Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1914-07-07
CLAFLIN FAILURE RESULT or BAD
MANAGEMENT.

The Claflin failure was the result az
bad management and disregard ~ econ.
|omic law and not of bad times. The teS.
timony il that the dry goods trade
throughout the country has been good
the present year.
No concern. no matter how big. can
oppose successfully revolutionary
-ranet' that como III trade. In is day
the house ~ T. II. C1aflin K Company
was the greatest i'm America and posSib-
~ IN the world In the dry goods iobbing
line. It's customers were spread through
out The continent. Its business was i'm
menSe. The advent of the department
store marked the development of 4 new
era. The jobber was doomed. The Olaf
Inns stuck To jobbing until u large share
of their trade had gone and many other
iobbing houses had withercd and decay
ed Then, suddenly. n most radical change
would be- both wholesaler and retailer.
II would creatc business for It's whole
sale need hv buying control Of great re-
tail stores throughout the country. One
would feed the other and. in addition. III.
II. tlaflin 4 Company would still supply
such Of itS great army of customers of
old ~ remained. This number was con
siderable for the prestige of the name of
tlaflin was the highest.
Ia the control Of p or - department
stores scattered bet wecn the Atlantic
and Pacific the ClaflinS saw large econ
oiricS ia distribution and in various
ether channels but never considered n
factor that j. Of prime Importance in
the dry goods trade. and that is.-human
nature.
a man who owns a business gives 10
II an amount Of attention and direction
limited only by his talents. In n large
degree ID reflects personality. When that
man mergeS his business into n corpora.
alton such rs the United Dry Goods he
may b. delighted with the price he gets
for surrcndering control. flattcred with
the confidence shown i'm his ability by
retaining him T. the head Of the store
and honest and sincere in his purpose Of
giving Ia the corporation the full meas
ure Of his time and energy. hut he lacks
the impulse that stirred him before. Con
sciously or unconS'ionsyl he undcrg0es
a change. lie never acts and thinks a. he
fore but rs a part of the machine. He
has lost one of the great forces Of life
ambition.
In the Claflin chain of stores men once
masters Of their establishments. keen
10 bnying. alert in noticing the changing
TASTES and inclination of their customers
patient ia serving the public and ever
waichful Of the financing II their bust
ness. found that a fair share of their
stock was apportioncA 10 them ut prices
determined on 1t headquarters. They sold
the stuff. but not with the interest or
spur that they did in other DAYS. In H.
~nancial matters they were relieved Of
worry. Their notes were secured by On
dorscmcnt Of the corporation. They had
less to bother about on that score. and
naturally they were not so careful.
The economies Of the machine were
less than the wastes Of the machine.
4 system built up to maintain the
middlcman ia dry goods merchandising
after the incxorable laws Of custom had
~ - HN~NAh@ VI IL hltAftAtNiaAi
was bound 10 fail.
The obligations Of the claflin con
Germs are scattered 80 widely the loans
being distributed among from 1000 to
5000 banks. that they form no element
Of danger. The only thing 10 fear is that
che tremendous stocks held Nv the com
panies may be- sacrificed. This fear is
remote. for powerful interests are FER
tain 90 protect them.
There il a lesson for the department
store in this Claflin collapse. The de
partmcnt store has its limitat ions. The
specially store is making Roadway grad
ually but steadily. Merchandising IL re-
turning more 10 the old level of person
nj rather than machine service. The drift
Of trade i toward the smaller rather
Than fl.4 lurunF aNfnllfNhnnnf-