Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-12-18
wAR UpoN DEAD BEATS.

A Small Number of Local Merchant
Organize the New Haven Branch
OF the Merchants, Retail CONNER.
cial Agency-Omcers Elected.
For the past five or six weeks two young
men, G. A. Roberts and A. j. Abbott, rep
resenting the Merchants Retail CONNER
cial agency, q western corporation, have
been obtaining the signatures of New Ha-
ven merchants to an agreement to unite
with New Haven branch of this agency,
the contract not to be binding unless one
hundred signatures were obtained. The
agency is designed to protect merchants
from "dead beatsn Each merchant who
joins the agency signs a constitution in
which one Of the articles makes it a penal
ty of twenty dollars for any member to
trust a person for merchandise whose
name appears upon the published list of
the agency. It is Chicago institution
and has been for some time in operation
through the west. It is being introduced
into the Eastern states, and New Haven
has been the first Connecticut city which
has been selected for branch of the
agency.
The ten representatives of the company
succeeded in obtaining 40 signatures to
the agreement and w. Fl. Dodge of
Chicago, general manager of the agency,
came to this city yesterday to organize the
New Haven branch. For this purpose q
meeting of the signers of the contract was
called last evening, but the number in at
tendance did not exceed thirty. Among
them were w. D. Peck, F. E. Parker,
George E. Somers, G. E. Hart, L. D. Child
sey, s. B. Law and P. Fl. Brady.
Mr.. Dodge talked to the gathering for
two hours or more, and gave the details of
the system employed by his agency. The
principle upon which it is conducted is,
as he expressed it, "don't trust your
neighbors' dead beats and they will not
trust yours" When a suitable number
of merchants in a place are pro,
cured, an organization is formed and
constitution, bylaws and officers chosen.
Its members prepare lists of their bad
debtors, only those whose debts are known
to be positively bad being included and
these are sent to the headquarters of the
agency. The eastern offices are in Bos-
ton. When these lists are received by
the agency, letter is sent to the debtor,
stating the amount of indebtedness and to
whom and requesting pay, if the debtor
values his commercial standing in the
community. This letter bears upon the
envelope the card of the agency. After
no attention is paid to this, another dun
is sent in plain white envelope. If
there is still no response, third dun,
covered with precepts such as Fan honest
man pays his debts" and the like, is sent
to the delinquint debtor. Ten day elapse
between each Of these tender mis-
sives. If no notice is taken of this
thirr7s letter a fourth is sent
This is intended to stir the
emotion of the unfortunate individual who
has come within the clutch of the institu-
ton The envelope is a black one with
just three lines of white upon the front to
admit the address of the person for whom
| it is intended This contains simply a
statement of the Indebtedness and warn
ing that fifteen days only will be allowed
for payment. IF the bill is not settled at
the expiration of this time the debtors
name, address and occupation is placed
upon the lists of the agency and every
member is bound by the constitution to
treat him as stated above.
At the close of his remarks the ccnsti-
tuition and bylaws of the New Haven
branch of the agency were adopted and a
committee consisting of G. E. Hart, L. D..
Chidsey, g. E. Somers, F. E. Parker, P.
H. Brady and S. B. Law, was appointed to
nominate officers for the organization.
This committe selected these from the
one hundred and forty signers Of the con-
tract. The officers selected by the COM
mittee and elected by the meeting are:
President, S. S. Thompson; vice presi-
dent, John H. Plat; secretary, F. H. Bel
den; treasurer, w. D. Peck; executive
board, L. D. Chidsey, P. H. Brady, G. E.
Hart, s. B. Law, F. e. Parker.