The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-09-15

ingS or q GOOD street system.
At the beginning of this sum-
mer it became evident that ex-
ceptional and increasing interest
would attach to the coming
Demonstration - when Donald
M. Nelson, Director of Pur-
chases, Office of Production
Management in Washington &C.
copied the post Of Honorary
Chairman, with the following
statement:
THE retail trade of the United
States has set a splendid exam
pie for all business by its efforts
to prevent unjustifiable price
advances, and in this way they
have served their public and
the nation. It seems to me-, con-
tinued Mr.. Nelson. that the
Demonstration this year should
have peculiar significance to ev-
cry retailer and to the public,
and ! suggest that retailers ev-
erywhere regardless of the lines
of merchandise in which they
deal, line up in a Demonstration
of patriotic service.
"R E T ALL RS FOR DE-
FENSE"-at a time when Ma
tional Defense is our most vital
problem, offers a rare opportun-
ity to use the great influence of
the retail trades in support of
unified national effort" So
spoke Don Nelson, an outstand-
ing retailer himself, who is Civ
ing unsparingly of his time in
the performance of a stupendous
job in the interest of national
security.
Retailers like to think, accord
ing to Lew Hahn, General Man.
ager of the National Retail Dry
Goods Association, that the II
million young Americans who
registered last Oc o b er, and
those who were required to do
SO more recently, signed not
merely for themselves but, in
effect, for every other one of US
North. South, East and West.
Certainly the record of organ
lied retailers would give patri-
otto conviction 10 this feeling,
for they have assumed commu-
nifty leadership in many crises,
and are now putting their col
lective strength behind a move
ment that is aimed at price and
general economic sanity and
unfair trade practises which may
stability.
Economic defense, retail lead
ers feel, is as much a part of
the present National Defense
Program as the building up of
the Army, Navy aid Air forces,
and the determined and cooper
alive efforts, along these lines,
now being pressed by American
retailers, may we'll prove to be
q potent factor in measuring the
degree of success that crowns
this whole national effort.
AS in the past three years,
there is no detailed, stereotyped
plan for merchants to follow
during Retailers for Defense"
Week and all that the National
Association attempts to do, with
the aid of hundreds of local re-
tail groups. is to provide a gen.
eral, overall plan with a CEN
trail theme, posters, contests, etc.
Beyond this, it is up to every
retailer and every community
to do the kind of job they them
selves think best suited to their
own locality-all in their own
individual, American way.
A 14-point program was rec
emily adopted for this emer-
gency. They are as follows:
l. To practise and to preach
the doctrine of Our Country
First and Foremost"
2. To act as Pure i n &
Agent for the Public" and, in
that connection, avoid even the
semblance of profiteering.
3. To prevent, as far as pos
sible, any unwarranted increases
in the price of merchandise, both
wholesale and retail.
4. To eliminate any and all
injure the public.
5. To maintain retail en-
ployment at the highest possible
level.
6. To give every possible en-
couragement TO employees who
wish to serve their country.
Z. To disseminate to consumers
such defense literature and in
formation as the government de-
sires to have distributed.
8. To urge upon rranufactur-
ers that merchandise be inform
atively labeled.
8. To eliminate all "scare" adj
vertising. particularly that which
says or implies Buy now be-
cause prices are rising"
10. To keep consumers in.
formed as to the causes of price
increases. likewise such changes
in quality as are made to avoit