NST eps oY YYEYD CHA AHDON NEN: SS EIR (S OFAN NAZAERIIA SPD) LZR CSS EIST} 59 Nee eS SBZz UO DAA EAM Oe Se BSI, SPRY ZZ: Sess BAISYA Va ya lig es FF Cn ey img HO (3 ya YZ ; CaaS i a) ee yey NNSA a (3. KEE DAO OO INO di, ON BD SN” GEN | 2 nS NOR) oe ay: ye AN oq j Ps 4 i. 53 uy RG PN 4 2) (G iss TENS SS RY SSS Se 9 eg US BS a ek )3 ‘7 Zax 1) SS BUA S 5 GeG PECK (S AG EME = Wag AM & DOES 2 Wis Gp S 2 \ ps oy NY so U8 GN TH aes 2 Ay LF ry): SOS S a (CA 2 Bt ig OOO UED WLZZZ->S ane tre Nes SY STIS On wen Forty-ninth Year (RLS ID AT NSS Zak SSPUBLISHED WEEKLY axe TRADESMAN COMPANY, PUBLISHERSA Sas) AN LEST. 1883 45 NSS RELA GSS 4% ey Foes WY SS) Ae al CCS (G/L GF— SS ta ee he ET} NALS Ry SRS. ‘* 7A ——~ CS SST SCS CR FEE PSI OOOO ELSE S 2 WN GRAND RAPIDS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1931 Number 2499 ESTE STL SENT SO eer ee eee ee cc ee ec ee THE WOMAN WITH THE SERPENT’S TONGUE She is not old, she is not young, The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue, The haggard cheek, the hungering eye, The poisoned words that wildly fly, The famished face, the fevered hand— Who slights the worthiest in the land, Sneers at the just, contemns the brave, And blackens goodness in its grave. In truthful numbers be she sung, The Woman with the Serpent’s Tongue; Concerning whom, Fame hints at things Told but in shrugs and whisperings; Ambitious from her natal hour, And scheming all her life for power; With little left of seemly pride; With venomed fangs she can not hide; Who half makes love to you to-day, To-morrow gives her guest away. Burnt up within by that strange soul She can not slake, or yet control; Malignant-lipp'd, unkind, unsweet; Past all example indiscreet; Hectic and always overstrung— The Woman with the Serpent's Tongue. To think that such as she can mar Names that among the noblest are! That hand like hers can touch the springs That move who knows what men and things, That on her will their fates have hung!l— The Woman with the Serpent’s Tongue. William Watson. {Copyright, 1909, by John Lane Company. Reprinted by permission.] VOUEDEEMUOPEUOUOCUOESEOQECDEOCSUOECCDEEOU OCDE ECCT CEES E EC CE EECA ETC EE ECE PE CUETO ECCT P EOE E ECE EOC GED EOE MODOC E PEEP SE pa a ae ae ae ee ee” ae ee ae ee ee ee ae ae ae ee ee Se ee aac PUSHIT and PROFIT! SERT is a best seller everywhere, because it meets the housewife’s demands for variety and ease of preparation. Get behind ROYAL QUICK SETTING GEL- ATIN DESSERT. No large stocks necessary. You buy only enough to meet your require- ments for a short period. You profit quickly with Royal... and your profits are BIGGER! Quick Setting Gelatin’ Dessert ROYAL A Product of Standard Brands Incorporated ¥) Another ROYAL Profit Maker! Chocolate Pudding is the newest member of the Royal family. Takes only 6 minutes to prepare. Everyone's enthusiastic about it. Feature it! ae LT © M. E. Davenport President SUMMER SCHOOL Securing a good position is a matter of being pre- pared when the position is open. You may save two months in preparation by attending Summer School. This school is Chartered by the State as a Class A College. All work in business, Account- ing, Secretarial, Law, Income tax, and Economics is of very high grade. It is a pleasure to send catalog. DAVENPORT-McLACHLAN INSTITUTE 215 Sheldon Avenue GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Old Master COFFEE Universally Conceded To Be the Best Brand on the Market For the Money. SOLDZONLYCBY; The Blodgett-Beckley Co. Main Office Toledo Detroit Office and Warehouse 517 East Larned Street ming . MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE CO. Varied Vacation Pleasures await you in Michigan ae offers advantages for almost every kind of vacation. Riding... boating . . . swim- .. fishing ... camping . . . touring . . . golf -.. tennis.. what kind of vacation you have in mind, you'll enjoy it in Michigan. And while you’re away, use Long Distance tele- hone service .. . available everywhere . . . to call Conse and office to learn if all is well there. Call ahead for reservations, or to notify friends as to the time of your arrival. Your Long Distance calls will add little to your vacation expense. Long Distance rates are surprisingly low. . or just plain loafing. No matter being published in 250 newspapers by the One of a series of 12 advertisements con- cerning the vacation advantages of Michigan, Michigan Bell Telephone Company. VACATION IN MICHIGAN COLLECTIONS We make collections in all cities. Bonded to the State of Michigan. Prompt remittance of all moneys collected is guaranteed. Write us for information regarding our system of making collections. CREDITOR’S COLLECTION BUREAU 7th Fl, Lafayette Bldg., Detroit, Michigan Telephone Cadillac 1411-1412 Corduroy Tires Known from the Canadian Border to the Gulf—and from New York Harbor to the Golden Gate—the Corduroy Tire has in ten years gained a reputation for value, for superlative performance and dependability that is second to none! The Corduroy Dealer organization dots the nation’s map in metropolis and hamlet. It is an organization that swears allegiance to the Corduroy Tire because of long years of unfail- ing tire satisfaction to the motorists of the country. _ Go to your Corduroy Dealer today. Ask to see the tire. ig— Sturdy—Handsome in all its strength and toughness, Be cn duroy Tire will sell itself to you strictly on its merit. CORDUROY TIRE CO. Grand Rapids, Mich. be Forty-ninth Year GRAND RAPIDS, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1931 Number 2499 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN E. A. Stowe, Editor PUBLISHED WEEKLY by Tradesman Company, from its office the Barnhart Building, Grand Rapids. UNLIKE ANY OTHER PAPER. Frank, free and fearless for the good that we can do, Each issue com- plete in itself. DEVOTED TO the best interests of business men, SUBSCRIPTION RATES areas follows: $3 per year, if paid strictly in advance. $4 per year if not paid in advance. Canadian subscription, $4.04 per year, payable invariably in advance. Sample copies 10 cente each. Extra copies of .urrent issues, 10 cents; issues a month or more old, 15 cents; issues a year or more ald, 25 cents; issues five years or more old 50 cents. Entered September 23, 1883, at the Postoftice of Grand Rapids as second class matter under Act of March 3, 1879. JAMES M. GOLDING Detroit Representative 507 Kerr Bldg. SOME TRENDS IN TRADE. Sidelights on World’s Most Important Happenings. Trade conditions, although marked by dullness, are not bad on the whole, relatively speaking. Lately there has been a marked rise in spirits due to comparatively stable prices. Clearance sales remain numerous. Fall buying of women’s dress goods has been very active in the last few days, showing a marked increase over the buying of preceding weeks. Retail trade in men’s wear was dis- appointing in the second half of July. Very low prices are expected to stimu- late business in the current month. The average price of commodities sagged a little more last week, the Irving Fisher index number dropping to 69.3 compared with 69.5 the week before. August inventories in the retail stores are now under way and first estiates are that they will be consider- ably lower than last year, even allowing for lower prices. The number of business failures has diminished steadily every month this year, according to R. G. Dun reports. An indication of a better trend, at least. Colorado Fuel & Iron announced last week a 20 per cent. reduction in its basic wage scale to $5.25 a day, forced by competitive conditions. The five-cent cigar is gaining so rap- idly in popularity that Class A cigar production in June went up 19.7 per cent. above the output of June 1930, in contrast to slight declines in all other forms of manufactured tobacco except snuff, which had an exceptional gain of 16.1 per cent. Industrial employment in the month ended June 15 was 2.6 per cent. less than in the preceding month; payrolls were down 6.2 per cent. Compared with the twelve months before, the re- spective declines were 15.6 and 25.7 per cent. Of sixty-four manufacturing industries reporting to the Department of Labor, forty-five showed reductions in wages affecting 67 per cent. of their employes. Increased value rather than lower prices is to be stressed in 1932 by automobile manufacturers, according to current reports in Detroit associated with rumors concerning a new ford model. Peerless Motor Car is to build all- aluminum twelve and sixteen cylinder cars. Net profits of 184 corporations in the second quarter of this year were 35.6 per cent. more than in the preceding quarter, contrasting with a gain of only 5.1 per cent. from quarter to quarter last year. As Moody’s Investment Service observes, this indicates, despite the current level, that business has been operating somewhat more profit- ably than many have realized. Du Pont Cellophane has reduced the prices of its product—plain cellophane from 50 to 45 cents, the moisture-proof cellophane from 75 to 70 cents a pound, because of wide acceptance of cello- phane in the cirgarette and other in- dustries. Important copper producers are talk- ing of a complete shutdown, like that resorted to in 1920, as the only effective means of putting the industry on a sound basis. Advanced cigarette prices, if result- ing from collusion of any kind, are expected to be considered seriously by the Governent. The Department of Justice will make a thorough investiga- tion of the four principal manufactur- ers; but the general opinion is that the evidence will not be forthcoming on which to base a prosecution. About a dozen complaints against the cigarette manufacturers have been filed with the department. The most insistent has come from an organization of whole- sale grocers. This association has based its claim of illegal price-fixing on the fact that one manufacturer sent his notice of increased prices to the trade by mail, and that three others followed up with the same increase by wire on the same day. It is understood that the Department of Justice con- siders this as merely an indicator of a possibility of agreement or collusion. The case is likely to cause more dis- cussion than to result seriously for the manufacturers. Small manufacturing enterprises con- tinue to attract attention, first, because of the manner in which they are weath- ering’ the depression, and, second, for the reason that they are attracting sur- plus funds seeking investment. A pri- vate information service of Washing- ton recently commented on these facts, and received a great many enquiries from both small manufacturers needing money and those who wanted to invest. This organization then attempted to set up a department for the purpose of getting manufacturers and capital to- low gether, but was soon so heavily swamp- ed that it had to employ a trained per- sonnel to take charge of the added work. Advantages of small scale manufac- ture are mainly control of sales effort within economic boundaries, ability to change designs and methods quickly, closer contact with the trade and equit- able selling policies. A number of such miles of Washington have reported an increase of both volume and profits this year, and the largest is selling a volume of about a million dollars a year. manufacturers within a few The prevention of future depressions is being studied by Government men in several departments, and within a few months this subject is expected to be widely discussed. “It shall not hap- pcn again” may be the slogan for an unofficial campaign encouraged by the Government, and there is no doubt that the effort will meet with some measure of success. claim that the present depression would have been a great deal worse if it had happened under conditions that pre- vailed some years ago. They point to the fact that layoffs and labor wage reductions came first during previous depressions, and that the majority of employers now consider such steps to be a last resort. Those who are interested They also emphasize that never before have industries so seriously attempted to lessen unem- ployment. The whole country now realizes that purchasing power is creat- ed and sustained by wages and em- ployment, and that the degree of the country’s prosperity is measured by these two factors. With this as a premise agreed upon, there is little doubt that those interested in the move- ment will be able to point the way, if not to continuous prosperity, at least to a long period of profitable general business development. —_++.+_____ Gabby Gleanings From Grand Rapids. Kenneth ‘W. '/Plumb, son of Walter K. Plumb, many years ago manager of the local ‘branch of the National cuit Co., was in town several days last week. He is now connected with the advertising agency of the Frank Pres- bery Co., New York, specializing on the accounts of the National Biscuit Co, and the White Rock Water Co. This is the first time Mr. Plumb has visited Grand Rapids since the kaiser’s war, in which with much distinction, Bis- he served Gard W. ‘Smith, who has been affil- iated with the Globe American ‘Corp., Kokomo, Ind., been placed in charge of the Indiana territory sales for the Premier line of parlor and base- ment furnaces, according to an nouncement by the Premier Warm Air Heater Co., Dowagiac. For some years Mr. Smith was manager of the furnace division of the Detroit Stove has an- Works and has many friends in the hardware and heating trade. The Oldtime ‘Traveling Men and their wives will hold their first summer picnic and re-union Saturday afternoon, 15, on the boat at Ramona park. The hours for the outing are from 3 to 8 o’clock with a picnic dinner to be The committee on arrangements comprises Abbott, Leo A. Caro, CC. Broene, D, A. Drummond, W.'S. Law- McKay, John Millar, TenHopen Aug. served on the boat at 5 o’clock. George ton, George Richard Warner, W. M. and D. '‘N. ‘White. ee Seed ae es Raisin Brook Co. Is Now Bankrupt. According to dispatches De- troit, the Packing Co., of Dundee, has filed a voluntary peti- from Raisin Brook Federal Court of $91,218.09 and liabili- ties of $296,889.93. The petition tion of bankruptcy in listing assets Paul bankruptcy. E. the decision to file was referred to H. King. referee in H. Geer, the papers was taken by the board of di- secretary of company, said bankruptcy rectors at a meeting held Tuesday, The Raisin Brook Co.’s business developed rapidly, its operations becoming State- wide, and operating quite extensively in Eaton county. There was conse- quent plant expansion. And then some- thing happened to the system in opera- tion, and the business slowed up and continued to do so, and bankruptcy followed as a natural sequence. a Poultry Canning 50 Per Cent. Below Last Year. The depression has had a marked effect upon the canning of poultry, ac- cording to R. S, Slocum, senior mar- keting specialist of the Department of Agriculture. Only half as much poul- try was canned during the past two Aver- 1930 was months, he says, as a year ago. age monthly production in around 2,000,000 pounds; during the last two months it was around 1,000,- 000. The reason, according to Mr. Slocum is that canned poultry is regarded by many as a luxury. —_@-e-——____ Up-to-Date Method of Cattle Rustling. Livestock buyers who pay ers for their purchases with the farm- worthless Michi- By the time the farmers have had a chance to present the checks for pay- checks have been operating in gan. ment their livestock has been re-sold at the stock yards. the animals trucks, These buyers load directly their doing business on the onto own no-cash and carry basis, Farmers have ‘been warned against these fraudulent buyers by Commis- sioner William F, Renk, of the Depart- ment of Agriculture and Markets, ——_>+~-______ Service is the rent a merchant pays for the space he occupies in the public mind. His receipt for that service is good will. 2 IN THE REALM OF RASCALITY. Questionable Schemes Which Are Under Suspicion. If the nimble witted and light-finger- ed gentry of our glorious land devoted their .talents to legitimate business they would, in many Cases, by their ingenuity become brilliant successes. The get-rich-quick fever which has be- come more and more prevalent of late has evolved many elaborate fraudulent schemes for separating a man from his money, the main feature of such schemes being a method of inspiring confidence of the intended victim. It was once supposed that the guile- less farmer was ‘the likely customer for a gold ‘brick, but we find in business that even hard-headed financiers—real or fancied—are not immune to the machinations of the glib-tongued indi- vidual. Several varieties of swindles which have come to the notice of the writer are here cited because the victims were, in most of the cases, in the hardware business. It is a notable fact that many swindlers make it a practice to follow a certain branch of trade and through acquired knowledge of the trade and its practices are able to talk convinc- ingly to its members, the more easily to further their schemes. Some time ago a hardware dealer was approached by a “reporter” who informed him that two people were in a hospital, deathly sick from “tetra- ethyl” poisoning contracted from paint which had been purchased in his store. For a consideration the “reporter” of- fered to use his influence to keep this unpleasant news out of the papers. Such a proposition, calmly viewed by a disinterested party, sounds, I admit, rather far fetched and hardly plausible, but the hardware merchant suddenly approached by a “reporter” with such alarming news is by no means a dis- interested party, and the total un- expectedness of the shock robs him of his ability to think clearly. This merchant, however — scared though he was—fortunately held on to his common sense and with a little reasoning it did not take long to arouse his suspicions. He began to question the “reporter,” whereupon that indi- vidual fled. Some time later the paper with whom the “reporter” pretended to have been connected began to receive com- plaints of his activities and the swindler was finally laid by the heels. When his case came up in court it was learned that a dozen or more hardware dealers had, by means of the same scheme, been fleeced by him out of sums ranging from ten to a hundred dollars, A clever trick played on another hardware man in a small city was ar- ranged as follows: After the evening rush this merchant was accustomed to sit in front of his store and enjoy the night air before retiring. While he was thus enjoying himself one evening a young man came up to him and ask- ed permission to use his telephone. After giving the number, which none of the help chanced to hear, he hung up the receiver and remarked that the party was busy and the operator would call back. Presently the bell rang and he spoke with his party for some five MICHIGAN TRADESMAN minutes. Then he paid for two local calls and left. In due course the hardware man re- ceived a telephone bill as follows: Toll call, Palmer to New York, eleven dol- lars. The bird, however, had flown. Short change artists have developed various ways of plying their nefarious trade, the basic principle of their schemes being to cause confusion and then get away with the cash. Two swindlers enter a hardware store. One of them buys something and in payment tenders a bill of large denomination. When the clerk has handed out the change to the customer the latter suddenly discovers that he has the right change to pay for his pur- chase and asks that his large bill be returned, In the meantime while the other swindler has engaged the clerk’s atten- tion, he has deftly slipped two or three bills out of the stack of change. Long practice has made him skillful and quick and the clerk does not discover the loss until the day’s receipts are counted. In a store where there is no cash register or sales slip system the victim seldom discovers his loss. The check forger also has evolved numerous clever schemes to create the impression with his intended victim that everything is all right. One such operator went into a tailor shop to have a button sewed on his jacket. While this was being done he appar- ently noticed a hardware store across the street and he told the tailor he was going over to the store to buy a pocket knife while he thought of it. Instead of getting the knife, how- ever, he asked the proprietor of the hardware store if he would kindly cash a check for ‘Mr. X, the tailor opposite. Having come from there, and being in his shirt sleeves in mid-winter, the hardware man took it for granted that he was employed in the tailor shop, and was further convinced of it when the stranger went directly back to the shop He was enlightened, however, when the check came back from the bank marked “No Account.” A bright young man became a steady customer at a certain hardware store and through his conversation, his per- sonal appearance, and by “accidental- ly” allowing the storekeeper to catch a glimpse of a handful of rent receipts, he created the impression that he was a real estate operator, and the owner of a large apartment house nearby. This state of affairs continued for some time and it was not long before the proprietor was cashing checks for the young man, none of which were ever discredited for any reason. Finally the young man had, so he said, “turned a deal,’ and presented another person’s check which came back marked “insufficient funds.” When apprised of this fact the young man was apparently very much em- barrassed and offered profuse apologies explaining that he had depended en- tirely on this check, which amounted to five hundred dollars, and had him- self drawn against it, so if the hard- ware merchant would give him a check for the amount, he (the young man) would give his personal check for five hundred ninety dollars, the said check to be held for a week, when he expect- ed to receive some more money. The hardware man “fell” for the story, but upon reconsideration of the affair decided to stop payment on the check he had issued. Then he placed in his bank the check which the young man had given him, instructing the bank to draw against it as soon as the young man deposited the money. He then released the check on which he had stopped payment and, instead of a heavy loss, came out of the transac- tion with a ninety dollar profit. Need- less to say the young man never called for his money. He made a business of “swinging checks” by having accounts in two banks, under different names, and bor- rowing one against the other. Upon discovery, he had moved to other fields, as yet unexplored. The hard- ware dealer, upon reporting the inci- dent to his local Chamber of Com- merce, learned that the man had been “stringing along” two other hardware merchants in the same manner and had, when he departed, taken with him some eight hundred dollars of their money. Another hardware merchant ran short of change one evening. A cus- tomer had tendered a ten dollar bill in payment for his purchase. It happen- ed that at the time the merchant was without help in the store, so he asked a man who was making application for a position as a clerk, and whom he knew by sight, to get the bill changed in the neighborhood. That was the last he saw of the ten dollars. When the hardware man had the would-be clerk arrested he was very much astonished to learn that in the eyes of the law the money had not been stolen. The transaction was mere- ly a breach of trust and the only re- course the hardware man had was a civil suit to recover his ten dollars. Here is the story of another hard- ware dealer who was deftly robbed by three men, one posing as an inspector, another as a salesman, and the third as a customer, The customer made a purchase and tendered a large bill in payment, which necessitated the opening of the safe in order to get change. The salesman “happened in” and was about to intro- duce himself when a fire department inspector arrived to inspect the prem- ises. The salesman obligingly agreed to wait. With the owner being kept busy in the rear by the inspector and the cus- tomer engaging the attention of the clerk, the salesman found little diffi- culty in going through the opened safe and relieving it of a few hundred dol- lars. Another scheme was worked on a hardware dealer by an unscrupulous advertising agent. He explained that his firm was about to put on the mar- ket a new line of brushing lacquers, and would distribute samples gratis in order to popularize the line. The firm wanted to be sure that the samples would reach the public and, therefore, they furnished coupons which the hardware dealer was to. distribute among his customers, and on presen- tation of which the customer was to have his choice of the frée samples, August 12, 1931 said samples to be furnished free of charge by the manufacturer. The agent told a logical and con- vincing story and the dealer was “sold” on the idea. Everything went smooth- ly until the name and address of the dealer was asked. The agent was to- tally unable to get it right and finally asked the dealer to write it down him- self. A few days later the hardware iman got a bill for two hundred dollars worth of goods. He protested long and loudly but a copy of the order bearing his signature, which he admitted was genuine, was shown him. He got out of it finally, but the moral is obvious. The owner of another large hard- ware establishment met with an un- usually clever swindle when a very well dressed young man bought a two- hundred-dollar electric washing ma- chine from him and offered in payment a five-hundred-dollar check. Of course the dealer refused to give him the change so the man proposed that the dealer keep the washing machine while he put the check through his bank. The “customer” promised to return in a few days. As the dealer had ex- pected, the check was duly returned, with a slip attached marked “Account Closed.” Contrary to the dealer’s ex- pectations, however, the stranger re- turned at the appointed time and seem- ed dumbfounded to hear that the check had been returned. He asked to see it and gave a well-acted representation of a man annoyed with himself at his own stupidity. “That's a good one on me,” he ex- plained. “I closed my account in that bank some time ago and must have gotten hold of the wrong book. So stupid of me!” He had the washing machine placed in his car, however, paying for it in cash, and put the check in his pocket. Several days later the hardware dealer was notified that he had overdrawn his account, Investigation showed that the flashy stranger had taken the check, removed the “Account Closed” slip, and on the strength of the en- dorsement which the dealer had made when he deposited the check, had suc- ceeded in getting it cashed. As the endorsement was admittedly genuine the hardware dealer could not recover from his bank and had to chalk the loss up to experience, Another swindle which recently came to my attention is perhaps the most barefaced of them all, which fact may account for its success. It is a petty scheme, never netting its perpetrators any large sums, but they worked it so long and so successfully that, in the aggregate, their ill-gotten gains pre- sented a staggering total, One of the sharpers would enter a hardware store and, though he never made any purchases, he would ask questions about the goods and would manage to keep the proprietor or clerk busy answering them in the rear of the store. While he would be thus engag- ing the attention of the proprietor or the clerk, his confederate would enter the store and quickly lay his hands HpOR any handy article. When the proprietor approached, he would pre- sent this article, claim that he had pur- chased it there the day before and that for some reason he could not make use & \ August 12, 1931 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 3 of it, and would demand that his money be refunded. Almost any merchant would rather refund money than disgruntle a cus- tomer, and nine times out of ten, the ruse succeeded, the dealer never even dreaming that he was, in effect, buying back his own stolen merchandise.— Morris H. Whitcomb in Hardware Re- tailer. —_+~+.__—_ Mr. Bervig To Assume His New Position, On August 20 Harold Bervig leaves the National Retail Hardware As- sociation. Many dealers in every state in the Union know Mr. Bervig through his appearance on the state association convention programs and through the special analysis work he has made for hardware men. Harold ‘Bervig is a native of North Dakota. His experience has always been in a hardware store. His father was a hardware merchant before him. lis brother is still conducting a hard- North Dakota. His uncle is conducting a hardware store. Ile comes from a hardware family; he has lived hardware, and he ware store in knows hardware. At the age of 14 ‘Mr. Bervig started working during his summer vacations in a hardware store. On graduating from the university he purchased a hardware store and under his guidance the store became one of ithe most out- standing hardware establishments in North Dakota. His success as a hardware dealer drew the attention of the National As- sociation and in December of 1921 he joined the Store Management Depart- ment of the National staff. During his nine and one-half years in the National Association, Mr. Ber- vig specialized in management prob- lems and merchandise display. In store analysis and management con- trol work he has made over 1,500 special analyses for hardware dealers throughout the United States, For the past three years he _ has spent much time in special merchan- dising studies of tools and housewares. It is through these research studies he has contributed valuable not only information to the hardware industry but to all branches of retail merchandis- ing. Mr. Bervig is recognized as one of outstanding store en- gineers on problems of management and display. He is credited with the designing of a number of new display fixtures and equipment now used in hardware stores, During the past year, in addition to his other duties, he has acted as Sec- retary of the Louisiana Retail Hard- ware and Implement Association. The members of the Michigan Re- tail Hardware Association are to be congratulated upon their good fortune in securing such an outstanding hard- ware man as their new _ Secretary, Harold ‘Bervig. L. S. Swinehart, Field Secretary. the country’s ———_ + + -—- Your best customer is some other merchant’s best prospect. Your effort to keep him satisfied must equal your competitor’s effort to wean his business away from you. More Salesmen Sought. The last week has witnessed three distinct and very encouraging trends in the selling field, according to Joseph H. Dryer, president of the Na- tional Council of Traveling Salesmen’s Associations. “We have had a sur- prisingly large increase in the enquiries received from business houses looking for experienced road salesmen,’ he said yesterday. “It is the first definite upward sign we have had of an awak- ening and concerted sales initiative on widely assorted range of merchandise lines. “Another happy number of men now out on the road, with more leaving every day. But the best news of all is the more encourag- ing reports headquarters that buyers are not only looking but they are also buying. True enough, not in large quantities, but they are nibbling at all attractive lines where novelty, style or price is the deciding factor. sign is the larger that are coming back to ported it was no use going on the road, for they would sometimes cover twenty accounts in half a dozen cities and not large enough to pay their travel expenses.’’