Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1915-10-06

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to the best known methods. Polk
County, profiting by such examples,
doesn't plan to waste any money on
a, road that will have to be torn up
and destroyed if q better surface is
wanted in the future. She will
have the foundation built right and
conforming in evrey way to state
standards before she starts gravel
ing.
PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS sUc-.
The following article by Arnell in
the Des Moines Register, gives a
valuable illustration OF the methods
used by H. G. Larimer of Charlton,
to attain success. 1t deserves careful
reading by every thoughtful bust
ness man:
III. G. Larimer Of Charlton, who
does SO much clothing and haber-
dashery business in town of 1000
that the clothing manufacturers won
dered what he was doing with all
his purchases and recently sent
out to see, recently told the mem
bers and guests of the st. Joseph
Commercial club, at its mid-week
luncheon some of the principles
on. which he had erected his busl-
ness. The Gazette says:
"Larim@~ is from Charlton, Ia,
and that's a little city which last
year received 1900 carloads Of mer-
chandise, or 100000 pounds it.
self some record. 1t was disposed OF
to a satisfied patronage because OF
energetic and careful methods and
honest service rendered. 1t was ac'
complished because the merchants
and the newspapers co-operated, and
Larimer laid down the principle that
a town, to prosper, must have good
newspapers, that newspapers are
good only when they prosper, that
they prosper only when merchants
realize that to do the utmost bust
ness they must look upon adVertls-
ing as a selling factor and not as
an expense.
when Larimer began business,
he made survey Of his territory
and decided that he could sell goods
within a radius of twenty-five miles.
He was told that he was oVershoot-
ing the mark by ten or twelve
miles. He proved that his estimate
was correct. He is lavish In his
use Of newspaper advertising space.
and he SUPPLEMENTS this with a care
fully classified mailing list of 5000
names.
when the associated retailers
wanted to test out Larimer's theor-
les as to business, he suggested that
typical Iowa town be chosen and
the experiment carried on there.
Hamilton. a town OF $500, was Sc
lected. In six months the business
was increased 81 per cent. 1t was
done in a perfectly logical way,
without fireworks. incidentally, the
newspapers increased from eight to
twelve-page issues to issues OF thlr-
ty-two pages. And there were two
newspapers.
advertising creates a demand,
and it brings the demand home, he
said. He cited the case where To-
cal merchants were selling $4,000
worth Of a known brand of merchan-
disc while $3.50 worth was coming
into the territory through mail order
houses at the same price with freight
added He said it would be per-
fectly silly to believe that the peo-
pie would have gone to the extra
trouble and expense if they had
known that the home merchants
handled the goods.
HE cited the DUPONT Powder
company as an instance Of profit
able. ,advertising, when it created s
demand for dynamite for farming,
and brought the price down at the
same time from rs cents to s1.25 a
pound to Is IL cents, and made that
s$c o.
profitable in its list before the war
began"
The Gazette quotes him as saying:
The merchant who doesn't adVer-
tice his wares and thus increase his
'turnovers," necessarily must charge
! larger profit, because he has few
er of them.
The peddler with his pack on his
pack represents 100 per cent person
Atty in business, but it is the man
who uses all means at hand and in
,reases his power of advertising, land
better methods who Is the better and
more successful merchant.
There is nothing to this mail or
Ter bugaboo. What if one mail order
house does $1OO,O0O,OOO worth Of
business a year? That represents
,nly as much business as is done
n a half dozen or SO counties IN
me corner of Iowa.
Every catalogue mail order house
sends out educates the public to need
more merchandise and the local
merchant gets his share OF the
rade resulting.
A community grows in proportion
vs. it's newspapers and business in
erests cooperate. A newspaper
ant help community much until
t prospers.
The retailer is the most import
mt link in the chain of merchan-
Using, and the jobber is as essen
ial to merchandising as is the clear
ng house to banks.
The high cost Of living will be
;olved only by the adoption of bet
er business methods.
The percentage Of profit that must
" charged is figured not on the
lass of articles, but on the number
# times the stock can be turned
,vor, i. e., how many times a year
he stock may be sold out.
Forty million people in the United
States buy their merchandise IN
owns of 1000 or less. That doesn't |
ook as if the small town will have
o 60 out of business, does 1t?
The Camel.
When man first saw the camel, he |
was so frightened at his vast size that |