Golden Age, July 6, 1932

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Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

A GLIMPSE AT MERCHANDISING

BRICKS AND BRICKBATS

"SOAKING THE RICH”

HERBS FOR THE SERVICE OF MAN

EXACTLY AS THEY ARE

GOD’S RAINBOW COVENANT

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every other WEDNESDAY

five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XIII - No. 334

July 6, 1932

CONTENTS

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

Ford Workers Not Overpaid . . 619

Business Picking Up in Pawtucket 620

Hoover Hotel of College Corner 625

‘’Soaking the Rich”.....630

Half of Merthyr out of Work . 638

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Bricks and Brickbats.....620

The Uses of College Athletes . 621

Imprisonment of a Six-year-old Boy......". ... 622

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Lachine Gives Up—but Why? . 622

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

Staggering Farm and Factory

Work

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Aviation in 1863

HOME AND HEALTH

Parade of Aluminum Ignorance

Continues

An Unusual M.D

An End of Compulsory Medication

Herbs for the Service of Man . 626

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

A Glimpse at Merchandising . . 611

Who Manage the Big

Corporations ?......621

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Beer Trucks Still Parade

Chicago Streets......620

The Killings at Chapci .... 620 1,350,000 Homeless in Shanghai . 620 The Dispute over the Gran Chaco 621 What the Allies Promised . . . 624

Increased Cost of National

Government

South Dakota Greets Prospective

Citizens

Hurrah for Judge Miller! . . . 632

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

How a Great Italian Cave Was Discovered

Quake Felled Jericho’s Walls . 622

Growth of Los Angeles County . 623

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Continued Interest in Radio Debate

Pope Admits His Blessing Does Not Work..... .

Holy Humbug of St. Bartholomew 624

Things Exactly as They Are . . 632

Demons Broke Up His Home . . 633

God’s Rainbow Covenant .... 634

Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., V. S. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Address: 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. U, S. A. CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH . . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN .. Business Manager NATHAN H, KNORR.. Secretary and Treasurer

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Ihiblished also in Esperanto, Finnish, German, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish. Swedish.

Offices in Other Countries British............34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2, England

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Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1S79.

The Golden Age

Volume XIII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, July 6, 1932 Number 334

A Glimpse at Merchandising

WE DO not know that Jabal ever made a tent for anybody else. We merely know that “he was the father of such as dwell in tents”. (Gen. 4: 20) We cannot be sure that his brother, Jubal, ever made any musical instruments for anybody else, although we think that he did, from the statement that “he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ”. —Gen. 4:21.

But when we come to Tubal-cain, who is in the same generation with Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah, we feel quite sure we have located somebody who was engaged in merchandising; for it says of him that he was “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron”. —Gen. 4:22.

The construction of Noah’s ark, a huge ship of three decks, called for a great quantity and a considerable variety of materials, and it is not unreasonable that some of the things required were obtained in exchange for other commodities and perhaps money.

When we come to the time of Abraham, we find the merchants were established in the earth. Abraham himself “was very rich, in cattle, in silver, and in gold”. (Gen. 13:2) We know that he received a thousand pieces of silver from Abimelech (Gen. 20:16), and that he bought the Cave of Machpelah for 400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.—Gen. 23:16.

When Eliezer visited Syria seeking a bride for Isaac, he had with him earrings and bracelets of gold and silver, and other precious things, such as were to be had in trade in those times. —Gen. 24:22,53.

At the conclusion of Job’s time of trial his brothers, sisters and all his old acquaintances each brought in a piece of money and an earring of gold.

The derivation of the Hebrew word for “merchant” signifies a peddler, and the itinerant character and temporary location of oriental merchants is still a marked trait of the same class in the East.

The Peddler’s Wagon and the Country Store

In the days of our dads, the peddlers’ wagons were a familiar sight throughout the country districts. They carried everything needed in the country home. If they did not have it on the wagon this trip, they would bring it on the trip next week or next month.

Nobody was in a hurry in those days. In some places the cattle were driven 500 miles to market and grazed along the way in fields that were free to the user. When the cattle reached Kansas City on the long drive from southern Texas they were fat as butter and ready for the market.

