The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-13
For Good of
 the Community
Decided Change for Better Noted In Whole sale Business During the
 Past Two Weeks

l what happens to those who look backward nothing.
 A salesman in wholesale dry goods house said: By golly, an out-of-town merchant came in here this morning, asked to look att ginghams, saw what he wanted, ordered three dozen bolts, gave shipping instructions and was out of this store and homeWard bound in about three minutes
 That is the kind of stuff you hear here and there along wholesale row. No one is talking about boom; none wants it. but commonE agreement is that the corner has been turned. There is no logical getting away from that won derful mass mind which we call common con- sent. It is the automatic expression of condi- ton, not theory.
 A wholesaler was asked about state of busi- ness. He said: we have seen a decided change in the past two weeks. Our sales have increased more than 20qo over previous weeks. Most active lines have been percales, gingham and silk and mercerized hosiery"
 This man not only said business was better; he knew it. He enumerated the stuff which has begun to move ln greater volume.
 But, what is best about the Birmingham wholesaler these days is his conviction that the business of increasing trade and trade territory is his job. When all citizens sense their own re- sponsibility and their power to do for them selves and their city, the thing will be done.
 The old, old story of the partridge and her young who laughed at the farmer and his sons until they decided to cut their own grain with their own scythes is as true reflex of life now as when Aesop wrote. This wholesaler put it this way:
 My suggestion for increasing the jobbing
 trade of Birmingham is that we organize \ TuoG ofo o111b o+ of II the business with more power, or, as the | boys say, with more pep, enumerating Il our advantages with such force that our | merchants will be convinced of the truth. II Spoken like man. the words one would ex- lpect to come from native Alabamian who had made good in the chief city of his own state and asks odds of no one He is not the kind who sucks thumbs waiting on some one to take him by the coat collar and thrust him into prosper ity, but chases down prosperity until he grabs 1t and makes it his servant. And this man does not believe in luck. He plays the game accord ing to the rules of the game. He further said:
 In business the devil and luck are
 blamed for much that IS plainly due to the
 ignorance of the game. The main reason
 that some orders for merchandise that should be given to Birmingham jobbers Il and manufacturers go to foreign markets, is not that those "guys" are so much more Il lucky than we are, but because they are Il after the business stronger. T It is simply game of Put and Take
 with the odds against you that you do not
 take any more orders than the efforts you
 put forth will justify.
 Some articles manufactured in Birmingham are household terms. These have been made known to the housewives and householders of Birmingham until their tongues repeat their names as child does his nightly prayer. This was not done in day, but over the months. It was done through the simplest of all methods, telling them about it through their daily news paper until it is engraven on the mind and memory
 H It is confidence and vim that win. The vim comes from confidence and confidence issues out of effort to do the best one can with the op- portunity at hand.