—N. Y. Times. +> +» If you are so confirmed a pessimist never land one order that you believe business will improve you are a legitimate prospect for one item only—red ink, ——__-~> + 2 —_- heaviest replacement cost is that which comes from having to re- Your the part of distributors “A few months ago, salesmen re- place lost customers. handling a and the 1921-28 campaign® brought THESE RESULTS- You remember what happened: Crushed established as a sought-for, profitable prod- uct; consumption of all Canned Pineapple practically doubled. In fact, advertis- ing had to be suspended until supply could catch up with demand. Heres what HAPPENED the first time - Association advertising first started in 1908. Results were immediate and steady. Consumption quickly doubled and trebled. 1500% increase in 7 years. PINEAPPLE ASSOCIATION ADVERTISING And what a campaign! National Women’s Magazines! Sunday Newspapers! Total circulation 18 million. All full-color pages — starting in August and carrying right on through the season. A brand new copy appeal — sure to encourage quantity buying. Let us send you the details — including a simple suggestion for tying up to the advertising and making it make sales for you! Why not be the first in your ter- ritory to take advantage of this proven opportunity for extra profits? ... Better write today! ASSOCIATION OF HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE CANNERS 821 Adam Grant Bldg., San Francisco. HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE SLICED - CRUSHED TIDBITS 4 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN August 12, 1931 MOVEMENTS OF MERCHANTS. Caro—Alva F. Roberts has engaged in the meat business under his own name. Detroit—Leach’s Boot Shop, 5840 West Fort street, has filed a petition in bankruptcy. Fordson—The Bank of Dearborn has increased its capitalization from $200,- 000 to $400,000. Manistique—Adam Heinz has opened a serve-self cash and carry grocery store in the Gorsche block. Detroit—George E. Brooks & Co., Inc., 8734 West Six Mile Road, has changed its name to the Budd-Falcon Construction Co. Detroit—The Superior Drug Co., 616 Ford building, has been incorporated with a capital stock of $1,000, all sub- scribed and paid in. Pontiac—Sam Fishel, proprietor of Sam's Cut Rate Store, boots and shoes, is offering to compromise with creditors at 25 per cent. Maple Rapids—Fire of an unknown origin completely destroyed the stock and interior of the Claude D. Crooks dry goods, notions and grocery store. Detroit—The Champion Fuel Co., Avery and G. T. R. R., has been in- corporated with a capital stock of $5,- 000, $1,000 being subscribed and paid in, Tekonsha—The Tekonsha Farmers Co-operative Co. has purchased the stock arid fixtures of the Warwick Feed & Seed Co. and will continue the busi- ness. Detroit—United Open Markets, Inc., 560 Kenilworth avenue, has been in- corporated with a capital stock of $10,000, $1,000 being subscribed and paid in. Perry—D. P. Hinchey is erecting a modern store building adjacent to the State bank, which he will occupy with his jewelry and silverware stock about Sept. 1. Detroit—Henry the Hatter, 205 Gra- tiot avenue, has merged its business into a stock company under the same style with a capital stock of $4,500, all subscribed and paid in. Port Huron—Edward Richardson, former member of the Michigan Board of Pharmacy, has engaged in the drug business under his own name at the corner of Stone and State streets. Hancock—The Farmers Co-Opera- tive Co. has removed its grocery, meats, etc., stock from its Franklin street loca- tion to the store building at 400 Quincy street, which it recently purchased and remodeled. Detroit—The Service Commercial Body Co., 2940 Michigan avenue, has been incorporated to deal in autos, bodies, trucks and trailers, with a cap- ital stock of $6,000, $4,500 being sub- scribed and paid in. Johns—H. L. Abney, assistant manager of the J. C. Penney Co. store at Sturgis for the past six years as- sumed the duties of manager of the local store July 30, taking the place of R. L. Peters, resigned. Newberry—Walter L. Wilson has resigned his position as manager of the local Cowell & Burns clothing and men’s furnishings goods store and will engage in the shoe and hosiery business in the Richardson building Sept. 1, under the style of the Wilson Shoe Co, Lansing—W. D. Monaghan and R. R. Brock have engaged in business on East Grand River avenue, east of East Lansing, under the style of the Monbro Tavern, specializing in steak, white- fish and chicken dinners. Mt. Clemens—Sherbeck & Thede, 32 Walnut street, have merged their gro- cery, meats and general merchandise business into a stock company under the same style with a capital stock of $6,000, all subscribed and paid in. Kalamazoo—Harry Folz, manager of the Samuel Folz Co., has re-arranged the store, 120 East Michigan avenue, consolidating all departments on the main floor, the offices of the company being removed to the second floor. Quincy—The Fillmore Hotel, which has been vacant for several months because of the failing health of Mrs. G. J. Fillmore, was sold recently to Mrs. Haidee King, who took immediate possession and will open it shortly. Saginaw—The Popp Hardware Co., 718 Genesee avenue, has merged its business into a stock company. under the same style, with a capital stock of 7,000 shares at $10 a share, $70,000 being subscribed and paid in in prop- erty. Imlay City—The Thumb Hi-Speed Gas Corporation has been incorporated to deal in auto accessories, oil, greases and gasoline at wholesale and retail with a capital stock of 7,500 shares at $10. a share, $14,500 being subscribed and paid in. Detroit—The local members of the Red and White stores held a banquet Tuesday evening, which was attended by every member. It was decided to put the new system into effect in De- troit Aug. 15. All the members appear to be very enthusiastic over the out- come. Saranac — Stebbins & Sons have merged their ice cream, ices and soda fountain supplies business into a stock company under the style of the Steb- bins Ice Cream Co., with a capital stock of $30,000 preferred and $40,000 common, $40,000 being subscribed and paid in in property. Kalamazoo—Desere Cleenewerck has sold his interest in the news stand, cigar and tobacco business of Raseman & Cleenewerck, 103 South Burdick street to Louis Raseman, who will con- duct the business in the First National Bank & Trust building under the style of the Raseman Cigar Co. Manufacturing Matters. Benton Harbor—Birdie Ball Wash- er. Inc., 213 East Main street, has been incorporated to manufacture and sell cleaner and dryer for golf balls with a capital stock of $15,000, all subscribed and $8,800 paid in. Detroit—The Sutherland Hat Co., Inc., 1425 Broedway, has been incor- porated to manufacture and deal in hats for women and children with a capital stock of $20,000, $12,000 being subscribed and paid in. Lansing—The National Manufactur- ing Co., South Logan and Albert streets, has been incorporated to man- ufacture and deal in accessories for mo- tor vehicles with a capital stock of $1,000, all subscribed and $250 paid in. Detroit—The Dr. Nicholl Health Food Products Co., 13914 Hubbell avenue, has been incorporated to man- ufacture and deal in foods for pets and for fur animals, with a capital stock of $50,000, $47,000 being subscribed and paid in. - Detroit—The Classteel Manufactur- ing Co.,-Inc., 5143 Bellevue avenue, has been incorporated to manufacture and sell beverage tanks, glass-enameled ware, etc., with a capital stock of 10,000 shares at $1 a share, $10,000 being subscribed and paid in. ——_2+>—__—_ Flint City Officers Stay By Inde- pendent Grocers. Declaring that the city commission’s recent order blacklisting National chain stores in connection with the filling of welfare grocery orders is proving “extremely: costly to the city taxpayers,” and that former customers ef the chain stores are being forced to go to other stores and pay higher prices for their food, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., of Flint, petitioned the commission to permit their cus- tomers now receiving city aid to trade where they wish. The fifty A. & P. stores in Flint em- ploy 250 local residents, all of whom are American citizens and a majority of whom are taxpayers, the petition states, The organization is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a con- tributor to the community fund and vitally interested in the welfare of the city, it was stated. The petition, signed by J. G. Thomas, local manager for the chain declared that his stores charge prices much lower than can be met by inde- pendent grocers. The petition was re- ferred to Commissioner Tip O’Neill, chairman of the welfare committee. Mr. O’Neill reports a total of 1,704 families on the welfare lists, an in- crease of 91 families since last week. He said 446 men have been put to work since Saturday, and that the to- tal will reach more than a thousand by the end of the week. A new schedule of maximum welfare food prices to be charged by local inde- pendent grocers filling orders for the city, is now in effect in Flint, Mayor William H. McKeighan announced this morning, The new prices are said to meet many of the lowest prices offered this week by a national chain store or- ganization seeking a share of the city business. In other instances either the chain store price or the independents’ special price to the city was slightly lower, While the new schedule sets the maximum price which may be charged for staples on the welfare orders, the city will get the benefit of any lower prices, whether as a result of special sales or price fluctuations, the mayor said. ‘Grocery stores will be carefully checked at intervals to make sure the city is receiving the lowest possible prices, and the entire schedule will be adjusted every two weeks, Mr. Mc- Keighan said. Following are the commodities given on welfare orders by the city, along with city prices and the prices offered Monday night by the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co.: Independents’ A. & P. Price Price Bread four 2222. $.59 $.59 se four oboe .49 59 Bread (1% lb.) ------ 10 .07 Suan 22-2502 .06 .05 Potatoes, No. 1 -.---- .27 27 Tea sittings 2. wg 10 Cotes 2 ee : 19 Cocos 68) 6 uo. ees . .10 Corn meal, (5 lbs.) -- .19 18 Oat meal, bulk (1 1b.) .03 03 Rice (1 Ib) {2-2 07 05 Meas: (Ti) 07 Spaghetti (1 1b.) -_--. 07 .07 tard @ lb) =e: 11 10 Toilet soap 2-225 - 05 07 Laundry soap —._._- .04 03 Navy beans, whole -- .06 06 Salt pork, [bi 2 ee 18 18 Stew oo) ee 10 12 Hamburg 22228 oe 15 5 Liver 2.2 10 10 Sducare. (2220 1S 12% Piantiuns 15 Clice (2 bs) 2 25 Canned milk, large--- .07 07 Matches (22g su .04 .04 Baking powder, large .25 .20 Baking soda _____-__= .08 .09 Salt (2 Ibs.) 2222 eos 08 .08 Pepper 22.02 08 05 Corn syrup (1% Ibs.)__ .12 .10 Yeast, compressed __. .03 .03 Osions =. 2 se 04 .04 Canbase = 03 .02 (Garrets, bunch =o. 05 05 Vineoat 2s a 10 No other articles except those listed above will be given on poor orders, the mayor said, except when specially called for on orders of the poor com- missioner. Exceptions will be made only in cases of extreme age, where other diets are necessary or in cases of sickness. The new price schedule was fixed at a conference between the mayor, ‘Com- Tip O'Neill, head of the wel- fare department, and the independent grocers following a communication from the A. & P. stores manager ask- ing for a share of the city business on the grounds that the chain store prices were a great deal lower than those now paid by the city to independent stores. The mayor said that several of the independents offered to meet any and all chain store prices in order to keep the business. In the meantime, the new welfare labor plan moved forward, with a total of 688 men at work and their families removed from the welfare lists. The men are being put to work at the rate of nearly 200 a day up to a total of 1,200 which is expected to be reached by the end of the week. Under the new plan, the men will receive one or two days’ work each week on municipal projects, depending upon the size of their families. They are being paid in cash at the rate of $4 per day, and are at once removed from the welfare lists, Of course, this work cannot last for- ever,’ Mayor McKeighan announces, “but we hope to hold out until October when we believe the factories will pick up enough to relieve the excessive poor burden. The saving to the welfare fund under the plan will be approximately $1,000 a day as long as the work lasts.” The work now being done with wel- fare labor is being paid for largely out of other departmental budgets. The work consists of several fencing projects for the park department, cleaning river and creek banks, clean- ing the Ann Arbor street yards, grad- ing at the sewage disposal plant and weed cutting, niissioner August 12, 1931 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 5 Essential Features of the Grocery Staples. Sugar — Local jobbers hold cane granulated at 545c and beet granu- late at 5.25c, Tea—The only activity in the mar- ket has been due to the warm weather, which has increased the consumptive demand. Prices have been fairly steady throughout the line, but most primary markets are strong and this may cause an advance on this side. Indias advanced further in primary markets during the week. If it was not for the consumptive demand for icing, the market would be very slug- gish. Coffee—The past week has been marked by almost a continuous decline of Rio and Santos, green and in a large way. Declines were slight, how- ever, but they have gotten Rio No. 7, which is the standard grade, green and in a large way, down to 5%c per pound and Santos 4’s, another standard grade, down to around 8%c. These are astonishingly low prices for Brazil coffees. They are entirely due to the unfortunate financial condition in 3razil. The destruction of thousands of bags of coffee down there has not prevented the market from continually declining, although it might have de- clined further if this coffee had not been destroyed. Milds show no change for the week. The jobbing market on roasted coffee so far as Rio and Santos is concerned is weaker. Canned Fruit—Canned peaches are showing some more firmness as the an- nounced 1930 pack of 900,000 appears to be neareer 850,000 cases. However, pineapple is still a 15,000,000 or 16,000,- 000 case pack to be reckoned with in this respect. New York reports that local cherry crop is only 40 per cent. of last year. Canned Vegetables—Peas are selling up in good shape with sweets said to be scarce. Alaska conditions cannot be accurately gauged as yet. Dried Fruits—California raisin pool assumes much importance at this time as it gradually releases into consump- tion the held stocks from the 1930 crop surplus against what appear to be defi- nite decreases in the 1931 crop which is yet to be harvested. Yesterday the pool released 21,000 tons, approximate- ly, to the packers at 4c advance and a local market authority stated that only one more allotment will be made in about two weeks at another sub- stantial advance. In the meantime buyers are somewhat confused by the sudden strength of the market and it is understood that many of the larger takers of the crop have ordered sub- stantially. Against the annual con- sumption of raisins in this country the 1931 drop of approximately 150,000 tons will be short. California weather has for the past thirty-two days aver- aged 110 degrees in the valley, it was said. Canned Fish—Salmon prices were expected, but have not yet arrived in the trade. There is a general feeling that these will be below last year, though many look for higher lists on the better grades. Sardines, especially Maine pack, are inactive and Nor- wegian new pack, due to a strike, is somewhat problematical, Salt Fish—News has come from Boston during the week that the de- mand for fresh mackerel up there is so good that it looks like a shortage of salt mackerel within a few weeks, with probable advances. Demand for mack- erel is at present dull, with, however, steady prices. This applies to prac- tically all salt fish. ‘Beans and Peas—Outside of a slight increase in strength in pea beans, the entire list of dried beans has been dull, sluggish and easy since the last report. Demand for dried beans is very poor. Dried peas are also neglected. Cheese—Demand for cheese is only moderate, but as the offerings are light prices have remained about unchanged. Canned 'Milk—Sweetened condensed milk has dropped rather heavily to new bottom prices for advertised brands, which will force a revision in other lines. ‘This is inexplicable to the market, and the manufacturers are noncommittal as to reasons. It was unexpected, because some degree of betterment in conditions had been noted in the past few weeks, and the final decision as to cause was that for- mer prices had been out of line for some time. In evaporated milks there was no change in price, but dealers continued to give one case for ten on all orders. Dried milks were not af- fected by the drop at all and in fact have been strengthening up very con- siderably all over the country. These factors for betterment were very good reasons for lack of expectation in the market. Nuts—The local nut market is very quiet and prices, due to present small stocks, fairly held throughout the trade. A rather firm situation has developed in almonds and shelled walnuts, which it is felt will continue until the advent of the new crop. The very warm weather of the past few weeks has been a factor in keeping confectionery buyers out of the market. This group however, has placed rather substantial orders into the early fall, which indi- cates quite a revival of production at that time. In some quarters it is held that weakness is bound to develop in the peanut market due to the heavier than usual Spanish crop now coming along, Rice—There is a weaker trend per- ceptible in the local rice market reflect- ed by lower prices in the California market. Some of the \Southern produc- ers are beginning to agitate for better grading and marketing on rice ship- ments, Syrup and Molasses—There is a lull in the demand for sugar syrup, due to the season. Prices are fairly steady. The same can be said of compound syrup. Molasses in ordinary season- able demand at unchanged prices. —2-~.___ Review of the Produce Market. Apples — Transparents command $1@1.25 per bu., Red Astrachans 75c@ $1 and Duchess, $1@1.25. Bananas—3@3%c per lb. ‘Beets—Home grown, 25c per doz. bunches or $1 per bu. Blackberries—$2.50 per 16 qt. crate. Butter—The butter market has been from steady to firm during the past week. The offerings are only moder- ate and the demand just about enough to absorb them. In the meantime the price has advanced 2c per lb., due to falling off in receipts. Jobbers hold 1 Ib. plain wrapped prints at 28'%c and 65 Ib. tubs at 27c for extras. Cabbage—Home grown, 75c per bu. Cantaloupes—Indiana stock fetches $1.20 for flats and $2.75 for standards. Carrots—25c per doz. bunches. Cauliflower—$1.75 for ‘box contain- ing 6@9. Celery—Home grown, 30@50c ac- cording to size, Cocoanuts—80c per doz. or $6 per bag, ‘Cucumbers—No, 1 hot house, 60c per doz. outdoor grown, $1.25 per bu. Currants—Red, $1.75 per 16 qt. crate, Eggs—At the present writing the supply of fine fresh eggs and the de- mand for this grade are about running neck and neck, consequently prices have shown no particular change dur- ing the week. The supply of under- grade eggs is increasing and hard to move. Jobbers pay 20@20%c for high grade fresh stock. Grapes—Seedless from California, $1.50 per crate. Green Onions—20c for Silver Skins. Green Peas—$2.50 per bu. for home grown, Green Beans—$1.50 per bu. Gooseberries—$1.75 per 16 qt. crate. Honey Dew Melons—$1.75 per crate of 12 to 16. Lettuce—In good demand on the following basis: Imperial Valley, 6s, per crate ____$7.00 Imperial Valley, 5s, per crate ____ 7.00 Home grown leaf, per bu. ______ 1.25 Lemons—Present quotations are as follows: SOO MISE Ce $8.50 SOU SUmnIst = 8.50 O00 Red Bal 7.50 O00 Red Ball 2 7.50 Limes—$2 per box, Oranges—Fancy Sunkist California Valencias are now sold as follows: TG $6.25 (60 6.25 BAO) 2 gs Oe 8s 210 ee 5.00 ae 4.25 OG 4.00 Onions—Michigan, $2 per 100 Ibs. for yellow and $2.50 for white. Osage Melons—‘Michigan stock sells as follows: mse. $2.50 eee a O20... Bee Parsley—50c per doz. bunches. Peaches — Elbertas from Georgia, $1.50 per bu. Elbertas from Arkansas, Tenn. and Kentucky command $1.50@ 1.75 per bu. Pears—$2.75 per box for California. Peppers—Green from Florida, 50c per doz. Pieplant—75c per bu. for home grown, 'Plums—Burbanks $2 per bu.: per box for California. Potatoes—New home grown, $1@ 1.10 per bu.; Virginia stock, $3 per bbl, Poultry—Wilson & Company pay as follows: 17 tf Un Meavy fowls 19¢ Dieht fowls ee 16c Meks 12c Cees 12c Spinach—75c per bu. Tomatoes—Home grown hot house, 90c per 10 lb. container; outdoor grown 75c for 7 lb. basket. Turnips—60c per doz. for home grown; $1.25 per bu. Veal Calves — Wilson & Company pay as follows: Patiew 25. 104%@11%c Gee 2 9c Medium gel 8c Pdee 0 8c Water Melons—30@40c for stock from Georgia. Whortleberries—$3.50 per 16 qt. crate, + + Rift in Ranks of Retail Grocers’ As- : sociation, “IT may be wrong, ‘but my greatest impression was that our National board is trying to repress the growing ’ declared Harry W. Walker, secretary of the Independent Retail Grocers’ Association of Balti- more, in commenting on the recent Na- tional convention in Milwaukee. spirit of militancy,’ “No matter where you met a dele- gate and from what state he came, the question was ‘When will we have a private session;’ when will the grocers get a chance to talk? “Either our National board is out of step with the rank and file or the rank and ‘file is out of step with the board. ‘T“he spirit of that convention was “war on chain stores,’ ‘get all you can from the legislature,’ and, personal opinions to the contrary, it is the board’s duty to lead the fight. Let’s cut out ‘fine sounding phases in the coming St. ‘Louis convention and let the convention run the convention.” ——_+~-~—____ Glass Situation Still Quiet. The month has brought no improve- ment in the slow demand for building glass. However, with stocks in the hands of distributors at an extremely low point, any consumer demand would be reflected immediately in requisitions on factories. There is little apparent desire on the part of jobbers to increase stocks in spite of prevail- ing low prices, especially in window glass. Production of plate glass is still below the average of the Spring months, and no increase is anticipated unless spot demand improves, —__+>+._____ Detroit—Herbert M. McCutcheon, dealer in dry goods and men’s furnish- ings at 4621 Third street, has merged the business into a stock company un- der the style of the McCutcheon Co., Inc., with a capital stock of $5,000, all subscribed and paid in in property. Pontiac—The Fair Garment Co., 13 North Saginaw street, has been in- corporated to conduct a wholesale and retail business with a capital stock of $20,000, $10,000 being subscribed and paid in. ——_++~+___ Yopsilanti—The Box-A-Lyne Co., 101 North Huron street, has been incor- porated to manufacture and sell a typemetal device for printing, with a capital stock of $4,000, $2,520 being subscribed and paid in. —~> > ~__ ___ Hancock—The Gale Furniture Co., Quincy street, has merged its business into a stock company under the same style with a capital stock of $15,000, all subscribed and paid in. STEARIC RE SEINE REESE SCAT MICHIGAN TRADESMAN August 12, 1931 THE RUIN OF THE AGES. Rome, Eternal Mistress of Song and Story. [All rights reserved] Schoonmaker says that a trunk in Italy is as much trouble as a litter of kittens. That is the approximate truth and one can take his choice of two major method of handling it. He can get Mr. Cook or the American Express Co. to attend to everything for him and it will be done accurately and as speed- ily as he elects. In that case the cost begins on an actually lower scale than similar service would be in New York. On the basis of Italian money and its purchasing power in Italy, the price is liberal enough to allow a fine margin to the agency you employ. This meth- od will give you no trouble. You will just pay the bill. We adopted the other method. We looked after our trunk ourselevs. This was adventure and experimental con- tact with Italian ways and psychology and we regarded it and accepted its consequences as part of our Italian experiences. Frora that angle it was a lot of fun. As the Roma drew near to Naples we learned from the purser’s depart- ment that we could have our trunk put in storage on the dock in the Gov- ernment warehouse, at a cost of 75 centesime per day, say 334 cents. Land- ing charges having been paid in New York, there would be “nothing more to pay—nothing.” So we arranged our things accordingly, to do without. the trunk until we went to Rome. Blithely, then, on Nov. 5, one day in advance of our going, we taxied to the pier. We enlisted the aid of one porter who took us through many pas- sages and rooms. We stopped at one door over which was “Ufficio Dogana’”’ and before we got done, we thought doggonye would have been more ap- propriate. Having successfully passed this central customs official, there was a prolonged pause in operations. Then came a porter who had been in New York and who therefore had a few “TInglazy” words; and we learned that this was the hour sacred to post-lunch- eon siesta and “ever-ting lock oop.” Under this porter’s manipulation we witnessed a real comedy. He prod- ded some uffishiallies into such near- action as evoked vast hand waving, tor- rential conversation, snapping of fingers and other gestures under and near each other’s noses. Ten per cent. of the energy expended would have gotten our trunk for us, but things are not done that way in Italy. After a time, howeevr, great locks of the ancient castle-gate design, keys weighing twelve to sixteen ounces, were unlimbered and our trunk was found. Storage was as stated, about 75 cents but there was “commission” of $1, about which protest was vain, bringing only shrugged shoulders and general air of take it or leave it. We took it, of course, for by now we had learned rather well that every service always costs more in Italy than the figure quoted. It may be possible to know in advance exactly what one will have to pay for anything—except merchan- dise, and not always that—but though eventually we got near to it, we never were quite able to be sure our calcu- lations covered everything. The con- solation is that even tutto compreso— all included—lItalian expenses are light from an American standpoint. Having secured the trunk, next job was to convey it to the station. We liked the vetturas, the little Vuictoria- like open cabs, so we got one of those. Porters and driver insisted the trunk could be loaded up with us—and it was. The big wardrobe was set on the foot- board beside the cabby where it im- pended like a load of hay over the jack-rabbit of a Neapolitan horse, and away we went toward the central sta- tion. Our general appearance would have evoked vociferous screams of laughter in San Francisco. It made no stir whatever in Naples, so we enjoyed it all by ourselves.. Arriving at the sta- tion, the driver asked for ten lire, but there was little assurance in his ges- tures and the meter read lire and cen- tesime equivalent to 1414 cents. To that must be added a full lira for the trunk, 1934 cents total. So instead of the 5214 cents he wanted, I gave him five lire, 2614 cents. Hence, instead of $2 transfer charge as it would have been in New York, we got our cab ride and transfer for little more-than a “quarter” and felt things were evened up okeh. But there is no baggage checking in Italy. Thus we sent ours ahead on the baggage car, vouched for by our rail- road tickets, and paid $2 for the trunk trip to Rome, about 90 miles away. That’s how the litter of -kittens stuff comes in, Cost from Rome to Florence later was $3.40 and from our apartment in Nice to Paris by slow freight, plus six weeks storage for trunk and a small bag, plus delivery to our apartment in Paris, was just over $12. This last charge, however, included whatever Bro. Cook made out of us. Leaving Naples we began our experi- ences with Below-the-Alps tickets. No- body except Americans, millionaires and spendthrifts travels first-class in Italy. Those compartments are sel- dom occupied to speak of. Second, except for the label, is the same as first. Our tickets were purchased for our entire journey from Rome to Ge- noa via the towns we had selected. The time limit was sixty days and if used within that time the saving is considerable. But the statement