The Yale expositor., 1900-09-28

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. hut
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. 50 that given expenditure will
result in greater and greater sales at Il
lower ana lower expense. Why do the
advertisers want to sell more and more
choaplyf So that they can beat their
comuetitors-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 Of il they
lay their methods have been selling things
more extensively.
There is another thing that we owe it
to ourselves TO look fairly in the face.
Many drummcrS in the past have conSid-
cred that the business that they hplred
their houses To do belonged 10 them and
not to the houses. Others, surely all the
houses. used to take contrary view:
aud Of late years they have rcsorted 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 Il trust aims
To do is to reduce its selling expense. II
four manufacturers making thu same ar
ticle are drumming Indiana, AMI their
four able and persuasive representatives
light into indianapolis some day they
all go around among the trade doing lit
tie except neutralize one another. About
four times the talk, nerve force a.1
money are spent to sell only rs .peay
goods as indianapolis wants ,hat Jay
rs needs Doe spent. This Is ono e lie
many things that the trusts have found
out-that they knew before th"y .taucd
in
Now. ii is Inevitable IN the very econ
ouics. in the very natural law Of the
situation, that soma Of those Grummers
must 90 some tune: they may Lc scnt
into new territory, they may 10 recalled
20 work in the Office ~ home or they
may be dismissed cntirclc. Just 80 much
% their work as has hrcT unnecessary
will surely be dispensed with in time
Competition does that, and we couldn't
have any better Illustration OF tho fact
that competition Is always active Here
il is potent, actually. In the case of the
glucose trust that was afraid to cncOur-
age too much competition (of other CAPT
tai and brains) by making more than sew
on per cent, 1t was active potentially.
IL is preposterous 10 say that fifty
thousand commercial travellers. or thirty
five thousand. have been thrown oui ~
work 10y the trusts. There are probably
rot sixty thousand of them in the whole
country Besides, il ten per cent OF
them have been thrown out OF work by
The various changes IN producing and lis
trbuting that have come lbou, In the last
tcw years. other causes have probably
contributed equally with Tho combination
movement Even so, and putting the
case II It's very worst the genera. i'm
prOycment IN business BE wide expan-
Sion ~ trade %. home ana abroad. which
all Of cur producers, manufacturers and
traders have helped 10 bring about, and
by which they have all inevitably profit
ed-this has put all OF those commercial
travellers back into places just as good,
or better. or will DO so. II IL inevitable
More people were employed after ma
chinery was introduced simply because
the wants Of the human race became
greater and wider every year. and these
wants had TO be supplied, and could be,
hccause things were so much cheaper.
We have taken over Porto Rico, IIa-