more carefully reckon? Words are as dangerous as dynamite, as beneficent
as brotherhood. An unfortunate word may mean a plea rejected, an
enterprise baffled, half the world plunged into war. A fortunate word may
open a triple-barred door, avert a disaster, bring thousands of people
from jealousy and hatred into coöperation and goodwill.

Nor is it solely on their emotional side that men may be affected by
words. Their thinking and their esthetic nature also--their hard sense and
their personal likes and dislikes--are subject to the same influence. You
interview a potential investor; does he accept your proposition or not? A
prospective customer walks into your store; does he buy the goods you show
him? You enter the drawing room of one of the elite; are you invited again
and again? Your words will largely decide--your words, or your verbal
abstinence. For be it remembered that words no more than dollars are to be
scattered broadcast for the sole reason that you have them. The right word
should be used at the right time--and at that time only. Silence is
oftentimes golden. Nevertheless there are occasions for us to speak.
Frequent occasions. To be inarticulate _then_ may mean only
embarrassment. It may--some day it will--mean suffering and failure. That
we may make the most of the important occasions sure to come, we must have
our instruments ready. Those instruments are words. He who commands words
commands events--commands men.



II

WORDS IN COMBINATION: SOME PITFALLS