Every useful action possible, such as ways of dress ing, eating, working, in short all the details of exist ence, should be made automatic and habitual. They can then be turned over to the lower nervous centers for attention, leaving the geneial manager unfettered to transact the real business of life. The nervous system is designed for this very purpose and the man who would be efficient takes advantage of its wonder fully simple yet adequate organization.
8. Operating the mental business man would have the men who buy from him or work for him, as responsive to his touch as a motor car or a locomotive under the engineer's hand. To a certain extent this is entirely possible. The average man has plenty of energy within him which awaits the call of the man able to release it—brain cells and muscle cells in unstable equilibrium are like powder awaiting the match.
To appreciate what possibilities here await the man able to operate mental machinery, one need only con sider that galvanic power applied to the nerve of a frog's leg produces energy 70,000 times greater than the original stimulus.
The procedure itself is pretty well comprehended in three words, motive, appeal and response. By mo _ tive is meant that which impels men to act ; as, for ex ample, when the desirelor a home or for clothing and food impels the workman to lay. bricks. Appeal is the means by which a motive may effectively be incited. If, for example, the manager wants to arouse a par ticular motive, such as curiosity or gratitude, he makes an appeal, that is, he invites, or argues, etc. By re sponse is meant the reaction on the part of the other person, whether favorable or unfavorable, to the ap peal which has been made to him.
9. Appeals to the broadly, appeals are directed either to the_reason or to the in stincts. The instinctive appeal is addressed to the _ lower parts of the brain, those which control our habits and all our routine conduct. If A man is hungry and food is placed before him, lie instinctively seizes a knife and fork. In the presence of danger a man instinctively seeks a place of security. It is a human instinct to protect one's wife, children and friends from harm. It is instinctive, also, to continue doing whatever one has been accustomed to do.
Many of life's most important customs are instinc tive and non-rational. A man who seeks to make us act counter to these instincts has a difficult task. If lie wishes to win us, he must by all means be careful not to begin by rousing instincts which are hostile to his desire. If an art critic should be tactless enough
to mention the physical blemishes of a friend's sweet heart or mother, his friend -would not be at all con vinced. Possibly "Old Glory" is not the most artistic national flag in existence, but every real American believes it is and does not care to reason about it.
"You want a tie to match this new coat," suggests the salesman with conviction, and our lower brain centers,-habit-bound and greedy, urge us over toward the stock of neckwear.
The appeal to instinct is sometimes called the hu man interest appeal. Sometimes it is known as "sug gestion." Men are sometimes persuaded to act with out the slightest suspicion that they are not acting entirely upon their own initiative. Instinctively We love the approbation of others; so almost uncon sciously we become imitators and seek to mend our manners and improve our speech when we are with people 'whose training and environment have been finer than ours.
10. Making use of is the com mander-in-chief of our mental forces and may at any time countermand the orders issued by the instincts. When the price of a new necktie is telegraphed to the brain, the reason may take note of it and thwart the salesman's appeal to instinct unless Ile is able to prove that the high price is abundantly justified.
Occasions often arise when the reason appeal alone can be used, for example; if a concern wishes to estab lish a line of credit at a bank, it must convince the banker of the value of its assets and of the certainty of its income. Banks do not loan money on sentiment. On the contrary, a banker is instinctively suspicious when a man applies for a loan on the ground of friendship or because they are members of the same church or secret society.
Frequently the instinct and reason appeal can be made to work- together to the same end. Dealers in farms and country estates understand this fact and make skilful use of both appeals in their advertise ments. They picture what seems to be an id'eal country home which is to be sold at a most reasonable price, because the owner is a recent widow and. is com pelled to sell. When a would-be buyer rushes out eagerly to snap up the bargain, he is usually disap pointed. The advertisement may have told nothing untrue, yet it did not tell all the truth; it was designed to arouse his instinct for a country home.