Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-01-14


Cost of article .......................S $3.50
Cash discount at 2 per cent. ...O5
Quantity discount at 3 per cent. 1215
discounts -.-.........-.........-1712 .171a
NeI cost .................-.-....... 23272
Selling price to YOU...............s6 $500
Our profit ........................S S. 671A
You can see for yourself that when
! was making such profits it was but
natural that l should deem it proper
to spend the money on trips to Europe
and up the Nile, etc. Of course, l
had plenty of money to spend. Even
way back when the concern was in
its infancy I always made big money.
And it made no difference what the
financial barometer said about the
money market. I was not bothered by
bank failures nor by financial stringen-
cies. I did not have to borrow any
money. Of course not. You fur
nished it.
Good gracious, if you had fur
nished your local merchants with the
cash you sent to me, in advance, they
would all be millionaires, now, in
stead of plodding along trying to make
both ends meet.
Take it, for instance, that you sent
me an order for lot of things includ-
ing hardware. Did you ever wonder
why the hatchets and hammers and
other tools broke so easily or would
not keep an edge? Did you wonder
why the locks became broken and out
of order? Did you wonder why moth
ing would work just as it should?
Your dealer in your own town buys
goods that he feels sure will give
service and be satisfactory. If not
you can make him give you a dupli-
cate that will fill the bill But he
is a different proposition. He has to
be right there in his store to meet you
face to face while my concern is a
long ways off.
In groceries, too. 1t was my GUS
tom to buy UP what we call Job lots"
of any merchandise whatever. If a
merchant went broke and went into
bankruptcy l used to bid on his stock.
| would buy it, for cash, for all the
way from fifteen cents to forty or fifty
cents on the dollar. He always want
ed cash and was willing to sacrifice
his goods at any price. Then I would
take this stuff and parcel it out. All
was fish that came to my net. I would
offer some old junk that he had kept
on his shelves for many years, as spe-
cial bargains, and would quote descrip-
lions as though the stuff were new,
and yet make a price that sounded
low. l would call an article valued
at" say IS, and price it at $3.50. 1t
would have cost US about half a dollar
or perhaps less.
Cases of tomatoes, corn, fruit and
other canned goods were my specially.
Many and many time have l dug up
from the cellar or from the back of
the shelves of some old merchant
whom I bought out for cash at a very
small price, a lot of old cans, buIged
out, and rusted and looking as if they
had been there for years. And they
had, probably I would set a boy to
WIN NASaA1AlIS anu pOIloll1uS luSSS
cans and then I would paste new la
bells on them. Sometimes there were
no labels and then l could have a lot
of fun deciding what labels to put on
them. There were many surprises in
store for those who bought such stuff
at a bargain" I would paste new
labels on such cans as l could not tell
the contents of, and ship them out to
our customers.
Sugar, that had become wet, and
which l had to break up with an ak,
salt the same, prunes full of worms,
corn meal alive with reaches, salt
fish strong enough to float a ship,
flour and crackers filled with vermin-
yes, I bought all sorts of stuff and
sold it at a great profit
And clothing-there's where made
some of my greatest profits, for the
clothing I sold, in a majority of in
stances, was made by half-grown Jew
ish girls and boys in what are known
to the trade as ''sweatshops."
The vest 1 sold as a part Of your
suit was probably cut by a sweating
young Jew from Russia, who cannot
speak more than a half dozen words
of our language He cuts them out in
lots, pile of cloth a foot deep and he
cuts them with q big knife that looks
more like a straw or hay knife-the
kim you use to cut hay out of a stack
with. It's the same way with the
coats and trousers.
Then these pieces of cloth are sewed
together by perspiring young Jew
esses. They get few cents for sew
ing a vest. Another gets a few pen
MES for putting in the pockets. An
other gets a similar amount for sew
ing on a collar, etc. All this work is
done by the dozen. So many cents
per dozen.
The coatmakers are generally men,
but some shops have women because
they are cheaper. Most of the work is
done right there in the shop so an
inspector can watch the poor sweat
ing men and girls at work and keep
them speeded up. The poor slaves
who sew the garments I sold have
never placed a hand on well-dressed
man nor worn a well-ftting garment
themselves.
It's the same with the cloaks and
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