The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-16

X ER. ALEXANDER EDGAR looks MI upon salesmanship as one of " 4 the most important branches of American life. as 1t is. Some day when the educators come to see it as he does there will be courses in salesmanship in every high school. every college and ev- cry university in the land. He has preached salesmanship, taught sales panship. Today, broadly speaking, 1t costs almost as much to sell goods as it does to make them. In some depart ments of industry the cost of selling >Siat Is. from the making of the goods --is far in excess of the cost of man. ufacturing. Such a condition Is ab- surd It restricts production, curtails consumption and being wrong, must be corrected. In no place in the world Is the cost of selling so high proportion ately as in America. This is owing to extravaganza, waste, irgnorance. Slowly but surely conditions are being i'm proved.
 There was a time when craft, con vitality and graft played large parts in selling. Soundnes and honesty count far more today. The real salesman, how ever, has to have other qualifications besides soundness and honesty. He must know how to present them most attractively to each and every kind of buyer. To do this he necessarily must be student of men and be able to get their minds in tune with his. Psych- ology enters to a great degree in ths success of salesmanship. The real salesman studies psychology until he masters the real system of mental pro- cess. Once In long time a real sales man Is born. but e9 times out of 100 or 99e times out of 1000 the real salesman is thee development of earnest anplica tion and study-the same earnest an plication and study that win in the law. in medicine. and in other branches of endeavor.
 Some persons think any on. wit, cheek and fluent tongue is fitted for saiesmanship. The real salesman rare- ly Is glib. He seldom says a word foo much. He is intellectual. not saseous He Is gentleman, not an inpudent self-sufficient creature
 Edgar probably has done as much as any one man in the United States to raise the standard of salesmanship. There is q bit of the evangelist about him. He is a most entertaining conversationalist, and has fine vein of humor Most teachers are prosy. He is not. He has force im- agination and the rower to stir the emo tons of men. Whether he talks to a group of veteran salesmen or to recruits about to enter the ranks nf the vast army ei coflHeFclaI travellers he can arouse an enthusiasm and develop a spirit that would astonish a person who did not ap- preciate how deep a sentimental influence there really is in every business
 But even great teachers like Edgar make mistakes. Through one of the con- monest of errors he lost one of the best of his accounts. It was in the days when. Tn addition to experimenting the manu- factory, he was the salesman of a New England brassware house. One of his most valued customers was a Pittsburg glass manufacturer. Glass men are large buyers of brass goods. Bottles must have stoppers. Lamp chimneys must have hold CTS. A thousand and one products of the glass factories require brass attachments
 Between the salesman and the buyer of the glass company there was a most kind ly feeling. They had much in common They were men of high principles, clean living and alert to most of the things of interest in life. Of warm impulse and keen minds, they discussed subjects of every character and kind. In nothing were they in more accord than in regard to salesmanship. The glass man delighted in hearing the New Englander lay bare