Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-27

regular weekly iuncneOD OF the Urea
Falls Ad club Friday noon in the Pail
room of Hotel Rainbow. Charles II
Macintosh, president of the Associate
Advertising Clubs of the World. EN-
phasized the fallacy of attempting I
use the same business methods in tn
present falling market that were use
in the rising market during and pre-
ceding the world war. More courag
and more thinking are required to d
business today than were required flv
years ago. he said. And believing tina
commercial history repeats itself. h
warned business men who wish to con
tinue successfully that they must pre-
pare for a falling market that is t.
continue for % years.
Five hundred men are going out o
business every week. according to Mr.
Macintosh. This is the greatest rat
of fatality retail trade has ever known
Assuming that advertising is 100 pc
cent efficient-and the speaker con
tended the best that advertising can d.
is to get a prospective customer int
the store, where clerks may make
sale-55 per cent of possible sales
are killed by the ignorance and inertis
of clerks. Average clerks are no.
salespeople and it is in recognizing
this fact and in training them to be.
come real salespeople that the future
of retail merchandising depends.
People Buy Service
Successful advertising. he said. coulC
be explained in two words-Simpllcity
and sincerity. An advertisement is
only as valuable as the confidence that
is created in it. He pointed out that
women are not now buying dresses but
style. Men do not buy overcOats but
warmth and comfort. and people buy
eyeglasses, not to decorate their faces,
but to relieve eyestrain.
Floyd w. STATIONS orchestra played
during the dinner and a quartet from
the Musical Arts association sang two
the quartet was: r. II. Willcomb.
Fl. NJ. G. Brandt, F. L. Graybill and
r. A. Reyes.
President Scott Leavitt. Mr.. Mackin-
tosh said. in part:
Some Commercial History
There never was a time in the
commercial history of the United States
when il was so urgent that we business
people get together and discuss bust
ness conditions thoroughly and care
fully. We have got to learn to do
business today on an entirely different
basis than for the last quarter of a
century; and for another quarter of a
century to come we will have to do
business upon this new basis.
Colonel Ayres. the government stat
~istician who founded the statistical de-
partment for the American expedition
airy forces over in France and then
came back to Washington and ~investi-
gated price figures running back more
than a century. has prepared a very
interesting chart, which shows us that
the extreme peak of high prices over
which we have just passed is nothing
new in the history of our country.
I'VE have heard people talking as
if this last burden of high prices were
something absolutely unparalleled in the
history Of this country while it has hap
pened precisely three times the same
way. Three times prices have gone up
$50 per cent above the starting point.
The first time, after a slow and steady
climb of 30 years, that peak was reach
ed in 1872. The war Of 1912 acceler-
ated the climb of high prices so much
that they toppled over and started
down. Then for % or 80 years that
downward path continued until the bot
tom of the valley was reached. Once
more prices started slowly to climb I'M
~ hlt'i Il Iudlt'I VI Il CENTURY, the WIT
of 1S61-1S64 accelerated the prices and
toppled them over. Again they started
downward and kept going down for a
period of % years when once more they
started up for - or 30 years until the
great war accelerated them enormously
and again they toppled over and started
down.
History Repeats
Commercial history repeats itself.
We have started down 3 path which
will keep on going for 25 years and
those who say that we NAV expect a
return to wartime prices or expect the
bottom of the valley to he reached
within a few months are misguided OPP
timists and speak certainly without in
telligent knowledge of the facts of his
tory as revealed to us by investigation
of the commercial history of this coun-
try. Don't think for one minute that
the suggestion that we may have a de-
%scending price market for the next
quarter of n century and that it may
be at least 80 years before prices re-
turn to go per cent above the valley
level. means that we are going to have
hard times for at least % years.
prosperity and high prices nave
nothing in Common If high prices
meant prosperity, which would be the
most prosperous country in the world
today? It would cost you (but | hope
it won't cost any of youD 1000. 900
rubles today to buy a suit in Russia. II
would cost you 1000 rubles 10 send a
first class letter. If high prices meant
prosperity. obviously a country having
prices which have reached such a high
level would be the most prosperous in
the world. In reality. of course. high
prices have nothing to do with pros
perity. The only relation is this: How
much in commodities can a man get for
what be earns by his labor? How
much will his effort buy himi
"As prices fall the purchasing
power Of the dollar comes up. as from |
the standpoint of the general public.
this constant fluctuation in prices
means practically nothing. While prices
are going up, the value of the dollar is
falling and prices are coming down the |
purchasing power Of the dollar is 60
ing up.
Business on a Failing Market
From the standpoint of merchandise
ing this means a big problem. We will
have to do business for the next %
years on q falling market instead of do
ing business on a rising market as we
have for the last quarter Of a century.
Very few Of our present business peo-
pie have had personal experience ir
doing business as we will be required 70