nomical means of distribution they will go out of business automatically." Chain stores play a more prominent part in retail distribution in England than in the United States, and apparently do so without arousing as intense opposition as they do in the United States. Thomas Russell, writing in Printers Ink, says: "Chains of retail stores-called in Great Britain 'multiple' or 'company' shops-control the bulk of the workingclass business in many trades here. With these 'company shops' to contend against, and a very widespread cooperative-store movement as well, the British retailer has a pretty bad time of it. THE LATE CHRISTMAS SHOPPER "Speaking generally, multiple-shop companies run better and smarter shops than single-shop retailers, taken as a class. There are, of course, exceptions both ways. The greater resources of the companies enable them to use more expensive shop-fittings and keep traveling window-dressers, who often do magnificent work. For the same reason they are able to buy more advantageously and therefore sell cheaper-to the advantage of the working-class public, from which their trade is mainly derived. They generally keep shop on good principles so far as their customers are concerned, and reach a far higher level of efficiency than the ordinary retailer of this country." CHRISTMAS SHOPPING-A NATIONAL PASTIME C ONTINUAL reminders to do our Christmas shopping early come from all sides during October and November. Many of us make resolutions to do so, but the annual rush of buying in the last few days and hours before Christmas shows no sign of abatement. What, then, becomes of all those who resolve to do their Christmas shopping early? Apparently they are largely of two classes-first, those who, out of consideration for the employees of the stores, make the resolution, but, under the press of other things, do not carry it out; second, those who have time and enjoy the process of Christmas shopping and who consequently do it both early and late. The Hardware Age editorially reveals some of the tendencies of these Christmas shoppers and suggests methods of dealing with them which are likely to bring the storekeeper just as much business without the exhaustion of clerks and consequent friction with customers. It says: "Of late years a number of stores have discontinued the practice of keeping open evenings, going so far as to close at the regular hour, not only on Saturday nights, but even during the two weeks immediately preceding Christmas Day. "These concerns have decided that keeping open evenings was not good business. They have found that the crowding and The Cost of a Telephone Call DID 439 ID you ever think how much it costs to give you the telephone right-of-way anywhere, at all times? Your telephone instrument, which consists of 130 different parts, is only the entrance way to your share of the vast equipment necessary in making a call. Your line is connected with the great Bell highways, reaching every state in the unionwith its poles, copper wire, cross arms and insulators in the country; its underground conduits, manholes, cable vaults and cables in the cities. You have the use of switchboards costing upwards of $100,000,000. You enjoy the benefits of countless inventions which make possible universal telephone talk. Your service is safeguarded by large forces of men building, testing and repairing lines. You command at all times the prompt attention of one or more operators. How can such a costly service be provided at rates so low that all can afford it? Only by its use upon a share-and-share-alike basis by millions of subscribers, and by the most careful economy in construction and operation. A plant so vast gives opportunity for ruinous extravagance; and judicious economy is as essential to its success as is the co-operative use of the facilities provided. That the Bell System combines the maximum of usefulness and economy is proved by the fact that in no other land and under no other management has the telephone become such a servant of the masses. confusion was but a pastime for most people. The townspeople were making playthings of their stores. Spectators outnumbered buyers twenty to one. "They also found their employees so worn out by continuous work that they could not properly attend to their duties during the day. As Christmas approached and buyers came to a sudden white heat in their desires to purchase they met a sales force with its selling edge gonefrayed and tattered by the strain." I Does the Open Store a T IS out of the question, the writer goes on to say, to expect hardware stores to close at regular hours every evening before Christmas. When the stores are trimmed with evergreens and tinsel many people like to buy by artificial light. Then, too, working people should be given an opportunity to do their Christmas shopping outside of regular working hours. Last year, influenced by these considerations, hundreds of hardware stores kept open nights from the first to the twenty-fourth of December. Hardware Age has no hesitation in saying that this is not good business. Other hard A ware stores kept open nights for two weeks before Christmas, and a careful analysis of the business they did shows that the first five of these nights failed to bring business. The first Saturday night was the first night when business was good. Every night of the last week recorded splendid sales. To quote again: "Thousands of hardware dealers are going to analyze their night sales of last year. Most of them will find that these statements absolutely fit their cases. "This year Christmas comes on Friday. Some dealers will keep open nights for two weeks and four days, some for one week and four days, and others