Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-08
SAYS REVOLUTION
| GRIPS INDUSTRIES
Editor Tells City Club u. S,
/ Business Battle Felt by
H !. All Americans.

Ftcturing new war of the giants,
In which the huge industries of today
are shown struggling for supremacy
an concerted efforts to get a bigger
share of the Consumers dollar.
Merle Thorpe, editor of Nations Bust
ness, told members of the City Cluh
at luncheon yesterday that a blood
less revolution. as dramatic as the in
nustrial revolution of 1900. was being
waged today, affecting the business
lives of every one of us and bringing
about tremendous adjustments in the
whole of American life"
THE biggest battles of business are
being fought with new weapons in
new competitive fields said Mr..
Thorpe. 1.-The individual manufacturer
or business man is no longer the
fighting unit He can no longer stand
up under the competitive onslaught
launched by whole industries, and the
weapons with which he has been in the
habit of fighting have become as OBJ
Holet6 as a one-pounder cannon ana
as useless as a pOpgun,
Electricity is graphing with ice
for the control of the refrigerating in
dustry; lumber is fighting cement,
: brick, stone and IS other substitutes;
oil is fighting coal for control of heat
ing and power; silk is struggling with
cotton, linen, wool and even wood;
the automobile has vanquished the
farm wagon and left the field of battle
strewn with the shattered remnants
of the buggy whip, harness and other
industries whose hopes went glim-
mering with the displacement of the
horse.
Build Great Triangle,
'The automobile industry learned a
lesson from the agricultural nipple
ment manufacturers, continued Mr..
Thorpe, land combined to build up
the greatest triangle in American in
dustry today, namely mass produc-
ton, mass selling and mass credit.
Mass credit, or installment buying,
IS not taking American industry to
the dogs" said Mr.. Thorpe. The in
stallment buying of today is super
vised, making it safer and more bust
AesS-like than the unsuperVised buy
ing of past years.
1.-The new order of business con
tinued Mr.. Thorpe. has caused some
old houses of business. established for
p hundred years or more, to disappear
over night, while new ones spring
into prominence in an equally short
time.
zone new phase of modern business
y
can now buy toilet sets at cigar stores
and sporting goods at drug stores.
One druggist told me that he sells 500
more different kinds of goods than he
did five years ago"
Mr.. Thorpe said that investigation
showed the ice manufacturers that
there were 100000 families with au-
tomobiles who did not have ice boxes,
and that 100000 families without ice
boxes in their homes had telephones.
"The ice manufacturers decided to
start q campaign to sell these fa1ni-
lies the idea of food preservation, and
spent $12 900 900 in advertising. This
last year there was per cent more
ice sold in this country.
Advertising Best Means.
Increased consumption by known
markets and the development and dis
Covery of new markets is the aim of
modern industry" said Mr.. Thorpe.
Advertising is the best means to this
end. Lumber is going out to sell new
uses for wood Associations adver-
tise ideas rather than individuals.
Communities have taken the lead
from industry and are building up
their towns by group advertising and
effort. Many cities have accomplished
wonders by this method, but a great
deal of money is wasted by theE not
knowing what they have TO sell.
"Agitation is afioat to sell Wash
angton.' We must first find out what
we have to sell. 1t may not be a site
Cor a steel factory, it may be a white
collar factory, or it may be the home
city idea"
Mr.. Thorpe concluded by saying;
"Today we have the spectacle of a
great industry, through it9 trade as
ISOLATION, literally setting out to con
duer continents, looking ahead to the
need of markets 10 years from today"