IT is not unfair, I believe, to say of the average manager of a business, that he gives in the early stages of his undertaking less thought to his finances than to any of the major problems which he has to solve. Yet the financial policy is second in importance only to his handling of the industrial relationship questions. The latter stand out in bold relief before him, and he will find in the end that the same principles govern his financing as regulate his methods of production and problems of personnel. The last few years fortunately have shown industrial managers that a veil of secrecy drawn over their operations is not an asset but a liability. The man who is ever ready to show to his fellow industrialist-whether or not he be a competitor-his product, his equipment and his balance sheet, is the one who receives the greatest respect and the largest return benefits. In financing, as in every other branch of management, the principles of the open book and the square deal point the only sound road to success. They are the great indicators and if the executive follows them with a clear brain, red-blooded courage and such conservatism as horse sense dictates, he will not be apt to go astray. There are innumerable ways of working out these broad basic principles. It seems to be a truism that in starting a new business, as in building a new house, it is against all rules to provide enough money in advance. As a matter of fact, nine times out of ten no financial policy is laid down until the executive has encountered serious difficulties and is therefore forced to develop a plan. His problem then is identical with that faced by the manager who comes into an old and once prosperous business which has slipped into the doldrums. Each must now laboriously pick his way through the tangled and slippery path, which if approached earlier would have been simple. HIe is wise indeed who adopts a policy before he finds himself forced to work one out,