for just four days. It is time to decide now. "Those who keep their stores open evenings during the holiday period ought also to provide their clerks with a wholesome, adequate supper-at the firm's expense. "This will insure more loyal service from the employees at a time when demands of the business call for every ounce of energy in their make-up. "Holiday night-work will become a nightmare if it is not limited in time and bounded by every consideration that can be shown the employees." PULLING A BUSINESS OUT OF THE RUTS LL businesses have a tendency to get into ruts and to resist the application of new methods because they may require a change in settled. habits and involve some hard mental application. A man, when once he gets into a rut, generally has to lose one or more jobs before he pulls himself out; but with a business it is usually some man whose mental attributes refuse to become comatose who pulls the business out, in spite of the opposition of associates. Mr. Edward Mott Woolley discusses this phase of the life of business in Printers' Ink and cites many cases of a business badly in a rut and going to the wall that has been pulled out by the big constructive idea of some broad-gauge man. He says: "Almost always there is more than one way to do a thing; but habit is strong and it is hard to get a new viewpoint on a sales campaign or manufacturing proposition. It is one of the foibles of mankind to think in circles. "Many of the notable successes in business, however, have come from a revolution in mental attitude, or from some shift in the angle of vision. By breaking away from the every-day orbit of thought, men have often changed failure into brilliant achievement. Many great successes have been won through changing the product, or through specializing in some one item of product. Other successes have come from the remodeling of selling methods, or from changing the appeal. By doing things differently, thousands of business houses have come out of disaster. Scores of others have been lifted out of mere local success to national importance." O A House that Nearly Got "in the Soup." NE significant point Mr. Woolley finds in all the instances of this kind, and that is this: that almost all these men have done original things. They have not imitated other men. Precedent and tradition have played little part with them: "In Camden, New Jersey, for instance, a large canning-house was for several decades successful. It put out a miscel laneous line, largely preserves. But something went wrong and the output lost a good deal of its popularity. Slowly, then rapidly, the business went downhill, losing large sums of money. Liquidation was considered to head off bankruptcy The cause of this situation was more of less complicated and need not be consid ered here. The main fact is enough: the business was in an unfortunate crisis. "In the employ of that company was a young chemist, J. T. Dorrance. He was a man of unusual originality and resource, and he believed that a change in both product and selling method was necessary for the salvation of the busi ness. He conceived the idea of a condensed brand of soups and bent all his energies toward this development. There were so-called liquid soups on the mar ket, sold in large, expensive cans, but condensed soups, in ten-cent tins, were unknown. "One of the owners and executives of the company was Arthur Dorrance, an TALE OF A SUCCESSFUL INVESTOR uncle of the young chemist, and he backed up the nephew; but other high executives, including the founder of the firm himself, met the new idea with strong opposition. It was against all the firm's tradition and habits. To go about things differently looked to them like wanton folly. "But the soups took hold and, with new selling methods, quickly recouped the losses of the business. All the old products except one were abandoned. To-day we think of the great Campbell Company only as associated with success, with vast sales, with large adverizing appropriations. Few people know that the company came near overlooking ts one best bet. Except for a break in he old circle of ideas, except for an analysis of the market, except for the courage to conduct radical experiments— except for these things we never should have known Campbell's soups." T Making the Dollar Watch Go. HE Ingersoll watch furnishes Mr. Woolley with another case in point. It was first sold on the nail-order plan. The trouble with the plan was that the cost of doing business was prohibitive. Some different ind of selling plan seemed necessary. A jewelry store, of course, was the ogical place in which to sell a watch. But not the Ingersoll watch. Jewelers vere after more profit than they could nake on a dollar watch. "Here, then, was a place to break away From the circle of tradition. But how? As we look back to-day, it seems very asy and simple, but in those days the dea was bold and original-and imposible, some people said. = "Watches for sale in a hardware store! Vatches in drug stores! Watches in genEral merchandise stores! grocery stores! icycle stores! Watches at railway newstands! It was absurd. - "But the Ingersolls had got out of The so-called impossioutine thinking. le looked thoroly feasible. In fact, it To do it ooked like the logical way. equired additional thinking and muchabor, and untiring persistence in their riginal sales campaigns and their adverizing. But they did it." AN ENDLESS CHAIN OF A INVESTMENTS STORY is told by Franklin Fishler in Moody's Magazine of a sanguine and trusting investor who went to a banker and asked for an Envestment which would be absolutely Fafe, enhance considerably in value in he course of time and yield a coniderable return on the