Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-04-16
DEAN MILLER SPEAKS
To RETAIL MERCHANTS
TELLS THEM BUSINE ESS MEN
SHOULD BE TRAINED TO MAKE,
THEIR CALLING 4 PROFESSION
OTHER MATTERS DISCUSSED

The Olympia Retail Merchants me-
last evening at the Commercial Club
rooms and listened to a most inter-
esting and instructive address by
Dean Miller of the College of Busi-
ness Administration of the State Uni
versity.
Dean Miller spoke very forcibIy
and was listened to with the closest
attention throughout his address. He
said that business should become a
profession. The successful merchant
of the past was man of tremendous
natural ability and succeeded where
hundreds Of others failed, not by zen
son of his preparation, but by sheer
force of character and in spite of his
blunders.
The business man of the past served
a local market. He knew nothing OF
chain stores, mail order houses. etc.
and did not have to meet their conf
petition. Business has passed through
three stages: First, apprenticeship
where the man worked up from tn,
bottom and had to know every detail
of the whole organization; second
specialization. where every man spe
cialized in his particular department
and knew no other; third. We are just
entering the stage of combining the
two. by training business men as We
have heretofore trained lawyers, cl
teachers. or ministers, or engineers
or members Of any other profession
There is no more reason to expect
business man to succeed withou;
special training in his line than tt
expect an unframed man to be sue
cessful engineer or great physician
Business men should be trained, and
thus make their calling profession
Dean Miller noted as he went that
government control of business has
not passed" and warned business mer
not to fight government supervision
but to help it all they can. To adop'
the spirit of the times. which shoul
be to assist the government and sef
that business men are put in charge
Government supervision has blum
dered, has been costly. has not &C
complished as much as it should; not
because government supervision il
wrong but because 1t is new, and good
business men have not always been in
charge.
Competition of the future, the dear
said, would not be a competition ot
shrewdness but competition Of rea
ability. He also said that the human
element is the greatest thing to study
IN employees. He illustrated by 8
story of the Bloedel-Donovan mills
where a strike and other labor trou
oies were averted by fair study ol
conditions and granting those de
mands of labor that were fair, and
showing the laborers by conclusive
evidence those that were not fair and
why they We're not fair. The output
OF the company after granting the de-
mands was almost doubled, showing
the wisdom of working with mer
rather than merely working them.
Before the speech Noyes Talcott re-
ported on the work of his committee
concerning advertising fakes. and
now to avoid them. The recent card
purporting to be in the interest Of one
ol the churches took over 5000 out ol
Town, is practically worthless as ad
'ertlsing. neither did the church ben
efit from it.
The matter of closing the stores or
the afternoon of May 1st was dis
cussed and it was voted not to close