Morris tribune., 1900-10-06

/ consistency in this, for the supply
| house is not trust, though in making
! it difficult for the local dealer to do
] business it has to that extent the effect
| of trust but the effect is brought
about through an entirely different set
OF circumstances. The trusts absorb
the small dealers and manufacturers in
order to do away with competition,
and then raise the prices Of their COM
modities to suit themselves The SUP.
ply house uses up the small dealer
because he ca1sSlot meet its prices, but !
here is the difference between it and ;
the trust: When the competition is }
withdrawn the supply house cannot
arbitrarily raise its price because of
strong competition among themselves
The supply house has come to stay
It is product of the times Conditions
are such that goods must go from the
manufacturer to the consumer at the
minimum of expense. Under the old
system the manufacturers sold the Job
bers, through their travelling men, at
from 30 to 80 days time. The manu-
facturers had to make profit to cover
cost Of production, selling and bad ac--
counts. The jobber, on receipt Of the
goods, would send his men to the re-
taller, and E2 must sell his goods high
enough to get profit on the cost, plus
freight, bad accounts and selling; and
finally the retailer has to mark his
goods sufficiently high to cover practi- {
cally the seme items. The supply
house changed all this. They buy from I
the manufacturers for cash, and sell
at once to the consumer for cash. Y
The item of loss from bad accounts
oil Tod Nf
largely reduced, and the public
gets the benefit af the saving. If man.
ufacturers would sell direct to the con- {
sumer it would scarcely be an improve?
ment; as it is now the supply house acts
as clearing house for large number
OF manufacturers. and relieves them Of
the enormous detail incident upon
handling orders from individuals, and
while the expense of so doing by one
factory would be SO heavy as to pre-
clude great saving by giving lower
prices; in the supply house taking care
of individual orders for small quantities
of goods is reduced to a system, and 10,-
300 orders can be handled practically at
the same cost as one Thousand, so that
it is not likely that enough mAnufac-
Gurers will ever adopt the selling direct
plan to do away with the supply house.
Another point that shows clearly the
stability Of the supply house is that
every year that the T. M. Roberts Sup
ply House has been in existence its vol
1me of business has shown an increase i
over the preceding years. This also is
evidence that the 7. M. Roberts Supply 4
House does not send out the worthless,
'otten stuff it's enemies say it does. Z
There may be a sucker born every min
lite, but they are not numerous enough
o keep business growing while being
assailed as viciously as the
Z. M. Roberts Supply House has been J.
Turing the. years of it's growth and sue. ii
ess.
The following figures give an idea Of
he size OF the buildings occupied by ~
his enormous supply house: The aa
main building has SO 900 square foet OF 8Is
oor space, while warehouse in rear
as over $4,000 square feet additional. 6E
5esidee this 40, 1000 square feet are used R
I various warehouses in the city foa III
forage purposes. Having this capacity
lakes it possible to carry complet
5ock so that orders can be promptly II
He'd Mr.. Roberts extends a cordial
to country visitors to call
nd look over this mammoth establish-@I
lent. Subscribers and readers are es
ecially requested when writing to thaS =
M Roberts Supply House to say
lat they saw the notice Of their busi-
ess in this paper: b
-IAdu H ,