Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-05-27

III d lCW llchiCuIC L VIII ouoW yOu
some of the evidences of the Arkan-
sas canvass, but before l pass to that
/ want to pay my compliment to
present day conditions in selling
Things" in the retail trade and to
register the belief that the retailer
(who according to the ideas of many
manufacturers pf lumber) had run oft
after false gods. has actually come
nearer seeing the LIGHT, as It
SHINES, than EVEN has the manu-
facturer of lumber.
The retailer of lumber is comm g
back to the retail lumber BUSINESS,
and you do not want to forget either
that he is coming along with the
manufacturer of lumber who HIM
SELF had drifted very far afield and
who HIMSELF had wandered very
far out of the way.
/! Ten years ago if we wanted any
body ito talk at manufacturers or
retailers meeting we had to get some
loquacious SPELL binding lawyer, and
IL we wanted amusement in the even
ing we had TO wine and dine each
other and drink each others hsalths
until even THAT effort spread much
disease; but in this year OF our Lord
since January ! over 500 LUMBER
MEN at over 1870 meetings of the
trade have eloquently told their
views on all phases Of the lumber
question and told them to the salts
faction of all branches of the trade;
and where there is as much SMOKE
of ORATORY as all this, there is
bound to be a foundation in LOGIC.
Thu retail lumbermen have been
asked to confer with the manufactur-
, ing lumbermen about what they be-
lieve should be the GRADES Of lum-
ber The retail lumbsrman of the
/ Southwestern states following the
suggestion of a young salesman OF
imagination, are following his sug-
gestion as to the methods of Selling
Lumber" SO rapidly that l predict
that inside of five years you may step
into any retail lumber yard in the
land and buy your lumber by the
piece Just as you buy YOUR starch OF
your sugar or your spare ribs or cali
Coat SO much a piece-at so much
q UNIT.
There is coming a time too when
the price will be marked out in ths
open and there will be NO such mys'
terry about the value OF q board al
has surrounded it in the PAST.
Ut is the habit now 20 advertise
lumber at retail at IS cents piece
or $l.75 a piece, or 30 cents a piece
or whatever is it's value plus ia,
profit and all this selling finess'
has come to the retail lumber trad'
in SO SHORT space Ct time that l
is MARVELLOUS.
How Has 1t All Been Done.
You can allege this and allege tina
and can think it is all CLEANED VI
. out of the cauldron of technical re
search or engineering lore or new
fashioned or n5w tangled trade ex
tension propaganda; nut the coll
, condensed fact, fundamentally at tn
bottom of the ENTIRE advance cal
: be shown actually to be predicate'
upon a wider knowledge OF and
, deeper confidence in the NATIONAL
t ADVERTISING OF WOOD.
} Advertising outside of lumbe
trade newspapers began. and the ar
: Of Selling Things in the NEW wa
: began, just a little after the close O
: the St. Louis exposition, when tn
old yellow Pine Lumber Manufactur
2 ers' association took few pages Q
| two color advertising in the lumbe
r trade newspapers of that day.
: There was probably $500 spen
during the first year Of the nationa