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they used to make illustrations like the one at the top of this Lansing Wheelbarrow advertisement, depicting harrowing accidents that followed the refusal to adopt this or that advertised article.

Always the man's hat was flying off as per illustration. Always a frightened woman with a baby.

One insertion of this illustration wouldn't have been so bad.

But we have had it placed before us so often

L

that it's time to revolt.

The bottom of the illustration is better except that it shows too much house and too much gateway. The thing that should be illustrated is the thing that is advertised, and a view of the Turn Table itself, made as large as possible, would be the best possible illustration for this copy.

The Automobile Turn Table offers possibil ities for the good vigorous modern advertising campaign.

The Presidential Year Bugaboo

By WILLIAM LESSING

ET'S put the soft pedal on that old chestnut "This is 'presidential' year and things will likely slow up a little." There's absolutely nothing to that kind of philosophy except-bunk.

Do the crops "slow up" a little because it is presidential year?

Does the fruit blossom forth-then refuse to ripen because a president has finished the term for which he was elected?

Do the hens cackle a "false alarm" because a few men are going crazy over politics?

Do the cows absolutely refuse to supply the milk demand till after the political atmosphere clears?

Do little pigs refuse to become bigger ones and do sheep decide not to grow wool because some old bell-wether has said "this is going to be an off year?"

Then why should you?

Never, since the first press turned out the first printed page, has the outlook for the advertiser been any more encouraging than it is the present day.

A campaign of advertising education extending over many years, in which the buyer has learned to consider many things as necessities that he formerly considered luxuries;

The establishment of a feeling of absolute assurance that the buyer can shop by mail just as profitably and conveniently as he can in person;

The record-breaking harvests following each other for several years past;

The turning of these into gold at recordbreaking prices;

A firm belief in the extent of future crops and future values;

An increasing demand for American-made goods in foreign countries;

An almost uncontrollable inclination on the part of every American citizen to surround himself with practically everything which the heart desires; and the determination to do well and live well;

For these and many other similiar reasons on the part of the consumer-the advertiser, the honest, persistent, intelligent advertiser, is basking in prosperity and wearing "the smile that won't come off."

The big daily papers of the continent are carrying more advertising than they ever carried before;

The big weeklies are crowded right up to the limit.

The farm press is bulging with announcements of people who make things and sell things the farmer buys;

The standard magazines are loaded with extra forms made necessary by an increased amount of advertising sent to them till they are almost a burden to hold while reading.

The women's publications never carried such classy advertising and as much as they carry at the present time;

The street car card racks are all contracted for for months ahead-the bill boards and dead walls are plastered and painted with flaring announcements of merchants, middlemen and manufacturers.

But the game isn't over-played.

There are many "soft spots" for the wise advertiser to drop into-many a field just waiting to be developed.

Look the ground over.
Weigh well the "demand."
Be certain of the "supply."
Then Advertise.

D

By HOLLIS W. FIELD

EBIT what you receive; credit what goes out.

In the smaller banks of the country, at least, many a budding banker of the future has had this first of axioms drilled into him with reference to the bank's day-book. Where he has had to stand at the combination receiver's and payer's window, with the cash book of the bank beside him, this young man learning the business not only gets the debit and credit position of the bank in the transactions of business, but he learns more:

He learns that memoranda must be made of every business transaction which comes to him through a bank window.

"Everything must be down in black and white" or red!

That something which has caused the writer to wonder at for years, however, has been the attitude of the retail business house toward this first axiom in banking.

Not from the point of view of the dealer and his bookkeeping, so much as from the dealer's position with reference to his cash customer who pays for a bill of goods which later is to be delivered to him-eight hours latertwenty-four hours later-or perhaps a Monday afternoon delivery after his cash payment on the Saturday morning before.

Taking the United States as a whole, it is safe to say that millions of dollars lie over night in retail houses, paid out of the pockets of cash customers for purchases to be delivered the next day, and that icr these millions of dollars paid out, the purchasers have not a vestige of a receipt in any form whatever!

