Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-09-18

Sentiment and business are closely related,
and yet they are decidedly different and dis
tinct. Sentiment doubtless has much to do
with promoting individual or general business
enterprises. Personal friendship influences
custom to certain dealers and there is some
wholesome and helpful sentiment connected
with all commercial transactions through
which both parties are the gamers. Much
satisfaction and pleasure come from business
affairs which are conducted honestly and
fairly, IN which the buyer gets goods at rea-
sousble prices and the seller obtains a
reasonable profit. There are tradesmen
who have established for themselves
a generous and permanent custom by their
| pleasant manners aud fair methods OF trading,
whose customers go to them, year after year,
and really onjoy the purchasing OF goods and
the process OF paying for them. That illus
trates the ideal way OF doing business the
proper relation OF sentiment to business
showing, as it does, how each should be so
employed as to cooperate with and help the
other.
There are, however other considerations
which are factors in this general problem
Mere sentiment goes only 10 certain limit
Unless it is properly reciprocated and cult
waited it will ooze out aud evaporate. Bus
iness must be maintained as well as created,
by the application and continuance OF proper
business principles--and these are progressive.
! Business methods have become scieutifc.
The trsdesman who should apply now the
! style OF trading OF fifty years would fail in
three months. Great progress has, 10 fact,
been made in ten years. Competition has
been keen and strong and it has sharpened
mems wits. Men now know better how to
buy than they did, and consequently other
men have been forced TO adopt better meth
DDS OF selling All this has tended to pro-
mote the advantage OF The general public,
and OF tradesmen as well. The consumption
Of fabrics and other material has increased,
making the bulk of trade larger-but profits
have been cut down. Those who have car
rled on their business on strict and
| correct business principles, have prospered
and their customers have been benefited by
low prices. Tradesmen now buy largely,
| counts Tor the absence of panic and the few
failures in the recent severe financial pressure
More money is now made in the discounts
tradesmen get tor cash payments, and in
what they save by close-not niggardly-
economy than in any other way. We may
state, as a general proposition, that the put
ting Of the business Of the country
upon a proper, honest footing - and
the conducting of trade on correct
business and moral principles, have given
solidity and permanance to the business of
the country. Sentiment, as we have shown,
is good thing in its place, but it should
never be allowed to interfere with the in
tegrity OF the article sold or the correctness
of the method Of selling Sentiment or no
sentiment, tradesmen and those who buy OF
them should pay as they goi avoid unneces-
sary or reckless expenditure; maintain the
proper standard of excellence 10 products and
wares and give them TO the public at
the lowest living rates. Large
profits are vicious. They begst
dishonesty, extravaganza, dissipation, cart
lessness and other business misdemeanors.
Another hopeful feature is that the skinners
and cheaters in trade are going to the wall.
The smart men are not equal to the increased
intelligence and conseque Mt vigilance of the
people. The dishonest trsdesnen are learn
ing, by dearly-bought experience, that hon
esty is the best bust ness policy. That is to
say-in phrase business is business, and ia
getting more So from year to year, and must
be attended to promptly and thoro ughly and
always, on business principles.
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