that such tickets can be extended, while true, is exceedingly deceptive. You will be told that the charge for ex- tension is 10 per cent. or 1 per cent., depending on who tells it. You assume that this is to apply to the unused por- tion of the ticket. That is not the case. The percentage must be paid on the entire original cost, so if most of the ticket be used, it is cheaper to ditch it and buy regular transportation. This is also apt to be true if only half has been used. But that is not the worst of it. For you find the percentage is one—not ten—but it is 1 per cent. per day on the original purchase price; and when you figure that out you are apt to find that below-the-Alps has done you little if any good. Thus, if your trip through Italy is to be limited to sixty days, well and good. If you stay longer, you can do better buying from point to point—although this may be planned economically, too, by purchasing through for the longest distances and stopping off. Lastly. because few tourists stay in Italy beyond the sixty day limit, not a single Cit office that we contacted with knew anything about extension privi- leges. We could not have got such at all had we not known this fact for our- selves and made Cit attendants read over their own instruction books care- fully. Italy is rapidly developing her water power, a vast, hitherto untouched source of wealth. Hence the train to Rome runs even now electrically more than half the dishtance from Naples. The impulse is as smooth, clean and pleasant as on any American road. What of the journey along the shores of the Bay of Naples, through the vine- yard and farm lands of Italy, behind the hills to the West which gradually shut out the Mediterranean and the Appennine range on the East? The general impression over all Italy is that of a country cultivated with the intensity of a continuous flower bed. Every foot of every field and hillside is made to yield its fulness. Industry is universally indicated. There are five men. for every horse employed in Ital- ian agriculture and horticulture. Vine- yards cover areas so vast as to seem universal. And they are laid out on lines of permanence we well might copy. For where we slash our pines, firs and redwoods into grape stakes of transitory utility, Italians set out pop- lars. Those are cut back and pruned so skilfully that growth is retarded al- most to a standstill. They seem to grow upward scarcely at all after eight feet or so. There the tops are lumpy and gnarled where annual shoots have been trimmed off season after season. But such trees make a permanent vine support. In some instances and _ districts, heavy wires are strung from tree to tree, with lighter wires between on which the vines are trained. In other cases the vines are trained in rows. In all cases, the vine stem is curled like a parasite around the poplar trunk to its crown and thence spread either into the longitudinal rows or over the entire area in a living trellis. But however the vines may be train- ed, the supporting poplars are set in major rows fifty-five or sixty-five feet apart, usually with an irrigating ditch beside each row, and the ground be- tween the vine rows and poplars is planted to grass, vegetables or grain. Not an inch is left idle. Every rock eminence or hillside inacessible to other cultivation is set to olive trees, and everywhere there may be as much as a square foot of otherwise unavailable space you find a single olive tree. There are things in nature which ap- pear to contravene natural law. I think of three. There is the barrel cactus which stores up fresh, cool, chemically pure water, accessible to those with the know-how, where water seems not to be. There is sage honey, product of desert so bleakly barren as to seem utterly non-productive. And there is the olive, the bank which seems to en- able man constantly to withdraw while making no deposits. This is, of course, not literally true. The olive tree flourishes more vigor- ously and produces larger fruit more abundantly if planted beside a stream or irrigating ditch than on a barren hillside. But it is one of the most vital, longest lived of living things. Olives produce to-day in Palestine whic were in bearing when Christ walked the earth, and Italian hillsides carry olive trees which are mere shells of twisted, knotted, misshapen trunks— trees which have stood uncounted cen- turies in forbidding localities, clinging tenaciously to the barren rocks—which yield their annual quotas of oil-laden fruit. So we run through the kaleidoscopic scene which is Italian rural life, pas- toral to-day as of old. Oxen are com- moner than horses. Stone buildings, ancient as the house families above, beside the grain and hay lofts, and beasts, farm implements, swine and natural fertilizer below. Age has mel- lowed everything until colors blend on houses, trees, vines and fields into a mosaic of rarest beauty; and where the Italian. contributes to the color scheme the harmony is not violated, for he always has the true artistic instinct so ingrained that he could not err therein if he tried. As for the first glimpse of Rome! Who ever entered the Eternal City without preconceptions? Who ever found precisely what he expected to find? One may have revelled through the legends clustered around the Romulus Remus fable, hence have taken seriously that somebody sometime def- initely said: ‘‘Let us found here a city,” or he may have learned from the his- tory of Los Angeles, perhaps America’s reaily oldest city yet in being—though who knows?—that centers of human habitation are never planned in advance or of anybody’s set purpose, but spring from certain basic necessities. Bartlesville, Oklahoma, or Joliet, Illinois, for example. Bartlesville orig- inated as Bartle’s Mill and arose out of the vast Oklahoma plain because grain was grown there, and the river —name not at hand as I write—makes a sharp bend at a point now three or four miles out of the town doubling back on itself so that the two streams become distant only 200 feet or so from each other, although the total curve extends two miles or more; and where the approach is closest the level of the down current is some six or eight feet lower than the upper one. Bartles or 3artle put a race between the two streams and rang his undershot wheel thereby. Joliet was found, not because IIli- nois wanted a state prison, but because the Desplaines river drops thirty-two feet there, hence that was the finest possible site for a flour mill when wheat was the chief grain product of Illinois, So whether we take seriously the Romulus-Remus tale, or have “de- bunked” all that via Tacitus, Suetonius and their confreres, or have followed ages, and i August 12, 1931 through via Gibbon’s majestic albeit cynical chapters, it is absolutely certain that the Rome you come upon will dif- fer from that of your dreams and imag- inings—and unquestionably all to the good. For whatever your previous conceptions, what you see will widen, deepen your insight and strengthen your horizon, rectify your impressions, deepen your insight and strengthen your rapture over this World City, this Eternal Mistress of Song and Story, this Ruin of the Ages which holds within herself the Springs of Eternal Youth. So let’s not mind what we have thought of Rome. Let us go and see her, knowing that she will give us more than we dared to expect. But what of Roman descriptions I write must happen by the way for it is beyond me to write consecutively or descriptively on any plan. Others— thousands of them—have tried it. None, to my mind, has succeeded; so why should I try? Let us, then, get back down to earth, to the commonplaces; and of these we shall find plenty, for there is no side of human existence whereof Rome does not furnish reple- tion. Since the railroad came, we enter Rome from “the wrong side.’ We come in from the South, whereas the road traveled through the ages entered at the North gate, the Piazza dei Popolo —the Square of the People—still so called even now as it was in the begin- ning and during the centuries in which the people counted for nothing, in which they hardly existed. But that is all to the good, too, because we thus rum across one or two of the famous aqueducts. One is in ruins, a. few arches here, an arch or two there, walk- ing across the plain like a gigantic cen- tipede. One reflects that if a simple law of physics had been known to those ancients, not an arch would have been built. Had the old Romans observed what their numerous fountains demon- strated, that water rises to its own level, the water supply of Rome would have been conducted into the city in pipes; so we owe one of the wonders —and charms—of ancient architecture to such ignorance. As things stand, earthquake and fire, invasion and despoilation, upheaval of government, murder, rapine, famine and pestilence have swept over this city, but the water has flowed on, and that same water flows to-day, so abundant and pure that Rome is one of the most liberally supplied of all the cities of the world with purest of living waters. And the ancient aqueducts carry it now. Since they are in being and so built as to be as one stone in inter- cohesion of their composite parts, there is no need for more modern conduits. Our train runs by massive arches of brick, vast vaultings long since de- spoiled of their outer marble covering. We land in the modern station, and im- mediately across therefrom are the re- mains of the baths of Diccletian, now a wonderful museum of Roman anti- quities. The taxi whisks us past out- jottings of parts of the Wall of the Kings, remains of the days which pre- ceded the Republic, into a converted “palace” which is now the Ludovisi Hotel. MICHIGAN TRADESMAN We find that the “conversion” has not included modern heating. It is so cold we have to decamp after a single night. So the kaleidoscope begins to turn with visions disjointed, unconnect- ed, heterogeneous in their rapid suc- cession for the first days. There is smell of moth powder about the extra bedding which is not ameliorated by the maid’s bewilderment that we do not understand “napthaleena’ — fresh air pretreatment not occurring to any of these folks; the second portion of rolls for breakfast, brought on a silver salver and limited meticulously to one roll; stale pastry in the Inghilterra with otherwise good food; nightmare of filthy Roman houses offered blandly, with calm assurance, ic the benighted outlander for strictly a minimum of three months; real estate agents whose word iS cant’ or its Italian equiv- alent, who do not pay for taxis when they show prospective tenants about; whose office hours are 10 to 1 and 3 to 4:30—not a second longer, believe me; boy from the Cit devoted hours to the task of aiding us, and gave up only after hard trial; our own foraging among endless ‘Si Locas”’, which we found to mean places to let; finding some perfectly wonderfully furnished places, with handcarved wardrobes, beds on perfect ‘‘thrones”’, provided with heating plants so diminitive and water heater so primitive as to preclude any idea of comfort. Thus our first sight of the bridges over the Tiber led our thoughts to the bridge from the Present to the Past, for such was the bridge we crossed and recrossed ere, by great good fortune and after we had decided to give up the idea of Roman housekeeping, we discovered by the meresth chance the little penthouse which we occupied during six delight- ful weeks. Paul Findlay. ———_2--__ Large Pearls New Jewelry Feature. The use of large heavy pearls in novelty jewelry represents the latest development in this class of merchan- dise. The necklaces are of choker or thirty-inch length, the center pearl be- ing almost the size of a hen’s egg. The pearls are set with metal in gold or silver effects and harmonize with the Second Empire mode in apparel. Odd shaped baroque pearls also are coming in strong, with roulette and oval shapes also receiving more attention than in many years. A _ strengthening of in- terest in earrings was predicted for the coming season, > ++ New Hat Mode Boon To Industry. Introduction of the Empress Eu- genie mode in millinery, with the re- sultant demand for felt hat bodies, has caused a boom in Fall orders for the hat industry. The producers were looking forward to a slow season un- til the change in women’s millinery styles brought a rush of orders for both immediate and later delivery. In the straw hat division of the industry manufacturers report a fair volume of early orders for the 1932 season. They expect the demand for panama _ hats for the women’s millinery to be even greater than it was this season, ———-> - ~.- (More business is lost because of neglect than because of competition. Life Insurance is the quickest way to create an Estate Carry plenty of life insurance. At once you set up a sizable cash estate tor your family's benefit. There is no question about the wisdom of this move. The point now to consider is: What will become of the money? How is it to be invested? Who is to make the invest- ments? You need have no uncertainty on that score if you place your insurance holdings in a Lite Insurance Trust. Then the responsibility of safe invest- ment will be ours. Then your family will receive the income as often as you say, and in whatever amounts you think best. Let us tell you more about this modern method of family protection. THE MICHIGAN TRUST co. GRAND RAPIDS FIRST TRUST COMPANY IN MICHIGAN SS PRODUCERS’ PROBLEMS. In the first conference on manage- ment problems of the smaller indus- tries, which gets under way this week at Silver Bay, on Lake George, N. Y., there is seen the beginning of a move- ment which may have marked signif- cance in American business. As the committee of this conference points out, industrial problems are almost al- ways discussed from the angle of the large plant, whereas more than half of the manufacturing operations of the country are conducted by small plants. There are 193,562 plants in the United States that normally employ 500 or less, as compared with 2,747 that em- ploy more than 500 workers. While the fundamental principles brought out in a discussion of large plant questions probably can be ap- plied, for the most part, in the smaller establishments, there are many meth- ods and policies which are special to the latter. In fact, some of the sys- tems and processes which are econom- ical on a large basis of manufacturing would prove entirely too burdensome and out of piace in the small factory. Thus it is that consideration of the special problems of the smaller pro- ducers fills a very practical need. From another angle, also, this con- ference should prove of benefit. The larger trade organizations are prone to accept the decisions of their leading members, who, quite naturally, have fixed ideas on business, legislative and social policies. These leaders are often committed to the doctrine of “laissez faire.’ They condemn projected legis- lation, but rarely offer constructive pro- posals. Tlie small members of such or- ganizations find themselves supporting merely a body of reactionary opinion and doing little either to help them- selves directly or through their in- fluence on public affairs. Organization of the smaller plants of the country and similar moves among distributors might very well ac- complish a great deal toward reducing the inertia on many of our economic problems and at the same time toward upbuilding efficiency throughout our commercial fabric. DRY GOODS CONDITIONS. To the midsummer special sales and clearances which are now in full swing in retail stores consumer response is below This apathy was feared several weeks ago, when it was felt that the public had probably become a little sales weary. Hot weather and continued business uncertainty did not help the situation any. Perhaps more comfortable shop- ping weather will stimulate the de- mand, but retail executives are count- ing more on the influence of a new season, with regular offerings of new designs. It will be recalled that a year ago retailing offerings of fur garments at- tracted unusual activity despite warm weather. This was accepted as an in- dication that exceptional values would draw trade. This season, however, the response to such merchandise has been well under expectations so far. The same condition is found in furniture de- partments. Definite figures on July trade are normal in most cases. MICHIGAN TRADESMAN now coming through, and confirm ear- lier reports that volume dropped off. A compilation of thirty-one chain store sales shows a drop of 1.25 per cent. The three large mail-order. chain sys- tems did 11.7 per cent. less business than in’ the same month last year. Department store sales in this area on a daily basis will probably show a de- cline of about 11 per cent. There was one business day more this year in July, owing to the Fourth falling on Saturday. While the wholesale merchandise markets reported a fair degree of ac- tivity on many lines, style uncertainty held up orders on women’s garments, particularly in the better grades. The Paris openings, however, are not show- ing radical changes, it is said, except in evening wear, and manufacturers de- clare the domestic lines have carried out most of the new themes. A feature of the week was the opening of Fall rug and carpet lines. with increases on the odd sizes. MAGIC FORMULAS. In rather belated recognition of the fact that organized business has done very little to cope effectively with the depression, a committee of the Cham- ber of Commerce of the United States, it was announced during the past week, is now attempting to find out whether 200 trade association leaders are in favor of setting up a permanent coun- cil to stabilize employment and busi- ness. The questionnaire issued will sound opinion on whether purely Gov- ernment authority, co-operation with Congress or a business undertaking alone is preferred. The intention of the committee is to meet on the results of this survey early next month and to put its recom- mendations before the directors of the National chamber when they meet on Oct. 2 and 3. If precedent in American business is any guide, there is little doubt but what a planning council will be favored. And it can be probably hazarded furth- er that the chamber’s strong aversion to anything which smacks of Govern- mental interference will keep out legis- lative influence as far as possible. How- ever, there is the possiblity that, under the guise of co-operation with Con- gress. the organization may attempt to promote its well-known polcy of let- ting things work themselves out. This policy was amply in evidence at the last convention of the Chamber and brought criticism from many quar- ters. where it was felt that the fore- most business organization of the coun- try should have offered something of definite value. Spokesmen of the body met such criticism by belitting “magic formulas.” MAGICIANS AND MYSTICS. Professional magicians have often fought a good fight against supersti- tions and those who prosper unfairly by public credulity. It may be that they object to the competition of tricksters who will not admit their tricks. or that the poor craftsmanship of the fake me- diums, fortune-tellers and soothsayers irritates their professional pride. Whatever the reason, it is the So- ciety of American Magicians that has come out at last against the “racket- eers” of mysticism, occultism and clair- voyance. The protest was overdue, The numbers of fortune-tellers, palmists, numerologists, mediums and _ others who prey in petty fashion on public gullibility has increased amazingly in recent years. According to the esti- mates of the magicians, based on studies that have been under way for some years, there are about 125,000 such fakers in business in the United State. It is amusing and_ possibly significant that half of them are sup- posed to ply their trade in New York City. They are an expensive excrescenice. It is estimated that the public pays an annual fee of $125,000,000 for worthless advice from these experts in mumbo jumbo. The magacians say, morever, that the fakers do more serious dam- age than to take money away from easy marks. They feed their silly clients with fears and suspicions and encour- age them to foolish actions. They break up homes and complicate love affairs. It is even more serious that they pro- mote the fantasy that there is some mysterious substitute for common sense and good intentions, which can be bought at a price. It is sad, indeed, that these tricksters and sharpers should make money from such a shabby trade, but it is sadder still that so many should be willing to pay them tribute. CANNOT BE CONFISCATORY. Congressman Emanuel Celler, of New York State, has undertaken to direct legislation in that State for tax- ing the chain stores, so as to save the independent retailers from extinction. He sets down in an approximate fash- ion the annual amounts which should be assessed against the multiple-unit organizations. These would run on a weekly basis from 20 cents for one store to about $10 each on fifty stores. He finds that many of the independent stores are conducted with sufficient skill and foresight to enable them to compete with—and in some cases dis- tance—the chains, but a minor per- centage of retail stores apparently find it necessary to appeal to legislation in order to hold their own. Mr. Celler realizes, of course, that, even if the public does not register objection to paying more for what it buys in order to keep the independents in business, the tax rate cannot be con- fiscatory. On the other hand, it may be properly asked just how 20 cents, or even $10, a week is going to equal- ize competition between an «ficient chain store unit and a backward inde- pendent. So far as the backward in- dependent is concerned, the tax, to be protective, would have to be far higher. While it would probably have much less political effect than the taxation drive on the chain stores, legislators and others might much better consider, it seems, an effort to bring the inde- pendents up to the efficiency of the chains rather than to tax the latter up to the inefficiency of the backward in- dependents. An appropriation for a State bureau to advance the science of retailing would go a long way toward relieving what distress there is from chain competition. August 12, 1931 DEAD CENTER REACHED. A sort of dead center has apparently been reached for the time being in the general business situation. In so far as domestic conditions are concerned, there is reason to believe that a slow recovery might follow this resting point, and yet the foreign situation is such that international finance and credit probably hold the key to de- velopments. After two years of depression, the chances are that many needs have grown more pressing throughout the world, even though large surpluses of materials and supplies are still present. Until financial and exchange difficulties are reduced, however, there are the same obstacles offered to business re- covery as unstable price levels have presented, with the addition that na- tions as well as individuals are involved. Merchandise demand and operations continue to lead other activities. The basic industries remain at low ebb and fail to show much sign of immediate improvement. The weekly business in- dex has gained slightly, but the differ- ent series continue to have a _ spotty appearance. Wholesale commodity prices ranged lower toward the close of the week, although the Annalist in- dexx, compiled earlier, noted a small advance. The sensitive price index has eased further. Announcement during the week of the Federal building program of $300,- (00,000, while welcomed as an indica- tion that the administration is now more awake to the seriousness of the situation, is not regarded as on a scale sufficient to exert much influence. THE VALUE OF OUTDOORS. Nobody could possibly estimate the value to the Nation of fresh air, lovely scenery and wholesome exercise. But it is possible to calculate approximately the amounts spent in the enjoyment of these things and statisticians have actually done so for some of the states and for specific outdoor amusements. The United States Bureau of Biological Survey places a value of $80,000,000 a year on the game and fishing resources of the State of Maine. The “tourist crop” is worth $200,000,000 a year to Michigan, according to a specialist of the State College. And the American Game Association surveys the whole Nation and supposes that $1,000,000,- 000 a year is a conservative valuation to place upon the great American out- doors. That much and more is spent annually by those who seek vacations in outdoor occupations and amuse- ments, The holiday habit of the average American, therefore, is the foundation of an immense business. Because he quits work for two weeks or more in the year and gets away when he can for week ends or shorter holidays, a great and complex industry has been created, which keeps a great deal of money in useful circulation. The de- velopment of the National resources, the game, reserves and the varied de- lights of outdoor life, therefore, has much more than a sentimental im- portance. It represents good business, while contributing immensely to the enjoyment of life, which is a reward of good business. August 12, 1931 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 9 OUT AROUND. Things Seen and Heard on a Week End Trip. M 50 apparently starts from Monroe, proceeds Northwest in a fairly direct route to Jackson, Charlotte and Ver- montville, thence North to M 39, West on M 39 about ten miles, North five miles to U S 16, thence West to Grand Rapids. From Grand Rapids it goes almost directly West out West Bridge Street to U S 31, where it ends. It was intended to push on three miles farther West, where it would ‘be con- fronted with one of the finest bathing beaches on Lake Michigan, but the greed of the men who owned the front- age on the Lake at that point disgusted the road officials and resulted in their abandoning the project of creating a new oval at the water’s edge to help out the crowded condition at the ovals maintained at Ottawa Beach, Grand Haven and Muskegon during the bath- ing season. Because of this conclusion on the part of the road officials it is not possible to accommodate all who seek relaxation and bathing facilities at the three ovals already in existence, and Grand Rapids people, who have to travel forty miles or more to reach the ovals, usually find themselves unable to find parking space for their cars while they commune with the cool, crystal waters of the Lake. The dis- tance from Grand Rapids to the Lake via M 50 is approximately thirty miles —eight miles on cement forty feet wide and twenty-two miles on cement twenty feet wide, when extended the last three miles. There are no hills to mow down or depressions to fill up be- tween the present ‘Western terminus of M 50 and the Lake, so the extension could be accomplished at comparative- All that stands in the way is the avarice of the land own- ers on the Lake, who have assumed a hold up attitude and thus placed them- selves in a position of antagonism to the city where they got their start in life and which furnishes them a com- fortable living. I wish something could be said to these men to square them around and make them see the execrable position they occupy in the eves of their fellow citizens. ly small expense. Muskegon and environs are certainly faring very well at the hands of the State road commission these days. The new curved entrance to Muskegon Heights from the South is a great im- provement over the old precarious road and the condemnation of the hovels between the old road and Mona Lake and the conversion of the space thus secured into a park area is one of the finest things the State could pos- sibly do for our sister cities. The new cement road the State is constructing on the right of way of the Muskegon interurban from Nunica to Muskegon Heights will be a great advantage over the old road via Spring Lake, shorten- ing the distance from Grand Rapids to Muskegon seven miles, as [ figure it. The new extension of U S 31 across the Muskegon river and the swampy land contiguous thereto is now com- pleted and is a glory to behold. For the present the new road sends its pas- sengers through North Muskegon, but another year will see the construction of a Westerly cut-off through the hills which will enable them to avoid the present route and turn North a half mile North of North Muskegon. I was greatly pained to learn ot the death of G. H. D. Sutherland at Lud- ington last Friday night. I made his acquaintance while he was on the staff of the Grand Rapids Press and en- couraged him to go to Ludington seventeen years ago and give the peo- ple of that enterprising city a live newspaper. He took the management of the News there and on the death of the owner bought the property and continued its publication in such a way as to make it a most worthy exponent of the community. J happen to know that the deceased had large plans in mind for future expansion and useful- ness which, of course, will be dissipated by his death. JI have no idea who will acquire the News and continue its pub- lication, [ hope the new owner will prove as enterprising and aggressive as Mr. ‘Sutherland always was in deal- ing with civic questions and_ public problems. The Lowell centennial celebration last week was planned so carefully and handled so expertly that it proved to be one of the greatest events ever pulled off in Kent county. We think of birds as peaceful crea- tures which live together in harmony and understanding. It is not always so, however. We have installed drink- ing fountains and bathing pools for the birds at our summer home at Lamont. The wrens gather at these places and proceed to enjoy themselves. Then the robins come along and drive them away. There is plenty of room for both, but the red breasted creatures strut around as much as to say, “We are the sole owners of these pools.” Then the black birds swoop down on the scene and treat the robins in the same hateful manner they treated the smaller birds. I suppose if we had any crows in the village they would deal out the same treatment to the black ‘birds. This dominance of the larger over ‘the smaller reminds me of a condition which [| frequently find in the business world, where the larger business man sometimes undertakes to displace the smaller one for a time. Fortunately, the dominance does not last long or result in anything but temporary discomfort, because people generally believe in the theory and practice of fair play and do not permit themselves to be permanently misled by cut prices or flamboyant claims and promises, Paul Findlay, who has conducted the grocery department of the Tradesman for many years and who has been “do- ing” Europe for the past ten months, accompanied by Mrs, Findlay, is head- ed for his home in 'San Francisco. They sailed on the Leviathan yesterday and are due to arrive in New York City next Monday. They will come direct- ly to Lamont for a short visit en route to California. Mr. Findlay has made many trips to Europe during the past thirty years, but in no case has he given governmental and economic conditions as careful study as he has done this time. His recent article on conditions in Germany as they actually exist has attracted wide attention and favorable comment on both sides of the Atlantic. The readers of the Tradesman have many rare treats in store for them during the coming months from the pen of Mr. Findlay, whose knowledge of food conditions, both in this coun- try and Europe, is probably in advance of any other living authority. When Andy, the grandiloquent President of the Fresh Air Taxi Com- pany, mutters to himself as he works over the books, “Five million, six mil- lion, seven million,’ and so on, we smile at his extravagant figures. How fine it would ‘be if we could laugh off the ‘figures which represent the volume of taxes levied by the Federal Gov- ernment, For the appropriations made by the seventy-first Congress reached the enormous total of ten thousand million dollars. It is true that when considering this amount allowance must ‘be made for the fact that we are paying off the debt contracted as the result of the kaiser’s war , and that extraordinary expendi- tures have been necessary because of drought and unemployment conditions. 