investment durng the process of enhancement. The anker told the investor that he would nd such an investment in the pot of old at the foot of the rainbow. But then he went on to tell of a plan that omes pretty near to fulfilling these mpossible conditions. It was a plan ursued by a solid citizen, a neighbor 441 Statement of the Ownership, Management, Circulation, Etc. of CURRENT OPINION, published monthly at New York, N. Y., required by the Act of August 24, 1912. EDITOR: Edward J. Wheeler, 134 W. 29th st., New York, N.Y. MANAGING EDITOR: Edward J. Wheeler, 134 W. 29th st., New York, N.Y. BUSINESS MANAGER: Adam Dingwall, 134 W. 29th st., New York, N. Y. PUBLISHER: Current Literature 134 W. 29th st., New York, N. Y. Publishing Co., }: 134 OWNERS: (If a corporation give names and addresses of stockholders holding I per cent or more of total amount of stock.) Current Literature' Publishing Co., W. 29th st., New York, N.Y. Leonard D. Abbott, 2038 B'thgate av. New York, N.Y. Adam Dingwall, 134 West 29th st., New York, N.Y. Anna C. Ewing, 1067 H st., N.W. Washington, D.C. Thomas Ewing, 1067 H st., N.W. Washington, D.C. Isaac H. Ford, 1412 N st., N.W. Washington, D.C. E. W. Ordway, 1093 Dean st., Brooklyn, N. Y. E. J. Wheeler, 134 West 29th st., New York, N. Y. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding 1 per cent. or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: none. Adam Dingwall Sworn to and subscribed before me this first day of October, 1914. Pauline K. Schlotter, [SEAL] Notary Public Westchester County. Certificate filed in New York County. (My commission expires March 31, 1915.) FREE CHRISTMAS DINNERS Will You Help THE ARMY Throughout the supply 300,000 Poor People with CHRISTMAS DINNERS. Send Donations to COMMANDER MISS BOOTH 118 W. 14th Street, New York City Western Dept., Commissioner Estill, 108 N.Dearborn St., Chicago, GAUMER "Gaumer lighting every where follows the evening glow" .010182 A Gift of Lasting Beauty GAUMER Hand Wrought Portables are noted for their distinctive style and their guaranteed finish. Ask your dealer for our Guarantee Tag with every purchase. Portfolio on request. Address Dept. L. Biddle-Gaumer Company (Formerly Jolin L.Gaumer Co.) 3846 to 3856 Lancaster Avenue, PHILADELPHIA LIGHTING FIXTURES PATENTABLE IDEAS WANTED. Manufac turers want Owen patents. Send for 3 free books; inventions wanted, etc. I get patent or no fee. Manufacturing facilities. RICHARD B. OWEN, 12 Owen Bldg., Washington, D. C. Print Your Own Cards, circulars, book, newspaper, &c. PRESS $5. Larger $18. Rotary $60. Save money. Print for others. All easy, rules sent. Write factory for press catalog, TYPE, cards, paper, samEXCELSIOR ples, &c. THE PRESS CO., Meriden, Conn. of the banker, who, twenty years ago, had saved a little money and wanted to invest it. He had about $1,000, and with that he bought a good, safe railroad bond that brought him in 5 per cent. Next year he saved another $1,000, and bought another bond-not of the same issue, but a bond equally as safe. Every year since he has made it a rule to save his $1,000, and every year he has bought a bond. He managed never to miss a year. 1 "The income from his bonds he has invested each year in good, safe, dividend-S paying preferred stock, something that would bring him in an average of between six and seven per cent. on the amount invested. For instance, the first year of his career as a bondholder he received something like $50 in interest. He put that in the savings bank, where in the course of the next year it earned $2. The second year he had, of course, two bonds, and the interest amounted to something like $100. With that and a little more from his savings-bank account he bought his first share of preferred stock." H The Story of a Successful Investor. E HAS followed the same plan ever since. As soon as he gets the interest from his bonds into his hands he buys preferred stock-as many shares as his funds will for in full. He buys outright, never on margin. The story goes on: pay "Now, all these years, of course, our friend has been receiving an income from his preferred stock. It wasn't much at first, naturally, for all he had to start with was one share, and that brought him in only about $7 a year. But gradually, as he has increased his holdings of preferred stock, his income from that source has grown, and now it is considerable. All that his preferred stock has brought him in he has invested in dividend-paying com mon stock the best he could find according to his judgment. Some of it is railroad stock, and some of it industrial; his bonds and preferred stock are both varied the same way. He doesn't hold much of any one issue. He has picked up one of two bad ones, but his losses have been small. "His common stock brings him in a little more than 8 per cent. Investing in common stock, of course, is more or less of a speculation under almost any circumstances, but it wasn't enough of a specu lation to satisfy the latent gambling fever in this man-the fever that he had smothered all these years. So when he began to get an income from common stock he cut loose. Every cent his common stock has brought in he has invested in purely speculative ventures, buying a few shares now and then as his funds would permitthat is, his funds for that purpose, the returns from his common stock. He has invested in mining stock-gold, silver, cop per, coal, and lead. He has bought the stock of new power companies, irrigation shares, public service flotations-anything BE KIND TO YOUR EYES that seemed legitimate, sound, promising and not too heavily watered." To-day, after twenty years, this man has from his first class of investments bonds worth $20,000 or more; from his