VI 
PREFACE 
“it is not high enough.” The president had been too close to his own 
concern, and too busy to read any discussion of credit risk. He had never 
stopped to think that his credit manager might be turning down good 
business in order to maintain an unnecessarily low loss ratio. In this 
Handbook executives will find enough information about the financial 
aspect of other people's specialties to enable them to check them up when 
it may be desirable or necessary. 
The insurance broker may be disappointed in the section on insurance, 
but that section was not written for him; the works manager may be dis 
appointed in the section on inventories, but that section was not written 
for him. Nevertheless, every insurance broker is vitally interested in the 
accuracy of inventories, and that section will tell him everything he can 
wish to know. A reading of it will enable him to ask more intelligent 
questions than would otherwise be the case. And the works manager 
should know more about the financial aspect of insurance than he does. 
He will find many suggestive helps in that section. 
The busy banker may wish to suggest to a customer that he combine 
his business with that of a competitor. He knows a little about the Clayton 
Act, but is afraid to act without more knowledge. The Handbook instantly 
answers this as well as a thousand other questions. 
The Handbook is the result of two years' work on the part of my associ 
ates and myself. We know that perfection has not been obtained in this 
first attempt. Much material has been rejected; some because of its ap 
parent unsuitability; some because there had to be a limit to the size of 
the book. It is quite possible that some suitable subjects have been 
overlooked. One will be wiser when those who examine the contents 
have been heard from. Any criticism for the improvement of the volume 
will, therefore, be welcomed. 
Robert H. Montgomery 
385 Madison Ave., New York, 
September 24, 1925