3ut making due allowance for these, the gigantic total which remains may well cause thoughtful Americans to pause. Those who tolerate, and even defend, the exaction of such an enor- mous total of taxes from our citizens, have a ready reply for critics. It is said that this is a ten billion dollar country; that it has grown so rich that our former yardsticks must be discard- ed with the kerosene lamp and the horse and ‘buggy; and there is a meas- ure of truth in their answer. As the country grows in population the ex- pense of government must correspond- ingly increase, nor is it unnatural that from time to time new fields for proper governmental control should be opened up, requiring more money to meet their cost. But the most casual survey will show that a large part of the in- creased cost of Federal administration is caused, not by added expense attend- ant upon the normal growth of well recognized subjects of National con- cern, nor by the cost of control in new fields where a more varied civilization has made Federal supervision neces- sary, but ‘by the Government venturing into new highways and byways where not alone the historic distinction be- tween state and Federal control, but, we venture to say, the dictates of plain common sense, have erected signs of “No Trespassing.” — If we could record that this exten- sion of the program at Washington was some new development, the coun- try might be congratulated, for then the wanderlust at Washington might be checked more easily. Unfortunately, this habit of our Government is already old enough to vote. Commencing to grow at an alarming rate during Roosevelt’s administration, it has thriv- ed through Republican and Democratic eras alike, until now the centralization at the National capitol of many activi- ties normally belonging to the states, and, indeed, of many functions for which no state government would dare to tax its citizens, alarms those who believe in home rule. What caused this vast expansion in Washington's activities? Chief among the reasons, we think, is the widely ac- cepted opinion that whatever the Fed- eral Government undertakes is bound to be well done. There seems to be something of a glamour around things done at the capitol; we know perfectly well, if we stop to think, that Federal performance seldom approaches the ideal, yet somehow we like to imagine that it does. The truth is that there are some matters which the Federal Government handles very well, and there are others which seem to be too much for it. Our army and navy de- partments are well administered, due doubtless to a century of experience and to the discipline prevailing. Our postoffice department delivers the mail —at a loss; how much of a loss we don’t know, for the department’s books appear to be kept on the principle of the stage bank conducted by the comedians Weber and Fields. Weber, in the role of paying teller, would be approached at his window by Fields, and Weber would enquire, “Put in or take out?’ The postoffice department tells us how much we pay in, and how much it pays out, but if the department were to reckon interest at 3 per cent. upon the cost of its buildings, and to carry a depreciation account, the pub- lic would have a better idea of the de- partment’s true condition. I feel no hesitation in commending the following from the Eaton Rapids Journal: “Henderson has had his day and is no doubt basking in the mountains in luxury with the thousands and thous- ands of dollars collected one source or another. Now another man springs up and is contemplating saving the individual merchant, providing he across with fifteen or twenty dollars to “help defray expenses,” and some are falling for his layout. The latest is a concern that has the whole problem solved, and by inducing 500,- 000 business men to contribute $15 each, or a total of about $7,500,000, they will gee that people flock to your counters and spend money like drunk- en sailors—and then after the $7,500,- 000 is collected they will also bask in the sunshine of Florida or California and the small town business man will be found holding the bag. from comes “Smooth salesmen, according to ad- vance notice received by the Journal, will soon be in Eaton Rapids after $15 or so from each merchant. Advice we receive from headquarters that keep us posted on all such schemes, is to turn them down cold, regardleses of the lure they offer you. “Tf all this money spent with outside agencies that promise to do so and so for the retailer was spent at home the old town would see a revival of busi- ness, friendliness and general activity. If you have a dollar to spend, spend it at home if possible. The outsider with a scheme don’t give a darn for you or your business—all he wants is your money, and the lamentable part of the whole thing is that he gets it in many 10 instances—and the donor kicks him- self for being so easy, when he wakes up to the fact. “How they can sell 1000 tickets to a local merchant for $10 when they could buy them of their. local printer for 90c is a system we would like to get wise to.” Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, to whose memory a granite shaft was recently dedicated on the shores of Lake Erie, scene of his notable victory in the War of 1812, is a familiar hero to all Americans. His historic an- nouncement of his defeat of the British squadron—“We have met the enemy and they are ours”—has kept his fame alive when that of other naval and military leaders with exploits no less daring and no less successful to their credit has been long since forgotten. A gift for phrase making, it must be admitted, plays no small part in mili- tary glory. Nevertheless, Perry’s victory on that eventful September day in 1813 was one of the few bright spots in a war in which neither the United States nor England can take great pride. It was his energy and eagerness for battle which gave the American forces on Lake Erie their superiority over the British, and it was his impetuosity which jfinally won the day. ‘Contro- versy quickly developed over certain phases of the battle but it was typical of Perry that he rushed his flagship into action ahead of the rest’ of his fleet, and, when it was cut to pieces, retired to another vessel to renew the fight with even more zeal. There is, however, another purpose in the erection of the memorial than the perpetuation of the fame of a naval commander whose place in the text- books of American history is so well assured. The shaft at Put-in-Bay also commemorates the more than century of peace which has existed between England and the United States and marks the unfortified border which ever since 1812 has brought together rather than separated this country and Canada. Far more significant than Perry’s victory is the fact that armed forces no longer face each other across the Great Lakes and that never again will a naval engagement have to be fought in Lake Erie. E. A. Stowe. —_>+>—_—_ Size Standard Plan Accepted. The size standardization program in ready-to-wear has been adopted al- most unanimously by leading stores throughout the country, according to the results of a questionnaire by John B. Swinney, chairman of the size standardization committee of the Na- tional Retail Dry Goods Association. “Naturally, during the first season of its operation,” Mr. Swinney § said, “there will be a few buyers who, be- cause of habit, will ask for the sizes on the old basis or who actually will pre- fer to operate on the old basis. This is to be expected, but the size stand- ardization plan has exceeded every an- ticipation in the rapidity with which it has been adopted by our member stores and in the market.” MICHIGAN TRADESMAN WITHHOLDING PROSPERITY. How the Banker Continues To Keep Times Bad. Money is cheap; try and get it. Everywhere in this country to-day, business men and businesses and whole communities are being paralyzed for lack of bank credit. In the midst of a glut of money, with rates at record lows, with the ‘Government unable to stop the flow of gold into the country, business men cannot get the money they need to carry on. They cannot buy or sell; they cannot maintain em- ployment; they cannot help in bring- ing back prosperity because they can- not ‘thelp themselves. This condition has been growing steadily worse during the past year and there are no signs of its getting better. The total of Federal Reserve credit outstanding is at its lowest in about seven years. The outstanding credit of the banks of the country was three billion dollars less at the be- ginning of this year than it was in October, 1929. Nearly two billions of indebtedness has been paid back to the member banks of the Federal Re- serve in the past year, Where has this money gone? The country banks have dumped their funds into the New York banks because they couldn’t use the money; the New York banks don’t know what to do with their own. Scared dollars are running away from long term com- mercial investments and are falling over themselves to get into the short term money market, unattractive as it is. As a result, leading New York banks have had to get together to keep up the call money rate; to keep outside money from being practically given away to stock buyers. The international bankers lie awake nights and the heads of the great cen- tral banks of the world dash mys- teriously across the ocean to try to stop the flow of gold into the United States. We are joyfully reassured that the huge gold surplus in this country has been “sterilized,” made ineffective in the economic activities of the coun- try. Not many years ago, we were warned against the sinister dangers of tainted money; but more disastrously evil has been sterilized money. ‘The Federal Reserve Bank in New York officially declared the other day that “Recently it has been reported that the banks are exercising an un- usual degree of care in the selection of paper.” Care for what? Care for whom? We are told that the reduced amount of credit is due to a reduced demand and that it reflects the reduced volume of business. Does it? Isn’t it truer that the reduced volume of business reflects the reduced volume of credit? The Federal Reserve banks have done their utmost to stimulate business by lowering money rates and cheapen- ing credit, But nothing has happened, because the only way in which low rates and cheap money can be effective is through the commercial banks; and the banks are the neck of the bottle. Money is cheap, but even the railroads cannot carry out the program of con- solidation ‘because they cannot get the necessary financing. Then what chance HOLLAND HOLLAND August 12, oe Factory of theIndependents Te Monarch plant at Rochester, Minn., is the largest sanitary cannery in the world. Its daily capacity of 480,000 cans is none too large for the demands of the 50,000 Independent Mer- chants who realize that Monarch Peas are the finest quality pro- duced and sure trade winners. This beautiful and imposing building is in a landscaped park, and inside it is a marvel of light, of cleanliness, of efficiency and of en- gineering skill. Every worker is in uniform, and each one must present evidence of perfect health before taking his or her place. The Monarch Pea canners work in a flood of sunshine, for the roof and side walls are practically all glass. An average of more than 500 gallons of water a minute is used Pes eneaeeeee eS it with moisture. THE HOLLAND VAPORAIRE HEATING SYSTEM, although moderate in price, does all these things with a sur- INGUBE So cca cece ts +>—____ Wage Phase Next in Rail Fight. Recent announcements of salary re- ductions for railroad employes in the “white collar’ class suggest that be- ginning of the next phase ia the trans- portation system’s economic adjust- ment may not be far distant. Regardless of the outcome of the fight for higher freight rates, which vidual US HELP YOU SOLVE YOUR INVESTMENT PROBLEMS — PHONE 4774 — ETTER, URTIS& ETTER Investment Bankers and Brokers Grand Rapids Muskegon Telephone 4677 JOHN A. KELLEY & COMPANY INVESTMENT BANKERS and BROKERS 1004-05 G. R. National Bank Bldg. GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN August 12, 1931 Ls West Michigan’s oldest and largest bank solicits your account on the basis of sound polli- cies and many helpful services .. . OLD KENT BANK 2 Downtown Offices 12 Community Offtices TTT Investment Bankers Change of Corporate Name =p Fenton, Davis & Boyle Mid~ West Securities Corporation Investment Bankers DETROIT GRAND RAPIDS QR ¢Phone 4212 : Jill SUUDNOLIOUDDDLOOOUOCONDODOGUUADRAUAUNDDUAUODDOGAUODODOQATUORUDONDUNUDUNUAMUDUDDDOOOQDODD\NUABOQUDRDDOUROOUORUQUODAODDODADUOLURROORDRUODE ESTTTTTITULIT LUTTE LTIT UU TILA DUD UDT I ADDO DMO DOLD LOU UU E TOU TO TOUT TOOT CTT CTT TTT ETO ice o« GRAND RAPIDS L.A.GEISTERT Soo Investment Bankers 507 Grand a Trust Bidg. 613 appa, oe Bidg 25749 : ar ¢. o« August 12, 1931 enters its second stage to-morrow with the opening of regional hearings, it is almost certain a general downward revision in wages will be sought by the When _ this will be initiated is uncertain, but it seems likely to be delayed not much beyond mid-October, Carriers. step when the decision on rates is expected. This is the opinion of a prominent Eastern railway lieves the steam executive, who be- will face a critical situation early in the new year carriers when the time comes to give greater attention to maintenance work and it is found credit has been impaired by removal of a great many issues from the New York legal list. Three vital, problems solved before the country’s inter-related must be carriers are ready to contemplate re- covery from the ‘business depression, says this rail president, whose experi- ence covers more than half a century. These involve freight rates, wages and credit. Not much ‘financial relief is antici- pated from the proposed rate rise, this executive frankly admits. Even if the full 15 per cent. advance requested is granted by the commission, he says, a net gain of scarcely more than 7 per cent. can be counted upon after neces- sary exceptions are made to meet com- petition. “As for wages, do you think man- agements will permit their roads to go into receivership without making a fight for lower operating costs?” he asks. “Not many roads are covering fixed charges this year by too wide a margin, Unless improvement later in the year is unexpectedly sharp, this problem is likely to occupy much at- tention in the months ahead.” The third hurdle to be encountered is the most hazardous of all. Credit, already diminishing profits, will be subjected to another strain when legality tests are applied to bond issues on the basis of 1931 earnings. About half of the obliga- tions now approved in New York are threatened with expulsion unless tem- porary modifications of requirements can be effected, it is estimated. Maintenance work ,reduced to a munimum this year, soon must be in- weakened iby creased if service is not to be impaired, will carriers not now earning fixed charges be able to finance needed improvements if their credit is further impaired? a problem two- thirds of the railroads in this country are facing. William Russell ‘White. [Copyrighted, 1931.] —_>+~-___ Reductions in Expenditures Help Yield of Dividends. Some of the larger manufacturers of branded food products have made a noteworthy How This is showing during the de- pression, Despite reduced selling prices and the need for maintaining large adver- tising expenditures, earnings have been kept at comparing favorably with more prosperous years. Aithough retail prices of branded food products have been marked down to the reduced level of wholesale food prices, some manufacturers have main- tained their profit margin by means of manufacturing and operating econ- omies, levels MICHIGAN TRADESMAN The General Foods Corporation, after five years of rapid expansion, has turned its attention to internal prob- lems, with the result that net earnings have ‘been affected only slightly by the depression, Heretofore, efforts of the manage- ment have been concentrated primarily on the acquisition of new lines of food products and strengthening the com- pany’s competitive position. At pres- ent more than eighty ‘branded food specialties are distributed through more than 400,000 grocery stores in this country, with representation through subsidiaries and agents in many foreign markets, + Important savings have been effect- ed by the consolidation of related manufacturing companies under a single overhead, Large sums have been spent to modernize plants and efforts have been made to integrate the organization ‘by having certain sub- sidiaries supply other operating units with raw material requirements. The income account for 1930 reveals how the profit margin has been main- tained. ‘Selling and distribution ex- penses were maintained at high levels, but there was a reduction of $12,094,- 000 in manufacturing expenses and cost of goods sold. ‘Thus, despite a decline of 8 per cent. in dollar sales volume, earnings on the common shares de- clined only five cents, amounting to $3.63 a share, against $3.68 a share in 1929, The same tendency was apparent in the first quarter of this year. Sales volume declined more than 11 per cent., but share earnings equaled $1.05, compared with $1.13 in the first quar- ter of 1930, Future earnings are expected to benefit from continued economies and from intensive selling efforts. Though no rapid growth seems in prospect, many investors are being attracted to the stock because of its market stabil- ity and favorable yield. ['Copyrighted, 1931] eee Orders. An old Wall street adage is to “let your profits run, but take your losses” when your judgment charts, and tech- nical conditions indicate that the trade should not have been made, If the purchase has been made in a bull or bear market and the stock goes contrary to the general list, a hold to the wrong position may lead to seri- our losses and dissipate the profits on many correct profitable trades. If, however, a position in the stock has been established and a few _ points profit occur, it may run into a sub- stantial profit, There are many ways of protecting these profits but the most practical is a stop loss order. Study the past ac- tion of the stock for a hint as to where this order should be placed. A good practical rule is four to six points be- low the purchase price. In other words, a purchase of a stock at one hundred dollars should be protected by a stop loss order between ninety- four and ninety-six. This should limit the losses. This rule sometimes raises serious objections as bear traders look for a stock that is honey-combed with stop loss orders and sometimes break the 13 RR cee ee EET sre CLOSER ACQAINTANCE The Officers and Managers of this Bank are interested in cultivating a close acquaintance with all of its depositors. The more we know about you and your busi- ness, the better we will be able to serve you. Feel perfectly free to discuss confidentially any financial or business problem with us and know that it involves no cost or obligation. GRAND RAPIDS SAVINGS BANK “The Bank Where Y ou Feel at Home” 17 Convenient Offices ea ae ae ee ee ee ee ee ee ee ee Oe Oe Oe ee ee Oe ee { { { { { { { { { { { { { § GRAND RAPIDS NATIONAL BANK Established 1860 Incorporated 1865 Nine Community Offices GRAND RAPIDS NATIONAL COMPANY Investment Securities Affiliated with Grand Rapids National Bank 14 market. on this stock and clean out these orders, which setback is only technical and the stock usually re- bounds to a point above the stop loss orders, ‘This same situation also occurs on a false shake out before a move. An- other disadvantage is the price at which the orders are sometimes ex- ecuted. However, in spite of all these conditions, stop loss orders are a pro- tection as it makes the trader careful as he knows in advance what the trade may cost him before the commitment. Also, it is a check on the trader’s correctness in forecasting moves. It helps take the worry out of the trade, relieves stubbornness and gives a cor rect mental attitude to his position in the market. Progressive stops are commonly used, That is, moving up the price of the orders as the market advances, There is no set rule to place a stop loss order as no formula always works but they have proven very useful in the kind of market that has taken place since the fall of 1929, Jay H. Petter. > + Do Your Customers Know Your ‘Phone Number? Is your, telephone number well known? Isfit easily remembered? How many peoplé have your telephone num- ber associated in their minds with your business? Do you make it easy for people to call you up, or do they have to fumble through a big fat telephone book for your number? “The telephone if rightly advertised is your greatest silent salesman,” is the way one meat dealer puts it. It brings the neighborhood to your front doorstep and puts them immediately in touch with your establishment, whether they live ten blocks or a hun- dred blocks away. It pays, therefore, to emphasize your telephone number in all of your advertising, and particu- larly in classified telephone directory advertising, which is frequently a great first aid to sale building. “Advertising your telephone number prominently in the telephone directory with ample display space brings in the business. The classified section of the telephone directory is fast becoming a dictionary of where to go, what to buy, etc., thus making a mere listing profitable and a prominent display ad- vertisement a sure business-getter. “When a person is unfamiliar with your other advertising or forgets your trade name, the chances are they will immediately look in the classified sec- tion, which emphasizes the importance of having an attractive set-up, one that will quickly catch the eye, because a person consulting a telephone directory is usually in a hurry, and the prospec- tive customer who consults the classi- fied section is generally motivated by the type of advertisement which he sees there. When people consult the classified section of the telephone directory their eye is naturally attract- ed to the best and most prominent dis- play, and a newcomer will invariably say to himself: “There, that looks like a good, reliable meat dealer—I will just give him a ring.’ It should, of course, be dignified, contain an attractive il- lustnation, and the telephone number should be prominently featured in large MICHIGAN TRADESMAN display type with a reproduction of a telephone, or of a man or a woman talking into a telephone.” One cannot over-advertise one’s telephone number. It should occupy a place in every piece of advertising, whether it be on a billboard, a poster, a letter, a billhead, a circular, a blotter or what not, and it should be prom- inently featured on all statements of account, receipts, wrappings and con- tainers. Display your telephone num- ber prominently. It adds 30 per cent. to the value of your advertising. In this way the public soon learns to as- sociate your telephone number with your trade name. Whenever you circularize your mail- ing list, be sure to make a special fea- ture of your telephone number. A telephone slogan may also be used to drive home the advantages of using the telephone, such as, “As near as your telephone.” “(Prompt and efficient ser- vice over the telephone.” “Use the telephone and_ save a trip.” “Save worry—just ring Main 1000.” Newspaper advertising, when used, should always feature the telephone, which is just as important as the firm name, and a reproduction of a tele- phone or of a person talking into a telephone is always a good eye catcher. The telephone number should also be displayed on delivery trucks or motor- cycles—in other words, let the world know your telephone number. Do not hide it under a bushel basket if you want your light to shine, “The telephone number is a mighty important thing to impress on_ the minds of your customers,’ says an- other meat dealer, “and that is why we have a large poster prominently dis- played in our store, with a telephone painted on a black card, with the tele- phone number, firm name and address printed in snow-white letters. This is also featured in our window displays. People remember it, too, that is the funny part of it, and we attribute a lot of business to the telephone. We also use a telephone index in the shape of an advertising novelty, which slips right over the mouthpiece and con- tains our advertisement and telephone number, which we have found a good business builder. Some prefer to use a trade name which will get them at the top of the telephone list, such as Acme, Ambas- sador, Arcade, etc. “A lot of people are constantly looking in the telephone book who do not know anything about meat dealers about town,” says an- other meat dealer, who uses this idea, “particularly when they move into the city, and this all helps to get more business when you head the list. “Each day a call may be received from a new customer, and you may wonder what prompted them to call your particular telephone number. It is because you recognize the value of advertising your telephone and keep- ing it in the public spotlight. Con- stant repetition of the telephone num- ber impresses those who see it and new customers are frequently the re- sult. Those in need of meats and pro- visions do not always have a number, or your number, in mind—but if you take definite steps to emphasize your telephone number they will not forget it quickly and you will get the busi- ness.” Your telephone directory advertise- ment needs action elements in its lay- out. When a person looks into the di- rectory or classified section, there must be stored within the advertise- ment’s limited space enough latent energy to cause the message to spring out when a prospective customer opens to the page. You should, there- fore: Use italic type in prominent por- tions of the message. Italics usually convey the impression of action. Use designs containing action ele- ments, such ‘as rising suns, unfolding scrolls, illuminated objects. Present portions of the slantwise, or so that gentle curves. Curved and _ slanting lines usually convey more action than straight horizontal lines, Use arrows to indicate or to con- nect important features of the adver- tisement, A straight arrow indicated as in flight naturally conveys action. A message curved arrow contains the most action, Give such words as “Rushed,” or its synonyms, the appearance of flying through space. This effect may be ob- tained by running horizontal lines through the letters and towards the rear. Illustrate the telephone number by pictures of a telephone, the telephone being used, or the instrument and two hands, one of which is about to lift the receiver fro mthe hook. Use illustrations of animate objects in action, preferably something as- sociated with your ‘business which is being advertised. ‘In all cases be sure that the tele- phone number is displayed with out- standing prominence. To get your telephone number prom- inently before the public, advertising stunts may also ‘be resorted to, such as, for instance, taking newspaper dis- play space or sending out circulars which simply read: “When you need meats and pro- visions—do you call Main 1000? Fred E. Kunkel. —_>+—__ Royal Oak—DeGroupet Iron Works has decreased its capital stock from $150,000 to $60,000. Recommend— they describe August 12, 1931 Corporations Wound Up. The following ‘Michigan corporations have recently filed notices of dissolu- tion with the Secretary of State: John Deere Plow Co., Lansing. Artonian Music Co., Detroit, : Joseph Schonthal ‘Co., Detroit. _ Dierks Lumber & Coal Co., Detroit. Nordic Fish Co., Charlevoix. St. Clair Mining Co., Iron River. Park-American !Hotel 'Co,, Kalamazoo. Burton Development Co., Detroit. Dowagiac Telephone Co., Dowagiac. Cooper’s Branch Telephone Co., Cas- sopolis. Van Buren County Telephone Co., South Haven. Joanna Park Land Co., Detroit. D. M. Ross, Inc., Ypsilanti. Chapel Electric Co., Jackson. J and T Tip Cleaner Corp., Hancock. Hyman Register Corp., Detroit. G. Gassel, Detroit. Capital Finance Co., Detroit. Ford Road Syndicate, Inc., Detroit. Lelanau ‘Mutual Telephone Co., North- port. Standard Home Utilities, Inc., Detroit. Southern Development Co,, Grand Rapids, Old Colony Co., Detroit. Hercules ‘Body Sales ‘Co., Detroit. L. Mundet & Sons, Detroit. Holland Theatrical Corp., Holland. Arrow Linen Supply Co., Detroit. Leo Kirchner Co., Inc., Detroit. Bay City Foundry & ‘Machine Co., Bay City, : : Cleveland Engineering Construction Co., Manistique. Kinkel Manufacturing Co., Hart. McMullen Machinery Co., Grand Rap- ids. Eclipse Roofing Co., Detroit. Saval Development Co., ‘Saginaw. —_—_—_+ ++ ___ School Lunch Kits Sell Freely. Manufacturers of vacuum bottles re- port a sharp increase in the demand for school lunch box kits, made up to re- tail at $1.39 and $1.50. The boxes, produced in green, tan and old rose shades, are equipped with a half-pint size thermos bottle and have space set aside for sandwiches. Both house- wares and school equipment buyers have placed orders for the items and plan to feature them in special sales in the closing weeks of this month. AIl- though the lunch kits were on the mar- ket last year they attracted consider- ably less interest. ——_+++—____ Everybody can talk, but few can talk to the point, —_+++___ Flattery is most effective if given in small doses. RED*STAR YEAST for Heglth 7 = fact that RED STAR YEAST contains Nuclein and Vitamins, its value as a nutriment, an aid to digestion and flesh building is unquestionable. Red Star Compressed Yeast builds up the body and nerve tissu id digestion and purifies the blood. The discovery of vitamins is te ence important contribution of modern times to food knowledge. 