Grand Forks herald., 1922-05-11
SATURDAY NIGHT
WORK EXPLAINED
Statement Made BY Direc-
tors Of Merchants As
sociation

5 A statement has been made by the
directors Of the Merchant1 AsDocia-
ton regarding their reasons for favor
ing the opening OF stores in the city
on Saturday nights until 10 o'clock.
The statement follows:
The board of directors Of the
Merchants Association at last weeks
meeting adopted resolution recon-
nending that stores remain open until
10 O'clock every Saturday evening
during the next four months. It. was
the consensus of opinion among MEM
bers of the board that if stores were to
remain open at all on Saturday even
4ngb, it would be best to make, the
closing holr 10 o'clock, SO as to take
care Of people who will want to do
some lhopping after the first shows
are out. @
''The proposal to keep the stores
open has not met with universal favor.
Some say it Is q backward step. That
Of an argument could lawyer or
participant in a debate make in favor
of keeping the stores open? Let's
se what we can find on that side of
the question. There are two sides to
most questions.
MANY hardworking people find it
tnconvenient or practically impossible
to do their shopping during the day.
They start work 50 early and finish
business-like to give them chance
in our stores one evening a week.
Saturday evening for various reasons
is the logical time.We complain II these
people do their shopping in mail
order, catalogues and send their money
out Of town. Have We right to COM
plain. II we deny them access to our
akA - 49, 49, a.
venient for them? We are trying to
get our farmers into diversified farm
ing. Anybody who knows anything
about farming knows that diversified
farming means a busy day and that
the early evening is a specially busy,
time with doing of chores and milk
ing OF cows. Shall we refuse to wait
on farmers after supper one evening
week? Is it any wonder that a Ia
boring man becomes dissatisfied with
his lot and becomes more or less boil
shevtstic If he never sees the white,
co1lared class Of workers at work?
Isn't he apt to think that there is
something unfair about the Whole ar
rangement? Store people sometimes
consider themselves hard workers,
but .is the work really hard rs com
various other sorts Of city work where
long hours are combined with great
physical exertion? Aren't we Of the
city business class overwhelmed to
coddle ourselves and to shrink from
rendering that service" that business
writer's and business speakers now
adAys 50 often refer to? We should
never forget that the real bosses of
both storekeepers and their employees
are the customers. If the convenience
Of considerable proportion OF GUS
toners requires that they be served in
the evening, isn't it up to the busi-
ness people to render that service?
The customer is the real master and is
entitled to the place Of command.
Merchants may be temporarily in a
position to reverse the natural order
Of things and dictate terms on which
they will render service. but If they do
they will assuredly pay the penalty
which the servant always pays when
he essays the role Of master.
We must not deceive ourselves
! with the idea that we are
large city. Let man stand at the
| very business center Of our city and
consider how quickly he can find him
| self out among the fields going in any
direction.
IF what has been said is sound
doctrine, let us approach this Satur-
day evening work in the spirit OF joy
full service. We can have the best and