Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-24
A supersalesman observer"

Whatever else comes from the naval
propaganda inquiry by a Senate COM
mittee, the country will learn some
thing of the methods of supersalesman-
ship. 1t is evident that the naval ex-
pert" who went to Geneva in 1927 for
three shipbuilding companies as an
observer sold himself to the repre-
s~entatives of those companies with great
ease. According to a witness whose tes-
timony was taken yesterday, a high ex-
ecutive of one of the three companies,
his process of persuasion was a brief
one. The expert" appears to have been
quite as adept in inducement as he
claims to have been influential at
Geneva. The witness acknowledged that
he had been "jazzed off his feet" into
what he yesterday confessed to have
been a damn fool decision"
How many people have been thus
"jazzed" into unwise decisions and ac-
lions and investments by high-pressure
craftsmanship! The ability to swing
folks out Of their orbit Of wise reason
ing is a special gift. Its posseSsor has
what is known in the parlance of the
stage as at" 1t is a sort of hypnotic
power. It enables the salesman to wiring
the last dollar out Of the pocket or the
bank account of an investor in blue sky
stocks that never pay a dividend.
A measure of the glamour caused by
the superintendent in this case is to be
found in the acknowledgment of yes
terday's witness that even after the re-
ports began to come from Geneva and
nothing of value was found in them he
still believed that something worth
while would eventually be received from
the observer" And further evidence is
furnished by the indication that the
financial arrangement between the
trio of companies and the observer"
was not definite and specific. He was. it
is clear, to receive $25, 900 from the
companies, each contributing one-third
of that amount. But when the confer
ence was over he put in a claim for
eight times that sum in his letter Of
demand, which has been put into the
records of the investigation. He points
out that 1t had been agreed that he was
to receive the sum of $25, 900 a year as
a reward or bonus, and. he goes on to
say, that the fixing of the time limit on
the naval building program to eight
years for completion established eight
years as the period of his employment
at that rate of compensation.
Probably every man at the conference
which resulted in the employment Of
the "o.1crver' is known in his own
field of steel fabrication as hard boiled
in business matters. Each doubtless pays
the lowest possible price for raw ma
terial and gets the highest possible price
for the finished product. Yet this super
salesman drove a bargain with this
group that put them into almost the
kindergarten category-that is. If the
arrangement was as it is now being
stated before the Senate committee. But
even if it was not exactly as now dis
closed and defined, there was certainly
some mighty shrewd and efficient sales
manship to cause these three supposed
~ capable business men to hire a rep
resentative for the purpose Of keeping
them posted on the proceedings Of an
international conference attended by
the ablest of news gatherers for the
~ress Of the world.