In contrast to this, look at the dealer who may make his bank deposits every afternoon. Before the bank will consider his deposits, this dealer is required to fill out a deposit slip, designating the nature of the deposits. He must list his currency, his checks on home banks and foreign banks, his bank drafts, and in every respect as nearly as possible identify the character of the commercial paper, coin and currency with which he expects to be credited.

On the other hand, too, this same business man-no matter how much confidence he may

have 111 the banking institution-no more would think of leaving the bank without the deposit entry in his bank book than he would think of signing a contract without reading it!

Yet every business day in the year, this retailer may be taking cash from his customers and prepared to stare in astonished indignation if his cash-paying customer should ask him for a receipt!

The writer may say that as a youngster, just out of school, he had a most valuable one year's experience in a National bank of $50,000 capital in a small city. Twenty odd years ago when he first went to Chicago, not the greatest mercantile house there gave the cash customer a receipt in any form for goods that later were to be delivered by wagon.

But in those first years in Chicago the writer may say that to the extent of his personal needs and pocketbook-he was one of the most insistent of the pioneers exacting of the retailer some form of receipt for money left behind him.

On one occasion he had completed purchase of a stock of underwear, hosiery and haberdashery in one of the largest houses in State street. The total had knocked the literal stuffing out of his week's pay envelope. He had every reason for asking that he be given something to carry away with him, indicating that he had engaged in a commercial transaction.

"It isn't necessary to have a receipt," explained the clerk. "The house stands behind you-it'll be on the books."

"And in case of another Chicago fire?" I suggested.

"All books go into fireproof vaults," he said, stubbornly.

"And you'd be able to open these vaults about two weeks after the fire?" I persisted. He studied something out in the street for ten seconds.

"And I want some of that stuff tomorrow," I went on.

That something in the street proved so seemingly interesting that I had to crack the silence with a hammer blow.

"Give me a receipt for these purchases," I

said, "or I'll go somewhere where I can get one!" He gave me the receipt, elaborately and slowly, as if to allow his fellow salesmen to have a good look at the kind of crank he had run into.

In Chicago there must have been others by the thousands who felt as I did about parting with hard cash on a future delivery basis, for in recent years in Chicago it has become a general custom to give sales slips to every buyer, even where the buyer carries his purchases with him as he goes. But it is by no means а custom in thousands of other cities and towns throughout the country.

There is a certain great retail concern in this country which has branch stores in almost every city of importance. It deals in a few necessaries for the household, sells for cash and makes deliveries of purchases. In the growth of this concern it has felt the necessity for the duplicate or triplicate

cash sales slip and in its special-form sales book, the printed blank surely is in full of all demands of either customer or house. At the head of the slip

is the warning:

"Not responsible for goods left at railway depots."

"In case of error, please return this bill."

"The receipted bill?" I suggested.

Then began the old line of talk that I had heard twenty odd years ago in State street. Chicago, only that I cut it much shorter and with calm assurance that it was MY money, not his.

The result was that the three other clerks in the place had their attentions called to the crank by some sort of mental telepathy. On this elaborate sales book the salesman, scorning the date line and the name of the

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR GOODS LEFT AT RR. DEPOTS. IN CASE OF ERROR PLEASE RETURN THIS BILL.

THE GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA CO.

Dr. Taken by

M

When Wanted

Date.

Am't Rec'd O. K. Put up by C. O. D.

Jack

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mered it "PAID" four times in four places! I hope the editor of AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING may see his way to reproducing this particular bill. As a legalized "Exhibit A," I know of nothing more illustrative of the point of this articlewhich point has several other prickly points branching from it.

Mi'd by American Sale: Book Co., Ltd., Elmira, N. Y.

