Evening star., 1923-03-11

anu generation we hear much OF eff1cien-
cy. We have efficiency engineers, efficien-
| cy experts, the sort Of persons that come
| into your place Of business and proceed
| to tell You what Is the matter with your
| concern; but after all, every one of these
| men or women is simply a salesman
who has coated the pill OF curative
properties with a new name.
All OF US have, at one time or another,
| sold something to some one else. We
| have bartered with our fellow men,
sometimes with success, sometimes with
| results that demonstrated that We are
| not what they call born cslesmen, but
| the fact remains that we have all been
| statesmen. Few of us have. however.
set out to sell ourselves, coupled with
| an idea. to a great mass Of people. That
Is, few OF US have done It knowingly
and with the deliberate intent to make
the people believe that one is the right
person to represent them in the national
| lawmaking body they call the House Of
Representatives. There is one man.
| however. who occupies a seat in that
| body and owes his election to a determi-
| nation to sell himself to- the people Of
his district.
How efficient a salesman he was. and
is, Is best shown by the fact that he
received the largest ma ajority ever given
a representative in that district, and
this feature. coupled with the fact that
he was running as d republican last
fall. makes his victory all the more i'm
portant from d, craftsmanship stand
point. Added to this performance is the
remarkable record of carrying all but
eight precincts in his district, despite
the fact that his opponent was a man
OF high standing in the community To
be accurate. he tied his opponent in one
precinct. lost one by one vote, and the
others which went to his democratic
adversary were lost by five to ten votes.
1t was rather clean sweep for a man
who had never before appeared before
the public except as a business man.
x :: = =
"A COUPLE Of years ago. James II.
MacIafferty was seated in the Cafe
Venus, in Oakland. when he happened to
! notice that the occupant of the con-
gressional seat now held by MacI.afferty
was not going 10 run again. Turning TO
, his wife he remarked that he was going
to Congress from that particular dis
| trict.
His better half, who for years had ad-
mired his success as a salesman. looked
at him moment and then laughingly
replied that he had better TRY for the
| presidency"
Nothing daunted, James II. said:
well. you think l am joking. We will
see. And what is more. I am going to
start my campaign by selling myself to
| the people of this district just as soon
rs You have finished your coffee"
Friend wife, thinking it was one
of his jokes, did not hurry with her
i demitasse, but when she had drained
the tiny cup and the check had been
| paid friend husband proceeded to nut
his campaign on by calling a friend.
who was dining at the same place,
| over to his table and springing on
him the same idea that he had given
| to his wife only few minutes be-
| fore.
The friend, as most friends do,
7; promised that he would do all he
could and tried to turn the conversa-
! ton into other channels. but James
! II. was not satisfied. He tied his
| friend down with a solemn pledge
(
| order book, put him down as num-
i Der one" on the campaign committee.
! That night he gathered in seven
! teen converts to his cause. The next
| day. being Sunday, he did not do any
active work, but on Monday night he
:; appeared before the International AS
| lsociation~of Specially Statesmen, which
. was in session in Oakland at that
4 ct
! ship that the members said was one
| Of the best they had ever heard. AS
his climax he formally announced his
| candidacy for Congress and proceeded
I: to give his reasons why a business
man should be selected to sit at
Washington.
The next day the papers told OF his
speech, but paid little attention to the
new Richmond in the field. They
thought it was a clever way to bring
out the strong points he had made
in his talk before the association.
i THE following day he commenced
i his really active campaign by call
ing on the business men of the dis
trict. The majority Of them. think
ing it was q new and clever dodge
Of Macs" to put over something that
he had to sell. laughingly replied that
| they were for him, and each and
every one was surprised to see the
prospective candidate whip out an
4 order book and put down the name
| as a member of his campaign commit
; tee. When some of them demurred
! to serving. he pointed out that bust
! ness men were needed in Congress and
| that they had better send some one
there who would look after their in
! trests, just as a salesman did on the
road,
! Converts did not rally to his banner
by the dozen the first day or the sec
ond, or the third. In fact, it was
| some time before he could get what
| he considered was a real good OR
der" but when he did he went after
the lukewarm ones, and, showing
them that he had been able to con-
I vince some Of their brethren, he man.
| aged to enlist a considerable number
under his banner.
4 BY this time the politicians had
begun to realize that here was new
thing on them. They had never be-
fore been up against just this kind of
I a proposition and it had them on the
ropes and gasping for breath. Like
| most of the oId-time politicians, they
did not see how he could win and
they tried to laugh him out of the
race and to make up the customary
slate, but the first thing they knew
they were hearing from all quarters
| about the campaign that Mac" was
making. Then the old-timers got
I husv hut too late and they had to
hunt around and get regular candi-
date to go against the hustling sales
man in the primary. Then another