New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-03-29
NOTHING is ACCOMPLISHED BY
MEETING TO DISCUSS THE
PROBLEM.
MUST WAKE UP IF
ANY RESULTS ARE TO BE
OBTAINED.

system OF creulCS ana raClng old not
come up to expectations so far as the
attendance was concerned. In fact,
it was distinctly disappointing, if the
lack of attendance could be construed
into lack of interest on the part of those
who are to reap the benefits of the in
stallation of credit system and no
definite action could be taken.
Sleepy Eye Has Credit Bureau.
The meeting was called to. order by G.
A. Ottomeyer, Pres. of the Commercial
Club who stated briefly the object of
the gathering. Charles A. Stolz was
elected chairman and Arthur J.. Janka
secretary. A communication was read
from H. O. Roberts, Secretary of the
Hardware Dealers of the State in which
he mentioned the organization of a
bureau in Sleepy Eye recently and out
lined the plan that was adopted by the
merchants of our sister city and sug-
gested plan that might be adopted by
the merchants of New Ulm to decrease
the money losses on account of bad debts
and incidentally decrease the colossal
book accounts that the merchants are
now forced to carry. No discussion
followed the reading of this letter, be-
cause the merchants had under con-
sideration a plan along similar lines
which had been presented by Mr.. Parker
who had addressed the merchants at
previous meeting.
Merchants Negligent In Billing.
In the discussion as to the methods to
be employed to bring results two points
were brought out which seemed to meet
with universal approval. The first one
was that dealers ought to send state
ments to debtors oftener than is being
done at the present time. 1t was urged
that the merchants receive monthly
statements from the wholesale houses
with whom they are doing business and
there seems to be no valid reason why
this should not hold good for the retail
dealer and his customers. AS arguments
for such plan it was urged that it
would have tendency to prevent the
heads of families from living above their
means and thus getting into a position
where they are not able to meet their
just obligations as happens altogether
too frequently.
The other point settled on was to have
a secretary to whom the merchants could
report the delinquents and to whom they
could 60 for information as to the ad-
of extending credit to buyers
whose right to credit is not firmly es-
tablished. The discussion was quite
lively at times and various phases of this
rather intricate problem of credit and
rating were brought out. It developed
from this discussion that what would be
a proper amount Of "dunning" on the
part of some of the merchants would
prove a hardship to others.
For Preliminary Work.
In view of the fact that the attendance
was too small to take any definite action
it was decided to have a committee of
three appointed by the chairman whose
duty it shall be to classify the various
lines of trade in the city and then take
up the question with the various mer-
chants in the classified businesses and
find out if it is possible to get together
for some united action. AS such COM
mittee, the chair appointed Andrew
Saffert, Edward Baer and William H.
Bierbaum. The meeting thereupon ad-
journed subject to call from the COM
mittee to receive their report.
Fred Hamann left for Sykeston, N. D.
Saturday to spend few days with his
brother Henry. He has land interests
near Sykeston and will look after matters
of business connected with his property.