On this slip is a date line, a line for the name and address of the always-cash customer, with blank spaces for "Taken by"- "When Wanted" -Am't Rec'd-"O. K."—"Put up by"-“C. O. D.” The other day in a western city of 125,000 population the writer entered one of these stores and bought one dollar's worth of one standard article, another dollar's worth of another article, and forty-five cents' worth of still another staple. These articles were for delivery and when change was returned there was no receipt for the $2.45 which the writer was out of pocket.

In the sales book form, printed exclusively for this house, the likelihood of errors is admitted in the line: "In case of error please return this bill." An error might have been that of sending me 45 cents' worth of either of two articles for which I had paid one dollar, and one dollar's worth of the 45 cents purchase. Or if an error at all, why shouldn't it have been failure to deliver any of the goods and-except for my own perseverance-leaving me with nothing to

show that I ever had entered that building?

I may say for this particular city of 125,000 population, calling itself "the metropolis of Texas," some of the largest retail houses have no thought ever of giving the cash customer a receipted slip. Yet in the same state there are laws which make it almost impossible to collect just debts! It isn't a felony to issue a bank check against an account that never existed. And in a local paper of this particular morning I noticed a business man's protest against the "Homestead act" in which he says that it is possible for a crooked man to buy enough general merchandise on credit to sell out and with the crooked proceeds buy him a home-declare himself bankrupt-and yet under the law have his newlybought home declared exempt from his debts! That chief question, however, has to deal with the credit slip for merchandise bought for future delivery-anywhere everywhere!

No adult human being today, especially in civilization, possibly can feel comfortable walking into a business house, laying down his money and walking out again with nothing to show for the transaction! Unless such a customer has a "Charge" account, backed by exacting schedules of property holdings, no business house would allow the customer to walk out with the goods and leave no cash behind him!

That time has not come-never will come under human agencies-when mistakes, errors and misunderstandings may not arise in business. With the cheaply printed salesbook, with its cheap single or double carbon sheet inserted between the leaves, what could be a better basis of settlement of such mistakes than the sales slip in duplicate of triplicate? Wherever the sales look of this description is in use, the customer familiar with it is assured the moment he sees the salesman holding to it and to the indelible pencil which should be its complement.

On the other side of the proposition, any great business house which has adopted this system of duplicate bills and which for any reason suddenly should find its stock of these books run out, would have its management stampeded the moment the fact nounced!

was an

No one outside of the management of a modern great department store has any conception of the enormous number of complaints that arise every day as quite a matter of

course-but which quite as much as a matter of course must be settled to the satisfaction of the customer. To think of facing one day's average complaints without the duplicated bills, one of these great department stores easily might consider closing shop for the day! That average person perhaps never has considered the importance of that one line on the sales slip, "Amount Rec'd."

But it is essential that every purchaser should learn its significance.

At the present time we have that impossibly foolish, intolerable $2 bill in circulation. They are just sufficiently less numerous than the $1 bill to have the holder of one of them off his guard. Millions of controversies arise every day over the question, "Was that a two or a one?"

In less degree, also, the question arises as to the $5, $10 and $20 bills that are passed from customer to salesman. And especially the yellow-back gold certificates of $10 and $20 denominations lend to misunderstandings. and it is here, as elsewhere, that the purchaser owes to the salesbook house a careful, attentive assistance against misunderstandings.

In handing out a bill in payment, the customer owes it to himself and to both salesman and house, to name the denomination of the bill. Thereafter-in many well-regulated houses the requirement of the clerk is that he repeat the denomination of the bill and write it into the "Amount Rec'd" space while holding his sales book under the eye of the purchaser.

As to the sales book, with its duplicate sales slip, it may be said with all finality that it has "arrived," while with still more finality it may be added that it is only a matter of time when the retail business world must accept it as the one basis for a growing business.

More than ever before the average housegoing institution. The household which may depend upon a servant to make grocery purchases, especially demands the itemized bill that is receipted in full. Business methods have been evolving everywhere. That man expecting to make a success in any business cannot, within reason, indicate too clearly to his customers that business principles are guiding him.

And it isn't business to receive money with out giving a receipt.

. It is much more akin to a hold-up!

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