At the Mountain Lake Park Convention in 1911, an aged delegate from Virginia stated that he could remember the time when his father's store bill averaged about $1.50 a year. A little salt and a little iron were obtained from the merchant; everything else was produced on the farm.

Salesmanship a Relatively New Art

Ever since there have been merchants there have been salesmen, but it seems as if only in our day have we come to the time when everybody is trying to sell something to everybody else, and has to do it in order to live. Most of us are far removed from conditions where a store bill of $1.50 a year would carry us any great distance.

Not everybody that poses as a salesman is one. Sometimes an intending customer can hardly get waited on in a store. We read of one instance where a woman in a department store noted a lack of interest on the part of a young man who was supposed to wait upon her, and when she drew his attention to that fact, he haughtily informed her, “Madam, we didn’t send for you.”

A man who went into a New York store with a definite intention of buying an overcoat shown in the window was so pressed by the salesman to buy a higher-priced coat that he went out of the store without buying anything. Another man went into a large sporting goods house to purchase a canoe. The salesman tried to sell him a launch. The man became dissatisfied with a canoe and, not having money enough to get a launch, bought nothing. In Kansas a young farmer was so distressed by the persistence of an insurance agent that he finally decided the only way of escape was suicide.

The right kind of salesman is the one who creates in his prospect a desire for a certain thing and then does not crush it by too much talking. Salesmanship is a study of human nature. A New York merchant offered a rare bargain in shoes at $3.50 a pair, but the shoes remained on his hands. The next day he offered them at $6.00 a pair, with an extra pair thrown in for a dollar more, and closed out the entire stock in less than three hours.

One New York store employs a child psychologist whose duty it is to aid mothers to get the right kind of clothing. Similar service is rendered in the selection of proper toys.

It is estimated that $6,000,000 is spent annually in New York by professional shoppers. These undertake to clothe families, to furnish homes, and even to look after the amenities of absentminded husbands and busy friends. The service they render may be a very real service to those who can afford to engage them.

Appeals to the Senses

A salesman of high-priced autos discovered that the sense of luxury created by the judicious use of delicate perfumery is a great aid to the other arts of salesmanship.

A salesman is most appreciated who, when a customer comes in for a shirt, can sell him a box of shirts and the necessary collars and neckwear to go with them, without making the customer feel that the extra goods have been thrust upon him.

In Fort Worth, Texas, in 1896, a dry goods merchant opened a grocery store in the back of his establishment and sold sugar far below the usual price, but only $1.00 worth to a customer. Those who patronized the grocery had to go through the dry goods department, and the grocery department was purposely undermanned so that the customers necessarily were attracted to the dry goods counter.

Merchants today dread an interruption of business. An Elizabeth (N. J.) grocer moved his store 200 feet to the rear of his property in a single day without interfering with his sales. Standing near the moving structure, the proprietor took the orders of his customers and raced into the store to fill them while the store was on the move.

In Rice Lake, Wis., two stores on opposite sides of the street engaged in such a fierce competition that when one announced free house dresses, the other invited shoppers to get a dress and a nickel premium besides.

It not infrequently happens in Brooklyn and elsewhere that women are injured in the bargain day rushes caused by unusually attractive offers for merchandise fixed for a certain hour.

Quick Action in Emergencies

A merchant must be quick to take advantage of any emergency. A Paris dealer in men’s furnishings recently advertised widely a “Bargain Sale After Burglary”.

It is noticeable that there has been a great change in the appearance of the dummies in the stores in recent years. At first they tried to make them as attractive as possible, but found that the faces were attracting more attention than the garments. Now the dummies are made to look as devoid of sense and intelligence as possible.

Students of the art of salesmanship have noticed that purchases are larger where selfservice is employed. This is found also to be the case in cafeterias, where it is a common experience that patrons select more food than they can eat.

It appears that in certain sections the people expect to find the highest-priced goods in a certain district, medium-priced goods in another district, and low-priced goods in still another. Hence, it is considered important for the merchant that he should select the right location for the quality and price of goods he expects to handle.

