The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-05-01
r,b of shoes than p,ttsburg. Pa, and

worth of shoes than Pittsburg. Pa, ana
Wheeling, w. Va, combined. Hlchmond
bought and sold more cases or shoes aiu
more dollars worth Of shoes than Knox.
vile, Tenn, and Cleveland, o.. combined.
Richmond received and paid for and sold
more cases and more dollars worth Of
shoes than Knoxville, Tenn. Memphis
Tenn. Charleston. S. c., and Savannah
Ga. combined @ Richmond received and
sold more cases and more dollars worth
of shoes than Cincinnati, o., and Roches-
ter, N. y, combined. Richmond bought
and sold more dollars worth OF shoes than
the entire state of Georgia. twice as
many as the whole State Of West VIZ
GINA and twice as many as the whole
state of kentucky. Ut8does not even
consider Louisville as a competing mar
let.) Richmond received and sold 80 l-a
per cent more shoes than Baltimore.
Richmond received and sold within per
cent. Of as many shoes IN dollars and
cents as tho city of Philadelphia. and IN
less ali the signs Of the times shall prove
deceptive sl1o will this year receive and
sell and ship more than Philadelphia
taking fourth place IN the list OF Whole
sale cities of the United States. II any
body sees proper to dispute these state
ments, Just bring out the figures.
The Big Five.
The i've greatest shoe distributing
points Of the United States are as follows
and they leadi~in the order named: 81.
Louis, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia
Richmond This. Of course, does not IN
clude Boston,. which in this connection IS
not regarded as distributing point in
the sense i'll which distributing points
are now being discussed. Boston Is a
distributing point for tho whole world.
II distributes to the distributors That Is
to say. it supplies the distributors. bos-
ton does not sell to retailers as many
| dollars worth of shoes per annum as
Richmond or Of any OF the leading mar
| kets mentioned above.
How Richmond Does 1t.
Richmond's unparalleled railroad facili-
| ties. with the advantages of the trunk
| lines, as have already been mentioneo,
| give 1t a vast territory, having an az
I vantage over that territory which no com-
| peting points can overcome. This thing
has been tried. At least three Western
markets have. within the past few years,
| endeavored to invade Richmond's terri
| tory. For some unaccountable reason
| they have conceived the idea that Rich
| mond was q kind -of sleepy old town,
! ana all they had to do was to march into
| It's territory and pick up the cream or
| the trade. Those markets are wiser now.
! Wherever their representatives went they
4 found a Richmond man there ahead OF
| them and they found that Richmond
/ men had the advantages to oiter 10 me
| retailer that they could not overcome
I advantages in quick transportation, ad-
| yantapes in quick mail facilities, advant-
! ages in freight rates. This stands to
reason. and is easily explained. AS be-
| fore indicated, the shoes of the WORTH
| come from New England. They must be
| shipped from there first, no matter what
! may be the geographical position of the
| distributing point. No Western market
can compete with Richmond's water
! transportation In the matter of incoming
] freights. No market on the map of the
4 United States can compete with Rich
! mond in the Southern territory In the
matter of outgoing freghts because OF
| the advantages of its great trunk lines.
Richmond On It's Metal.
! This attempt of the Western dealers to
| invade Richmond's legitimate territory
| not only met with failure, but It raised
the dander" of the Richmond jobbers
! put them on their metal, made them alri-
bilious to conquer new worlds, aroused
them to realization OF the fact tina.
they had water transportation and freight
advantages that did not conflne them 10
any pent-up Utica, and they commenced
to retaliate. They branched out into
Western territory that they had not
heretofore thought Of invading. and the
result pr that threatened Western com
petition was to enlarge Rchmonds trade
territory. At least two of the great job
bling houses of Richmond are now trav-
cling men as far West rs the western
border of Arkansas and Indian Territory,
! into the Southwest as far as Northern
| Texas Louisiana and all over Alabama
and Mississippi and they are selling
goods right under the nose OF st. Louis.
| asking Cincinnati and louisville M odds
| at all. and, as for Atlanta and some
other points, they hardly know that
| they are on the map.
The fact OF the business is, the Rich