The New York herald., 1922-12-13
John Wanamaker.

! The whole period OF typlcally
American business method is spanned
by the careers of two men. The first
of these was A. T. STEWART, who
began the revolution of retail store
keeping century ago. The second,
man taking STEWARDS place as the
first Of our merchant princes. was
JOHN WANAMAKER, who at "a died
yesterday in Philadelphia. No other
two careers in the history of Amer
ican business were so curiously alike.
The rivers Of their genius, separate
at first in time and place, merged as
naturally as if they had been Of one
family or one house.
These men had the gift of under
standing the people on both sides Of
the counter. STEWART was the first
to see that Americans were not hag-
glers by nature; that they preferred
to have goods offered at fixed
price. WANAMAKER added TO this
| policy his own conviction that the
mercantile profession was one OF dig
nifty and obligation; that the retail
store was an instrument not merely
of profit for the owner but Of SER
vice for the customer.
The benefit to general business
from the pursuit by these two men
of principles based upon fairness and
knowledge of the human mind has
been great. The buyer of to-day
knows that he or she is free to enter
store and examine articles without
being asked to buy; knows that the
price asked for the articles is the
lowest price that will be taken; and
knows that il an article should prove
unsatisfactory 1t will be replaced.
The storekeeper before STEWARDS
time was man to be outdohe In
cunning. The storekeeper of to-day
is friend to be consulted.
And yet the field which STEWART
plowed and WANAMAKER narrowed
would not have been so fruitful for
them il they had not been daring
giants. They were not afraid to try
to do big things and then bigger.
They astonished men who did not see
what they saw--that American bust
ness was something far larger than
it seemed. These merchants of vision
and courage seemed to be plungers.
even gamblers. STEWART, with his
Chambers street store at $50 Broad
way, now the home Of THE NEW YORK
HERALD. and later with the great
block on Broadway north OF Ninth
street, astonished his contemporaries.
JOHN WANAMAKER was equally
bold. His Grand Depot in Philadel-
phia. opened in 1875. when he was
less than 40 years old, made the old
timers shake their heads. And WAN
AMAKER showed even greater daring
when he came to New York to take
over and restore to prosperity the
great house which after its founder.
STEWART. died, had not been able to
withstand the stress OF ever increas-
ing competition.
The wiscacres said that WANA-
MAKER would have to abandon n site
so far down town and join the move
ment toward the north but JoHs
WASAMAKER's answer was to build
another and a bigger building beside
the old one and to show. as STEWART
had shown years before and as he
himself had demonstrated in Phila-
delphis. that IL he could make the
people like him and want him they
would come to him and he need not
go TO them. Bold to rashness this
seemed, but after all it was only the
same understanding of human nature
that had been the very base Of his
success.
Thinking. trying. toiling and
trusting in Gop is all OF my biog
raphy," JoHS WANAMARER once
wrote. The toiliDg was great. The
man lived with his work and for 1t.
II was his play. II meant more than
making money. II meant putting
men and women to work, collecting
things useful and beautiful, pleasing