Paris merchants are said to be disturbed because in recent years American women buy less abroad than formerly. The reason which the women assign is that they can buy better goods at home for less money.

In times of great prosperity there are here and there foolish women and perhaps occasionally foolish men who really seem to prefer to pay an unreasonably high price for an article than to pay what is reasonable and what it is actually worth.

Installment Buying—Mortgaging the Future

The old folks used to wait until they had the money to buy a thing before they got it; and sometimes they never got it, because they could not afford it; but today the young folks want everything under the sun and want it right away, and the stores are so eager to find customers that they are quite willing to let them have the goods provided they pay the extra prices which are always charged when goods are bought in that way.

Installment buying got its start with autos, and today more than one-half of all the money outstanding on installment debts represents obligations on account of autos. Household furniture is next in importance. It is estimated that 80 percent of all radios are sold on installments; 75 percent of washing machines; 65 percent of vacuum cleaners; and the greater part of all pianos, sewing machines and electric refrigerators. Indeed, it is claimed that 25 percent of all jewelry is bought on time.

The extra cost which installment buyers have to pay for buying things in this way is from 11 to 40 percent. The purchasers would be much better off if they borrowed the money at the bank at 6 percent, thus saving the additional 5 to 34 percent.

It is estimated that approximately 15 percent of all goods now sold are sold on the installment plan. Exclusive of homes, life insurance, stocks and bonds, this amounts to approximately $6,000,000 worth of goods a year. The installment debt outstanding at a given time is estimated at two and three-quarters billion dollars.

Installment buying has spread throughout Europe. London reports “paid with thanks parties”, where the friends of a couple gather to celebrate the fact that all the installments have been paid on furniture and piano.

It occasionally happens that abuses are practiced in connection with installment selling. Cases have arisen where purchasers have inadvertently signed assignments of their wages. The assignment was served, and the employer, without the knowledge of the employee, paid the entire salary to the installment seller.

It is a good rule in buying anything never to sign any papers of any kind except upon the advice of persons whose friendliness is certain and whose judgment is known to be good.

New Methods of Distribution

New methods of distribution have cut deeply into the usefulness and earnings of traveling salesmen. The mail order houses have taken away half a billion dollars’ worth of retail trade, the chain stores have taken away a good deal more, and buying methods of large department stores have reduced their business as much as 30 percent in some instances.

Occasionally a wide-awake man makes connections with a wholesale house and builds up a retail trade which is inevitably at the expense of the regular dealers. Thus a station agent in the little town of Redwood, Minn., became aware that a consignment of watches intended for a local jeweler had been rejected. He got permission from the wholesalers to see if he could market the watches and in a short time found that he had built up among the railroad employees a business in watches which added substantially to his income.

Quirks of Storekeeping

The cash-carrier was invented by a storekeeper in Lowell whose store was in a long and narrow building. The cashier of the store was in the rear of the building, and that was where the proprietor wanted him to be, so he devised a system of wooden troughs running from one end of the building to the other and, with wooden croquet balls hollowed out, he had the progenitor of the modern cash-carrier system.

Some of the stores of a generation ago were not such attractive places in which to work. They had to be open from six o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock at night, the year round. The clerks had to sweep the store and dust the counter bases, shelves and show cases. They had to fill and trim the lamps and clean the chimneys. An employee who was shaved at a barber shop or went to places of amusement was under suspicion. Each employee had to pay not less than $5.00 a year to some church and attend Sunday school regularly. It was expected that leisure hours after 9:00 p.m. and before 6: 00 a.m. would be spent in reading.

Delivery and C.O.D. Costs

One of the things a storekeeper has to figure on is the cost of delivery, which averages 16c a package. A wide-awake, independent grocer who found that his average grocery order was about $1.60, offered a 10c discount to his customers on such of their purchases as they carried home themselves. He found this arrangement worked very well and that some of his charge customers who had been going to the chain stores for their cash purchases spent their cash with him.

The C.O.D. business is another vexation to storekeepers. One large storekeeper in New York city estimated that 52 percent of the packages sent out were sent out C.O.D., and that of all the C.O.D. packages, about 11.2 percent came back to the store with a notation ‘‘Out’’ or “Don't want".

