"OUR MUTUAL FRIEND"

"By their numbers ye shall know them" has been the not unusual attitude of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company in the past towards the conductors on its busses. But from now on, according to a recent announcement, the Fifth Avenue conductor will wear, instead of the familiar number-plate on his cap, a badge on his coat hearing his full name.

This discarding of identification numbers is directly in line with the efforts of the business world in recent years to add the subtle personal touch to its work. From banks to bakeries, and now to busses,--the human element is a goal which all strive to attain. Witness the brass plate by the grated window, when you cash a check or buy a Pullman ticket, which informs you whether it be Mr. Stevenson or Mr. Warren with whom you are doing business! All this shows a change in the state of mind of the employer towards the employee. Instead of regarding him as a commodity which he can use at will, or as a machine capable of doing a certain amount of work, he is beginning to realize that his assistant, like the cow in the famous story, "looks like a man, acts like a man, and in fact is a man". When a person is made to don a uniform and conceal his ego behind figures printed on a tin disc, he cannot help but lose some of his self-respect, and feel, naturally enough, that he is being put in the same class as a convict, or a Ford. In restoring to him his name and his peace of mind, the employer is not doing him a great favor, but is merely delivering up stolen goods. Uniforms are necessary of course, but only in the world of fancy do the deuce and six of hearts paint roses in the Queen's garden.