20c A DOZEN (Delivered) YOUR PROFIT is 50% on cost selling at 2 cakes for 5c Our Branch in or near your city guarantees a Fresh Supply RED STAR YEAST & PRODUCTS Co. Main Office - Milwaukee, Wisc. Detroit Branch—1234 W. Fort St. Grand Rapids Branch—515 Division Ave.. s. ** STRICTLY INDEPENDENT—SINCE 1882 ** 4 August 12, 1931 MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE The Romance of Mutual Fire Insur- ance. On January 1%, 1752, Benjamin Franklin celebrated the forty-sixth an- niversary of his birth. The day was Friday, usually a busy one in any busi- ness week, and it is doubtful whether the manifold enterprises in which the energetic ‘Benjamin was then interest- ed gave -him much, if any time in which to reflect upon his past life and its ac- complishments, If, by chance, he did devote an hour to retrospection he must, himself, have been amazed at the number of undertakings with which he had been identified during the twenty-six years following the at- tainment of his majority. He must, of course, have recalled his fifteen years of busy service as clerk of the Gen- eral Assembly. ‘That position he had relinquished only the year before, prob- ably with a view to relieving himself to some extent of public duties and affording more time for development of the educational and intellectual pur- suits which more strongly appealed to him. He must undoubtedly have set down in his mental tabulation his fifteen years of service as Postmaster of Philadelphia, which service was to continue, yet another year, until his appointment as Deputy Postmaster General for the Colonies. Without question he must have recalled, and with some glow of pride, his success in organizing and financing the then recently opened Academy in the city of his adoption, little dreaming that this would later become one of his country’s great universities and stand for centuries as a monument to his foresight. With an equal glow of pride he must have reflected upon the organization of the “Junto” or Leath- ern Apron Society which had afforded an outlet and training ground for so many children of his brain and out of which had grown the American Philo- sophical Society, then almost ten years old. During the hour of this mental review he must also have recalled his success in having demonstrated the identity of lightning with electricity and given some thought to that first of his projects of a public nature—the organization of the Library Company of Philadelphia—to whose instrument of association he was the third signer. Upon these and other accomplish- ments he must surely have reflected and then, naturally, his mind must have turned to that newest undertaking to which he, as the foremost private citi- zen of the city, was then giving atten- tion, In 1730, a great fire, which broke out at Fishbourne’s ‘Wharf in Philadelphia, promised to destroy the entire city and was, with considerable difficulty, final- ly ‘brought under control. This fire threatening, as it did, the consumption of every building within the city, serv- ed to rekindle memories of the great London fire of some years before and in striking fashion impressed upon the Colonists the necessity for some means of meeting what Franklin himself termed these “beginning conflagra- tions.” Shortly thereafter, as a result of Franklin’s initiative and activity, the Union Fire Company—Philadel- phia’s first volunteer fire fighting or- MICHIGAN TRADESMAN ganization—came into existence, This was followed by the organization of other volunteer companies; all effective within the limitations imposed by the lack of equipment and an ample water supply. However, as the city grew, the fire hazards increased. While Franklin had, upon occasion, pointed out the necessity for greater care in dwelling house construction and had in a written communication urged that care be taken to the end that ‘none of the wooden work of one room com- municates with the wooden work of any other room and all the floors and even the steps of the stairs are plaster- ed close,” the financial losses follow- ing the occurrences of fires had be- come so numerous and heavy as to de- mand the formulation of some plan whereby the money losses of the prop- erty owners might be minimized. As I have already pointed out, Franklin had been engaged in many civic enter- prises and projects having for their purpose the material as well as the intellectual benefit of the Colonists. He was at this period a successful man, who had but recently relinquish- ed active work in the printing business which bore his name and was consid- ered by the citizenry as having retired. Later in commenting upon this period of his life, he said: “The public, now considering me a man of leisure, laid hold of me for their purposes, every part of our civil government and al- most at the same time, imposing some duty upon me.” [t was natural, there- fore, that he was turned to as the logical person to devise ways and means of meeting a growing evil which might in time become so great as to threaten the financial standing and credit of a great number of the free- holders. In considering plans for meeting the situation which confronted him, Frank- lin consulted with the representative business leaders of the city and with those holding official positions. All were convinced of the necessity of some scheme for bringing about finan- cial security against loss by fire. All were impressed, too, with the sound economic principles upon which Frank- lin had builded his own business career. These he now proposed as a basis for the formation of a company, to whose articles all those interested might subscribe, and into the coffers of which the prudent and wise might make periodical contributions for the creation of a fund to secure them, in part, against losses growing out of fires not occasioned by their own will- ful acts. It has never been contended that the idea of mutuality in business undertak- ings was original with Franklin and it seems very certain that at the time he and his contemporaries were consider- ing the organization of a company he was familiar with the still earlier his- tory of mutual insurance. His keen interest in all undertakings of a busi- ness nature and his manifold duties with respect to numerous economic projects must have brought him within an understanding distance of the vari- ous agencies which had come into ex- istence in England following the great London Fire of 1666. He was prob- ably much more familiar than we with (Continued on page 30) OUR FIRE INSURANCE POLICIES ARE CONCURRENT with any standard stock policies that you are buying The Net cots 2B O% Less Michigan Bankers and Merchants Mutual Fire Insurance Co. of Fremont, Michigan WILLIAM N. SENF, Secretary-Treasurer Suppose They Went Across The Street 7o Gay « « « 5 Yet that’s what will happen in event of a serious fire. Custom- ers will of necessity go else- where to make purchases. Some of them will never return to your store again. The Federal Mutuals will gladly tell you about protection against just such a loss. FEDERAL HARDWARE & IMPLEMENT MUTUALS Retail Hardware Mutual Fire Ins. Co. Hardware Dealers Mutual Fire Ins. Co. Minneapolis, Minnesota Stevens Point, Wisconsin Minnesota Implement Mutual Fire Ins. Co. Owatonna, Minnesota 9 Eo. Finnish Mutual Fire Insurance Company Of Calumet, Michigan Has paid dividends of 40 to 68 per cent for the past 40 years and have accumulated more assets and sur- plus per $1000.00 of risk than leading stock com- panies. We insure at Standard Rates and issue a Michigan Standard Policy. We write Mercantile, Garage, Church, School and Dwelling risk. Write for further information. JACOB UITTI, Manager 444 Pine Street Calumet, Mich. 1909 193] Losses Paid Promptly — Saving 30% For FIRE and WINDSTORM Insurance 22 Years THE GRAND RAPIDS MERCHANTS MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY afhliated with THE MICHIGAN RETAIL DRY -GCODS ASSOCIATION 320 Houseman Bldg. Grand Rapids, Mich. 16 Green Vegetable Values Confusing To Housekeepers. The possibility that housewives have fallen into a general misconception of food values of vegetables, and are con- fusing the recommendation of “some- thing fresh and green” with the idea of products which are small and young but not green at all, was recently sug- gested by Wells A, Sherman, in charge of the division of fruits and vegetables, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, in an address in Detroit, at a meeting of the American ‘Home Economics As- sociation. He deplored the waste in shipment of hundreds of tons of vege- table tops which are discarded by the housewife. The section of his address dealing with misunderstanding of food values follows in full text: In view of so many illogical, not to say extravagant, habits of food selec- tion which are having such an influ- ence in changing the character of our Winter supplies of vegetables, | am wondering whether there is a general misconception of food values of these products based upon the general dis- semination of the idea that something fresh and green should be included in each day’s menu. [ am_ wondering whether in the mind of the average housekeeper the idea of something fresh and green has become identified with the idea of something small and young even though it be not green at all. I am wondering whether the wife of the average laboring man who has ab- sorbed just a little of what many of us have been striving to teach, has fallen into the extravagant habit of paying as much for a half pound of bunched carrots as she would have to pay for a pound of topped carrots, and many other things in proportion, because she thinks that the smaller, younger, and so-called. fresher products are more wholesome. If this idea has be- come prevalent it would seem to be the duty of those who are interested in both dietetics and economics to modify or amplify their educational propaganda. ‘Certainly there is little to be said in defense of our recently developed habit of shipping thousands of carloads of carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, and even parsnips for thousands of miles, paying freight upon hundreds of tons of tops which no one uses and which if they arrive wilted or decayed are a positive detriment to the product, With the exception of a very few beet leaves these vegetable tops all go into the garbage can, as do the green stems which surround the head of the cauli- flower, and the outer leaves of all cab- bage and lettuce. 'Here it seems to me is an economic waste and one which is growing annually. ‘When the Southern and Western grower first invaded the field of the stored root crops of the North it is natural that he should have come with bunched goods with green leaves at- tached to prove that his was a differ- ent product, absolutely fresh and di- rect from the field. The bunched goods are washed to give them added attractiveness and sales appeal over unwashed roots coming out of storage. The washing of many stored carrots before offering them to the retail trade seems to have come as one result of he ab ems ny FMA ro seo eS GRE ia Ia SSCS MICHIGAN TRADESMAN this Southern competition. All of these Southern and Pacific Coast vege- tables shipped fresh under refrigera- tion with tops or green foliage at- tached take a high freight rate which in many cases represents nearly 50: per cent. of the delivered value of the prod- uct. It is safe to say in the case of many of these products about 30 per cent. of the bulk, and perhaps 15 to 25 per cent. of the weight, consists of tops and leaves which finally disappear as trimmings. The heavy transporta- tion and icing charges which have been paid on this useless foliage must be recovered in the price of that part of the goods actually consumed. — ++ Effect of Health Advertisements Dis- cussed, There is a large class of persons who have definitely become victims of the health urge which these days is so seductively and generally played up in the advertisements. It is not too much to say that one is persistently implored by means of the printed and illustrated page to buy anything from beds to cigarettes, on the basis of health, And these appeals do not include hundreds of concoctions which are offered to the public solely to cure them of real and imaginary ills. While undoubtedly this type of sales attack has been and continues to be successful, there is an- other side to the matter which needs some consideration. For example, a woman of more than average intelligence when starting on even an overnight trip takes along enough pills and fluids of various types and kinds almost to supply a clinic. Being an ardent reader of health advertisements and literature she is prepared against the many and direful things that are likely to over- take her, ranging from bad breath to pneumonia. Moreover, she eats for health, sleeps for health, breathes for health, reads health, talks health—and in the practice of her obsession appar- ently fails to live for the joy of it. It is all health. While doubtless she represents an extreme instance, she nevertheless somewhat typifies an ever-increasing number of people who are becoming unduly health conscious. Bombarded on all sides to do this and buy that for health’s sake, the subject in their minds unfortunately takes on an im- portance entirely unjustified by the facts. Such an attitude fails to take into account that in the last analysis it is not the purchase of articles that de- velops or maintains health. Speaking generally, a great number of people would be much happier if they would eliminate health as a daily mental diet, and in its stead, merely live sensibly day by day. Sufficient food, but not too much, adequate ex- ercise and sleep, elimination of devital- izing habits, proper amounts of work and play, the semiannual trip to the dentist and the annual physical check- up will splendidly meet the health re- quirements of the average person. To make one’s self ill, or half so, by for- ever talking, thinking and acting health is the unhealthiest kind of a policy. ‘Dr. Theodore B. Appel. —___++.—_—_ It’s impossible to get real mad with a pipe in your mouth. THE VITA-FRESH PROCESS Packing Coffee To Keep It Fresh Indefinitely. Because of the long search for a method of packing coffee in such a way that consumers everywhere can get the flavor of coffee fresh from the roaster, the announcement of General Foods Corporation of the new Vita- Fresh process for packing Maxwell House coffee in an almost perfect vacuum that will keep it fresh for many months, this week attracted August 12, 19381 ume of ten per cent., or an amount of oxygen sufficient to cause deteriora- tion. “For years coffee roasters have sought diligently fof ways and means of getting coffee to the consumer while it was still fresh. Stale coffee always has been the bane of coffee drinkers, as well as of manufacturers. In fact, coffee freshness is to-day the livest topic in the coffee industry.” Mr. Waters termed the new process “the most important advancement in years in the coffee industry,” and gave L. W. Waters, vice-president in charge of research for Gen- eral Foods Corporation. under whose direction was developed the new vita-fresh process which on test has kept roasted coffee fresh for many months. He believes the new process will keep coffee fresh and flavorful for years. spotlight attention in the coffee indus- try and the grocery trade. According to L. W. Waters, Vice- President in charge of research for General Foods, coffee packed by the Vita-Fresh process will remain fresh probably for several years, because of the almost perfect vacuum in which it is packed, “Repeated experiments,” Mr. Waters said, “have shown that through con- tact with oxygen in the air, coffee loses approximately sixty per cent. of its flavor within ten days or two weeks after roasting. Heretofore coffee roasters have been unable to effect a vacuum of more than approximately ninety per cent. This left an air vol- credit to Thomas M. Rector, Chemical Engineer of General Foods Corpora- tion, for having invented the new process. During the World War, Rector was in the Chemical Warfare Division, where within a week after the Central Powers introduced a new poison gas, he developed three differ- ent ways of rendering it harmless. Since the war Mr. Rector has spec- ialized in the scientific work of keep- ing food fresh, He has to his credit, in addition to the Vita-Fresh process for packaging coffee, a group of achievements which include the de- velopment of the vita-pack process for preserving coconut and cashew nuts. The announcement stated that the August 12, 1931 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN Vita-Fresh process of packaging \Max- air is extracted by the first machine; well House coffee has been installed in the Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Montreal, Jacksonville and Houston plants of the Corporation, By eliminating the prob- lem of stale coffee, the new Vita- I'resh process is expected to solve the problem of marketing fresh coffee, as well as to effect a considerable benefit to housewives and other consumers. Two machines are used in the Vita- Fresh process, Mr. Waters said. The cans of freshly roasted coffee are fed ‘Most of the in by an endless chain. the remainder in the second. Close fitting rotary cylinders prevent any air getting in from the outside as powerful pumps remove the last of air from the cans, “Rector says he takes out only ninety-nine per cent. of the air,” the Waters announcement stated, “but the admitted fact remains that five minutes after the can is sealed, no laboratory test can detect a trace of that remain- ing one per cent. Professional coffee- tasters have been unable to tell the T. M. Rector, chemical engineer of General Foods Corporation, has been credited with the invention of the new vita-fresh process of packing coffee in an almost perfect vacuum. By excluding the air from the can, the new process keeps coffee fresh for many months. The new process has been termed “the most important advance in years in the coffee industry.” 17 difference between roasted coffee pack- the various steps in coffee packaging ed in this way for some months, and coffee freshly roasted on the spot. “While tests of coffee packed by this new process have not gone beyond an age of six months in the can, the achievement of keeping coffee fresh for that length of time warrants the assertion that coffee packedin this way will remain fresh over a period of years, Mr. Waters hailed the new Vita- Fresh Maxwell House coffee as a far step from the days when most grocery stores sold coffee in ibulk, and traced in the effort to protect the freshly roasted coffee from the deteriorating effects of contact with the oxygen in the air. He explained how coffee had been packed in paper sacks, in card- board cartons, in slip-cover tins, and finally in a partial vacuum, “Each new package was an advance toward indefinitely fresh coffee,” he said, “but none of them filled the bill until the advent of the process, with its vacuum.” Vita-Fresh almost perfect To prove the almost perfect vacuum created in cans of coffee by his newly invented vita-fresh process of packing, T. M. Rector, of the research laboratories of General Foods Corporation, here is shown burning an electric light in a vacuum bulb partially filled with coffee. Any perceptible presence of oxygen would cause the filament in the bulb to burn out instantly. At the rate of sixty per minute, this machine, recently perfected by General Foods Corporation, sucks the air from cans of coffee and seals the cans. By creating an almost perfect vacuum in the cans, the coffee is kept fresh and flavorful for much longer periods of time than has been possible heretofore. The new process is technically known as vita-fresh. Air is knocked out of sixty cans of coffee a minute by this new machine just perfected by General Foods Corporation. By creating an almost perfect vacuum in the can, the coffee is kept fresh for long period of time. The new method is technically known as the vita-fresh process. 18 DRY GOODS Michigan Retail Dry Goods Association. President — Geo. E. Martin, Benton Harbor. . First Vice-President —J. T. Milliken, Traverse City. Second Vice-President—George C. Pratt, Grand Rapids. Secretary-Treasurer—Thomas Pitketh- ly, Flint. : Manager—Jason E. Hammond, Lansing. Manufacturing Pearl Buttons From Mussel Shells. Before going into the details of the manufacture of fresh water mussel shells into pearl buttons and the deple- tion of the mussel beds, it is right and proper to give full credit to the pioneer who made the ‘first pearl button from a mussel shell, and established the fresh water pearl button industry. This man was J. F, 'Boepple, who was the manufacturer of pearl buttons in Eu- rope made from the Mother-of-Pearl shells taken from the sea. He came to America and located at Muscatine, Iowa, on the Mississippi River about the year 1890. He found the fresh water mussel shells in the Mississippi River, and with small hand machines manufactured them into pearl buttons of much beauty and value. He work- ed along in a small way for several years until he made a success of the fresh water pearl button. As soon as the business was a suc- cess American brain and capital came into the picture. They made power machines to manufacture mussel shells into pearl buttons, and the industry grew with leaps and bounds. The great ‘Mississippi River and all her tributaries, had a natural supply of mussel beds that had accumulated since their origin and had been untouched by the hand or greed of man. It is hard to estimate the value of this great natural resource at that time; it was worth many millions of dollars and was the largest supply of fresh water mussel shells and fresh water pearls in the world. The mussel beds were so productive that many of them produced from three to four thousand tons of mussel shells, all good material for making pearl but- tons, to the mile of river on a mussel bed. The mussels were so numerous and the supply so great that one man with a mussel boat could catch from a ton and one-half to two tons of shells per day, and they found a great many fine fresh water pearls that sold for several millions of dollars; some of them as high as five to ten thousand dollars each, and many of them sold for $1,000 to $5,000. Some of these pearls are the finest that have ever been found, and are among the finest collections in the world to-day, ‘The manufacturers in this business were in it for money. ‘They made more machines and better machinery; they worked the shell beds without any idea of conservation or protection, In many instances there were more mus- sels killed and shells lost than there were shells caught. In other words, more than one-half of the crop was destroyed in the harvesting. ‘The business grew rapidly and the manufacturers continued in their reck- less ways until they manufactured and made more fresh water pearl buttons than the market would take. There was an over supply and the manufac- turers didn’t know what to do. They MICHIGAN TRADESMAN cut the prices of pearl buttons and the war was on, In this fight some of them went out of business, but the shrewdest ones saw it was necessary to find a new home and new markets for the pearl ‘button, They went to garment manufactur- ers and put the pearl buttons on the garments, and ‘by so doing whipped the old-fashioned china and the horn but- tons out of existence. This was the first big step for the fresh water pearl button. It made them supreme, the strongest, the most beautiful and the best buttons that were ever put on manufactured garments. So the slaugh- ter of the shell beds continued and the production of the pearl button in- creased. I began in the mussel shell business in the year 1902 on the Ohio ‘River at Henderson, Ky., and since that time have worked the Ohio River from one end to the other. ‘The ‘first five years I never worked above Louisville, Ky., finding all the shells we could sell in that territory, that is from Louisville down. The season of 1908 I went to Vanceburg, Ky., and opened the beds on the upper ‘Ohio River, working it from Martin’s Ferry, which is nine miles above Wheeling W. Va., down to ‘Rising ‘Sun, Ind. JI worked this part of the river for twelve years. The beds on the upper river are not as large or as productive as the lower river, the best ones not producing over one to three thousand tons. The rea- son of this is that the area of the river bottom is much smaller where the shell beds can be than on the lower river, and the bottom is much harder so the shells cannot go down as deep. The mussel beds on the lowér river from Louisville down were very large and very productive. J have known from 50 to 150 boats to work on one mussel bed, and some of the best beds produced from 5,000 to 10,000 tons of mussel shells before they were whipped out. What I mean by being whipped out is that there is not enough shell left in the mussel beds to pay wages for catching them. A mussel catcher could work faithfully in a mussel boat for ten hours and not catch over one box of shell on these beds, and most of them would be too small. The beds are found principally in the bends and along gravel bars, in other words, in protected places where the current does not wash them out, and caving banks don’t cover them up. ‘The general impression is that they lie in these beds piled up on top—one on the other—several feet deep. This is a mistake. ‘They are distinctly in- dividual and live on the surface and in the bottom—going down sometimes one or two feet. Two feet below the surface is the deepest I have taken them out. ‘They come to the surface to feed, where they come out of their shell very much like a snail. ‘They lie there practically outside of the shell, and depend on what the current brings them for food, which J think is prin- cipally sewage, For it is a well-known fact that where there*is plenty of sewage in the water they grow much faster than elsewhere. The _ [Illinois River in Illinois that gets a large quan- tity of sewage from Chicago is an ex- ample. The shells grow faster in this river than any other yet discovered. Another river that bears out this fact is the Scioto, in Ohio. It is a small river and there are but few shells in it, because of the small area in which they can live. They are principally found on the riffles where the current is continuous. ‘They get a quantity of sewage from ‘Columbus, and are very large and fine quality. There is no doubt that their consumption of the sewage is a great purifier to the water, and the mussel should be protected for this alone. The mussels are caught in several different ways—by dredging, with oyster tongs and with hooks. The hook is the only thing that should be allowed, as the other ways mentioned go to the bottom after them and ex- terminate the bed. The hook can only catch them when they are on the sur- face and as the bigger ones are natur- ally on top, the practical thing to do, is to formulate a plan whereby you can catch them without disturbing others. They have grown to their usefulness and are ready for harvest. William ‘T. a Reorders Taken on Eugenie Modes. Reorders now being received on Em- press Eugenie millinery are cited as evidence of early consumer acceptance of these styles. Retailers who here- tofore have been somewhat skeptical of the possibilities of the new modes are showing much more confidence, particularly with respect to the modi- fied types now being offered: In one quarter the almost overnight advent of the Second Empire modes were seen as pulling not only the millinery in- dustry but the ready-to-wear trades out of a style rut. The problem now lies more with the adaptation of the new effects to the larger woman and matron as well as the miss, it was pointed out. —_+++____ Limited Model Choice Blamed. While admitting that they were plac- ing advance Fall orders for dresses in a conservative manner, retail repre- sentatives in the New York market argue that this, in part at least, is due to lack of sufficiently new offerings on the part of producers. Manufacturers, they assert, are developing models cautiously, partly because of style un- certainty existing at the moment and also because of the desire to hold the expenses of early models down. In a number of instances it is reported that retailers during the last few days have Barrett. August 12, 19381 left the market with their appropria- tions not fully used, due to inability to find what they wanted. 