second, preferred stock worth easily. $12,500; and from his third, common stock that in a normal market he could sell for $6,000. In addition he has his purely speculative investments -those that have turned out well-and they are worth perhaps, all told, $20,000. Now he has started at the beginning again, with a new cycle; that is to say, all the money he gets from his fourth line of investments-mining stocks, etc., he puts into bonds. SIGNS OF AN UPWARD TURN IN BUSINESS NDICATIONS are abundant that war has done its worst so far as the business conditions of the United States are concerned, and that business is now entering a period of increased prosperity. The present improvement is principally in those lines of goods which are demanded by the warring nations as supplies. During the past two months the United States has made record-breaking shipments of wheat to England and France, and the United States manufacturers have received large orders not only for arms and munitions of war, but for clothing, boots and shoes, underwear, canned meat, other canned foods, motor trucks and horses. Activity in these lines is, of course, bound to be followed by improvement in other lines. For example, certain manufacturers of boots and shoes are considering large increases in their plants and machinery to take advantage of this tremendous demand for army shoes. Such increases in equipment indicate orders for the iron and steel and machinery industries. The steel industry suffers more severely than others when times are hard and no extensive improvements to plants are being made. Steel, it is said, is either "prince or pauper." Lately it has been decidedly "pauper." Its plants have been operating at only about 40 per cent. of capacity and prices have been cut drastically. The revival of activity in other lines will bring about a resumption of activity in the steel business, but this is of the future, not the present. UPWARD TURN IN BUSINESS Our Business Strategy has Outdone the War's HIS is a story of business strategyof foresightedness and preparation. It is the history of how one American manufacturing business has fostered a domestic source of. supply. It is the story, in brief, of the bond paper business. Bond paper is made of rags. It takes several thousand tons of rags to keep a single modern paper machine running a year. The collection and preparation of rags for bond paper is an industry of no mean importance. But this industry has always had its center in Europe. Hamburg and Antwerp have been two of the hubs around which the rag industry revolved. HILE peace reigned, rags could be brought over to America a little cheaper than they could be secured here. That's why most makers of bond papers bought their rags abroad. They preferred to save a little money rather than to support an American industry. But as far back as ten years ago we perceived the necessity of encouraging the packing of high grade American rag cuttings. Since then every pound of Construction Bond has been made of American ragsclean factory clippings-the by-products of American industries. Such rags cost us a little more, but the packings were more uniform than foreign rags, and we preferred them to rags gathered amid the squalor of Europe. WERE RIGHT 6% HOW MANY OF YOUR INVESTMENTS GONE WRONG IN 31 YEARS? Not one of our customers has e lost a penny on our 6% Farm Mortga ges since we started in business 31 years ago. "We're Right Here on the Ground" and know values and borrowers in this great fertile Northwest territory. Investigate. Write for Booklet "K" and List of Offerings. E. J. LANDER & CO. Capital and Surplus, 8400,000. EL HEN the war broke, the importation Makers of of rags was curtailed. bond papers turned to domestic sources of material and flattered themselves that they were sup porting American industry. But now who gets the first choice of the American paper material market? Not those who have been driven to buying American material. No, indeed. That's why Construction Bond now maintains its quality-because there has been no change in material. We know that if we had to change our making formula to conform to a different kind of rags, we could not guarantee the uniformity of our grades. But our strategy outdoes the war's. We don't have to change. CONSTRUCTION Made in While and 8 Colors Ο N your next order of letterheads specify Construction Bond. Construction Bond is sold direct to the most capable and responsible printers and lithographers only in case lots. Small wonder that Construction Bond offers better value than papers marketed in small lots in the usual manner through jobbers. Use Construction Bond for your letterheads. Write us today and we'll tell you where you can secure Construction Bond in your locality. We'll also send you our handsome portfolio of specimen letterheads which may offer valuable suggestions for the improvement of your own stationery. Write us today on your letterhead. please. W. E. WROE & CO. Sales Office: 1006 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago WITH ABSOLUTE SAFETY 6% AND UNSHRINKABLE VALUE $100, $500, $1,000 DENOMINATIONS W. N. MACQUEEN & CO. PROTECT YOUR HEAD with hair just like your own. Nature demands this covering-want of it causes colds, neuralgia, catarrh, etc. Why look or feel older when the world demands younger men? Let us make you one of our Special Undetectable Wigs or Toupees (Top Piece) on approval. If it doesn't match and fit perfectly-if it isn't satisfactory in every waywe will promptly refund your money. Prices $15 to $35. Send for Illustrated Wig Book and Measurement Blank PARIS FASHION CO., Dept. 6312, 209 S. State St., Chicago, Ill Largest Mail Order Hair Merchants in the World Chicago 443 |