Milford chronicle., 1931-08-28
JOB AHEAD
ONE OF WORKING
OUR WAY BACK"
Says ]. C. Penney, Chair
man Of The Board Of
The ]. C. Penney Co.

"The only thing which will bring
back what we are pleased to call
The good old times, will be hard
work and plenty of it," says J. c.
Penney, founder and chairman of
the board of the ]. C. Penney Com
pany.
Prosperity will never run into
us unawares. When it comes back it
will be because we have reached
out and pulled it into the doors of
our own individual establishments.
IF more of us would definitely
make up our minds that, in order to
bring back the great prize of bus
mess prosperity, we simply have got
to do better than we ever did in our
lives, and would set out with this
sales activity in our minds to the
exclusion of any other, we would
have just exactly what we aimed for
the prize of prosperity.
I'VE can never do it by plan; we
can never do it by drawing charts
of what has happened in the past
and from these charts trying to
prophesy what will happen in the
future. There are so many things at
which we may point our finger, at
the present time, as alibis for our
short comings in the way of hard
work. that it has become unusually
easy for us to develop a certain
sense of business laziness.
There never was more money ly-
ing idle in this country than there is
at the present time. This idleness
shows up in relation to the earning
power of money the same way that
idleness shows up in individuals.
Idle money is cheap money and
money has never been so cheap as
at the present time.
Figures have an amazing way of
showing up. Recent figures cOmpil-
ed by the Government show retail
purchases amounting to fifty-three
billion dollars in the United States
in 1929. This was at the rate of
$407.53 per individual for every in
dividual in the country.
'lf sales are off 2O9o, that 2O@o
can be brought back through in
creasing the individual expenditures
of everyone in our own communi- /
ties twenty-five cents a day.
This flow of small units of mon
ey would re-create the necessary |
flow of merchandise which, in turn, |
will afford the stimulation, in such |
great need of which industry now
stands.
Sheer mass of operation means
nothing. Men engaged in the busi
ness of retail selling, whether oper-
ating on their own capital in their
own store, or operating a unit of
wide spread corporation set up, is
going to succeed in proportion to
their own willingness to work.
Everyone of us, as business Iren,
SHOULD be keenly alive to this one
fact-the country as a whole is anx-
iOus for prosperity. 1t seizes, with
eagepess, upon every issue which
seems to point in the direction of a
more normal business condition. 1t
is ready to respond but it seeks def
mite and authoritative leadership. It (
is looking for constructive rather
than destructive suggestions. 1t is '
impatient with criticism and weary
with promises made without fOun-
dation. In general, it is satiated with
inability of politics to properly an !
alyze the present situation and sup i
ply correctiVes.
r There has probably never been a /
time in our history when the coun- '
try at large was so willing to look
to business for its leadership and so S
firmly convinced that out of the Of a
fees of business men will come the o
answer to prosperity.
IF we have restricted certain of il
our markets by unwise regulations, {
it remains for the hard working bus
mess man who can point 10 his own
efforts as sufficient indication that
he is doing his best to see that cor
Fections in these regulations are
made. q
+. Il have always had the utmost be- II
lief in courage in craftsmanship. It Z
has been the practice among the =
men in our own organization to look U
to themselves and not to their mer- u
ehandise if they found their stocks -
were moving slowly or that bust z z
ness was not mOvin gahead at the 3
proper rate.
"Once a man realize the true y
weight of the load which he must IL
move to eXtricate himself from an
situation, he will be :.
at the power of his own a.
if he is willing to order o'
himself to do the job.
''The time is ripe when we must a. a.
pick up the working tools we drop ", W
ped to chase the rainbow. 1t is the Nv
pick and shovel of individual indus
.ries that prosperity is searching d
or.
"Profits remain in just as full
tolume as they have ever existed in
he past, but they remain for the
nan in the business world who W
rains his business muscles to do the al
,est job with the pick axe and shov-
i of read craftsmanship. The job N
head of us is working job" N