2-2 Du Pont Reduces Cellophane Price. A reduction of 5 cents per pound on two grades of cellophane, plain and moisture proof, is announced by the Du Pont Cellophane Co., Inc. The reductions, effective on orders placed on and after the first of this month, bring quotations for plain cellophane to 45 instead of 50 cents per pound and for the moisture-proof from 75 to 70 cents per pound. Du Pont officials, commenting on the change, said that the recent wide adoption of cellophane in the cigarette trade as well as in- creased use of the product in the bak- ing, textile and other industries, made the lower price possible. The Vogue For LONG HAIR means bigger sales of “Leo belle HUMAN HAIR NETS These are the famous hair nets the public knows it can rely on. Prompt shipments from New York, Chicago, Toronto. Effective merchan- dising co-operation and at- tractive FREE display cab- inet. Now only $9.00 a gross— DucsBelle — WATER WAVE NETS. We also import the renowned ONICTM HAIR NETS Get our prices on YOUR OWN brand NATIONAL GARY CORPORATION Successors to NATIONAL TRADING CO. and THEO. H. GARY CoO. 47 East 19th St.. New York, N, 535 South Franklin St., Chistes i a ay NOW IS THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR FALL Your customers will soon be bu needs, both personal and home. Too many merchants will wai ying for School Opening and Fall t too long. Already deliveries of blankets, underwear, work shirts, etc., can not be had before late September. However, we anticipated our customer’s needs and are prepared to fill your wants. SEE OUR SALESMAN OR VISIT US. C. J. FARLEY & COMPANY Jobbers of Dresses and Dry Goods 20-28 Commerce Ave., §. W. Grand Rapids 2 + i} 9) } i 9 August 12, 1931 SHOE MARKET Michigan Retail Shoe Dealers Association. President—Elwyn Pond, Flint. Vice-President—J. E. Wilson, Detroit. Secretary—Joe H. Burton, Lansing. Asst. Sec’y-Treas.—O. R. Jenkins. Association Business Office, 907 Trans- portation Bldg., Detroit. Bows, Buckles and Bows. In spite of the fact that bows have been selling for months and re-orders are constantly .being placed, the bow business has by no means reached its peak, Retailers who stocked bows as early as February in small lots ifind that a considerable business can be done by changing the types and character of the expression and also by show-case appeal in the main aisle. The possibilities of color combina- tions are very far reaching and sales- men in the shoe department should be shown by the buyer the way to sell the various types of bows and the advan- tage of plain and color combinations. 3uckles also are extra money for the retailer and if properly displayed will bring up the season’s sales to a re- markable degree. Accessories will not just walk out of the store. They must be exploited in a fitting background, featured in ad- vertising and, most important, the salesmen must believe in them and de- velop an enthusiastic sales talk in or- der to sell the customer. Selling the customer is talked of con- tinually but how many of us make a serious ‘business of sell the salesmen? And yet, in the selling of shoe store accessories the retail salesman plays the most important role. Customers, as a rule, think of shoe stores only in connection with shoes. ‘Most shoe stores that have developed a really worth-while business on such mer- chandise as bows, buckles and shoe ornaments have accomplished it large- ly through suggestive selling. Footwear accessories can be made to serve a double purpose in the shoe store. They earn an extra profit for the store and they also help the sales- man to sell more shoes. A plain pump or strap that might make only an in- different impression upon the cus- tomer if shown merely as a shoe will often register favorably with an at- tractive buckle, bow or ornament. Such ornaments serve to multiply the sales possibilities of every plain shoe in stock, for the shoe presents an alto- gether different appeal to the cus- tomer when the ornament is changed. With summer waning, the shoe merchant should give careful attention to those kinds of accessories that will help:clear out summer shoes. Many of these will be found in the world of sport. Sport stockings and_ sport socks, suitable for week end and spectator sports should be bought with the thought of color combinations of smart toggery. Brown coats for men with grey golfing trousers are being exploited here and abroad and again the brown trouser with the grey coat. Consequently grey brown sports hose may be exploited as a fashionable ac- cessory with the accompanying copy, telling of the economic buying value of grey brown golf hose. This being a sure season for accessories, why not make the most of it?—Boot and Shoe Recorder, MICHIGAN TRADESMAN The Onaway of Re-organized En- deavor. In the more densely populated por- tions of the United States where com- munities are of some age, beautiful landscape gardens are commonly found. But such beauty spots are not so plentiful in regions far North of the corn belt. Especially is this true where lumbering has been rife, and the selfishness of men has robbed the for- est and impoverished the land and villages alike. But up in the Northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, there is a community just emerging from the bedlam incident to wood-working com- mercialism. Six years ago Onaway, in Presque Isle county, was apparently a thriving little city of 3,000 people. Its civic nourishment was a big wood- working mill which furnished steering wheels to American automobile manu- facturers. Suddenly the mill burned and Onaway’s heart beats almost ceased, Nature, however, has furnished the country round about with good soil, underlaid with rich limestone, After a few years of adjustment, the soil is be- ing utilized by a newly stimulated class of farmers. Onaway feels the need of making a fitting market place for these citizens in agriculture. Appearance counts for much, so Onaway thinks. So for the sake of attracting farmers and the annual stream of treking tourists, the Onaway of re-organized endeavor is putting on new clothes. Old buifdings have been removed and ugly spots made attractive. Among the many households which are doing much to enrich Onaway’s heritage are two individual homes of considerably different character. One is located on the main street and pre- sents a modest comliness to the passer- by. The other is away off from the current of traffic where it richly bless- es its neighborhood. The Everling home may be seen by many, but the true character of the really lovely landscape architecture is not fully realized until one goes back of the house. There, the enthusiastic gardener will find much to please his sense of proportion and loveliness. The lot is only 120 feet by 50 feet. There is an unusual variety of plant- ings, and yet the central or balancing feature of any truly attractive yard, namely the lawn, is kept well, and is not cluttered up. Onaway is fortunate in its sturdy, beaming, frank-faced hollyhocks. Many a dooryard looks inviting because of this hardy perennial. In the Everling yard possibly hollyhocks lend to the floral design its true character, How- ever, it is the well planned seasonal plantings which make the homestead effect one of excellence. ‘Tulips in splendor are followed by magnificent peonies. When the peonies have ceased blossoming, hollyhocks flare forth, and then, as if to overwhelm one’s appreciation of gracefulness, ap- pear rambler roses of several types and forms. . The house, which faces North, is flanked at the Southwest corner by a great sweeping pink rambler. Back a little, on an arch trellis are two ramblers which meet at the rounded top. Along the sides of the yard are beautifully mingled specimens of Spirea van Houtii and honeysuckle shrub. The tulip bed and the peonies are included in a_shrub-surrounded niche over to the East. ‘It is the gen- eral scheme of things to constantly lend enchantment to the visitor. Fox- glove, geraniums and bleeding heart lend character to the sides of the house. Lily of the valley softens the foundation corners. Jasamine, wild cucumber and Virginia creeper make the back porch appear highly desirable for neighborhood chats. The other home whose floral attri- butes need mentioning, is found in a neighborhood of plain work-a-day folks. The Roberts domicile is one story, modest and of frame—white painted. ‘In July the great red and pink rambler roses sprawling over the front porch present a unique appear- ance and of inviting quality. But here again the backyard is en- trancing. Especially is this true for children. There are cherry trees, dwarf apple trees and raspberry and currant bushes beautifully accentuated by a variety of low annuals and peren- nials. Mrs. Roberts has very tasteful- ly arranged a modified rock garden along the West side of the house. Citizenship of high quality should emanate from such surroundings. iE. B. Kaer. Few Better Items Available. Retail buyers in the New York mar- ket are beginning to report that in a number of lines they can get plenty of goods to sell at $1, but that they are experiencing trouble in getting good items to sell in the intermediate range, 19 say up to $5. In a number of instanc- es these are the items the stores are depending on for a substantial percent- age of profit and to raise the average size of the sale check. Manufacturers asserted that retailers themselves were largely to blame for the situation, as their buying tactics have heavily em- phasized cheap goods in recent months, while at the same time they are un- willing to place advance orders for the better items. —_++>—___ Fall Neckwear Trade Improved. Fall neckwear orders placed in the market up to this time are from 3 to 5 per cent. ahead of the volume expect- ed by producers. In spite of the heavier volume, total sales are below those of the corresponding period last year. Demand is centered on popular priced ties with all branches of the in- dustry agreed that neckwear retailing at $1 will be the outstanding item throughout the coming season. Blue, in medium shades, leads all others in popularity. Green is next in line, with variations of brown third. ——_+~++___ Boys’ Leather Coats Gaining. Business in boys’ overcoats has been ‘ lagging to an even greater degree than that which sellers are experiencing in the men’s field. The chief factor in the situation is the strong popularity of leather outergarments, particularly windbreakers and sheep-lined coats. These garments were in excellent de- mand last Fall and Winter, especially from children of school age and slight- ly older. The general expectation in the trade is that leather apparel this year will swell last year’s figures. $475,000.00 HAVE YOU RECEIVED YOUR SHARE? This amount has been paid to our policyholders in dividends since organization in 1912. Share in these profits by insuring with us ut MIcHIGAN SHOE DEALERS MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE Co. Mutual Building LANSING, MICHIGAN Phone 2074] 20 RETAIL GROCER Retail Grocers and Meat Dealers Associa- tion of Michigan. President—William Schultz, Ann Arbor. First Vice-President—Paul Schmidt, Lansing. Second Vice-President—A. Bathke, Pe- toskey. Secretary — Herman Hanson, Grand Rapids. Treasurer—O. H. Bailey, Sr., Lansing. Directors — Ole Peterson, Muskegon; Walter Loefler, Saginaw; John Lurie, Detroit; Clayton F. Spaulding, Battle Creek; Ward Newman, Pontiac. Possible Results From _ the Louisville Survey. Despite the customary institutional slow movement always characteristic of government business, some results are coming through from the Louis- ville survey which may yet be valuable to such grocers as make a point to get the bulletins and read them. For these reflect conditions within indi- vidual stores and nothing can be more valuable to any merchant than to learn actual details of what influences his own line of business. From such gen- eral conclusions he can always get in- valuable insight into his own store and shape his future course in the light thereof. ° The bulletin on the sale of tea and Some cocoa shows that tea makes up 1.5 per _ cent. of the average sales, returns slightly better than 1.5 per cent. of average margin, and while turning less than three times annually, yields almost 5 per cent. above the average profit. The bulletin expresses the opinion that Louisville must be a poor tea market, but [I believe this is an erroneous conclusion. Fact is, tea sales have virtually remained station- ary for more than thirty years, due to inertia such as has retarded growth of canned peach business. Those two lines have been handi- capped because those interested in them have been too sure of their out- let and have not advertised. Tea has awakened lately. Peaches I do not know about. But it all shows that the shrinking violet gets nowhere in mod- ern distribution. But of the twenty-six stores studied, one has a tea stock turn of nearly nine times and another eight times, while some make many times the average profit. ‘This hints what can be done by those who pay attention to their tea business. The same reasoning ap- plies to cocoa. Both show that there are no grocery lines which cannot be improved by intelligent attention—and these bulletins furnish the way to in- telligence herein. Average sales of salad dressings ex- ceed those of tea and cocoa, but the same reasoning applies. ‘Study of the salad dressings bulletin will repay any merchant, The growing distribution of bread of late years has curtailed grocers’ flour sales so that old timers have felt they were at the vanishing point. But pastry and other special flours have come into wider use and favor and the totals are surprising to me, as shown by the bulletin. Here, again, study will repay any grocer. Another valu- able bulletin treats of table syrups. The one way we can hope to offset slow Government motions is to be im- mediate in our own use of such ma- terial as it comes. Most Government action in ‘business is detrimental or dangerous, Unbiased investigation of MICHIGAN TRADESMAN actual conditions is probably altogether beneficial, provided it be at least mod- erately prompt in getting to its con- clusions. Therefore, this is one way in which all may benefit from Uncle Sam’s efforts. : With all changes and_ vicissitudes through the generations, nothing stands out so clearly as the fact that merchants who seek out improved ways and means of and by themselves are the ones always in the forefront of progress. Such men always have plenty to do without fussing too much about competition or conditions, “Fair” or “unfair” methods are seldom men- tioned by such men, Such merchants do not do things simply because “others are doing it.” Each of them has ‘his ear to the ground always, from the standpoint first of his own store and environment, I have heard many such men at conven- tions say frankly that they always go to conventions and always learn from their attendance, but this is because they listen intelligently and carry away what may be good for their own affairs, ‘One who has done a credit business for years on a 50-50 plan said lately: “We used to do more credit business, but there are a lot of undesirable ac- counts at the present time, so we have not been taking on as many new ones as we should have done under other circumstances, ‘Credit ratings are not as good as they were. Folks have got to have a gilt edge rating and be known as good pay or we do not take them.” There is the note not of cure but of prevention. There would be mighty little credit loss if grocers generally would watch their accounts more close- ly to prevent the infusion of thin blood, How this balances out is shown thus: “We make better profit in our service—that is our credit department —than in non-service, provided we keep our losses down. We keep them down well and this year have had a decline in total sales largely because of such conservatism, but we prefer to play safe and generally speaking, our service pays us best.” One doing $500,000 business runs 84 per cent. credit and 16 per cent. cash. Another who sells about $325,- 000 runs 80 per cent. credit. ‘These are all grocery stores owned and run by owners individually. ‘Such grocers show generally a great preponderance of credit business and lean heavily to- ward credit. This confirms what I have always said: that the credit busi- ness is the mainstay of the strictly in- dividual business; and this point needs emphasis right now because with times somewhat depressed and extra care therefore necessary, some men are losing chances to build permanently for the long future on this stablest of all foundations, Credit is the basis of retail business all around me as I write this in Paris, France, where merchants are most careful and where the percentage of solid success is high. I don’t know the elements in such detail as I might learn them at home because handi- capped for language. I shall learn about this more readily in England. ‘But I do know that credit has been handed to us here—thrust on us against our will by tradesmen of many kinds. Tailors whom [ never saw have delivered work and when I have tried to pay the deliveryman, he did not want my money. Strange grocers here and in Nice have asked me whether I wanted to pay now and have seemed disappointed that I did. It must be true that the average of humanity is honest and square; that if we could spread credit universally over the average of our people—all people, too —losses would be negligible. Lest I forget, let me observe now that cash-carry has always been the system in these European countries. Any regular grocer of whom we buy will deliver, but most of them have to make a special job of that. The system for everybody is to buy a great oil cloth satchel of half bushel capacity, August 12, 1931 carry it to market, select what is wanted for the day and lug it all home. Women carry loads that would kill an American housewife and think nothing of it. Paul Findlay. —_+++>—__ There is genius enough in America to evolve and to execute political and economic policies that will give us a future that will, in point of material well being and social enrichment, far outstrip the very real, if somewhat spotty, prosperity of the last decade. if America does not realize this finer and more fruitful future, and begin her realization of it with decent prompt- ness, it will not be because the cards of destiny are stacked against us. They are not. Every card in the deck is in our hands. It is a matter of playing them expertly—Glenn Frank, fe brand you know, W. R. ROACH & CO., GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Hart Brand vegetables and fruits are building prof- itable repeat business for thousands of Michigan re- favem. .. PUTNAMS RITE ’N SITE 19c PACKAGES Choice candies put up in cellophane to sell at a popular price. We have an attractive offer for a display. PUTNAM FACTORY NATIONAL CANDY CO., INC. GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Rademaker-Dooge Grocer Co. Distributors Fremont Sweet Peas Miss Michigan Ex Stand Cut Wax Beans Miss Michigan Ex Stand Cut Green Beans Miss Michigan Sweet Peas Miss Michigan Early June Peas Above all packed by Fremont Canning Co. August 12, 1931 MEAT DEALER Michigan State Assoclation of Retail Meat Merchants. President—Frank Cornell, Grand Rapids Vice-Pres.—E PY. Abbott, Flint. sSecretary—E. J. La Rose, Detroit. Treasurer—Pius Goedecke, Detroit. Next meeting will be held in Grand Rapids, date not decidea. Heifer Shown To Be As Good As Steer, In comparing the meat-producing abilities of well-bred heifers and steers recently, the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture and seven state experiment stations disproved some of the arguments which have been ad- vanced in support of the long-standing prejudice against heifer beef. One of the most interesting and im- portant facts discovered by the in- vestigators is that the meat from well- finished heifers is equally as palatable as that from steers when the two are slaughtered at the same age. More- over, in these experiments, the dressing percentage of the heifers was fully as high as that of the steers. In the course of their studies on the relative merits of the two sexes as meat producers, the investigators like- wise found that yearling heifers ordin- arily reach an acceptable market finish more quickly and at lighter weight than do steers of similar breeding and feeding. It follows, of course, that the heifers become overfinished sooner than the steers when the feeding is continued, These research findings are signifi- cant in view of the present market de- mand for lighter-weight carcasses of good finish, the Department says. The housewife likes to buy small but well- finished cuts of beef. She likes steaks thick, if not otherwise too large, and would buy roasts more often if she could always get them small enough. The well-finished light heifer, slaugh- tered before she becomes over-fat, ful- fills these requirements. This study has uncovered some facts which should be of marked benefit not only to the consuming public but also to the pro- ducer, the meat packer, and the re- tailer, the Department says. The agricultural experiment stations of Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture, fed out about 400 head of cattle, about half of which were heifers and half steers, during these experiments. The studies have been in progress about five years. In each instance the Department with the co-operating station graded the cattle and carcasses, with respect to conformation, finish and quality Standard rib cuts were taken from representative carcasses for the cook- ing and palatability studies. The roasts were judged by the Depart- ment’s cooked-meat grading com- mittee. —_—_—_>- > New Process Prevents Deterioration of Eggs. The Department of Agriculture, ac- cording to an announcement made last week, has discovered how to seal up the pores in the shell of an egg so it will retain much of its fresh quality when in cold storage. In recent investigations the food re- search division of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils found that fresh MICHIGAN TRADESMAN eggs dipped in oil and subjected to carbon dioxide gas in a vacuum will retain practically all of their original moisture and carbon dioxide. Impair- ment of quality generally results when these two constituents are lost. T. L. Swenson, bacteriologist, who devised the new process, dips the eggs in oil in an air-tight chamber, then pumps out some of the air to create a partial vacuum, Some air escapes from the eggs also. (Mr. Swenson then turns carbon dioxide into the vessel. The eggs, once more surrounded by gases of normal pressure, draw some of the oil into the pores of the shell to form a complete seal. ‘Carbon dioxide probably is carried in with the oil, which accounts for the marked im- provement in quality which follows its use, Some Western egg handlers recent- ly have been treating large numbers o feggs for storage by dipping them in oil in open vessels, In comparative tests, Mr. Swenson found that vacuum- dipped and carbonated eggs lost only one-tenth of 1 per cent. of weight dur- ing ten months in storage, while the open-dipped eggs lost sixteen times as Untreated nearly seventy-seven times as much weight as the vacuum-treated eggs. This loss is moisture and carbon dioxide chiefly. When the eggs were taken out of storage an expert grader classed them on the basis of standard market grades. None of the unoiled eggs were good enough for the top classes, and only 30 per cent. of the open-dipped eggs But 46 per cent. of much, eggs lost were so classed. the vacuum-oiled eggs came within these special and extra grades. Colorless, odorless and __ tasteless mineral oil, which in no way impairs the egg’s quality is used in the pro- cess. The appearance of the vacuum- dipped egg when opened after ten months in storage compares favorably with that of a two-day-old egg. a ls Dangerous Germs Said To Locate in Teeth. In recent years the American public has been educated more or less into a germ knows, as never before, that germs are the cause of all infectious disease, and that they also are responsible for many other acute and chronic conditions. Indeed, the germ picture has been painted very black, But when all is said and done, there is no black black enough to do this microscopical criminal justice. Of course, it must be plainly under- that not all germs are bad. There are many good ones also whose function is to help, not hinder human- ity. But the point is that when they are bad, there can be no mistaking the fact. Frequently, nothing murder satisfies them as witness the slaughter by the typhoid, scarlet fever consciousness, It stood short of and pneumonia organisms, to mention only a few of the better known ones. Manifestly, to harbor vicious germs in dangerous quantities is the worst sort of business and exceedingly haz- ardous also. Yet that is exactly what literally hundreds of thousands of peo- ple do through the simple, very simple, process of neglecting their mouths. It has been estimated that the prop- erly cared for mouth, which at all times is relatively clean, harbors from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000 germs. On the other hand, the chronically neglected one plays host to no less than 800,000,- 000 organisms, The peculiar part about the situa- tion is that brushing the teeth at least three times daily and keeping them and the gum tissues clean and_ healthy through the semi-annual visit to the dentist, make the diffirence between the 8,000,000 and 800,000,000. But it is just these comparatively little ob- 21 ligations that innumerable persons dis- regard not so much because of ignor- ance but ‘because they “have no time to bother.” The answer to this inexcusable care- lessness is loss of teeth or decayed ones, acute infections, lowered resist- ance and sometimes death itself. Dr. C. J. Hollister. —_~++-_—_ Every successful business house 1s a demonstration of the value of de- pendability. Rowena Yes Ma’am : Graham Rowena Golden G. ea Rowena Pancake Flour iui "THE FLOUR THE BEST COOKS USE Valley City Milling Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Rowena Buckwheat Compound Rowena Whole Wheat ‘lour Rowena Cake and Biscuit VINKEMULDER COMPANY Grand Rapids, Michigan BRANCH AT PETOSKEY, MICH. Distributors Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Cranberries, Grapefruit, “Yellow Kid” Bananas, Oranges, Onions, Fresh Green Vegetables, etc. Leading Grocers always have a supply of POSTMA’S RUSK as they are in Demand in all Seasons Fresh Daily POSTMA BISCUIT CO. GRAND RAPIDS. MICHIGAN EGGS - Eggs, at full market prices. Quotations mailed on request. EGGS - WE BUY — WE STORE — WE SELL We are always in the market for strictly fresh current receipt We can supply Egg Cases and Egg Case Material of all kinds. KENT STORAGE COMPANY - EGGS GRAND RAPIDS GRAND RA PI GRAND RAPIDS PAPER Box Co. Manufacturers of SET UP and FOLDING PAPER BOXES SPECIAL DIE CUTTING AND MOUNTING DBS, MI C HIGAN GRIDDLES _ BUN STEAMERS _ URNS Everything in Restaurant Equipment Priced Right. Grand Rapids Store Fixture Co. 7 N. IONIA AVE. Phone 67143 N. FREEMAN, Mar. HARDWARE Michigan Retail Hardware Association. President—Waldo Bruske, Saginaw. Vice-Pres.