Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-19
tchant. "They are the best test of labor
conditions. When labor is all right

conditions. When labor is all right
the country is all right"
He has speciality counter in his
store. When the old man of some
| thousands of Buffalo homes was out
| of work. or feared he might be out of
work. or had just gone back to work.
| the pie pan market showed a distinct
| ly bearish tendency. The housewife
did not buy pans under such condi-
| TONS She was certain to regard a
| battery of new pie pans AS an indie
| feasible luxury. But when the old ma IN
had plenty of work. and advertise
| had plendty of work, and advertise
ments were appearing in the papers
for more men every now and then, the
| housewife cast off her battered and
discolored utensils. The old mans pie
| came on the table in a shimmering new
| pan.
| It's the truth" said the manager of
one of Buffalo's most important in
dustries. The pie pan test told the
| truth about the labor market. A few
| months ago I could get men to stay on
the job day and night. Nowadays
get sheaf of sick reports every morn
ing. The men aren't sick. It's just
an easy way of taking days vacation
see bunch of my husky invalids clap
| ping their hands off at a matinee 1
know that prosperity has come"
| Buffalo was helped through the low
|
it of her men. There are signs here
| of an unusual. spirit of corporation
| When Jones hears of an order that he
cannot handle he passes it on to Smith
The chamber of commerce acts as a
| selling agent for the whole community.
1t gets scores of inquiries daily about
| this article or that. The member of
the chamber gets the first benefit. But
If he cannot fill the bill. then some
other Buffalonian is given the next
! chance, and next some other manufac-
! turer on the Niagara frontier, and only
| when necessity drives is that inquiry
| permitted to get out of the district
They're a militant lot, these Buffalo
men.
We'll" said salesman calling on
the export manager Of one of the big
| concerns. same old bunch, see. Same
old town Same old weather. Nothing
And Then
4 'sit down." said the export manager.
splintering one leg Of the chair by the
force with which he passed it, "sit
down. Buffalo is
Whereupon he rammed facts about
Buffalo into that salesman until the
latters air Of amused incredulity be-
gan to turn to one of awe.
And now get out" said the export
and sell goods to me-not If l know
| it"
Don't think that story was not spread
among the selling fraternity.
Fortunately for Buffalo during the
slump several of the important manu-
facturers had begun to take a live in
! terest in our export trade. In one case
an export manager was employed four
years ago. The company had never
done any export business The new
|
| ing the situation. When he began SELL
ing he> knew more about export con-
d1tlons than many men who have been
in the trade all their lives
1T was a godsend urine seven
months OF the worst industrial de-
PRESTON" he said. speaking of his
company's export trade TT kept our
factory going on pretty nearly full
| time"
! Due. of course. to the war"
| Not due to the war;" he contradict
| ed, emphatically Due to bustIinp
Our strongest competitors are English
| nrms. and they have fought US harder
during the war than ever in time of
peace One of our best markets ia in
| Australia and New Zealand, and we
| have had to sell there through our Ca
madam agents, because of the anti
! American feeling that has been aroused
Domestic Business Good.
This man says his domestic trade was
never so good, nor were prospects
ahead ever so flattering. The so-called
| barometric lines-meats, foundry prod
ucts, flour and grist, etc-at the time
of inquiring were all better than the
previous best. The dry goods store
I that serves the silk stocking" trade
of Bunalo reports that 1915 was better
than 1919, and 1914, for an unexplained
reason, was the best in the history of
| the store. Another dry goods store
which serves a less exclusive class of
trade reports that 1915 was better than
1912, which was it's best year
Real estate did not begin to pick up
until late october, but there was local
reason for that. Just before the war
Canadian interests had invested heavily
| In BunaIo real estate. The plan was to
spend 100000 in building homes for
workingmen. The war put an end to
| that. shift in population from one
street to another for purely neighbor-
| hood reasons resulted in number of
| homes being thrown on the market In
the early days of the war no one want
| ed to build large structures, and now
| it is difficult to get the structural steel
| and so building has not fiourished But
as in every other line. the report is:
Getting better Getting better very
fast
| One doesn't hear boom talk in Buff
falo. Nor is there pessimism. Buffalo
merely holds. in placid sort of way
| that 1915 will be her best year.
| anrYnTHrc NJ vrcnrrra-