promotion within the limits of
clerical work without reference to its relation to administrative
work. The practical aspect of it is, in most kinds of business, that
the subordinate clerical positions far outnumber the chief ones.
Promotion of any sort depends largely upon individual capacity; but
this general distinction may be made between promotion in clerical
work and in administrative work; in the clerical field it tends to be
automatic but limited; in administrative work it comes more often
through a worker's initiative or individuality than through automatic
progression and it has no arbitrary limits.

Obviously one kind of person will be adapted to an administrative
career; another to a clerical one. Even a beginner in wage earning
might be able to classify himself on a b