The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1922-03-10
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
OPEN FORUM
The Large Crowd Present Heard
An Address of Unusual
Merit.


Gus other attractions, and a de-
layed train which prevented the
speaker of the evening from ar
irving until 9:3O o'clock, a large
crowd was present at the Elks
Club for the March Open Forum
of the Lexington Chamber of
Commerce Monday night.
!, Minutes of the February Open
! Forum and of the weekly Direc-
! tors Meeting that have occur
!, ed since the last general meet
; ing were read and discussed at
, length. Much interest was man.
ifested in the service being rem
: dered by the vigilance Com
, mittee" which exists for the
: purpose of investigating all of
the numerous sorts of soliciting
schemes that come to town with
the idea of taking away peo-
, pies money. Plans were dis
, cussed for the Centennial Fair
/. to be held early in October. The
E Directors were instructed to ar
range for committees to assist
the local Lyceum Course back
! ers in making a success of the
remaining three numbers to be
presented this spring. Interest
ing facts we're told about the
Farmers Auction which was
held for the first time Mon
day in conjunction with the
March Golden Rule Sale Day
which resulted in more than one
thousand dollars worth of farm
products and implements chang
: ing hands. Announcements were
/, made that the luncheon speaker
for the March luncheon will be
w. A. Bailey, Manager of the
i, Kansas City Kansan, and that
J. Frank Smith of Kansas City
has been secured for the April
Open Forum for his well-known
address on "Good Roads, Bet
/, ter Schools, and More Dairy
. Cattle"
The event of the evening, land
;, for that matter the event of sew
eral years in lexington was the
address of ]. w. Griest, Mana
ger of the Retail Marchants' In
! stitute Of Chicago, for whom the
large crowd waited till a late
hour. No one regretted the de-
) lay however, for never has so
keen and Illuminating an analy-
sis of business development been
made here as was made Monday
night, and it is a pity that every
merchant and every clerk and
every professional man and
y woman in the county could not
have heard him. His organiza-
J tion is engaged in careful study
y of actual BUSINESS conditions in
every part Of the United States,
;. and he was able to bolster up
all of his statements with actu-
al facts. He said that careful
checking up of business failures
; during the past few years show
1 ed a close coordination between
business failures and non-ad-
advertisers; that a man might
say he did or did not believe in
/ advertising, but that he could
not escape looking the hard fact
i straight in the face,- that non
advertising and business fail
ures have gone hand in hand o.
yer the United States during the
several years for which statis-
tics have been compiled. He dis
cussed the mail order business,
and brought out the idea that
the business man of Lexington
is in competition with the keen
est advertisers, the highest
II priced buyers and sellers, the
II most artistic window dressers
II and the biggest mercantile firms
Of Kansas City, st. Louis, Chi
cago and New York. He urged
II that local merchants work more
iii ,Io,oi,, toc,otl,c,. Co.. 4l,o ,.o., ,,.ol