The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-29
RETAIL HARDWARE MEN OF MIN
NESoTA BELIEVE IN THE
ls OLD ADAGE
WILL FORM AN ASSOCIATION.
PRESIDES AT THE PRELIMIN-
AIRY MEETING.
SUPPLY HOUSES HURT THE TRADE.
1t Is to Gain Protection Against
Them as Well as other Reasons
They Come Together.

Emulating the example Of their
brethren in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indi-
ana and Illinois, the retail hardware
men of Minnesota have determined to
organize for the purpose of advancing
their interests in general, and this
morning at the capitol the first definite
steps will be taken after preliminary
plans and negotiations, which have
been going on for several months, are
submitted and approved by the deal
ers who have been informally brought
together by call issued by Charles F.
Ladner, Of st. Cloud. A meeting Of the
retail dealers who had reached the city
last night was held at the rooms of the
chamber of commerce, with Mr.. Lad
ner in the chair and George Welles,
OF Duluth, acting as secretary. There
were In all perhaps 100 men, includ-
ing number of st. Paul dealers, and
quite few travelling representatives
of the various Minnesota concerns.
The new organization will be called
the Minnesota Retail Hardware Deal
erS' association, and at the session this
morning it is hoped that the members
will organize and proceed with the
appointment Of the various COM
mittees. At the chamber Of commerce
meeting, which was executive, it was
stated that the purpose was to orga-
nize the dealers of Minnesota so that
certain existing evils might be cor
rected. For example, the statement is
made that hardware dealers suffer
from competition with catalogue sup
ply houses and similar institutions.
Other methods Of transacting business
which do not meet the approval of the
hardware dealers will be taken up and
fought against by an organization
where individual dealers would be un-
able to secure any changes.
1t appears that Mr.. Ladner has been
agitating the matter for some time and
finally issued from ST. Cloud the call
which brought these gentlemen to-
gether for mutual protection. He ar
CUES that these supply houses men
toned bear about the same relation to
hardware concerns that department
stores do to the retail establishments.
The supply houses pay especial atten-
ton to that portion of the business
which is profitable, and spare no effort
to obtain monopoly Of it.
AS an illustration, Mr.. Ladner says
that a supply house will quote figures
much lower on some staple article than
the retailer can we'll do, and the buyer
does not know that the retailer is
forced to keep on hand all sorts of
equipment for it's repair or renewal.
To make this plain, the retailer sells a
lawn mower. He is obliged to keep the
various parts of it with which to re-
place those lost or worn out. The
supply houses do not, as a rule, keep
these parts.
1t was expected that the attendance
would be larger than it appeared last
night, owing to the fact that the rail-
roads had made a rate of one fare and
a third from all Minnesota points, but
some Of the late ones may come this
morning. The hall Of representatives
will be used for the meeting, which will
begin at 10 o'clock. The convention
will loo fIo hoJ e Il