Norwich bulletin., 1918-01-23

Miner president of the New London Chamber of Commerce, vice president Of the Connecticut Chamber of Com
 E1erce and also chairman of sub | committee of the commercial economy l board of the state council of defense, l will present the merchants side of | the question. , -.- a,.'. | There is no subject today before the industrial and mercantile world of l more vital importance than that of 1 transportation and deliveries. The federal government is urging curtail ment in the interests of fuel and man. l power conservation
 E. E. Began superintendent of the N. Y, x. H. & H. R. R. Company. with ] office at New London. has been invited
 to attend and Alex Sharp, a Norwich
 member of the: commercial economy board, will speak.
 l For the purpose of securing addi- I tional information in regard to the
 subject, Generalization of Deliveries, the local secretary addressed an in quiry to the Ann Arbor Civic Associa- tion as a delivery system is maintain led in that city. The following reply was received:
 | By a cooperative system Of delivery, the merchants of Ann Arbor, ,M:chi-
 gan, give a service Of five deliveries a
 day within the city limits, service
 conceded by all to be far more satis-
 factory than formerly and employing only seventeen wagons where seventy
 would be operated by the old indi-
 vidual method. so that, with the inn proved service there is also greatly reduced expense.
 This system was inaugurated in Anr . Arbor in September, 1907. after a com rnittee of local merchants had visited
 Fremont Ohio, and made a study o1 the way the thing was being done ir , that city. After thorough discussion
 l Of the report submitted by our com
 mittee it was decided to have a com
 pany incorporated under the name
 Merchants Delivery Company, capita ], stock $1O,00O, shares $10 each. l Twenty two merchants took 2 shares each, providing working cap itai of $5, 800 and constitution ani ? bylaws were adopted, said to hav' t been originally drawn up by Justic, s Day for a similar Ohio. company. T Central Station Erected. Asuitable lot was at once purchased }: Sox1S2, at a cost of $500 and a cen I tral station erected, costing $7,S00. S V the new company started out with considerable indebtedness, all of whicl }, has been wiped out, however, in les D than seven years, and an adjoining e lot bought and paid for at $2,50O. Tn e company finances itself on basi ). that is entirely satisfactory.
 Now, the details of the system, tn y manner of it's operation, the metho Il of collecting and distributing goods providing for C..O. D. deliveries, etc
 cannot be explained in a sentence. no
 is there any logical, connected orde
 in which the various features shoul , be taken up. The best that can b :, done is to go ahead with one item an then another through the list and eve then a personal study of the actua operation would probably be necessar n for a clear understanding of the sys
 tenn as whole.
 | In the first place the compan : lserves not only it's own members tn e stockholders, but deliveries are mad l. for any. merchant. The stockholder !. comprise practically all grocers an j. butchers in Ann Arbor. Members, how 1T ever, buy their coupons at a lowe d rate than non members. After de ,r Gucting the income from the deliverie ,f I-for those who are not stockholders l. 1.-the company, the balance of the eA 1t pense is prorated among the stock 10 holders proportional for the numbe T. of deliveries that are made for eacl