The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-08
EQUAL TO THE NATIONAL DEBT.
Enormous Cost OF the army of Travel
ing Statesmen.
Prom The Phuadelphia Record.

From the Philadelphia Record
1.-The money used in a single year to foot
the salary and exponse bills Of the trayelIng
statesmen of the United States would pay off
the entire national debt and leave a few
dollars over"
This rather startling statement was made
By junior member of one OF the large dry
goods houses Of this city, who has a force
OF about fifty travellers under his immediate
charge. As proof Of his assertion he pre-
sentsd these particulars: There is hardly
a wholesale, jObbiug or commission house
in any line of bust .ess in the United States
that does not have at least a single travel
ing repTes entatlye, and from one lone man
the travelling force ranges up as high as l25
or 80 men. and there may be one or two
houses with even more. TIE average of
the most reliable estimates places the total
number of commercial tou lists in this
country at 250,0JO; and, mind you, this
dos not mean pedllers, but only those who
sell goods at wholesale.
"lhe railroad fares, charges for carrying
sample baggage by freight or express, hotel
bills, and numerous lncide ital travelling
expenses of these men will range between
81 and $l2 per day, but some men will
spend SIS IN n single day for these pur-
poses without resOrtlng to any extrava-
gance. Take, for instance, some of the
carpet, clothing, or fancy goods men, who
carry ten to fifteen trunks full of samples
take packer with them, aud hire hotel
porter to display t0eir goods whenever
they open their trunks. But the number
Of these men is comparatively snail, and
S. day will fairly represent the average
expenses of the 2j0,0J0 men. There you
nave 81, $685. 900 per day for expenses alone.
Multiply this by 365, and you have $751;
800, 00J as the amount expended In one
year
The item of salaries is nearly as large.
Few men are paid less than $500 per year.
The largest number receive between 81, 800
and $4,000, either in salaries or cornnis-
sions A lesser number are paid from
So, 900 to $5,O0O-those receiving the latter
amount being uaratively few. But
there are travelling salesman who are always
in demand at $4,000 t. SIS, 900 year, but
they are few and far between. The lower
salarled men pre1ominate, as might be
supposed, and au average Of 81, 500 per
year is not far out of the way. Figuring
30, QUO men at an average salary of 81, S0J
per year gives total of $3.50, 900, 900, &C
cording to my arithmetic To this add
$547, 100000 for expenses, and you have
Sy91 500, 90 for these two items.
"Bu, t ere are otheH items to be charged
against the Salesmen's account. 1t is in-
possible to give any accurate estimate of
the cost of trunks, samples and othere req,
usites of the travelling men, but the items,
as we figure them in our store, will give
someth ng to judge from. Our fifty me1
require $50 trunks, costing IS each, $1,000.
These men require two sets of samples
yeArly-one in the spring and one in the
fall. The cost of these two sets of samples
is about 5 900 per man. OF this $4,000
worth of goods which are required for sam
pies every year, a consider able portion
IS lost, while most of it is SO soiled
and damaged by constant handling
that it has to be sold at heavy reduction
from the actual cost or else given away.
To cover this de Jreciation we make an al
lowance of SO y per cent. upon the cos. of the
samples, or about $l1 900 yer year. Trunks
do not need renewing every year, but
repairs and replacing lost ones form quite
an item OF expense. From these figures it
is evident that the similar expenses of
greater or lesser amount, borne by every
wholesale house, will swell the salary and
travelling expense item of $780,, SOC, 900 far
beyond $1,000, 100000 per year"