The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1911-09-14
Organization In
Business.
Vol. XIV No. 6.
By F. J. I.

The old saying that business is
business" is, on the whole, rather
indefinite, as an all-embracing con-
clusion. but beyond changing the
expression to read as shown in title,
/ shall make no comment. Instead,
/ shall proceed with my subject by
asking these two questions: Do you
want to get inn on a big business
proposition? Should you care to
build up your business so that it
would bring in the right kind of re-
turns put the dime and the dollar
where they belong; in your, and
hence, your community's pocket?
Fact is, Mr.. Business Man, your
business needs organization, an d
needs it no7O, that is, if you desire
to be there when the call is sound
ed for a division Of the profits.
CThis is, perhaps, humorously put,
nevertheless, / am quite serious about
this matter).
Heretofore, you have, of course,
fought, but you also have lost, even
though each of the many small,
home-centered newspapers have
cried out with and for you, in the
interest of home industries. They
have preached the gospel of patron
age of home industries, and you have
done your best to make attractive
such as you reasonably could COM
pass of the trades supply toward
meeting that trades demand, with
the result that you have had to meet
an extra heavy expense, through adj
vertising, and other forms Of bust
ness publicity, and, instead of re-
gaining through steadied profit,
your years totals. show an over
amount in the loss column Of profit
and loss'' account.
1t is surprising. sometimes, when
one sees the mole hill take on''
the proportions of a mountain, or,
the fortune to be won or lost on the
turn of card" But no matter
how large the business may be, how
manifold its technical parts, when
one is given the great key" and
shown, in a general way, how to APP
ply it. how simple it all becomes.
This entire article is but a rough
sketch of the thoughts relating to
the subject, and selected atSrandom.
If we don't, we ought, by this
time to know what the big mail
.order houses have done to our local
trade, and consequently, where that
much needed profit accruing from
the labor in the home industries has
gone. 1t has been, AID is, the bane
to progress and prosperity for the
home merchant; and because it
strikes at the real source of the le-
gitimate revenues from the producer
in our midst, it has pulled down to
the lowest ebb that fundamental
monetary strength upon which de-
ponds proper developing for each
marketable necessity within our sew
eral communities. This fact has
brought forth more protest on the
part of the merchant and, subse-
quently, through loss in advertise
ments, the strongest pleas on the
part of the various local publications
calling for patronage of home indus
tries. And both are justified.
Just let us consider for a moment
the following: Here is a merchant
who expends large Cor smalD sum
of money fitting up building in
which to carry on his business, but
who, after an outlay for fixtures, a
trip or more to some of the large
wholesale establishments, expense OF
shipment. and for goods, with clerk
hire and other incidentals. finds that
his prospective customers are, and
have for sometime, been ordering
the larger proportion of their goods
from mail-order houses. Obviously,
if he can't sell his goods to you, he
can not in return buy yours. Ode
tails covering this point deferred to
some later period).
But with plan such as l propose,
this condition would alter, and while