The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-10-29

corps of clerks who do not treat d
mans customers right viii soon teaI
down his business, a corps that
treat customers fairly win build q
business
Commission System.
mo, sir; no more of this spiff sys
tenn for me, OF course, can see
where the commission system is bet
ter-that u.s. If YOU give the same per
centage of commissions on all sales
That would enable the clerk still to
be honest with the customer and al
! the same time sell him higher priced
goods which Is never a disadvantage
| to the person who buys them
Well, now, that strikes me as be-
| ing a very good idea, remarked Hoov-
| er, thoughtfully This had never come
| to me and am going to adopt that
/ system In my business. | believe, too.
/ II ! had very large trade like the
man YOU spoke of, Watkins, | should
not only pay commission on sales
but | would give an additional COM
mission for the sale of goods above a
| certain standard
! ITO be sure, should adopt the sys.
tenn Of the other man you spoke OF,
who calls his clerks together and has
4 sort of a school Ii seems to me that
combination OF these three ideas,
backed up with plenty Of capital, and
with giving the clerks reputable mer-
chandise to sell, would build bigger
any retail business in America"
Faults of Many Clerks.
And this boozing that's another
thing. | believe really that this comes
about because a great many clerks be-
come respondent They get their lit
tie Sl2 or SIS a week and they see
the same amount coming In year after
year and no advance. They have no
stimulus during The week with each
sale they make, and that keeps them
from taking an interest in the bust
ness. TO make a clerk interested in
your business, make him interested
in every sale Instead OF growing de-
spondent, stealing, knocking down ana
boozing, a clerk should feel that he
has future just as much as any other
man. There are lots of men in bust
ness who intend, after awhile to re-
tire from business-perhap not alto
gether but by degrees-who would
like TO have some one to put in a 1t
tie money with them, and give the
business their attention Who is the
man they win first look for to take
an INTEREST," Not some stranger-but
the man he knOws-the man who has
been in his eye all the time-the man
ne can trust
The clerk should not grow despond-
ent and steal and booze-but instead
Of that, he should take a vital inter-
81 in the business. knowing that each
attention and hard work and honesty
are sure to bring him material reward
as we'll as a good conscience.
u believe the greatest fault with
clerks is that they haven't enough
nerve. To be sure, to be clerk on a
salary, it matters not how much that
salary may be, should not be the final
goal Of any young man. 1t should be
10 become a proprietor himself Now.
for example, ! know of one young man
who for 20 years worked for one es-
Enlistment He was a splendid sales
man, strictly honorable and all that,
but one day he had a Touchdown,
drag out scrap with the buyer in his
department The buyer was thought
well of by tie head of the house and
this young clerk knew it. In fact he
felt so ashamed of himself for get
ting into the brawl that he rendered
Mis- resignation. He was asked 10 keep
around here any more He was a
married man. too. and had a couple
of children. He had saved a couple OF
thousand dollars or so. He thought
that he would work for some other
firm. All at once he said to himself,
I am not making any progress even
if | do find another place. / have
$4,000 here and I'm going to sink that
81 900 before go 10 work for anybody
else, and ! am going to have a BUSH +
ness OF my own. He talked the thing
over with his wife and she had nerve
enough to tell him 10 go ahead.
This was in the city OF ST. Louis. F
That man went downtown and rented .
a room for S12 a month. He went TO .
New York and bought a little line u
goOds-gpecial patterns in dry goods. 1
lie sent out cards inviting those whom .
he had known and others to come in /
and see his dress goods. Think of IL! +
Asking the bon-ton of st. Louis TO
come and see dress goods in a room
that cost Sl2 a month But he did it.
These ladies began TO ask him where
they could get these dresses made up.
Then he got few dressmakers 10
take an adjoining room. Business be-
gan to boom. IL then struck him that
the thing TO do was to pay these
salary and profit by
their work. His next step was to buy
a few first-class ready-made garments.
He started his little shebang on the
fourth floor Of a little building on
Broadway. In two years he had done
so well that he moved 10 the second
story Of a building on Olive street
Worlds fair year this man rented a