New-York tribune., 1919-02-14
Drygoods Men
To Spread the New
Spirit of Trade
Methods of Doing Business
i'm Smaller Cities Dis
cussed at the Closing
Session of Convention

A new insight into their special
role in the drama of the nations
everyday activities seemed to fire the
imagination of the delegates to the
eighth annual convention of the Ma
tional Retail Dry Goods Association,
as they stepped out of the grand ball
room of the Hotel Pennsylvania yes
terday afternoon after adjournment.
Through all The seemingly unrelat
I'd speeches on every aspect of mer-
thandising made during the three
days session. a dominant motif per
sisted until the closing remark Of the
presiding officer. The central theme
was that the same 60. 600 retail dry
goods stores Of the country cannot
be regarded a@ things unto them
selves. but are important economic
units having Il relatlon and re
sronsioihtv TO their customers, to
their emoioNes and 20 the state The
'resh idea that appeared to GAIN ad
0erents through endless repetition
Tas that cooperation and service were
nc prosperity and success
Francis Kilduif. the retiring presi-
dent, who sounded the keynote was
asked whether the convention had in
any way furthered the new code OF
merchandising. Men from every
state of the Union" he replied. ''have
caught the spirit that the speakers
have been giving expression to, and,
thoroughly seeped with the broader
philosophy. they are returning as mis-
'onaries 10 the cities and towns in
hich thcv live to carry the new CON
eepts 10 Jheir fellow merchants VINO
re unable personally to attend the
convention"
Work for New Officers
New officers and directors of the as
>ociation were chosen TO mould out of
ihc general theories that had been de
sc oped during the interchange of
'icws specific practices and applicable
formulas For the coming year, S. F.
halle of Halle Brothers Company. of
Cleveland. viii be president; Jesse
-ldor Straus, of r. II. Macy & Co.,
first vice presidents; H. NJ. Henderson,
Of the Hoyt Company, Oshkosh, Wis,
second vice president; F. j. Paxon, of
DAWSON. PaNon, Stokes Company, At
lanta, secretary. Besides the president
wno is an ex-ofhcio member, the follow
ny Will constitute tHe executive com
mittee; Jesse Isidor Straus, f. W.
4 dred, of Providence R. l.; H. c. Ana
,le, of Salem, Mass, and S. L. Kauf-
nan, of Trenton, n. J.
The following new directors were
ected: Mr.. Halle, A. H. Burchheld,
q. Pittsburgh; Mr. Paxon, +. W. Al
ared, of Providence: Mr.. Kaufman
Charles A. Gerber. of Memphis; Mr.
Henderson and Charles Stcines, of
san Francisco. In addition to these,
'he following are holdover directors:
Mr. Straus, Donald Dey, of Syracuse;
Mr.. Anable, &. G. Kerr, of Oklahoma
Ore; George ". Britton. of Boston,
end Oscar Weber, of Detroit.
Warns Against Specializing
Mr.. Straus stimulated the discus
SONS of the day by his analysis of the
possible future of merchandise con-
ditions. He expressed the opinion that
the tendency OF prices would be to
softness, and advised his associates
against speculating in merchandise.
John Mensch, of the Duffy Powers
Company. of Rochester, in the after
noon session explained the technique
Of the self-service idea in. merchan-
dising. His company. starting the plan
n its grocery department, eventually
the store.
IN self-service,' he said, "the
average customer viii handle from the
time she comes into the section until
she goes out double the number of
pieces of merchandise. This allows
greater freedom Of examination on
the part of persons who are not re
stricted by having their attention dis
tracted by having sales person make
them feel that the thing that they
are happen to be looking at is the
thing they should buy.
Only Customers Time Wasted
The reason for the success of the
self service idea is that in every com
munity there are some thrifty, provi-
dent people, who like 10 save and are
willing to do for themselves, if you
please, the things which they have
been paying others to do for them.
Then there is the factor of freedom.
The customer who comes into the
store can go about among the tables,
the counters, and select merchandise
exactly as she sees fit, and if the wo-
man comes in at 2 o'clock and stays
until half-past 5, she has not wasted
anybody's time but her own
Another helpful element is the ma
tural curiosity of people. People 20
into the self-service section because
there are thousands of dollars worth
of merchandise laid out that they can
handle as they please. Most of the
criticism, the condemnation of the
plan has come from men who have not
seen 1t in operation. I believe the
fundamental principles back of the
plan are sound and can be quite gen
orally adopted
The afternoon session was given over
70 informal discussion Of the problems
OF the retailer in the small city. Many
o1 tne delegates rose to contribute their
suggestions, and out of the interchange
the point was clearly developed that the
owner OF the small town store cannot
be expected to succeed up to the hilt
merely by apng the methods of the
merchant Of the big city, but must in
stead develop his own methods and
technique. II. S. Shelton, of the John
ston- Shelton Company, of Dayton, Ohio,
struck note that appealed particu-
larly to the men from the smaller
places when he denounced what he
called unfair mail order competition.
Mrs. Lucinda w. Prince, director OF
education of the association, outlined
the plans for the Forthcoming year and
explained in detail the aid that might
be expected in merchandising education
from the Snith Hughes act passed by
Congress in 1917.
In telling Of the difficulty of getting
high schools interested in teaching the
retail business, Mrs. Prince said: "Per-
haps you do not realize how much we
have 10 do TO show this proposition
oi education TO high schools and