—Chas. H. Sutton, Howell. Secretary—Harold W. Bervig. Treasurer—William Moore, Detroit. Planning For the Fall Stove Campaign. Stoves suggest heat, and everything that suggests heat right now is prob- ably most unwelcome. Nevertheless, now is a good time to give some thought to your fall stove campaign. In the summer months there are al- ways certain days when there is little to do around the hardware store. Peo- ple are out of town; or those who stay in town are too hot and tired to do much shopping. These dull, quiet spells represent opportunity for the wide-awake dealer to do some neces- sary preparatory work for next fall’s business. Now, stove selling is normally a big item in the fall trade. And, the more reluctant the public is to buy, the more essential it is for the hardware dealer to put his best thought and his utmost energy into the job of selling. A great deal of preliminary and prep- aratory work in connection with the fall stove campaign can be done right now. There is advertising to arrange, there are lists of prospects to overhaul and revise, there are orders to be placed. These things require consider- able thought and attention. The tendency on the part of some dealers is to put off this preparatory work as long as possible. They drowse through the slack spells of the sum- mer months; and as a result the actual stove-selling season finds them unpre- pared. They are tangled in a maze of last minute preparation as the very time when their wide-awake competi- tors are—as a result of their prelim- inary work—able to fling their utmost energies into the actual selling. A lot of work can be done weeks in advance. For example, advertising matter can be prepared. It takes con- siderable time and thought to put to- gether a good advertisement. If left to the last moment, the time will be lacking and the thought will be con- fused. So it is better to select some quiet midsummer day when there is little doing in the store and give a few hours’ careful study to your fall stove adver- tising. Look over the literature sup- plied by the manufacturers and pick out the strongest selling points. Adapt these selling points to your public and determine the definite lines your ad- vertising appeal is to take. With this clearly determined, you should be able to outline some forceful and effective advertising “copy.” Then take your ruler and pencil and figure on lay-outs. Most retail advertisers pay little at- tention to the way their advertisements are arranged. They leave that entirely to the printer. With a good printer, that is relatively wise; but a dub prin- ter can quickly spoil the effectiveness of a well conceived advertisement by a poor lay-out. And even the experi- enced printer has his set preferences in the matter of make up; and the result is a monotonous sameness of all the advertisements. The wide-awake ad- vertiser, who knows something about MICHIGAN TRADESMAN make-up, can often suggest changes and improevments that will make his own advertisement fairly stand out from the rest of the paper. Plan your lay-outs in advance, if and when you find time. By utilizing spare moments in the summer you can find ample time for your purposes. A necessary adjunct to every stove selling campaign is the prospect list. The stove dealer can divide the public into two classes—those who are not now, or likely to be, in the market for stoves, and those who are good pros- pects for either this year or the next. If he can find out just what people belong in the second category he can concentrate on them instead of scat- tering his fire all over the map. Stove manufacturers supply a lot of good advertising matter. Some dealers are satisfied to scatter this broadcast, without regard to the possibility or otherwise of making sales. The result of this haphazard policy is that a lot of good advertising material is entirely wasted. It goes into homes where stoves are not needed and will not be needed for years. With a selected prospect list you can place the advertising matter where it will do the most good, and prevent a great deal of unnecessary waste. The saving will enable you to supplement the regular advertising matter with some personal material, such as per- sonal or circular letters of your own, identifying your store intimately with the line of stoves you are offering. The compilation or revision of the prospect list will provide a profitable occupation for a few dull hours in the summer months. There are various ways of getting a line on prospects. You encounter some in the regular course of trade. People who come into the store to buy something else show interest in the stoves. They do not buy, perhaps they do not buy immedi- ately, but they are thinking of buying some time; this fact is sufficient to justify listing them. An order for re- pairs may come in; a stove in poor re- pair represents a real, live prospect. In this connection, the store which features a live and efficient stove repair department gets the inside track on a lot of good stove prospects. Then the general advertising of the manufacturers and your own store ad- vertising will bring in more prospects. It is not difficult by these and other means to compile a pretty good list of people who are interested in stoves; and if the list is extensive, it will be good business to confine your mailing list campaign pretty well to these names. New names can, of course, be added at any time; and care should be taken to weed out people who have been sold, who have moved from town or who have become bad pay custom- ers. : Sending letters and advertising mat- ter to stove prospects is educational work. You should begin your educa- tional campaign some time before the actual selling season opens. Educa- tional work done in late August, for instance, won't sell stoves then; but it will quite likely help to sell stoves in September or October. Remember in your preliminary plan- 4 DIS eDURRON Puioaist Use aPE I eae betes neon eee aaa a ee RENCE acy Ma sed cone ae eee ses ning that people do not buy stoves on the spur of the moment. If a woman needs a new kettle, she may go straight down town to purchase it; and a man who wants a hammer will do likewise. But a new range or heater is some- thing involving careful thought, con- sultation with the bank book, the read- ing of advertisements and stove litera- ture, and a great deal of preliminary enquiry before the actual purchase is made. Thus the customer’s interest begins to stir a month or six weeks before he is brought to the buying point. In fact, he may be nibbling one or two seasons before he buys. Consequently, it is good business for the dealer to get his stove campaign under way some weeks before the ac- tual commencement of the season. The customer has to be convinced on a great many points; and this requires time and a deal of educational work. Stove selling this year won’t be easy; which is all the more reason for the dealer to give the matter his ~ best thought. An important feature is to know your line. You really ought to know your line thoroughly before you plan your publicity. Take time to see that your salespeople are fully posted in regard to the strong selling points of your ranges and heaters. One wide-awake dealer arranges for a conference of his entire selling staff with the stove traveler. The later goes over the range or heater with the salés- people. He explains every important point. In an hour or so he puts the selling staff through a short course in stove selling. Posing as a difficult prospect, he challenges the best efforts of the salespeople. By the time he gets through, the selling staff of that par- ticular store is pretty well grounded in the subject. A little preliminary training of that sort will make a lot of difference in your selling efforts next fall. And it is personal salesmanship that clinches August 12, 1931 the stove sale, practically every time. Another important thing is to make vour salesmanship constructive. Thus the bad points of the competitive stove —which, after all, is usually danger- ously good—should be left severely alone. It is a sound rule to avoid knocking the other fellow. The wise stove salesman avoids comparisons. He devotes his time to bringing out the good points of the stove he is trying to sell. He makes his explanations practical, simple and not too technical, but, above all, convincing. Questioned regarding an opposition line, he will even acknowledge that it’s pretty good; although of course our own line has these certain special features. That’s constructive salesmanship; and it’s the sort of salesmanship that carries weight with the average stove purchaser. Plans should be made now for any rearrangement of the store interior to facilitate the display of stoves during the season; and arrangements should be made, too, for any stove demonstra- tions you wish to make. Demonstra- tion is a very efficient way of adver- tising and selling stoves; and a well planned demonstration will bring a lot of keen stove prospects into the store. This done, efficient personal salesman- ship should do the rest. Victor Lauriston. —_+-+____ Volume Reorders on New Millinery. The Second Empire influence con- tinues to be an outstanding factor in stimulating re-orders on _ millinery. The trade appears headed for one of the ‘best Fall seasons in years. The chief cloud looming on the horizon, however, is the ease with which the new modes may be copied down into cheaper versions, thus casting some doubt as to the length of time which they can profitably be featured in bet- ter grade merchandise, In one quarter, however, the view was expressed that the volume business on modifications as they are brought out will prove very satisfactory. Michigan Hardware Co. 100-108 Ellsworth Ave., Corner Oakes GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 4 Wholesalers of Shelf Hardware, Sporting Goods and FISHING TACKLE Wholesale Only. 342 MARKET ST., S. W. eisai iti iarentintied init Ba ea as NTS Manufacturers and Distributors of SHEET METAL ROOFING AND FURNACE SUPPLIES TONCAN IRON SHEETS, : CONDUCTOR PIPE AND FITTINGS. We Protect our Dealers. THE BEHLER-YOUNG CO. (SAME DAY SHIPPERS) EAVETROUGH, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. August 12, 1931 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 23 FRENCH MERCHANTS. How They Look To a Grand Rapids Man. Trilport, France, July 31—Let me thank you for your very nice letter and for the Grand Rapids news it contain- ed and also for the copies of the Tradesman which gave me news of the movements of a number of my old friends—a real pleasure, I assure you. I enclose a little article about French business which I] hope may be of in- terest. [I put quite a bit of thought into it and, living as I have a number of years here in France, I have come to know the people and many business people very well and these are my ob- served facts. If the little paper is use- ful to you and what you want I am content, As to myself am well and quite fit. For the past three years I have been living in this village just an hour out from Paris, so I have the city of cities at my elbow when [ want it, but for the most part live a very simple life with my books and my dog and long walks in the forest. ‘And as I stand now I have no fault to find with the world or anybody in it. You ask me to give my opinion as to the difference between mercantile methods, customs and conditions in France and America. Your letter came sometime ago and since then I have been thinking what I could say that would be interesting and informa- tive. These later years I have observy- ed only the business game, ‘The copies of the Tradesman you kindly sent me give me a touch as to about how things are with you at home and they left on me an impression of the stress and nervous strain the American merchant is under. The American merchant works very hard and, comparing him to his brother in France, | am wonder- ing if he, aside from the money he makes, gets as much value out of life and living as does the latter. The business backgrounds of the two countries are, of course, different. America is a comparatively young country, with traditions in the making. France has a history going back 3,000 years and in all that time customs have come into being which are deeply root- ed. A custom, you know, is a way of doing something that time and prac- tice has proved efficient. In France it is the custom to ‘be conservative, to think slowly and carefully over any important matter. It is the custom to live more leisurely than we do. The Frenchman makes haste slowly, but when a thing is ‘finished it is well done. The American puts his whole strength and enérgy into making a fortune if he can and if he gets it the fortune is apt to own him and not he the fortune. The Frenchman, too, wants to get rich and works hard at it; he wants money for what it will bring and when he thinks he has enough he stops and takes life easier. Nervous breakdowns are very unusual among French busi- ness men, As in our country, there are all sorts of business concerns from the large department store to the small shop, and, of course, some prosper more than others. The field of competition is in many ways quite similar to our own. We have here the chain store, the co-operative store and the large department stores making deliveries within a ‘fifty mile radius of the large cities and who send out catalogues regularly and do a mail order business and, in addition, the bi-weekly markets which are held in the medium sized towns throughout France. So you can see that the small merchant has a good deal to contend with. With all that there is one striking outstanding feature in the French mer- cantile life. In all branches of trade, business failures are rare and very sel- dom happen. Here the old customary ways of starting a ‘business, continuing it and in the end disposing of it have a good deal ito do with this observable feature of French mercantile life. When a Frenchman buys a business of any sort, he not only takes over the stock and fixtures, but he has to, in addition, lay down a good round sum for the good will. The better the business prospect the higher the cost of the good will. This paying for good will is a well-established custom. In the end if he retires or disposes of the business he wants to get that money back. This makes him careful in doing all he can to satisfy his cus- tomers in every reasonable manner so as to retain their interest and friend- ship. When you enter a French store you will usually notice that the wife is be- hind the cash desk and you will ob- serve that she is keeping a keen but unobtrusive eye on all that is going on. This is as it should be, for a good part of the capital invested is her money. In the average French shop you will not see elaborate store fixtures or fancy decorations. The French merchant is conservative and while everything is plain and substantial he does not see the use of tying up capital in things which he believes are too ornate to be useful. And it is my opinion that the I'rench merchant does as much busi- ness as ‘tthe American at a great deal less overhead expense, When a young Frenchman and his wife begin their business career they have always and constantly two ideas in back of their heads. The first is to marry their children well and the sec- ond is to retire in comfort at a certain age. These ideals are fixed and definite. The American idea is to make as big a success as he can, but as to what that is like, aside from a lot of money, is vague. To marry your girl or boy well, especially your girl, it is necessary and according to the age old custom, that a sum of money or its equivalent, varying, of course, accord- ing to your standing and circumstanc- es, be made over to your child when he or she marries. This is especially so in regard to a girl. A young man, if he possesses real ability and good character, is a bit more fortunate, for he can marry into a business and carry it on. So ‘when two young married people begin they are able to carry on the ‘business of either one family or the other or a business is bought for them. At the start they begin to save and put what they can aside for the two above mentioned objects. They work hard and the hours are long and most stores are open until noon on Sunday. But at that they live simply but well and ordinarily take two hours off to eat and digest the wholesome noon day meal, ‘While they work ‘hard they work leisurely. France is the art cen- ter of the world and it is inate in them to enjoy and appreciate what is good in art and music. They do that so far as they can as they live along. The ambition of almost all French- men, especially those in trade, is when they go out of ‘business is to live in a good house and to have a very fine garden. ‘This, I will add, is a cus- tomary ambition. And it is a mighty good one. If it were possible for you to meet up with a group of these hale and hearty old ‘business veterans brag- ging to each other about their potatoes, beans, flowers and fat chickens, I think you would quite agree with me that the world did not owe them very much, although none of them are what you would call overly rich, but if peace, contentment and health mean anything, they are very well off. For what is success anyhow? ‘Harry C. Rindge. ——_> +. Velvet Advance Pleases Trade. Current advances in the prices of velvets are held as affording some in- dication of a stiffening price structure in the broad silk trade. Some price advances had been previously made on a few other constructions, but the gen- eral situation continues unsatisfactory to the rank and file of manufacturers. On a number of cloths the market level continues to be set by extremely keen competition, which permits little or no profit margin. Orders for Fall from the dress trade are developing slowly, principally because of the cur- rent style uncertainty with respect to the couturier openings in Paris, I. Van Westenbrugge Grand Rapids - Muskegon Exclusive Service Distributor Central Western Michigan KRAFT( ) CHEESE NOW : the “Kitchen largest Fresh” National brand “We Serve as WE SELL” Sand Lime Brick Nothing as Durable Nothing as Fireproof Makes Structure Beautiful No Painting No Cost for Repairs Fire Proof Weather Proof Warm in Winter—Cool In Summer Brick is Everlasting GRANDE BRICK CO. Grand Rapids. SAGINAW BRICK CoO. Saginaw. Jennings’ Pure Extracts Vanilla, Lemon, Almond, Orange, Raspberry, Wintergreen. Jennings Flavoring Extract Co. Grand Rapids, Mich. EXPORT MALT iS THE BEST BECAUSE IT’S “HOP SATURATED” EXPORT PRODUCTS CO. 819 No. Ottawa Ave. GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Phone 61366 JOHN L. LYNCH SALES CO. SPECIAL SALE EXPERTS Expert Advertising Expert Merchandising 209-210-211 Murray Bldg. Grand Rapids, Michigan Kent Products Co. Service Distributor Eskimo Creamed Cottage Cheese. Borden Cheese. Meadow Gold Butter “June Flavor.” Grand Rapids and Western Michigan Phone 64-929 SARLES Detective Agency Licensed and Bonded Michigan Trust Bldg. Grand Rapids, Mich. FISH OCEAN, LAKE, SALT & SMOKED Wholesale and Retail GEORGE B. READER 1046-8 Ottawa Ave. GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 2 24 HOTEL DEPARTMENT Late News of Interest To Hotel Men. Los Angeles, ‘August 8—The report- ed resignation of William J. Chitten- den, Jr., as managing director of Hotel Detroit-Leland, places me in a rem- iniscent mood, There were two Chit- tendens, father and son, who were out- standing characters in Michigan hotel affairs. I enjoyed the acquaintance of both, During the latter day period of the familiar Russell House, Detroit, William J., Sr., was administrator of its affairs, and with the possible ex- ception of the Pantlinds and J. R. Hayes, probably enjoyed the acquaint- ance of more hotel patrons than any other lafidlord in Michigan. And he was, as the traveling men used to say, “a hotel man right.” It was my good fortune to be a regular patrons of that institution during its palmiest days. I remember the ‘first time J ever came in contact with the ‘Senior. It was on my initial trip to Detroit and I had been satisfactorily entertained, like a prince, as it were, on the basis of $2 per day. A genial, middle aged gentle- man approached me_ with a kindly salutation, asked me if it was my first visit to the hotel, imparting the in- formation that he was Chittenden, the manager, and proceeded to make me acquainted with a lot of fellow “in- mates,” a distinct favor to me and which I think I gave evidence of proper appreciation by many years of constant patronage. [| used to wonder how any human being could train him- self to the state of excellence which enabled him to recognize his patrons on their return visits to his caravan- sary. He informed me, on various oc- casions, that every human being was architectarily different from every other human being and that these dis- tinguishing features, which he always noted on first contact were his land- marks of recognition on subsequent visits. He was, to my way of thinking, a “grand old man,” beloved by every- one who was fortunate enough to en- joy his friendship. ‘William J., Jr., came more intimately into my life after the institution of the Pontchartrain, at which time he was one of its managers, He inherited so many of the paternal traits that we “boys,” as we were called in those days, adopted him without delay, and he and the writer have been the very best of friends ever since. And now they tell me that he has quit hotel life and gone down to Massachusetts to spend the summer at Siasconset. I believe he is enjoying himself down on the seashore, as he has done for many years, but he will be back in the har- ness, right in the prime of life, and fortunate will be the organization which lines up with him. Mr. ‘Chitten- den began his hotel career in 1896, un- der his father, at the old Russell House, starting in at the “back of the house,” in hotel parlance, and later on working through to the front desk. He was manager of and part owner of the Pontchartrain at its opening, remain- ing at the head of the hotel, which was Detroit's ‘finest hostelrie until it was demolished in 1917. In 1923, he was associated with the Morton Hotel, Grand Rapids, collaborating with W. C. Keeley, in its management, until the retirement of the latter. In 1925, when the Book-Cadillac, Detroit, was opened, he ‘became resident manager, remaining until 1927, when he was made managing director of the Detroit- Leland. His announced resignation from that institution, did not surprise me, for the handicap of bringing the Detroit-Leland out of the red, was greater than the average patron could ever understand. But it certainly ac- quired great popularity during his regime, and will be regarded, in the days to come, as evidence of his won- derful ability in a managerial capacity. Down in his Siasconet home, I send greetings to a friend and his most esti- mable wife, and dare to make the pre- diction that they will be back. with MICHIGAN TRADESMAN their Wolverine constituency in short order, “Hildy” Heldenbrand, in the Hotel World, says this: “I sometimes won- der: Why employes foolishly try to ingratiate themselves with new em- ployers by panning the old; why those who sell the stamps don’t trim the white paper margin from the sheets when they come from the post-office and save them to whom the outside ones are sold the annoyance of remov- ing the trimming from single stamps; why more persons don’t realize the value of looking at people when they talk to them; how women can wear shoes without stockings as if they were comfortable: whether certain elevator operators ever make an “even” stop; why clerks in smaller houses, where there is a lobby radio controlled back of the desk, don’t shut it off by grad- ually reducing the volume to a fadeout instead of cutting it off by the switch with the disquieting abruptness of a blowout.” The various trans-continental rail- way lines operating between Chicago and California are, at this season of the year, dispensing much grey matter in figuring out just how they can lop off an hour or so in the running time between the two terminals, Great boys for figuring, those magnates. When California offers its greatest attrac- tions during the so-called winter period they forget to say anything about ex- cursions or reduced rates from the East, but with the return of Old Sol to full energy you hear all about them. Also the ‘Californian is offered attrac- tive rates to ‘Michigan and the East in the winter time. But that four-wheeled vehicle, with which we are all familiar, seems to haul the multitudes as against the empty Pullmans, in season or out of season. How a chef in a restaurant or hotel “keeps house” in an efficient manner, interests a great many people, whether their duties are confined to the domes- tic kitchen, or in public service for which they have not been previously trained. One of the leading depart- ment stores here shows a sense of realization of this condition, by con- ducting a sort of information bureau which gives frequent matinee exhibi- tions to which those interested have entree. The idea of supplying cards on which recipes are printed, represent- ing the dishes served on the particular occasion, uniform in size so they may be filed in card indexes, without cost, is a winner. I drop in frequently and find much interest manifested. I be- lieve this plan could be adopted to great advantage in Detroit, Grand Rapids and some even of the smaller Michigan cities. It is sure good adver- tising and extremely practical. An interesting letter from my old friend, Frank Orcutt, who operates Hotel Northway, Beulah, in which he speaks of other old friends, Mr. and Mrs. John ‘Sager, who formerly con- ducted a resort hotel at Buckeye Lake. Business reported just “fair.”” When there is any business floating around you may be pretty tolerably sure Frank is getting his share of it. William Kerns, who recently pur- chased the lease and furnishings of Hotel Kerns, Lansing, from E. S. Richardson, announces that he will discontinue operating the Hotel Went- worth section of same. This is the older part of the building which has been carded for replacement for a long time. In re-decorating Hotel Kerns, Mr. Kerns said he found the front, or Wentworth section too old to warrant the repairs necessary to improve it in keeping with the more modern Kerns. ‘Mr. and Mrs. T. C. Jacobs, who re- cently retired from vaudeville and broadcasting work, have leased what August 12, 1931 MORTON HOTEL Grand Rapids’ Newest Hotel 400 Rooms -t- 400 Baths RATES $2.50 and up per day. - New Hotel Elliott STURGIS, MICH. 50 Baths 50 Running Water European D. J. GEROW, Prop. “A MAN IS KNOWN BY THE COMPANY HE KEEPS” That is why LEADERS of Business and Society make their head- quarters at the PANTLIND HOTEL “An entire city block of Hospitality’ GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. Rooms $2.25 and up. Cafeteria ote Sandwich Shop NEW BURDICK KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN In the Very Heart of the City Fireproof Construction The only All New Hotel in the city. Representing a $1,000,000 Investment. 250 Rooms—150 Rooms with Private Bath. European $1.50 and up per Day. RESTAURANT AND GRILL— Cafeteria, Quick Service, Popular Prices. Entire Seventh Floor Devoted to Especially Equipped Sample Rooms WALTER J. HODGES, Pres. and Gen. Mgr. HOTEL DETROITER ROOMS 75O BATHS FREE GARAGE UNDER KNOTT MANAGEMENT SINGLE ROOMS WAR yey aa sa ano NO HIGHER e Occidental Hotel FIRE PROOF CENTRALLY LOCATED Rates $2.00 and up EDWART R. SWETT, Mgr. Muskegon ete Michigan Columbia Hotel KALAMAZOO Good Place To Tie To In Kalamazoo It’s the PARK-AMERICAN Charles Renner, Manager W. D. Sanders, Asst Mer. NEW Decorating and Management Facing FAMOUS Grand Circus Park. Oyster Bar. 800 Rooms - - - 800 Baths Rates from $2 HOTEL TULLER HAROLD A. SAGE, Mgr. HOTEL CHIPPEWA MANISTEE, MICH. Universally conceded to be one of the best hotels in Michigan. Good rooms, comfortable beds, ex- cellent food, fine cooking, perfect service. Hot and Cold Running Water and Telephone in every Room. $1.50 and up 60 Rooms with Bath $2.50 and $3 HENRY M. NELSON, Manager “We are always mindful of our responsibility to the pub- lic and are in full apprecia- tion of the esteem its generous patronage implies.”’ HOTEL ROWE Grand Rapids, Michigan. HRNEST W. NBIR, Manager. Park Place Hotel Traverse City Rates Reasonable—Service Superb —tLocation Admirable. GEO. ANDERSON, Mgr. ALBERT J. ROKOS, Ase't Mgr. RESORTE COMMERCIAL HOTEL MRS. S. SAMPSON, Cateress, from Chicago. core meals in Michigan, no fooling, e mean it. Hundred Good Beds. clea PENTWATER, MICHIGAN FOUR FLAGS HOTEL In the Picturesque. St. Joseph Valley. Seventy-eight rooms. con. ducted on the high standard es- tablished and always maintained by Charles Renner, landlord. . as August 12, 1931 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 25 is known as Airport Inn, near Lansing, and are giving it a complete remodel- ing, adopting the Spanish type of architecture so prevalent in California and the ‘West. Additional cottages of this type will also be installed. Though but recently re-opened the Inn is re- ported as doing an excellent business. Disquieting rumors have been afloat to the effect that J. K. Blatchford, who invented the Hotel Men’s Mutual Benefit Association, generations ago, and who is known to every hotel man in the world, appeared on the streets of Chicago in white flannels plus shoes of the same color. [ don’t believe the allegation. ‘“Blatch’s’ cardinal color is red, and the observer who made the statement was undoubtedly “color blind.” Work is progressing satisfactorily on the new Ishpeming hotel. The steel work is up, and the bricklayers are doing their stunt. It is expected the building will be enclosed in four weeks and practically completed by November first. Now somebody wants members of Congress to sign the pledge. What an insult. When they accepted their of- fices they swore to support the consti- tution of the United ‘States and who- ever heard of a congressman who was not a stickler for the constitution and the old slogan: “My country, my flag and—an appropriation.” Of course occasionally one of these birds is “framed’—but only occasionally. I notice by the press reports that Dr, Frank Holmes has closed the dining room at his Gull Lake resort, but will continue hotel operation for some weeks. It will certainly be a disap- pointment to a host of his friends to be compelled to dine elsewhere, for his meals were most satisfactory and his service and surroundings were also. I presume that due to the stringency of the times that the feeding game has not been profitable anywhere this year. George Anderson, the popular land- lord of Park Place Hotel, ‘Traverse City, has scored yet another point in his unique way. of conducting a hotel. That his guests may have another rea- son for talking about his hotel an at- tractive box of fresh, fancy sweet cher- ries is placed in every room. every morning during the bearing season, scarcely an hour off the tree. It is not only good advertising for the hotel, but Manager Anderson deduces that it will help the cherry market and encourage his patrons to send the fruit to their friends back home. Little attentions of this kind are always appreciated by guests. Away back when a hotel op- erator was also a landlord in fact, these little favors were not unusual. Most of us remember at the old American House, Kalamazoo, conducted by Fred Hotop and his lovable wife, that every morning that dear woman _ passed around a pan of doughnuts, fresh from the fire, and Fred followed this cus- tom in the evening with juicy, red apples and a jug of cider. These dear old people have gone to their reward, but their memory lingers like a pleas- ant dream, They tell me George Crocker, who recently resigned as managing director of Hotel Olds, Lansing, has again taken the management of /Hotel Berk- shire, Reading, Pennsylvania, where he made an outstanding success before coming to ‘Michigan. This may make it necessary for me to make a special trip to the Keystone State, if I ever get back East, for George Crocker is a one best ‘bet I never propose losing sight of. Anyhow, I would feel the urge to go to New York to see my old friend Frank Duggan, now president and general manager of Hotel Mc- Alpin, New York, so I will just make a job of it and “kill two birds with one stone,” Signor Martinetti, famed Paris chef, has devised “coffee sausages’ which are being much talked about among French epicures. The Professor says that the food of the future generations will be packed away in tablets, thus confirming the statement which [| in- corporated in an article contributed to the \Saturday Evening Post several years ago, Speaking elsewhere of the erection of the new Nelson ‘House, Ishpeming, throws me into a reminiscent mood concerning the older hotel which gave way to this newest creation. To be exact, I think the original ‘Nelson House was erected in 1879, to