The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-01-22

III present and hear(
~~ the talk l mad,
there and the.
invited me to be their guest here an(
deliver the same lecture, thinking pos
sibly 1t might be OF some benefit to the
business people Of the city Of Dubuque
/ might say in starting, so that you
will understand how / happen to be
In this line of work, that I am just
m ordinary merchant and not an ora.
tor like Mr.. Karr, whom you heard
last night.
] understand you do not have a re-
tail merchants organization. You are
missing a grand thing. What is
really the life of any city7 1t is the
merchants. They are the real people
who do things. keep everything NOV
Ing. Should they not work together
rs a unit and shape the destinies of
your city7 And / urge you to get to-
xether In an organization, have o few
b%aDQuets like this, and talk over the
problems Of your city, and your adj
vertising propositions. I am a great
believer In collective advertising,
where everybody In the town get to-
gether and advertise. and really one
Of your greatest assets is q good press
with a good big circulation. / have
always said that I attribute q great
deal of our success to the newspaper
men.
Borrowed Money to Pay Freight on
First Stock.
When l first started in business &c
years ago l bought out a grocery firm
in the city of DEVILS Lake, N. D. For
tunately 1 had a letter Of credit and
a Minneapolis grocery firm let me
have $1,000 worth of merchandise. l
had worked in the grocery business.
AS a boy Of twenty-one years of age
the highest salary | ever got was S3S
q month. / didn't have enough money
to pay the freight IN my merchandise
and borrowed money from my father.
l opened up that little store. l had
TO pay SIS a month rent. Some of
the merchants failed in that town and
/ bought some Of the fixtures, about
S35 or $40 worth. When l got ready
to open up the store, a newspaper
man, a friend of mine, came in and
said: Fired, you have your stock
here, and believe you understand the
grocery business. You are pretty
well known here and pretty well liked.
/ want to tell you something. If you
want to succeed you must advertise. |
want you to take a little space In my
paper. Now don't think that you are
merely giving it as a donation to the
paper. 1t will mean not only business
for me, but business for you as we'll"
He had a book called Printers Ink"
He said: Il get this book every week
and l will bring it to you. Read 1t.
Not only read 1t, but absorb It."
i did that and some way or other
when l had that little store stocked
and let the people know that / was
In business, and that l would like
their patronage, / began to do bust
ness. Very fortunately for me my old
boss did not believe In advertising.
We kept putting little ads in every
SohPPg v ooc- H. ~ UObs
thought 1t didn't amount to anything
but 1t didn't work out that way, and
the business began to come to me
The first year / sold with the aid Of
NE man $4,000 worth Of groceries.
] made up my mind that 1t was alb
solutely necessary that / get tbs
money for what I sold. / WAS always
very careful on the credit and insist.
cd that they pay within at least thirty
days. l told them l had to pay for
the goods that way, and they under.
stood, and with very few exceptions
and losses, they paid me. went
along that way for three or four years
I kept increasing my advertising
Lnter / added dry goods and clothing
began to grasp the idea that ad
vertising had helped to sell groceries
and would naturally help any othe,
line. / did the advertising. The bust
ness grew rapidly and In 1907 we built
a very beautiful store. Everybody
said I was going broke sure. The
building cost me $4,000. 1t is rs by
lao feet, two stories and basement
only use the lower floor and the