Company News and Views

payment, write ‘Pay to the order of _Bills Payable_
If your note is due at your own bank and you wish to draw a cheque in
payment, write ‘Pay to the order of _Bills Payable_.’ If you wish to
write a cheque to draw money for wages, write ‘Pay to the order of
_Pay-roll_.’ If you wish to write a cheque to pay for a draft which
you are buying, write ‘Pay to the order of _N. Y. Draft and
Exchange_,’ or whatever the circumstances may call for.

transactions come under the head of regular, legitimate business
paper
Notes and acceptances that are made in settlement of genuine business
transactions come under the head of regular, legitimate business
paper. An accommodation note or acceptance is one which is signed or
indorsed or accepted simply as an accommodation and not in settlement
of an account or in payment of an indebtedness. With banks
accommodation paper has a deservedly hard reputation. However, there
are all grades and shades of accommodation paper, though it represents
no actual business transaction between the parties to it and rests
upon no other foundation than that of mutual agreement. No contract is
good without a consideration, but this is only true between the
original parties to a note. The third party, or innocent receiver or
holder of a note, has a good title and can recover its value even
though it was originally given without a valuable consideration. An
innocent holder of a note which had been originally lost or stolen has
a good title to it if he received it for value, the law justly
protecting such a holder against the fault or carelessness of others.

agencies business men, by paying an annual fee, are enrolled as
subscribers and furnished with books of ratings, as they are called
To be a recipient of the valuable information afforded by these
agencies business men, by paying an annual fee, are enrolled as
subscribers and furnished with books of ratings, as they are called.
Besides this book special type-written reports with elaborate details
respecting a firm”s credit are sent upon the request of the
subscriber. The volume of information recorded in these agencies
concerning any one”s credit is obtained through the effort of
officials of the agencies known as reporters. These men of experience,
integrity, and discernment are seekers after truths. Usually each
reporter has a distinct line of trade assigned him for research and
investigation. This brings him into intimate acquaintanceship with
every trader in his particular field. He is a constant solicitor of
the banker and merchant for facts. His business is not merely to
gather information respecting the resources of business men, but to
investigate rumours that in themselves may be detrimental to one”s
credit, and to disprove them where possible and sustain and support
the credit of a house. Too often it is supposed that the reporter is
seeking evidences of weakness when in reality his business is most
frequently that of discovering elements of strength. Information is
freely given him as he interviews men whose businesses and experiences
are the depositories for a wealth of credit information. He soon
becomes a confidant of the merchant himself, who not only tells him
all he knows about the customers and their accounts upon his books,
but his own business affairs as well. Indeed, the relation becomes so
very reciprocal that the reporter often furnishes information to the
merchant in the interview on some matter of credit of pressing notice.
In this way a corroboration of facts or the denial of a rumour may be
effected. He inspects the books of the offices of public record to
find the evidence of mortgages, judgments, and transfers of property,
and have the same recorded on the agency”s books. It is the reporter
who finally has gathered the information that determines a firm”s
ability to have and to hold a line of credit.

great financial centre of the world
A similar explanation is to be given of the fact that London is the
great financial centre of the world. The same policy which has made
Britain a great trading country has also made her a great
manufacturing country. The food products of all the world pour in upon
her shores, and Britain has become a cheap place to live in. Her
artisans are supplied with the best food that the world can produce,
and this at prices that are practically what the British demand makes
them to be. The British artisan is therefore both well fed and cheaply
fed. As a consequence of this, British manufactures are produced more
efficiently and more cheaply than those of most other nations, and
they are therefore exported enormously to every quarter of the globe.
London, from its accessibility with respect to the great manufacturing
centres at home, and from its trade connections and facilities for
trade abroad, is the great distributing centre of this enormous
manufacture. London exporters have accounts for goods sold by them all
the world over. There is, therefore, no quarter of the world where
money is not constantly owing to London; or, if not to London, then to
Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow, or some other
manufacturing centre in close financial touch with London. In this,
then, lies the explanation of the financial supremacy of London. No
matter in what quarter of the world money is owed by any place, the
final destination of that money is London; for in almost all cases it
will be found that the locality to which the money is owed, if it be
not London, will itself be a debtor to London. London, therefore, from
necessity, and as a matter of custom and convenience, has become the
great clearing-house of the world. The final adjustments of the
indebtedness of all the commercial centres of the world are made
there.

