The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-06-08
JOHN WANAMAKER
How He Runs His Public and
Private Business.
HIS INCOME OF $4,000 PER DAY
His Big Store Does Business of S25,000,000
and Clears S1,00O,000 Year-His
Bible Class of 1000 Members.

WASHINGTON, June 4, 1S90.-TSpecial cor
respondence of THE HERALD. BY all
odds the most unique character in Ameri
can politics is John Wapamaker, the post
master-general of the United States. A
man whose whole life has been that Of
business, who has had nothing to do with
politics nor politicians, he is made the head
of what has always been the biggest politi-
cal machine of the government. There are
more than one hundred and City thousand
employees who are more or less directly
under the control Of the postmaster gen
eral. and his bug, red fingers rest upon the
keyboard to which is attached the wires
reaching out to every city and village in
the country. 1t was indeed a curious ap-
polntment. Still, Benjamin Harrison has
in John Wanamaler his closest ally and his
strongest friend. He has in him perhaps
the hardest worker of his cabinet and one
of the strongest forces of his administra-
ton. Wanamaker is
MAN OF IDEAS,
and he believes in running his department
on business principles. He is chafed every
day by the clogs which the necessary con-
sultation with Senators and Representa-
tives throw in his way, and he says if he
could run the postofice department on his
own plan he could make 100000 year
for the government.
1 don't doubt but that he is correct. For
the past forty years everything he has
touched has turned into gold, and noW at
the age Of ffty-two, he is said to be worth
SIS, 100000, and he has an income Of about
two thousand dollars day. Still, it is
only four decades since he was carrying the
CLAW which made the bricks in his father's
brick yard, and about that time he engaged
TO clerk in a book store for a less sum per
week than the scrub women of the post
office department get for day. He is
called by his enemies
COUNTER JUMPER,
and sneering remarks are made about his
store in Philadelphia. All the world knows
that he has a store there, and the fact was
pretty well advertised before he became
postmaster-g general. Few people, however,
appreciate the immensely of his business
and the wonderful system on which it is
run. 1t is the biggest establishment of its
kind In the world. 1t far oItranks the
great Bon Marehe of Paris, and it is, am
told, five times the size Of Jordan s,
Marsh's great Boston establishment. 1t
clears, ] am told, Sl.000.0O0 year. and 1t
.
Its roof covers acres, and in an ordinary
week there are $4,000 engaged in buying at
IL at one time. You can find anything in it
from q fish hook to . steamships anchor,
and its mighty growth has been the out
come of the brains of this man. 1t is a
mistake, however, TO suppose that it does
any business for the government. There
are two other Wanamaker firms in Phila
delphia, and it is these which have caused
the accusation that the postmaster general
is a competitor for government contracts
The fact is. that prior to his appointment
as postmaster-ge the firm put in bids
for many kinds Of government supplies
and they made
A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY
out of them. When Mr. Wanamakel
accepted the postmaster generalship he
gave orders that no bids were to be made
either for supplies to the postoffice depart
ment or any other department of the gov
eminent, and, am told, that this order ha:
reduced the profits of the firm during the
year fully 100000. The only way in which
the government can now buy anything a.
Waaamaker's store is by its agents pur
chasing it over the counter like the ordin
airy shopper. To give further idea Of this
establishment. IL has the largest retail shot
business in this country. 1t has the larg
est retail book business in the United
States. Its cellar contains the biggest
electric light plant in the whole world, anc
under its one roof more than four Thousand
employees work during the ordinary sea
SON and this number is increased to 500
at Christmas. Wanamaker believes in ad
vertising, and his advertising manager
gets a salary of Sl2,0 900 year. He pay:
each of the Philadelphia papers from TIVE
e to four thousand dollars every month fo
advertising, and one of his principles il
advertisements is that they shall tell The
truth. Among his principles of success:
are
APPLICATION, INTEGRITY AND ADVERTISING
and he ranks these high in the advice h
gives to young men. He is intereStet
largely in the wholesale branch of tn
establishment which goes under the nam
OF Hood, Bonbright & Co., and he has SOM
stock, understand, in the firm of Wanna
maker & Brown, though he has not BEEF
associated with this firm for six years, anS
he merely holds their stock as collateral.
John Wanamaker, however, is hes