The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1909-04-01
BENEFITS OF A
LOCAL CREDIT RATING

IVOIALs 6NGUtE MIh alu0
The following paper by the secretary
of the Pendleton Business Mems AS
sociation was lead at the meeting of
the Hood River Business Mems As
sociation, and is OF such general inter
est tibet We repI oduce it, as follows:
1htrs is not year goes by in the
lives OF my CT you who are nut in
the retail business but that at the
close of it, even though the year may
De a prosperous one not only il sales
that you have made, but in the pre-
fits as we'll, but when you come to
take inventory. and then glance up
and down your ledger to determine in
your own miud as far as possible how
10 ny of the accounts that you have
there are not ctable--many of
yon who are here today that have
been in business for number of
years, il you have been accurate in
your calculations and kept close
tab each year of accounts that have
charged off TO profit and loss and
that in the subsequent years follow
ing that charging Oft have never been
collected-many Of you would be able
to spend this season of the year in
southern sunny climate of California
or Florida.
This proposition was the key note
of the bringing about OF Credit As-
socistion in Umatilla County. The
men composing the different business
firms got tired of the proposition of
charging off certain amount OF their
nd mi m
deavored by a cooperative PROPOSE
tion to forestall portion OF that class
of business
Now | will say as premise, that
there must be desre in the mind
and in the heart of the men of com,
munity or county oil district for an
association of that kind. Then, when
you have arrived at that Conclusion,
gather together all the different ele-
NETS of the different firms and dit
ferent accounts of the business COM
munity into an association to bring
about these results.
We started out with membership
of about 80, little did we dream when
We laid the plans and the foundation
for it the amount of work that was
behind it, and those of our represent
atives who are here today think will
verify the statement that there would
not ave been the amount of enthusi-
asm displayed at the opening If we
had known how much work it was 60
ing to take. We started out by get
ting every name that we possibly
could in our county, taking the names
from the assessment roll, from the
polling books, and from the individ-
ual ledgers of the members of the as
sociation. When we had succeeded in
50 far as possible In gathering the
names and compiling them In alpha
betcal order, and in the districts,
towns and communities In which they
lived, which | wish to assure you was
no easy task, and developed an i'm
mense amount of work, but which was
the smallest OF anything that We
undertook, then we started in COM
pilng BradstIeet or Dun OF that list.
This little book represents about nine
weeks, three times week, from 30
In t 9 evening, many times until II
o'clock, of from l5 to % of us, and at
the close of this we had one repre-
sentative meeting in which there we're
about 40 merchants there helping and
assisting in the rating OF these ditter-
ent people. We have between five and
six thousand names in this list, aud
we have Iated them On a graded scale.
Firtt comes rating of B, which is a
r,an who Ia possessed of good por-
ticn of this worlds goods, in the way
Of real estate coupled with the fact
that when he tells John Jones that on
the first day of February he will
settle for this bill of goods he has
bought, that he is there the first day
of February and meets his obligations
promptly.
lhe second rating is a rating of l.,
and may be composed OF two classes
of people, a man may either be pos
sesed of real estate, or he may either
not be possessed of real estate, but a
man who at any time tells you he viii
meet bin will meet it, or, if not
possessed OF real estate, that you can
collect it from him whether he tells
you that he will or won't at any time.
These are the two classes that we term
good people, and we rate them all.
John Smith may possibly come into
your place and want bill of goods,
and you might have in your assucis
tion what We would term bad list,
you might write to other associations
in the state and they would say John
Smith was not on the bad list, and
you will say hat John Smith ought
10 he good, as he is not on the bad
li.t; but we epdeavor to know who
every body is, whether he lie good,
bad or Indifferent, and by constantly
compiling, weekly, and monthly, and
bo Ne
sition of that kind, we cannot &c
wrong, we cannot get away from it.
Our third rating is 2, man who l.
Just little bit slow for line OF cred
it, and lust drops under the scale,
You might possibly trust him, but Il
you do you want to watch him very
closely The next rating 3, no credit
at all. Don't take second thought
of the situation. Then we have {
marking of what We call 9, mar
comes II sud does some business with
Won AID rays cash, that is all yor
know of him, he buys few dollart
worth OF this, aud few dollars wortf
OF that, and pays cash. Under exist
ing circumstances, unless you know
more about the man, he is not entitled
to any credit at all.
Now in printing this book there j
printed page and blank page, tba
for the addition, monthly or semi
monthly, as you please, of any neV
names that may come into the com
munity, SO we offset this book becom
ing old the day after it Is printed, !
is never old, it Is new all of the time
and We keep it right up to date.
We have our meetings at least ono
month, and some times, should th
circumsl auces require, ottener, A
these meetings the names of all of th
people who have drifted in during tn
interim are taken into consideration
and as the names are read, the dues
tion is as to the msn's ability TO pay
aud the consensus of opinion Of tha
association determines what IL sha