The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-06-12
ADVERTISE AND'HUMANlZE MADE
CENTRAL THEME OF INTENSELY
INTERESTING RETAILERS MEET
Thoughtful Consideration Given by Merchants Of North Dakota
to Problems Which Reconstruction ahd Changing Political
Conditions Have Brought Much Chasing Of the AL
mighty Dollar Not Good, Declares President Mann

mighty Dollar Not Good, I
Mandan, N. D., June 12.-" Perhaps
that's the trouble with us perhaps
we're too prosperous; perhaps in our
chase for the almighty dollar we've
lost sight Of something. I've begun
to wonder It that isn't the trouble with
US here in North Dakota and else
where" said President n. p. Mann OF
the North Dakota Retail Merchants
association. reviewing at the annual
banquet last evening the days Of pio-
neer merchandising in North Dakota,
when the frontier merchant and the
hOmesteader were very close to one
another; when the homesteader had no
banker or loan association to finance
him; when the local merchants had to
carry him from season, the Smerchant,
IN turn, passing his burden on to the
jobber.
e When Jobs Were Few
President Mann was introduced as a
man who had begun his career as
water boy on q gravel train. The
chief executive Of the Flickertail Mer-
chants association admitted the i'm.
peachment, and declared he had car
ried water on a Minnesota gravel train
at Is cents a day az . time WhsHfe
man was glad to GET xa j9h, at ANY
price. u He spoke iot hsssoHains u with
his father to Devils Il. AXE I'M pioneer
days when that point wassAn inlpof
tant shipping center for buffalo bones,
great mounds Of which were the first
sight that greeted the visitor. He
told of the early struggles of the
homesteaders and the merchants there
with grasshoppers, with frost and
with drouth; Of the dreary years when
family after family lost, everything
and moved out, and when there were
no new families coming in; of the
years of famine, when the community
was forced to sind to the Twin Cities
an appeal for relief TO which there
was q ready response in food AND
clothing. He spoke Of the happy day
when after years Of disappointment
Max Bass, immigration agent for the
Great Northern, brought into Devils
Lake carload of DunkArd simnni,i
grants, the first who had cone iii
since the year, Of the great frost.
President Mann told how close the
merchant and the farl1er were in
those days, and he regretted the fact
that in recent years, with greater
prosperity, they have seemed to be
drawing apart. He TONED wheti,-
er the merchant hasn't done too we'll,
and wfetiffS sha@s lost sight of
something in his mad chase for more
business. I'VE need more mixing and
more getting together, closer co-pp-
grafton with shither ideals. s..
The Small Merchant ,g
= Much had .bAen heard during the
convention, said Mr. Mann, which
might tend toi discourage the small
merchant. He insisted that the small
merchant is not down and out, but
declared that unless "he gets into the
game and puts in a little pep, he will
be. y,s
"There never were in all the world
the chances there are here and now.
Uncle Sam is calling upon you to ad-
vertise because he knows that adver-
tising will create business, and Uncle
Sam wants more business; he wants
to see the wheels Of industry turning
at full speed; he wants to see en-
ployment, prosperity and contentme9t
for everyone. Get into advertising
and into home merchandising today.
Raise the standard Of merchandising
in North Dakota and they won't have
q chance to call us thieves and rob-
bers, and we will have no cause to fear
mail order competitions fa4ff
Some Mandan History M
Major J. NJ. Hanley, Judge Of the
Twelfth judicial district, was the first
speaker Of the evening. He offered q
toast to Mandan, declaring the first
settlers on the present site were Lewis
and Clark, who built Fort Mandan, the
original settlement, in 1904, and for
whom the Lewis q Clark hotel, scene
of last nights banquet, was named.
He corrected the opinion he declared
he found common that the hotel had
been christened in honor Of r. S.
Lewis and Sam Clark.
The Judge read from the diary of
Sergeant Pat Cast Of the Lewis and
Clark expedition, telling Of the first
white mans Christmas day in Man
dan in 1905 and Of the first hosting
Of the American flag over Fort Man
dan. He compared the long haired
roamers of that day with the long