DO THINGS QUICKER HERE.
No More Pages, Clerks and Chief
Clerks for This Hollander.
"No more pages, clerks and chief clerks for us when we get back to Rotterdam," said C. W. Lucardie at the Hotel Baltimore yesterday afternoon. "I discovered how much quicker you Americans do business here than we do, that I am going to install that sort of a system in my house. In the Netherlands as well as in the greater part of Europe, when a salesman or customer desires to see the head of the firm, he has to pass through a line of several clerks and pages before it is possible. Meanwhile he loses from 15 minutes to half an hour of his time. In continental Europe the head of the house looks after the little things which here are put in the hands of clerks and hired men. As a result the head of the house here has plenty of time to talk business while in the old country it takes almost all of his time to look after his business.
"There is only one point in which the European merchant excels the American and that is in the cost of his help. In Europe the clerks all work from three to five hours longer than they do in this country.
"Rape seed is now one of the principal exports of Holland," continued Mr. Lucardie. "These seed was not thought much of until recently when its value as a quick growing feed for stock in the event of a drought or flood was brought to the attention of agriculturalists all over the world. Now over 2,000 tons a year are imported by the United States and the grass is grown in the North and Northwest. Good feeding grass can be grown in from three to four weeks."
