The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1909-04-01


are the man who makes that decision,
and not us ~
Now at the time this mans name
came up tor discussion. | don't pre-
sumo | could remem Der all of them,
but do remember his very yividy,
a young man CT 25 oil 26 years of age,
married within a year and halt,
flashed about a good deal with the
men Of our county who have made
their fortunes and are riding about
in $500 to $4,000 automobiles, and
thought he ought to have one stoo.
aud when he got married he went TO
California for trip. He had not
paid for the automobile nor for lot
OF other things that he was making
this four flush proposition on, and
by the time he came back from the
wedding tour the automobi was In
book A great many different things
occurred, and have not been settled
today and he knew as we'll as the
members OF the association. He did
not stay but very short time, but
but walked out. | really believe that
that IL that young man sits down In
his lone and ponders over the situa
tion that confronted him that day,
remem baIing the different mercantile
establishments in which he had appli.
ed for credit before he came to me,
and had been told that under the ex-
listing circumstances of his rating by
the credit association of the county,
that they could not extend to him any
credit that when he realized the posi-
L. ssk ka l. a vIa sal -
that 1t would be better not only for
himself, but for the community In
which he lives.
We figure that old adsge, "An ounce
Of prevention is better than pound
OF cure" is a good rule. The time
has come to great many, in which
you have lots of old accounts on your
books, and Il sy stem Of this kind-in
all probability you will not eliminate
all of them because there are great
many times that man will not allo v
his better judgment to get the better
of him snd he will extend a line of
credit that ia bad, but If a system is
followed out in the right way, there
Is net an organiZatoin within the
State of Oregon that will not pay for
itself, for Its running expenses, what
it costs you to maintain it and put it
on the basis ON which we have ours,
at least ten times over every year.
We have at present 45 regular NOM
bers, Is are what We call affiliated
members, who only take portion OF
the work. can cite you in all pro-
badly dozen illustrations in which
this system of ours, perfected as 1t is
at the present time, which Ia far from
being piefect. and In one single in.
stance out of the dozen, 1t has more
than paid for itself for the next FIVE
years to come. In one instance, just
8 an illustration, in one instance we
made saving Of Sl400 in clean cash
to the merchants of our association.
II it had not been fol- the plan under
which we organized and the system by
which we follow these things up,
within three days from the time OF
the action we took, there would have
been no security for us whatever ;
but with our cooperation the man
who was determined to beat the mer-
chants OF Umatilla county out OF that
| amount of money could have done it.
We sent two representative men to the
country for him and brought him In
and laid those hills before him and
said this must be attended to now,
you have got that security and 1T is
not going to pass from yonr hand, 1t
must be fixed. 1t was adjusted within
three hours from the time we brought
him in, we got our security up, inside
OF 30 days We had $l400 in cash. This
just simply illustrates what can be
done, time and time again, by being
able to cooperate together.
One of the difficult things OF our
OF organization, and ot yours, IL you
undertake plan of this kind-l give
this to you as an illustration because
you will run up against 1t, Is the
difficulty and the hardship of breaking
down the barrier that exists between
merchants. Now to illustrate, we
had a case a short time ago in which
the name of full blooded Indian was
handed into the association to ascer,
tain how much he owed. He had q
sale, and had not come through as he
had agreed to. He had quite a bunch
of land upon the reservation, although
not patented. We called special
meeting and found out that he owed
in the neighborhood OF $l700. There
was a man in the meeting, one of the
mem bers OF our association, who said,
81 have trusted that fellow as high al
a thousand dollars, but he always
come thi ough, some times he has beer
very slow, bat have always got it.
At that time the Indian owed that
man about $500 and he thought thai
was practically the only thing he owed
in town, but when We got all o. tb'
bills together we found that they foot
ed up Sl700 instead OF $500, and it 81
startled this fellow that he made |
declaration in that meeting, 81 hav'
always been just little bit shakl
about that account, Eut | always go
my money, but if get 1t this time /
will he the last time | will ever ex
tend line of credit to that extent t.
a full blooded Indian on the reserva
tion." We did finally get it all.
The difficulty between members G
an association in things OF that kline
Is that John Smith did not want Bol
Smith to know who he has credited
and we have had 1t to come up fla
footed In our association, time ant
time again, In the early days Ct on
association, when members would say
"what business is 1t of yours to knoS
| who | am doing business with, yo'
/ a. Il