The herald., 1898-01-13
THE DEPARTMENT STORE TRUST

trade, reaCn1nS out l1lto every iliie VI
business, crushing out competition and
making it almost impossible for mer-
chants confining themselves to one
branch to exist.
1t is also a notable fact that the de-
partment store system has resulted in
the lowering of wages of the average
clerk to point where a decent, honest
living on the stipend paid is impossible.
The great army Of clerks in the depart
ment stores is made up of women and
girls. Many of these girls are paid not
more than SO a week. How can they live?
Ask the managers of any large depart
ment store how they are expected to
live. The explanation cannot be made
without the insinuation of shame. An
eastern newspaper recently detailed one
| of it's women reporters to make the at
tempt to live decently and honestly in
| a large city on So a week. She tried;
and, giving her story, declared that 1t
could not be done. Many of the girls
live at home and are thus enabled to
eke out their expenses, but thousands
are struggling against fate in the effort
to live on the pittance paid them by the
department stores. 1t is grand tribute
to American womanhood that so few
succumb to the temptations placed be-
fore them and to the WEAKNESS of ex-
istence under such terrible conditions.
These conditions obtain in every city
where there are department stores.
| Having entered into almost every de-
partment of retail trade in the effort
to crush out competition. the depart
ment stores are now trying to dominate
the newspapers and dictate to them
what they shall receive for the use of
| their advertising columns. The Asso-
cated Press dispatches last Monday
told how a combination of fourteen de-
partment stores in Denver had been
formed for the purpose of forcing
a reduction of 20 per cent in ad-
vertising rates. The newspapers very
naturally refused to submit. and a war
is on. The Denver Post, in an editorial
explaining the action of the department
store trust, says:
This action was taken arbitrarily.
The individual advertisers did not at
tempt to get the best terms they could
as individuals; they did not figure
whether their advertising investment
with this paper had proved profitable
to them or whether It would have
paid them better had they taken more
|
whatever to the cost of production,
and failed to appreciate that there.
might be two sides 10 the same story.
All that seemed TO occur to them was
that advertising had cost them cer-
tain amount Of money; II they could
evolve a scheme so that It would cost
them less money, then their profits al
the end of 1898 would represent just
that much more money. A penny saved
is penny earned, they figured. Doubt
less they could not further increase
profits by reducing the wages of en-
ployes, for they have always been at
bedrock.
The Denver papers undoubtedly have
recourse in the law against trusts and
against boycotting. They are abund-
antly able to take care of their end of
the fight.
There has been for several years more
or less talk on the part of other retailers
to press for legislation against the de-
partment stores; but it is clear that such
action would be useless. There is no
principle of law that forbids the estab-
Iishment and maintenance of depart
ment stores.
There is, however, way in which they
may be legitimately fought, and that
is through the medium of cooperation
as it is practiced in the retail business
in England and on the continent. Thirty
four years ago, in 1864, seventeen weav-
ers in Manchester began cooperative
purchasing, each contributing a few
shillings a week from their earnings
The organization grew until it is now the
Cooperative Wholesale Society, limited
with branches in Newcastle, London
and other cities, it's balance sheet for
the quarter ending September 25, 1897
showing business transactions to the
amount of G5,9S7,417 about S30OOO,-
0OO or at the rate of $120, 900 a
year, 1t is still maintained strictly or
the cooperative plan. The Herald hopes
in the near future to present additional
facts regarding this remarkable busi-
ness institution.
Then there is the great Bon Marche
in Paris, that is known wherever civili-
zation exists. 1t is a cooperative con-
Germ because the proprietors made it so
1t pays its employees good wages, gives
them a vacation, provides meals, recrea-
tion, lessons, homes, pensions, every
thing that conduces to their welfare
And yet the Bon Marche is by no means
a benevolent institution. 1t is strictly
business, from beginning to end The
sales amount to many millions Of dollars
annually. The members of the firm who
= started the cooperative plan, or rather
} the profit-sharing plan, began with
) nothing; they died worth SIG, 600. 900, de-
spite the fact that they had given
: enormous sums to charity and spent mil
lions in providing for the welfare OF
| their employees. There are thousand.
who hold the memory of Monsieur an6