Albuquerque morning journal., 1920-01-03
COST OF LIVING
LOWER NOW THAN
AF TER CIVIL WAR

HI I'm UIVIL WAh.
Cheer up, all you people who have
been complaining about the high cost
of living which, of course, includes
nearly everybody Derive consolation
from the fact that the situation might
be worse 1t has remained for Max
Nordhaus of the Charles Ilfeld COM
pany. to unearth some figures show
ing the cost of certain necessities fol-
lowing the close of the civil war. In,
those days sugar sold for 81 II cents
a pound. flour sold as high as IS
sack. butter cost 50 pound, canned
goods brought so can. and the
prices of other things were proper
tionately high. The figures were OBJ
tanned from the records Of the Charles
Ilfeld company and were made public
in a paper read by Mr.. Nordhaus at
the Kiwanis luncheon yesterday. Mr.
Nordhaus also gave some interesting
information regarding the founding
and growth of the company. The
paper. in part follows
1.-THE Charles Ilfeld company, with
A, Letcher, started in the general
merchandise business t Taos, In
1867 they moved to Las Vegas, where
the home office of our company Isl
still located From 1867 to 1882 the
business was carried on in a small
adobe building. and in the year 1889
the three-story building in the plaza
was erected, which forms part of the
firms present headquarters During
the years 1857 and 1868 Mr.. llfeld
was postmaster at Las Vegas, and the
equipment of his postoffice in those
GAYS consisted of two cigar boxes. one
marked Mexican Letters the other
"American Letters" One of the prin-
cipal outlets of the firm in the early
days was furnishing of supplies to the
government for troops stationed at
Fort Sumner, Fort Union and Fort
Bascom.
I'm 1867 the price of corn was 8
cents per pound. and what other sup
plies brought may be of interest at
this time when the cry of II. c. of l..
is so prevalent. l sent for the combi-
nation ledger journal which Mr.. Ilfeld
himself kept at that time, and shall
pass it around as curiosity. You
will find where sugar brought 81 u
cents, flour 81 or $S per sack. butter
So, canned fruit $3.50 per can, canned
corn so cents, and so on along the
line Calico was sold at 80 cents and
spool cotton at 50 a dozen, which Will
convince you that today's prices are
not much out of line compared with
those of fifty years ago.
From 1888. when | became identi- |
fled with the firm. up to 1905. the
business increased slowly from year
to year until the younger members of
the firm realized that the zenith had
been reached and that there was no
nbo - larger retail
department in ranch supply business
at Las Vegas A standstill is business
being a retrogression, no time was
lost in selling out all retail features
and transforming into strictly |
wholesale store. Having always been
known as dealers in everything we
were loath to drop this reputation
when embarking in the wholesale |
business, and renamed ourselves
wholesalers of everything
II would need a great deal more
time to enumerate the thousands of |
items we carry, most of which we ship !
in in carload lots. We have fun !
stocks of farm implements. and while
we confine ourselves to mostly staple !
goods in the hardware and dry goods
lines, we have the most complete |
stock of staple and fancy groceries in
the state Our trade extends to Du-
range, Colo, in the northwest, to Ala
mosa Colo, in the north; Wlnslow
Ariz in the west and south to Silver
City. We have five travelling men out
of Albuquerque, besides city salesmen
who at times make outside districts.
We are sole distributors of school
books for the whole state of New
Mexico.
In 1906 the Albuquerque branch
4 .
grown to larger proportions than the
parent house. Wholesale BRANCHES
are also conducted at Santa Rosa,
Gallup and Magdalena. As feeders to
the wholesale houses, Cleo control
stores at Willard, Mountainair, Enci-
no, Corona. Pastura, Springer ana
Roy. over / so people are on our pay
rolls in the various places, all work
ing harmonously and organized in
strict accordance with modern busi-
ness methods.
"Our profit sharing plan dates
back to 1906, when we incorporated.
All of the older employees are now
stockholders in the concern.
Il ascribe our steady growth to the
following principles and policies
which all our houses live up to:
ut has always been our aim to be-
come thoroughly identified with the
community in which we are doing
business, making its interests our in
terest and helping to promote them
as far as possible
I'VE have made service and quality
points of most importance and ad-
here to one price policy.
Our methods of financing and ac-
counting keep us fully informed of
our daily transactions, our cost and
profit system gives us daily and
monthly results at glance. We
know on the following day what the
previous days sales, costs and profits
were, and the showing that each de-
partment separately is making. We
employ an expert freight auditor who
attends to our routing and to audit
expense bills, also an expert account
ant, who goes from place to place to
audit our accounts.
I'VE have always made it a special
point of getting our employees prop |
erly in sympathy with the work. A
number of them have come to us as
bows from either public or high |
school, received their training in
either store or office, and now occupy |
responsible positions as directors or
department managers. Others who
came to us partly trained soon became |
imbued with the Cleo spirit and en-
thusiasm displayed by the older men
and fell in line with our principles and
ways of doing business.
"Our credit department Is conduct
ed in the most careful manner. Since
we have been in business in Albu- |
uuerque our annual losses have been
kept down to less than one-quarter
Of one per cent of our sales. Every
account is rated and carefully watch
ed by our credit man. In 1919 we
eound IaSs than one-tenth of one per |