take the place of the old ‘Barnum ‘House, which was destroyed by ‘fire a year or so previously. Originally the hotel con- tained forty4five rooms, with several suites. Over half the number had baths and when it was ‘first opened every room was lighted ‘by gas, which was an innovation in those days. Every bath tub was hewn from solid marble, which was the prevailing mode at that time. J] remember visiting it a few years later and it impressed me at the time as being the finest structure of its kind extant—that is, so far as my ob- servation had extended. It was con- ducted for some time by its builder, Robert Nelson, who was reputed to be the founder of Ishpeming, and it was purchased some years later by John P. Outhwaite, one of the city’s pioneers. In 1960 George Boyer, now an oper- ator in ‘Montana—or was, at least, the last I heard of him—took over the management of the Nelson, after hav- ing served some time as clerk. Fol lowing Mr. Boyer’s tenure of owner- ship, ‘Colonel Todd, an _ experienced Chicago hotel man, conducted it, being succeeded by ‘Harry Dunn and the late Peter Barnaby. Dunn & Barnaby later on dissolved partnership, Barna- by taking the management of the Anderson, directly across the street from the Nelson, which he conducted until his death. Mr. and ‘Mrs. H. ‘W. Stegman purchased the property sev- eral years ago, successfully operating same until its destruction by fire in 1928. My first intimate acquaintance with the hotel was in 1884, when, as a traveling salesman, I was covering the territory for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, type founders of ‘Chicago. At that time it was the show place of the Upper Peninsula, operated on the American plan at the conventional charge of, presumably, $2 per day, with a lesser charge for rooms without bath. The apartments were sumptuous in the extreme, and the meals were most wonderful. J remember that it was in the dead of winter, and that it was, with the single exception of Ho- tel Marquette, Marquette, the only hos- telry in that part of the State provided with steam heat, and not lighted by kerosene lamps. It was also reputed to be fire proof and presumably did come up to the !fire proof standards of that day and age. And now comes staid old Philadel- phia with a record of indulgencies in racketeering, which, for so many years, was enjoyed exclusively by Chicago. Bootlegging, too, on a high pressure basis. Is my memory defective or is this the town which General Smedley Butler, of prohibition enforcement fame, made bone and perpetually dry a few short years ago—the Quaker City we so often hear about. Now the mayor reports that there are at least 35,000 speakeasies or blindpigs, and within a few months there have been committed a dozen atrocious murders by racketeers. The mayor of Los Angeles com- plained to the ‘board of police com- missioners of the unsatisfactory crime conditions in the city. The commis- sion in turn called in the chief of po- lice and asked him “How come?” He has finally succeeded in convincing them that if he could relax his efforts somewhat in chasing up home brewers and flask toters he could reduce real crimes fully 50 per cent., whereupon they told him to go to it. They have provided him with radio equipped patrol cars, which are certainly prov- ing most effective and while general crime is decreasing dozens of malt dealers have opened up emporiums for the sale of the “makings,” based on the faith that the domestic variety of booze, if not trafficked in, will be per- mitted and that one need not worry about the police force mussing over the contents of their refrigerators. In other words search and seizure will be confined to hold up men, The Childs restaurants throughout the country, which have featured vege- {arian menus almost to the exclusion of meats, have found it essential in order to preserve their prestige, to place meats once more on their bills of fare. There is more or less bunk dissem- inated concerning the use and non-use of meats, but I have always been in- clined to the notion that Nature is the most capable arbiter in the contro- versy. People who indulge in much physical exertion surely require a rea- sonable amount of flesh food. Frank S. Verbeck. ———_2+ + ____ Ann Arbor To Establish City Store For Unemployed. A city-owned store for distribution of goods to Ann Arbor needy will be opened within ten days. A report on plans for opening the store was sub- mitted to the council last Friday eve- ning while in session as a committee of the whole for discussion of the un- employment question, The store is to be located in the Sec- ond ward polling booth on South Ash- ley street and will be stocked by the city with goods to be purchased direct from local wholesale houses. Needy residents who are being given employ- ment by the city will obtain their food at the municipal store on presentation of “script money” issued by the city. A committee of five was appointed by A. L. McDonald, president of the council, to investigate the possible es- tablishing of a “clearing house” for all citizens of Ann Arbor who make ap- plication for aid at any of the welfare organizations. At the clearing house will be the records of citizens request- ing help and the amount of goods or money given them. (Members of the group appointed by President Mc- Donald are Walter C. Feldkamp, Red- mond iM. Burr, Edward E. Lucas, Dr. Leonard P, Fisher and City Engineer George H. Sandenburgh. A resolution also was received from Ald, Burr and referred to the city at- torney relative to the non-taxing of new homes constructed in the city, other than the assessments on the land. The resolution which was presented by Ald. Burr to stimulate a city-wide building program follows: Whereas—A world-wide depression prevails with many of our citizens without employment or other means of obtaining the necessities of life, and Whereas—lIt is a duty of the council to put forth every effort to prevent suffering of our citizens from hunger and exposure to the elements, and Whereas—Onur citizens are not seek- ing charity but a means of earning an honorable livelihood, therefore be it Resolved—That this meeting of the recommend to the common council that a plan to stimulate build- ing of homes be offered whereby the whole assessment against said improvement not be levied during the years 1932 and 1933, the city taxes to remain during these two years as per the present as- sessment of the vacant property. No discussion was held on the reso- lution by aldermen who failed to ap- prove it and referred it to City Attor- ney William M. Laird. A report of the city owned store now operated by Grand Rapids was given by ‘City Engineer Sandenburgh who visited that city with a group of alder- men from Ann Arbor, Mr. Sanden- burgh explained the various steps taken by the city when a citizen ap- plies for aid. Relative to the present plans of aldermen to care for the needy, it was explained that cards would be issued to those who are making application for work and aid and each citizen would be allowed to work according to the time required to earn sufficient funds to care for his needs. The city engineer told the group that members of the board of public works had ex- pressed themselves as being anxious to co-operate with the council in every way possible to employ Ann Arbor’s needy citizens, his department The engineer said that could employ thirty men during the next week in construc- tion of a storm sewer recently author- ized by aldermen. The engineer said that the department could use ten men to cut weeds in various sections of the city. An appeal for the Negro population of the city was made to the group by Mrs. Virdie Slater, member of the Dunbar association. Mrs, Slater re- quested aldermen to employ those col- ored citizens who are in need of aid. Hotel and Restaurant Equipment H. Leonard & Sons 38-44 Fulton St., W. GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. CODY HOTEL GRAND RAPIDS RATES—$1.50 up without bath. $2.50 up with bath. CAFETERIA IN CONNECTION Warm Friend Tavern Holland, Mich. Is truly a friend to all travelers. All room and meal rates very reasonable. Free private parking space. GEO. W. DAUCHY, Mgr. Soe sagen DRUGS Michigan Board of Pharmacy. President—Orville Hoxie, Grand Rapids. Vice-Pres.—Clare F. Allen, Wyandotte. Director—Garfield M. Benedict, San- dusky. Examination Sessions — Beginning the third Tuesday of January, March, June, August and November and lasting three days. The January and June examina- tions are held at Detroit, the August ex- amination at Ironwood, and the March and November examinations at Grand Rapids. Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association. President—J. C. Dykema, Grand Rapids. First Vice-President--F. H. Taft, Lan- sing. Second Vice-President—Duncan "Wea- ver, Fennville. Secretary—R. A. Turrell, Treasurer—Clarence Jennings, rence. Croswell. Law- How To Dodge the Cut Price Evil. Ever since the middle of 1929 we have been in an era of steadily falling prices. It is an old economic law that prices invariably go downward when the supply of any commodity exceeds the demand, and it is true of practical- ly every known manufactured product that ever since the middle of 1929 the supply has been greatly in excess of the demand—if not the finished supply, then certainly the production capacity has been greatly in excess of demand. As in all depression periods price has again become the watch-word of the buyer.. The Mrs. Smiths and the Mrs. Clanceys, from one end of the country to the other have put off buying as long as they dared, feeling reasonably certain that the longer they waited the less they would have to pay. iMany women have developed the habit of shopping from one chain store to another, buying as many so-called “loss leaders” as they could find and then finishing out their shopping in whichever offered the best bargain. If Chain Store A was running Camp- bell’s Soup as a loss leader, they bought their soup in Chain ‘Store A. If Store B offered a well-known brand of coffee as its loss leader, she bought her coffee in Store B, and so on down the line, filling in the gaps wherever she could get the best bargain. Throughout it all chains have been competing against chains, and_ this struggle of the giants has kept the in- dependent retailer between the devil and the deep blue sea, often forcing him into the position of accepting greatly reduced volume or a volume of sales absolutely devoid of profit. Nor has this kind of competition and price cutting been rampant in the grocery field alone. Far from it. The chain drug stores, chain hardware stores, chain candy and confectionery stores, department stores, in fact re- tail stores of every type have joined hands in one great mad rush to get rid of stocks at the best possible prices, and having gotten rid of the stocks on hand to purchase more at the lowest possible prices in order to get the jump on competition, It is only natural that such tactics should have resulted in a_ gradual shrinking of profit in many retail stores, to such an extent in fact that many investigations have (been con- ducted for the sole purpose of deter- mining where the profit, if any, comes from. That is, what departments of the business may be profitable, and what departments unprofitable. Such investigations have been con- MICHIGAN TRADESMAN ducted among practically all types of retail establishments, and the informa- tion that has come to hand has been most enlightening and most helpful so far as guiding future activities of the investigators is concerned. Because the chains have been the most flagrant price cutters, the investi- gators have devoted special attention to them, no doubt for the purpose of determining the extent to which per- nicious price-cutting in some depart- ments of their business affects the profits of those departments in com- parison with other departments where price-cutting to the same extent has not as yet been practiced. Included in the investigation are more than five hundred chain stores in which soda fountains are operated, and it has been found that in these more than ‘five hundred chain stores over 80 per cent. of their profit is made in their soda fountain departments, leaving less than 20 per cent. of the profit to come from the many other departments of their business. Think of it—the soda foun- tain which only a few years ago was a much abused “accommodation” de- partment in the average store is to-day, if you please, “the tail that wags the dog,” and were it not for the soda fountain departments in these more than five hundred up-to-date chain stores, there would be no profits at all —certainly no profits to brag about. Practically all modern retailers agree on the premise that profit is margin times turnover, If this be true, and it has yet to be challenged, then it is easy to understand why the soda foun- tain is the most profitable department even in the well-managed chain stores when we know that in the fountain de- partment turnover counts up to the huge total of 250 times a year. Many books on retail economics have pointed to the push-cart peddler as the finest example of rapid turnover. It would certainly seem from the above figures that he has been eclipsed in im- portance by the soda fountain, for there is certainly no other branch of retail selling that can boast as many as 250 turnovers in the course of a single year. Another important point brought out in recent investigations is the fact that fountains in chain stores yield higher average proceeds than fountains in independent stores. At first glance this may not appear significant, but when analyzed it seems to suggest that perhaps the reason the chain store fountains fare better than the inde- pendent fountains is the fact that as a rule they are more modern, better equipped, offer a greater variety of fountain specialties and are in every way more attractive. If this ‘be true, does it not behoove every soda foun- tain proprietor to see to it that his equipment is the very best he can pos- sibly afford; that he makes his soda fountain department as attractive as possible, and lets the public know about it. It is certainly obvious from the fore- going that the soda fountain depart- ment is one department of retail busi- ness which the price-cutting evil has not yet touched. ‘This may be due largely to the fact that whereas prod- ucts sold in other departments of the business are ready-made, manufactur- ed products, those sold across the soda fountain are custom-made to suit the taste of the individual buyers. Mrs. A comes regularly to your soda fountain for a chocolate soda because she knows that the chocolate sodas sold at your fountain contain syrup, carbonated water and ice cream to suit her taste, and while those same ingredients in greater or lesser degree might be call- ed “chocolate soda” in every fountain in the land, she can be sure of getting just what she wants only by coming to you. In other words, quality still holds sway at the soda fountain, and your customers will demand quality regard- less of price so long as your price is not exorbitant. The only noticeable evidence that a form of price-cutting may be gradual- ly creeping into the soda fountain busi- ness is to be found in some of our larger cities where soda fountains in their zeal to compete against other soda fountains announce bigger drinks for the same money—the glasses in which they are served are heavier, they seem to hold more, but examination reveals that in most instances the con- tents have simply been puffed up full of air by more excessive or more rap- id beating. This is done principally in the case of malted milk and other heavy drinks. Fortunately, this form of dishonest price-cutting has not as yet gained much headway, probably due to the fact that you cannot fool the public with froth, They demand quality and will take their trade where they can be assured of the quality they want. I have said enough to make it per- fectly clear to my progressive, forward thinking fountain proprietor that his soda fountain is his greatest source of profit and that it should not be treated as a stepchild. As a matter of fact, more and more attention should be paid to the soda fountain and to the broader development of soda fountain business for the reason that it is still somewhat in its infancy, has a long way to go, and if it is as profitable to- lay as the figures seem to prove it is bound to be vastly more profitable to- morrow. Aside from the fact that the foun- tain itself stands on its own two legs as a profit-earner, it is also tremend- ously profitable in that it helps all other departments of the business. An executive of one of the large manufac- turers of soda fountain equipment: re- cently stated that one large chain of candy stores originally opened up without soda fountain showed an in- crease of 2114 per cent. in its candy sales, irrespective of the soda fountain volume, after fountain service was in- augurated. He also pointed out that a certain nationally known chain of cigar stores showed general sales in- creases of 33 per cent. after installing soda fountains. Other equally inter- August 12, 1931 esting illustrations were cited proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that not only is the soda fountain department highly profitable and able to stand on its own feet, but that in addition it is a tremendous stimulator of profitable business for other departments in the same establishment. The next few months will witness a tremendous lot of tourist trade in many sections of the Western country to which tourists are particularly attract- ed during the summer time, ‘Tourists are spenders. They are, as the saying goes, “on the loose,” and their loose dollars should be captured while the opportunity is presented. Every soda fountain proprietor should make a special bid for tourist business coming to his Of course, tourist business because of its transient na- ture cannot be appealed to through the usual channels of local advertising. The best types of advertising to catch tour- ist trade are: 1. Highway breezy catch phrases. 2. Curb displays in front of your establishment. 3. Awning displays. In addition, during the tourist sea- son your windows should be kept at- tractively dressed, featuring the most and refreshing summer vicinity. signs bearing short, appealing beverages, Two years ago the average American business man was obsessed with a pas- sion for bigger volume, To-day that has largely given away to a passion for profit, and it is being found out that as a rule when price-cutting flies in the door profits fly out the window. That is why I say to you, take advan- tage of the fact that your soda foun- tain has not yet been stricken with that dread disease, price-cutitis. Push it for all it’s worth while it still repre- sents a substantial profit to you. H. K. Dugdale. ——_+~-~+___ Keep Silverware Plated. One of the most important things to be kept in mind by the man who uses silver service at the soda fountain is to keep that silverware plated and in top- notch condition at all times. The pres- ence of bright silverware will give the fountain the appearance of newness, even after many years of hard service. Silverware is rich and beautiful when in good condition. Such items are not hard to care for when they receive daily attention. A good mineral paste makes its care relatively simple. Wash the articles first and then make a soft lather and apply to silver, rubbing hard to remove the tarnish. Clean the paste from the silver and rub briskly with a soft towel to give the articles brilliancy. —__++.____. Indian Territory Souffle. Put a portion (1% quart) of ice cream into a mixing glass and add a spoonful of chopped nuts and a washed fig cut HOEKSTRA’S | 217 Eugene St. ICE CREAM Cream of Uniform Quality An Independent Company Phone 30137 Grand Rapids, Mich. x August 12, 1931 2 MICHIGAN TRADESMAN 27 into small pieces. Fill a parfait glass Decorate with 2 maraschino cherries WHOLESALE DRUG PRICE CURRENT one-half full of this mixture, pour over on toothpicks. = wings : a hs oe ni se Royal Freeze. Prices quoted are nominal, based on market the day of issue. xlass wi alance of the mixture. : a ken tes eey Pour a four ounce bottle of grape Acids Cotton Seed ---. 1 25@1 50 Benzoin Comp’d- @2 40 Top with whipped cream né sn Oe... § 00@5 7% Huchu @2 16 i juice into a ten ounce goblet. Add a _ Borie (Powd.)-- Bigeron __...__. 4 00@4 25 Cantharides _... @2 52 i ee ss > Borte (Xtal) -- 10 @ 20 aicalyptus —---- 1 00@1 25 Capsicum _.____- @2 28 Pic ccaeie Giduich spoonful of lemon juice and water to Garholic _.-.---- 38 @ S Hak ase: Glee @1 44 ne ‘ ill glass -quarters full. Then add Citric ---------- ay Juniper Berries. 4 00@4 25 Cinchona _______ @2 16 : hll glass three-quarte : 3%@ 8 p Take two squares of pound cake and tial Se ea Mepiatic —— 9°@ 15 Juniper Wood ~ 1 50@1 75 Coschiouss ce e: = . : . . : erd sne ey Re ree a NOG ee spread with whipped cream dressing. % @!SM€r OF graf sees el eareeeeagae 1b @ 25 Lard, extra ---- 1 aes 65 Cubehe 3 16 For filling use grated pineapple, either A Business Man’s Philosophy. Ec sirgd ------ aa 55 laveaee wg ‘ be » wenn e = oe Maptarie oo. vender Gar’n_ sualac -.-.---_.. fresh or canned. “For 35 years my father was a gro- i Te. ae o 28 This confection is ri . ; 4 s 2 Linseed, boiled, bbl. @ 73 Todine __ .4_____ 1 25 I his confection is to be eaten with cer, and [ grew up in the atmosphere —— a ee ban se SS hue Sane 7 = a fork. We have here a delicious fruit 4f 4 store,” says a business man. Water, " ~ 06 @ 15 Linseed, bid., less $9@ 88 Iron, Clo. -___ @1 56 : ? q ’ 2 2 ater, -- inse raw a 77@ Be RN cies cared sandwich to serve at a grill party, with «These were the days when haggling Water, 14 des. 5%@ ab Mustard, arf on @ se Myrrh ~~ 2 82 afternoon tea, or as an individual order. preceded every sale. We had all our ee nas 2 S 18 Neatsfoot siesiaes 1 25@1 36 aoe veniien mn 1 80 : : : > re : : : " . eee ce Vn .......... lor a sandwich to be held in the prices marked in cipher, because if you Gave amen Optum, Camp. @1 44 lingers, use the same filling spread on toiq a customer that sugar was 5 cents Balsams yellow _.._____ 3 50@3 00 Opium, Deodorz’d @5 40 £ . E ‘ g 1 00@1 26 Olive, M Rune @1 92 nut bread. per pound he would haggle you down com Raa) 7. 3 75@3 00 aaa — 2 85@3 26 For a molded ice cream sandwich, to 414 or 4. But if we started out by wir ee aE 65@1 « Orange, Sweet 6 00@6 25 Paints ee te ees ie Oe aking 06 oF 6.conts, we would end wy ams ——_——- 7 a a Origanum: com 10091 $9 Las white dry 134 O13% a thin layer of crushed pineapple be- 4, getting the regular price. Fosny rere sats ‘aa Lead, white oil 13%@13\ re ae : eppermint -__- chre, : tween. Press gently and serve. “Then along came John Wana- Eck 25@ 30 Rose. pure __-_ 13 50@14 00 Ochre, ta +. Items From the Cloverland of Michi- gan, Sault Ste. Marie, Aug. 10—That it pays to advertise is demonstrated by the many tourists coming our way this year. The Sault and other cities af- filiated with the Hiawatha-land ‘Pub- licity Bureau have been very active 1n placing literature on the ferries and places where the tourist may find the publicity. Then when they find that the half has never been told, the vis- itors naturally spread the good infor- mation to their friends and we cannot but get more tourist business each year. The police chiefs convention opened here Thursday of last week with about 200 members attending. They receiv- ed a cordial welcome by our Mayor, Ed. iC. Crisp, and from all accounts they had one of the best programs ever presented. The delegates visited Can- ada and had plenty of entertainment. They did a lot of good work and left with a feeling of hospitality which will linger long in their memories. Albert Gregg. proprietor of the Pines resort on US 2, about eighteen miles South of the ‘Sault, has decided to close his place and engage in the berry busi- ness fer the present, then take up some other line later. It is a pretty small world these days, but not nearly as small as some of the people in it, The Chippewa farmers report that much damage to their crops have been done this year by the grasshopper pests. They are using the formula ad- vised by Dr. R. iH. Pettit, entomologist of Michigan ‘State College. A new shoe store will be opened next week at Newberry, by Walter W. Wilson in the ‘Southern part of the Richardson building. Mr. Wilson is at present manager of the local Col- well & Burns store at ‘Newberry and has been a resident of Newberry for the past five years. Before coming to Newberry he was connected with the Colwell & Burns branch at Munising. The new store will be known as the Wilson !Shoe Co. and will handle shoes and hosiery exclusively. The Schuster market, also’ the Cloverland Oil Co., at ‘Manistique, were burglarized last week and a quan- tity of merchandise stolen. Manistique has a new cash and carry grocery which was opened last Thurs- day by Adam ‘Heinz. The new IGA store is located in the Gorsche block, next to the Liberty cafe. The interior of the building has been entirely re- decorated and the equipment is all new. The shelving is of steel. ‘Mr. Heinz is no amateur at the business as he has operated stores at Huntspur and Port Inland. The Postal Telegraph Co. has open- ed an office at ‘Mackinac Island, The ‘Baker shoe shop has installed several new up-to-date repair machines and has now one of the best equipped repair shops in the city. Keep the age furrows away by culti- vating the spirit of contentment. R. B. Davis, of Sarasota, Florida, has leased the Point Nip-I-Gon Inn, on ‘and 1880. August 12, 1931 Mackinaw ‘Straits from Glenn R., Chamberlain, of Grand Rapids, owner of the property, and he and his family have opened it. The Inn has been operated in past years as a clubhouse for the cottage owners in the Point Nip-I-Gon resort, which includes three miles of beach and forest on US23 near Mackinaw, developed by ‘Mr. Cham- berlain. This is the first season it has been opened to the public. W. I. Sallee and associates, of Mil- waukee, who operate a sand and gravel plant in ‘Milwaukee, are contemplating the establishment of a large silica sand development on the lake shore at Munising on lands now owned by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron company. Ex- periments have been conducted with this sand by both !Mr. ‘Sallee and the Cleveland-Cliffs interests and it is said that it is highly desirable for many uses. It is the plan of the promoters to incorporate for $1,500,000, Mr. Sal- lee states that he can raise $1,000,000 without difficulty. The Pioneer charcoal furnace at Marquette is not to re-open at this time, according to an announcement made a few days ago by Dr. Hudson, the manager. It was believed when operations were suspended, some months ago, that the furnace might be put into blast about the first of August. it is now thought that the lay-off will continue until about the first of the year. Many of the men regularly em- ployed at the furnace are working on the construction of the new ore dock being ‘built at Marquette for the South Shore Railroad, and many _ railroad workers are also being given employ- ment there. The South ‘Shore shops, which have been on a part time basis, are idle this month. William G, Tapert. +--+ Former Shelby Merchant Dies in De- troit. Word was received in Shelby Satur- day morning of the death of Isaac Fisher, for many years a Shelby mer- chant, following an operation at a De- troit hospital. The news came as a decided shock to numerous Shelby friends who had but a week previously conversed with his son, Jacob Fisher, who called here on a short visit and who reported his father as being in good health at that time. Mr. Fisher sold his general store to Kenneth Grant in 1929, after being in business in Shelby for many years, and moved to Detroit where he has since made his home. The deceased was a man of high character and in his long residence at Shelby gained a wide acquaintance. Previous to coming to Shelby he had a store at Hesperia. He leaves besides his widow, five sons, Julius, Oshman, Dennis, Archie and Jacob Fisher, all of whom are engaged in business or professional work in either Detroit or Grand Rapids.—Shelby Herald. 2.2 Black and Brown For Handbags. Black and brown with some shades of green will be the predominant colors in handbags for Fall, Morris White, head of the Morris White Handbags Corporation, New York, as- serts. The pouch, or frame bag, leads all other types, he said, with grain leathers important as materials. The grain leathers are desired in designs in keeping with the silhouettes of 1860 Interest in handbags is keener this season than it has been in several years, according to the manu- facturer, who cited the heavy attend- ance of buyers at the recent trade opening as evidence of the trend. ly WRI Risa ae SR Ae THE DAWN. Let’s stifle worry e’er it finds Deep lodgment in our heart; Let’s stamp out fear and “yellow” thoughts Before they get a start. Let’s have a word of kindliness For struggling souls we meet; Let’s keep a radiance in our eye, Dispelling all defeat. For there are always avenues Of victory for those Who keep Truth burning in their heart, N’er daunted by Life’s blows. Let’s have a word of kindliness For struggling souls we meet; Let’s keep a radiance in our eye, Dispelling all defeat. Frank K. Glew. ai sigh i ne - ey a eee = SSS ‘ So Re . ~ as ins % oe ge Spee gateaer catty oe See eee ge, ee ae RR TERE CALL US WE SAVE YOU 25% TO 40% ON YOUR INSURANCE COST CIAO L7O THE MILL MUTUALS AGENCY 208 NORTH CAPITOL AVENUE LANSING, MICHIGAN Phone 2074] ASTERPIECES . F THE BAKERS ART s ij eu Paxil Wey itt p | Nip C7 ws iT ny my iy Wm i Age TIS id a ‘ar TT Ly mT U Halal i ny A wl a YOUR Selling Cost is less when you stock goods of known value. Especially when the price has been established by the manufacturer and you realize your full profit as you do on Baking Powder Same Price for over 40 years 25 ounces for 25c A fair price to the consumer and good profit for you. Why ask your cus- tomers to pay War Prices! It will pay you to feature K C Millions of Pounds Used by Our Government sve O Seg 6 G5.) ose a : ——— : - ” . ——