The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-05-09

back to EImira to take personal
charge of his sporting goods store.
Shrewdly, he began to specialize on
bicycles. In eight months, his sale
in the specially amounted to $500,
Of which $1,000 was profit.
' From being the biggest retailer Of
BICYCLES in the district, it was only
logical step toward wholesaling. For
wholesaling he displayed even
greater adeptness. And soon he had
contracted to take the entire output
Of a factory.
AT ~ READS 100000 BUSINESS
To absorb it he cultivated the ter
ritory encircling ,Elmira, establish
ing agencies for the bicycles, and to
the hardware and sporting goods
stores where he had thus gained con-
tact, he sold the. standard sporting
goods line which he continued to
handle out of Elmira-U. M. c. car
tridgcs, Remington guns and pistols,
Victor monographs and the like.
At the age of q he was heading
a business whose volume totaled
$500, 900 a year. That was no mean
record of achievement. Neverthe-
less, he had bigger dreams and am
hitions. But analysis showed him
that he could not progress great
deal further in the business as it was
then constituted. For after 100 miles
in all directions, his statesmen en-
countercd statesmen travelling out of
Pittshurg, Syracuse and other points.
In other words. his 10O-milc radius
TERRITORY was hcmmed in. He could
not expand without changing the
business.
Then and there. he decided on two
fundamentals The first was that he
would some day have trademarkcd
article bearing his own name, and
the second that he would select the
article so as to enjoy world mar
ket.
What that article was to be was
not long in develoning. In Cleveland
he had the previous wear seen n
horseless carriage in the street. 1t
was one of the productions of Alex
ander Winton. He did not get an op-
portunity to talk to Winton, nor
even to examine the product. But
the idea of self-propelling transport
tation found fertile ground in the
IMAGINATION of John N. WHY'S.
cts got all the bicvcles in the
country beat hollow" he told HIM
self. "I am going to sell them the
very first chance I get"
BUYS FIRST PIERCE ARROW
The chance came that following
year, 1900. An Elmira doctor pur-
chased one of the famous Pierce Mo-
torettes-that tiny car with it's tiny
De Dion motor on the rear axle.
WHY'S studied it and went up to
Buffalo to see George N. Pierce, then
building the finest line of bicycles In
the world, and which the Elmira
Arms Co. was handling. For three
hours, Pierce, the veteran, outlined
the glowing future of the automo-
bile, thereby convincing young WHY'S
that his original judgment was cor
rect. Having obtained promise
that one of the first of the next lot
of Pierce-Arrows produced would be
shipped to him, WHY'S returned to
Elmira.
Soon thereafter, the car arrived,
price $9OO-and demonstrations be-
gan. Everybody was willing to tide,
Tn
hard-earned money in such shaky-
looking, uncertain, noisy contrattiops
as were being built in 1901. That
year he sold two cars. The next year
he added the Rambler (remember
it? 1t became, first the Jeffrey and
then the Nash) and managed to sell
a total of four cars. The following
year by dint Of unceasing effort and
Che growing public appreciation OF
the worth of the automobile, sales
leaped to 20 cars.
BY 1905 the public had seized on
the automobile with avidity. Every
body wanted to buy. And the supply
of cars was SO small that the manu-
facturers became independent and
not infrequently dictatorial-"Pretty
cocky" as Mr.. WHY'S explained with
smile.
DECIDES TO BUILD CARS
With an eager demand that ne
could not begin to satisfy, WHY'S
decided that he ought to be building
cars himself. But he had neither
the money, the manufacturing ex-
perience, nor the mechanical ability
So he did the next best thing. he
formed a selling company with the
idea of contracting for the output
of one or more factories, retrieving
the manufacturers Of the sales onus
and wholesaling the cars until M
could make the logical step to manu-
featuring himself.
n 1906 he organized the American
Motor Car Sales Company, with head
ouarters at Elmira. The first cal
handled by the new company was inc
Americana rakish, underslung crea'
ton that sold for quite high price
II was q much admired car. But the
high price prevented the development
of business on more than small
scale, so WHY'S in 1907 arranged to
handle the product Of the Overland
Company, then like the American
built in indianapolis.
In 1907, the Overland was tour
cylinder car, when most OF the popu'
lar cars of that day bOasted only two
cylinder motors. 1t was moderator!
priced. good looking according to ex
| listing standards, and seemed to have
a fundamentally sound appeal. Iht
company had been in business SD
wears. Yet the biggest year, l9oI
had seen the production OF only a
| cars.
CONTRACTS FOR 500 OvERLANDs