San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-04-20

Quce cOSCS 10 the consumer.
lprovements to its customers.
5 to produce than formerly a
arged the consumer. BY that
process more people are
able to buy. More buyers
make a still larger business.
A larger business still fur
Their reduces costs, which in
turn increases the business still
more.
Now it is obvious that however eff
cient the idea of economical produc-
ton in that factory may have been, no
such growth would have followed had
the economy not been shared with the
public. Suppose that the one dollar
saved added to profits, the price
to the consumer remaining the same.
There would have been no change in
the volume of business.
Suppose the dollar saved had been
added to wages, there would have
been no change in the volume of bust
ness. But by sharing the profits with
the public comes an immediate and
great public benefit, there is a stimu-
lating reaction on the business, prices
go lower, business increases, thou
sands Of men are employed where but
scores found work before, wages in
crease, profits mount. BY starting
at the right end prices go down,
which is to say that, to the public,
values go up, wages go up, and sur
plus goes up.
MAKING BUYING EASY.
The point is, this did not come by
doing what is sometimes demanded,
turning all the profits into wages.
1t is accomplishing more benefit for
the wage-earner with family Of five,
to reduce the cost Of necessities for
the members Of his family, than TO in
crease his pay without reducing his
costs. Increased pay comes through
increased business, and no increase in
business is possible except by lowering
prices to the public.
Labor is more of a buyer than a
seller. The point at which to start the
wheel a-rolling is the buying end.
Make things easy for the plain people
to buy. That makes work. That makes
wages. That makes surplus for extern
sion and greater service.
The burden of it all is on the
shoulders of management. Labor
works along under any system. There
is little or no concern in the shop
whether the best method is being
used, whether the best results are
being had from materials and from
the motions Of men; it is a days work
just the same. The difference is a
days work is in production value,
and this is the business of manage
ment.
PROTECTING CUSTOMERS.
Suppose a business has grown and
prospered under his policy of serving
the public. 1t is not self-sufficient-
must buy on the outside. Its sup
plies are threatened. The mismanage
ment Of businesses that supply the
raw material causes strikes which de-
lay it. Or the fast-passing policy
Of charging all that the traffic will
bear is used to run up prices unrea-
sonably, preventing the proprietor
from selling his commodity to his Gus
toners at a price which is right for
him and for them.
He finds himself at the mercy OF
the misleaders Of labor outside his
business, and the profit gougers who
supply his raw material. Obviously it
is his duty to protect his customers.
They need a certain commodity at a
price they can afford to pay, and they
are threatened with seeing this forced
up to a price which they cannot afford
to pay.
The business-the manufacturer
must at once decide whether he will
have his service to his customers lin
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