Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-02-13
ALL ARE ON RECORD
Over Ten Thousand Names in
Retail Merchants Rating
Book.
THEIR CREDIT STANDING Is GIVEN
Daily Bulletins to Be Issued to
Keep the Business Man
Posted.

AO LdLlAS OOOA bn6b AAo OOoe II. u .
Burns. rating book secretary of the
Rock Island Retail Merchants associa-
ton, so many months of painstaking
labor, is now in the hands of the bind
ers. and will soon be ready for the
mem bers of the association. When
completed it viii appear in the form
of a neatly bound volume ski inches
in size, with leather back and cloth
sides. Its title will be Rock Island
Retail Merchants Association Direc-
tory and Rating Book 1t will con-
tain about 100 pages with so names on
a page. or nearly IL. 600 in all. Be-
sides the rating of each person, there
will be given the address and occupa-
ton. These follow the name on the
same line, and further to the right of
each name will be six columns for the
ratings. The mum bers set opposite
each name show the number of rat
ings, and the column in which each is
placed indicates the credit standing of
the individual Taken in order, be-
ginning at the left. the columns mean,
perfectly good" prompt pay"
.'slow, but safe to credit 'tpays.
but risky" "honest, but not safe
If the same person is rated by differ
ent business men in different columns
each rating is shown. Each person
named is rated from one to 81 times.
Explanation OF SYSTEM.
The first 10 pages of the book are to
be set apart for the preface, explana-
tions and other preliminary matter,
and the bylaws of the association.
In the back of the book there will be
space for corrections.
The upwards of 10000 names the
work will contain will cover practic-
ally all the persons who trade in Rock
Island, of course including only heads
of families and those who buy for
their own use; and will cover an area
many miles out in the country tribu-
tary to Rock Island. With the COR
rectiops and alterations of another
season MIR. Burns is confident there
will be several hundred more names
added and the accuracy will be even
greater than in the present issue.
By footing up the columns in which
the ratings are put it is possible to
arrive at the exact proportion OF good
and poor pay customers who trade in
this city. In this manner Mr.. Burns
has found that the percentage OF those
who do not make a practice of pay
ing for anything they are credited for
is astonishingly large, so large, in fact,
that IL is difficult to see how any one
can survive in business without
some reliable means of knowing who
is deserving of credit, and especially
after the majority OF business men
have such means.
Books to be Closely Guarded.
The ratings are in all cases those of
business men themselves. and they
will be open to correction at all
times. There is little chance for mis-
representation on account of the
number of ratings on each individual,
and as the books will be strictly
guarded there will be no opportunity
for the individual TO know his exact
standing.
The daily bulletins which 60 with
the system will be a valuable aid to
the merchant. They will consist of
court proceedings. real estate trans
fers and other matters tending to
affect the standing of individuals.
They will be gotten out each evening
by the rating book secretary and de-
livered to each member in a sealed
This will tend to keep
in closer touch with the
varying fortunes of their customers
and with each other.