The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-11-15


way through which letters, circulars, papers, |
&C., can be delivered without intermediate |
handling directly to the mailing room, that | |
discovered the second and perhaps the princi- /
pal reason of his success, In conversation with |
his manager I learned that from the first Mr.. |
Beatty had made it rule to sell his organs d. |
rectly to individual customers ignoring all |
middlemen, and thus saving to buyers the |
amount of money usually paid out by inanufac- |
turers in commissions to dealers for hand !
ling their goods and added to the cost price of
the organ.
sold in this way have been, and still are,
something enormous. An organ which costs |
perhaps $50 at the factory is sold to the |
dealer for, say, 500, and he in turn
sells it to his customer at an advance of
perhaps 100 per cent, thus compelling the lat |
ter to pay $500 for an instrument that costs |
but $50 to make. The customer, therefore, not
only pays the manufacturer handsome profit |
on his organ, but pays all the expenses of the |
middle mantle rent of his store, clerk hire, |
etc.-and q heavy bonus besides. Mr.. Beatty, |
aware OF the imposition to which buyers |
were thus subjected, and knowing that
thousands of families who otherwise would |
have been glad to buy an organ, were deferred
by the unreasonable prices charged by the
Dealers determined as we have said, to entirely |
ignore the middle man in the conduct of his |
business and give the buyers the benefit of the |
latter's commissions thus bringing the price of |
the organ within the means of families in even
humble circumstances. The wonderful success
which has rewarded his adoption of this sensible
plan is the best proof of its wisdom. By supple
menting these two essentials of success with a |
third of equal importapce-judicious aavertis- |
ing-Mr. Beatty has made his organs known
throughout the breadth and length of the land,
and his sales have reached as high as 1000
in single month, while the fact that his
business is steadily and rapidly increasing
is convincing evidence that the public are
thoroughly satisfied with the quality of his
instruments, and like his plain, honest, and
straightforward way Of dealing with them.
ALL THE RESULT OF METHOD.
It requires Of course, an immense force IF
clerks to conduct the correspondence that such
an enormous business entails, but everything
in this establishment is reduced to system,
and was struck, as I examined into the details
of the management Of the advertising, address
ing and mailing, bookkeeping, and correspond
ence departments of the Office, with the ease,
accuracy and dispatch with which this vast
volume of business was handled.
Prior to my visit / had been led to suspect
that the success which Mr. Beatty had achieved
was more or less ephemeral in its character
and due chiefly to accident, but it is apparent,
from what / have said, that it is due entirely
to the adoption of sound, practical and thor
ough methods of doing business, and rigid
adherence to them year after year.
Some two years age Mr.. Beatty was so unfer-
tunate as to have his entire mandatory de-
streyed by fire, but he did not lose courage.
His present new and imposing factory, erected
at cest of $500 009-aiInnst before the ashes of
the old were csld, lin 100 aays,-fs an evidence
of the stability and value Of his business. He
has had, Of course, great Obstacles 20 csntend
with, the violent ana unconceaied hostility of
the entire musical trade, the distrust with
yrh a ara r1a nv
the public, and the practical difficulty of meet
ing the steadily Increasing demand upen his
facilities for prodHction.-but he has already
substantially overcome them all, and is to-day
master of ths situation You may depend
| upon it that the Beatty organ at the moderate
price at which it is sold, will compel the older
manufacturers and theEoracious middle men
to strike their colors.
THE MAN HIMSELF.
But Bfr. Beatty's factory and business offices
| are not half SO interesting as Mr. Beatty him
self, who, though self-faaae man-eyery inch
of him-is not IN any sense, an "upstart."
or spoiled in any degEee by his good fortune
| I had long chat with ilira this evening, and
found him full Of bright IDEAS, quick to see a
point, hearty and cordial in manner, and, al
though completely absorbed in his business
and thinking more of that than anything else
in the world, evidently man of broad eduea-
ton and liberal ideas--in short type of the
successful American business man Of the day.
Mr.. Beatty is in figure tall and
stoutly built and his high forehead and
| thick black bushy whisl1ers give him a strilr-
ing appearance. He has an eager, ingaisitive
| eye whose steady glance you cannot hope to
escape and although he is exceedingly cour-
| teous and affable in his manner, he wastes no
words when business is the topic under discus
sion. He told me the story Of his struggle with
| fortune. A native of New Jersey, born net far
c-fnD ba ri q Iora
| for music, and, when turned adrift On the
world as result Of family disagreement, he
| started out to earn his living for himself
without dollar in his pocket, his musical
| instincts led him to engage in small
way in the business of buying and selling
! pianos and organs. he prespered at this, for
/ he was then, as now, an active, stirring, push
ing fellow, and being thrifty as well, it was not
long before he put his savings into the plant of
/ q small factory, and began manufacturing him.
| self. He is now thirty-ffye years old-scarcely
| yet in his prime--and the head of an enterprise
/ great in conception and wonderfully successful
/ IN its execution. He is the benefactor of the
whole neighborhood in which he lives. The
| citizens Of Washington, N. j., regard him as
| good fairy and have repeatedly elected him to
| the office of mayor, which he now holds. The
establishment of his factory there has brought
to the city hundreds of skilled employees and the
| place is growing with the rapidity Of the young
| cities of the far northwest. He might go to
Congress, L suppose, from his district, or might
even aspire to higher honors, but he is content
with the reputation he has made as one of the
leading business men in the country, and would
rather be remembered by future generations, 1
/ imagine, as the man who first made possible
| by the production of an inexpensive yet per-
feet organ, the musical education of the masses,
| than for any other achievement whatever. 1t
only remains for me to say that, although he
writes his name Daniel F. Beatty, it is pro-
nounced as if it were written "Ba-ty"
I. o. PENN.