The sun., 1909-02-11
Observation-Disclosures
OR TEE READY-MADE MEN
WILL, GET 'EM SURE.

Taiiors I'm Cenvention Hear That They
Are IN o Fair Way TO Extinction Tin
less They Stir Their stumps-Educa.
tive Advertising Tried I'm Chicago.
The several hundred tailors who are
attending the Merchant Tailors National
Exchange Convention at the Hotel Astoi
this week are giving their attention tc
a lot OF things besides style and whether
the lapel shall have silk clear to the edge
or not On Tuesday 1t was politics anc
the tariff and various other little matters
Yesterday advertising took up a goot
deal of the time.
The matter put up to the men assem-
bled was how TO keep up with the ready
made people with their attractive pic
lures Of broad shouldered tackles and
fullbacks wearing creaseless garments
and dragging along bulldogs by slen-
der chains. talking the while to sweet
young things in Partisan millinery on a
sunny day at the country club.
%You merchant tailors.' said Herbert
Kaufman, Philadelphia, speaking before
the convention yesterday afternoon, have
arrived at a point where you must pay
dearly for your refusal to buy advertis-
ing protection in time. You have too
long relied upon your trade dignity
For years you have allowed yourselves
to be tried in the court of public opinion
without counsel. Even poor ready-made
suits can compete successfully II no one
refutes the overstatements OF their manu-
facturers.
Bit by bit your trade has been taken
from you. The tailorong business in
this country in the last twenty years and
in the last decade practically
has stood still-in an era Of great incomes
and Of enormous increase in extravaganza.
But in this generation Of spenders you
are doing well IL you do as well as did the
tailor Of 1880. You are dealing with a
lot Of old fellows and with men Of odd
and are making clothes for men
who learned the advantages Of merchant
tailoring before the ready maker started
to advertise.
There was time when no college man
could wear ready mades. but now hardly
a college man wears tailor mades, And
the son is weaving the father away from
you. NluctN DtT CtHl. Ol II1tn nOWdudJh
go TO the ready made stores for their
clothes. TheSe was a time when the
ready maker told your customer that
fifty dollars for a suit of clothes was an
imposition and that he could buy as good
a suit for twenty. Now the ready maker
is actually getting fifty dollars at retail
for suits himself.
-You have lowered your prices-in
spite Of increased cost to you--to meet
. thaa nat i'm ~ x.,k, oil
are willing to give a higher average price
for anything they desire. There is only
one way for you to reestablish your
strength and that is to meet your opponent
in the same court where he is opposing
you.
you must go into the same newspapers
that he uses and have your say where he
is having his; you must talk to the same
people and counteract the influence Of
what he Is telling them. / know Of no
way in which this can be done except
through communal work. You must got
down to the basis of cooperation, or there
won't he merchant tailor in America
ten years from now. Remember what
happened to the custom shoemakers.
You may have a better case than the
ready made man. but the customer doesn't
hear you. You talk with him only when he
comes into your store the ready made
man talks with him in his own home
through the magazines
MIR. Kaufman. IL NAV he added, is con-
nected with an advertising firm.
The same or similar conclusion was
presented to the convention by Charles
Henry Lee OF Lee, Oden 4 Co. a firm of
tailors in Providence, who characterized
the campaign waged up to the present
time by the merchant tailors as very
weak spasmodic. uncertain. inconsist-
ent and most impracticable Mr. Lee
made various suggestions toward i'm
provements covering the appearance
Of tailoring establishments stationery,
the keeping of mailing lists and the hold
ing Of local garment exhibits. and then
took up -edu cative advertising" which
the Chicago tailors. he tells us, have been
trying,
The experiment Of "educative adver-
Using the expense being horne by the
oCal tailoring interests az a whole. has
been d success. he said. Mr.. Lee, however,
believed that the national organization
was not yet sufficiently strong TO attempt
4 campaign of advertising in the maya
Zines.
The tailors who are attending the con-
iention, along with their wives. had
timer at the Astor last night. There
we're no speeches. vaudeville enter
ainment being substituted for them.
)ne hundred and fifty men and women
'at down to the dinner.