A person who makes an offer cannot turn it into an acceptance. An old
uncle offered by letter to buy his nephew”s horse for $100, adding:
‘If I hear no more about the matter I consider the horse as mine.’ The
uncle, not hearing from the nephew, proceeded to take the horse. At
this stage of the proceedings, however, the nephew was not inclined to
suffer his good old uncle to make the contract entirely himself, and
refused to give up the horse. The court said that one person could not
do all the contracting himself, and this is what he virtually
undertook to do. If a person could, by correspondence or otherwise,
make a contract in this manner, one can readily see the dangers that
might follow. Some positive act must be put forth by the other party
showing or indicating his assent before it will be regarded as given.
A person, in truth, is not obliged to pay any attention to an offer of
this kind.

population is one fifth the entire population of England and Wales,
and it is increasing at the rate of about 20 per cent
What is the reason of London”s wonderful prosperity? Already its
population is one fifth the entire population of England and Wales,
and it is increasing at the rate of about 20 per cent. per decade.
Three hundred people are added to the number every day in the year, a
rate of 110,000 inhabitants in the course of the year. It is now one
half greater than the total population of all Ireland. London”s Scotch
population is almost as numerous as that of Edinburgh, while its Irish
population is quite as numerous as that of Dublin. Every civilised
country is represented among its people, and every civilised tongue is
spoken among them. A sea of brick and mortar, even now fifteen miles
long and ten miles broad, it is growing at the rate of a new house
every hour of its existence. Its streets are already 28,000 miles in
length, and these are spreading out so rapidly that every year many
whole villages and townships are enmeshed by them. Every day 1,000,000
people enter London by railway, and at least 500,000 people have
occupations in it in the daytime who reside beyond its limits at
night. Fifty thousand people have occupations in it in the night-time
who reside beyond its limits during the day. It is the largest
importing centre in Great Britain, and the largest in the world, and
its exports are exceeded only by Liverpool, and not always by
Liverpool. It is also the centre of the world”s financial business.
For example, traders in the East Indies who ship cargoes of spices and
other Eastern produce to America, draw in settlement on London rather
than on New York, while traders in America who ship cargoes of cotton
to Marseilles or Riga, draw in settlement on London rather than on
Paris or St. Petersburg. What is it that thus makes London the chief
seat of population in the world, the commercial metropolis of the
world, the great financial clearing-house of the world?

bond are in the joint custody of the United States government and the
proprietor of the warehouse, and after the government has received its
customs duties for the goods they are in the proprietor”s sole
possession
By a recent decision of the Treasury Department at Washington goods in
bond are in the joint custody of the United States government and the
proprietor of the warehouse, and after the government has received its
customs duties for the goods they are in the proprietor”s sole
possession. The government cannot interfere to enforce delivery of the
goods to the importer. The claim of the warehouse proprietor for
storage charges becomes a first lien after the government”s claim is
satisfied. When the importer has paid both customs and storage charges
he is privileged to remove his goods.

2. (_a_) When is it necessary that contracts be in writing? (_b_) In
what case is a failure of consideration a good defence to a
contract? (_c_) Is a consideration required to make an offer
binding? (_d_) Is the delivery of goods essential to make a sale
complete?

his twenty-fourth year, and this rule has been adopted in France,
Spain, Holland, and some parts of Germany
By the Roman law a minor did not reach his majority until the end of
his twenty-fourth year, and this rule has been adopted in France,
Spain, Holland, and some parts of Germany. The French law, though, has
been changed, with one noteworthy exception. A woman cannot make a
contract relating to her marriage without the consent of her parents
until she is twenty-five. Among the Greeks and early Romans women
never passed beyond the period of minority, but were always subject to
the guardianship of their parents until they were married.