Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1925-07-24


to members. The statement wa
nomic investigation conducted by
Enormous waste in wealth and
manpower characterizes nearly every
line of American business endeavor,"
said Mr.. Lynch. "The middle man
takes an unnecessarily heavy toll
from producer and consumer. Selling
and credit costs run the nations bill!
for necessities to an absurdly high
figure.
Improvement in the lot of the
worker-wage-ea and farmer can
not be greatly advanced until the ma
tional habit of wastefulness is assail-
ed and reduced.
81 think it may be boldly asserted
that four hours a day of labor, GER
tainly not more than six hours, would
suffice to produce all the manufac-
tured things necessary to human ex-
istence in this country and that with
scientific methods applied to agricul-
ture the farms would yield sufficient
food on the basis of an average six
hour day to meet the needs of human
ity. if the chief items of waste could
be eliminated.
1--WE have come to speak of sales
manship almost with bated breath as
the great American art, yet as mat
ter of fact intensive selling methods
are intrinsically wasteful and of no
real service to humanity. 1t has be-
come common business practice to
dispose of merchandise and service
not on the grounds of quality and
merit, but by virtue of superior sales
manship. Manufacturers allow as
high as forty per cent of their total
operating expense for selling. The
jobber adds his selling cost and the
retailer adds his, and eventually the
consumer pays double or triple the
value Of his purchase for the luxury
OF being persuaded to buy.
Modern advertising media have at
tanned the capacity to exhibit all the
merchandise anyone has to sell before
all prospective buyers without the
ai0 of armies of salesman combing
the country to harass buyers into in
vesting.
"That We are overriding this sell
ing business is natural conclusion if
one but reflects upon the manner in
which statesmen are greeted IN the
average office. They are not want
Ell. They are looked upon as a nuis-
ance. Most buyers know they can go
to market for all that they need and
that they would save much time if
relieved of the opportunities of sales
men. 1t is becoming automatic that
if one possesses talent as salesman
he can make money whether he pos
sesses any useful knowledge or hon
esty of purpose or not. Hence more
and more young men and women are
crowding into the selling business in
stead of into producing lines.
From an ethical viewpoint any
talent, beyond knowledge of his pro-
duct, that a salesman employs in his
work must be of little value to or
ganized society, if not downright dis
honest. Certainly selling, regarded
as a profession, soon shades off in
to polite swindling. | am speaking,
of course, of the peripatetic or out
side salesman, whose mind teens
with schemes for artful triumphs
over buyers.
without conceding too much from
industrial and commercial methods,
We might deign to observe the Euro
pean attitude toward the salesman
tactician, whose exploits form so
large part of American folk lore,
would not be tolerated for minute
in England, for instance. The sales
man is a native American nuisance.
at is not the intention to condemn
all statesmen. Some serve a really
useful social purpose. But the voca-
tion is overcrowded The number OF
men and women, engaged more OF
less successfully in selling in this
country, comes near to approXimating
the number actually engaged in pro-
duction Their number could be re-
duced by about one-half without any
great loss to national wealth or serv-
ice, and with this half restored to
useful labor material wealth would
be vastly increased.
eff the unnecessary salesman, the
spenders, the wasters, the improvi-
dent heirs to fortune, the petty Grim
inals and other humans who have
never known work could be induced
to engage in useful endeavor, hours
of labor could be reduced, working
conditions improved and a greater era
of prosperity would be available for
all. The curtural and recreational
advantages thus gained would great
ly improve the race.
"This may appear utopian dream
ing. but the problem is one that must
be dealt with. Destructiveness and
wastefulness in business methods are
drawing on grave dangers. Consider
that the total debt of nation, state,
county, city and other civil divisions,
1922-1923, was $32,786,717,0O0, of
which the debts of those units, other
than the Federal government with
its war debts, totaled more than
,000,000,000 and the Indebtedness
of many of these units is constantly
increasing; and consider, also, that