Arizona republican., 1906-02-20


 could have if there was less numerical 1 and stronger mental competition. ' Because the customer comes to the 1 salesman, and because the salesman l does not have to go to the customer | the department store salesman neeG | not possess so high grade of sales manship as is necessary to the success | of the travelling salesman or drummer | Consequently less capacity of ability is necessary to fair success behind the | counter than to success upon the road. For this reason, many young men, who do not know what thy want to do. l who have little ambition, and who are not particularly industrious, enter 1 the department store where they are reasonably sure of a livelihood. ! Comparatively few of these young men ever get more than a few dol | lars increase in their salaries. At the
 end of ten or twenty years they are about where they were at the start.
 But the ambitious young man, the one with ability, industry, and ambition, | is sure to rise in the department store
 as rapidly as he would under many other environments, and to reach ta | time his proper place; although the department store may not give the young man of much ability as wide an | opportunity for advancement, nor for as rapid advancement as is presented to him in the wholesale house or upon the road.
 Certainly, the department store is the best place for a young man to enter if he is without active ambition and is reasonably industrious and Jf ordinary capacity. If he is much more than these, 1t will be well for him to consider some other entrance into bus mess, not with prejudice to the de- partment store but with a preference. perhaps. in some other direction. l have been referring to the city boy. not to the country boy.
 I would not advise the country boy
 to go to the great city to enter one of it's department stores, unless there is positive evidence that there is no opportunity in the town of his birth or in some nearby towns.
 The country store, which in mary cases is a department store, offers the average country boy better opportunity than does the great city department store. True, the country store, whether it be a department store or not will never pay the salaries paid to the managers and heads of departments of great city department stores. The city department store, financially. is way above that of the country store; but half way to the top, and almost | anywhere between the top and the bottom, the country store offers moro to the country boy, everything con-
 sidered, than does the city department store, or any other city store, for that matter.
 A boy of ordinary ambition, with or
 dinary industry, is more likely to find his proper place in the country than he is in the city. The boy of tremend- ous capacity and with unlimited ann bitiOn may be better off in the city department store, for there he will quickly rise to the top or close to the top, and become a business giant, a commander of men and things; but while this same ability, and this same ambition, if allowed to develop in the country, will not bring the young man ! so large an amount of money, they will bring him money enough and far more of solid comfort and of those things which make men men.
 I, therefore. would not advise the country boy to come to the great city with the intention of entering the de- pertinent store, Or any other city store, unless he has exausted the opportun- ities of his home town and of the neighboring towns. Then. if there be nothing for him at home or near home, he may have reasonable excuse for coming to the city; and when in the city, the department store certainly | offers him some opportunities, and more than most other kinds of retail stores, and less. probably than some other classes of business
 The city department store is a greae
 machine, run by machine methods; and
 each clerk, yes, even the head clerk, is but a screw. or bolt, or wheel, or spring of that gigantic engine. For l this reason ones individuality is not much in evidence, and it takes a long | time for ability to be recognized. This is both an advantage and a
 disadvantage to the boy just starting into business life. To be a part of a
 great machine gives him the mos. strenuous kind of discipline, the grade of discipline which is fair and which i plays no favorites. This discipline may be of inestimable value to the boy, and
 no other place offers this discipline in larger quantity or better quality than does the department store. Then, even if the boy is only mediocre, he will probably remain a self supporting part of the machine just so long as he desires to stay; but, if he has more than ordinary capacity, his ability will sooner or later be recognized, and he
 will become an officer in the firm, a
 head salesman, a department manager, a buyer. or will occupy some other official and executive position.
 have no sympathy with the hue
 and cry which is continually rising
 from the counter, and which has for
 years and years been but one wall of dissatisfaction. The claim that the department store clerk has no opportu-
 nity rests upon the basest misrepre-
 sentation. No great business machine
 no matter how large and how compli-
 cated, can refuse to recognize, sooner i or later, that which is out of the ordinary and commanding quality 1 This recognition may come more slow
 ly to tie department store clerk than it does to the travelling salesman or drummer; it may not be so prompt as