The sun., 1900-09-25

would cause drummers to lose their
places.
Then consider that millions and mill.
ions Of dollars are spent in this country
for advertising purposes, not merely in
the newspapers and the magazines, but
on the fences and the bill boards. in
signs, in distributions of printed mat
ter, and what not.
What is all this money spent for?
To sell goods.
And the study Of hundreds of the
brightest men in the country is devoted
to making advertising more and more
effective, so that given expenditure will
result in greater and greater sales at a
lower and lower expense. Why do the
advertisers want to sell more and more
cheaply? So that they can beat their
compettors-by giving the consumer bet
ter things for the same money, or just
as good things for less money. All this
effort to sell things cheaper means that
drummers are going to be laid off if they
by their methods have been selling things
more eXpensiyely.
There is another thing that we owe ii
to ourselves to look fairly in the face.
Many drummers in the past have consid-
cred that the business that they helped
their houses to do belonged to them and
not to the houses. Others, surely all the
houses, used TO take q contrary view
and Of late years they have resorted to
the various more or less direct methods
of selling in order to get their business
back into their own hands. No doubt
about it, No doubt about it.
One of the things which trust aims
| to do is to reduce its selling expense. II
four manufacturers making the same ar
ticle are drumming Indiana, and theiI
four able and persuasive Representatives
light into indianapolis some day, the,
all go around among the trade doing lit
tie except neutralize one another. Abou
four times the talk, nerve force an,
money are spent to sell only as man!
goods as Indianapolis wants that day
as needs be spent. This is one OF th
many things that the trusts have foun,
out-that they knew before they startet
in.
Now, it is inevitable in the very econ
omics. in the very natural law of tn
situation, that some of those drummer
must go some time; they may be sen
into new territory, they may be recalle
to work in the office at home, or the
may be dismissed entirely. Just so muc
of their work as has been unnecessar
; will surely be dispensed with in time
Competition does that, and we couldn
have any better illustration of the fac
} that competition is always active. Her
{ il is potent, actually. In the case of th
t glucose trust that was afraid to encou
/ age too much competition (of other cap
tul nd hpa iuc Oh laxf Ii
e en- per cent, it was active potentially.
5 1t is preposterous to say that fit
e thousand commercial travellers, or thirt.
e FIVE thousand, have been thrown out
!, work by the trusts. There are probab
not sixty thousand of them in the who
/ country. Besides, il ten per cent
n them have been thrown out of work
v the various changes in producing and di
t, tributing that have come about IN the la
J. few years, other causes have probab
" contributed equally with the combinatit
l. movement. Even SO, and putting Il
l. case at its very worst, the genera! il
q provement in business. the wide expa
l. sion Of trade AT home and abroad, viii,
j. all of our producers, manufacturers al
Is traders have helped to bring about, al
r. by which they have all inevitably prof
ID ed-this has put all OF those commerce
ID travellers back into places just as goo
50 or better, or will do so. 1t is ineyitab
G. More people were employed after m
g, chinery was introduced-simply becau
e. the wants Of the human race becai
tn greater and wider every year, and the
n wants had to be supplied, and could
o. because things were SO much cheaper
is Wa have taken ovar Porto Rico. Il