While honesty is the best policy, yet not all storekeepers are honest; perhaps you may have ascertained that fact yourself. Several large New York stores have agreed that they will discontinue the practice of paying servants and other representatives secret commissions for purchases of merchandise made for their employers.

The district attorney of New York county, when informed of the purpose of some of the big stores to the above effect, volunteered the information that gratuities given to employees without the knowledge and consent of their employers to affect their conduct is a misdemeanor and punishable under the law.

Some Oddities in Stores

Pat Kenny, cobbler, situated under a railway arch bridge in Bermondsey, London, claims to have the smallest store in the world. It is only four feet square, entered by a door less than 5 feet high.

Somewhere near Canal Street, New York city, there was a store of usual height, but much narrower than Mr. Kenny’s little coop under the railway bridge. The New York store, if we recall correctly, was a little piece of real estate accidentally overlooked in the making of a deed. When last seen it was used as a cigar store, and was so narrow that the owner claimed that he had to go out into the street to change his mind. Perhaps by now this little sliver has been absorbed in a larger building.

The west coast of Scotland has a store mounted on a barge. The barge master sells everything wanted by the natives and takes in exchange whatever they have to barter, eggs, fish, lobsters or what not.

A California florist catering to auto tourists has made his roadside place of business in the form of a great flower pot. The “plant” in the flower pot is made of tin and painted to resemble a natural growth and its blooms.

Pasadena, California, has a general merchandise store owned and managed entirely by boys. The capital for this experiment in sociology was provided by a Los Angeles philanthropist.

Eastham, London, England, has a store that does a successful business in renting overcoats at the rate of 4c a day. A small deposit is required. We doubt if such an enterprise could succeed in New York. The overcoats, once rented, would never be returned.

Antique shops are not so new; one was recently unearthed among the ruins of Pompeii.

Passing of the Country Store

The old-fashioned country store is passing away. There was a time when the politics of the nation, the state, the county, and the township were discussed around the stove in the village store. Benches and chairs were provided, and the farmers from far and near made themselves at home and were expected to do so.

Their children come into modern emporiums equipped with electric lights, cash registers, steam heat and all the latest devices for displaying merchandise to the best advantage. They get their goods, hop into an auto, and in a few minutes are at the old homestead, which in Dad's day could be reached only by ahorse and wagon, or, in the winter, by sleigh after a long, cold drive.

Most of the packages of the old-style grocery store, such as the flour barrel, the cracker barrel, and the old wooden tobacco pail, have practically ceased to exist. The dry goods box has given way to the carton.

China and Siam are still in the stage of the peddler. Everything the householder needs is offered from door to door, and nearly every small householder does all the shopping at home. Not only do the wares offered cover every form of foodstuff, but everything needed in the way of garments and material for making them are offered at the same prices asked in the stores.

China, being desperately poor, is a land of pawnshops, and, on account of the deep-seated national custom of using them, the Chinese are frequent customers of pawnshops in America. The dealers say that it is a common thing among Chinese to pawn a ten-dollar gold piece, receiving six or seven dollars for it, and returning after a month or so to reclaim it. Pawnshop dealers report that 92 percent of all pledges are returned, and most of them within a few months. Pawnbrokers’ interest charges are fixed by statute at 3 percent a month for the first six months, after which the rate is reduced.

The Department Store

The department store is thought by most people to be quite new, yet the ruins of a department store, nine stories high, have been uncovered in Rome. There were no elevators, but there were inside staircases and galleries to connect the different levels.

When H. Gordon Selfridge, once a partner of Marshall Field, opened in 1909, in London, what is now planned to be the world’s largest department store, it was considered quite a joke; but when he hired one of the leading British ladies to take charge of his dress department and rented for sixty-five years Landsdowne House with its great art collection, his great department store took London by storm. The net profits of this store in the bad year of 1931 were $2,000,000. The old-style floor walker has disappeared from Selfridge’s, which is now advertised as the playground of London.

Japan is now in the department store stage where London was in 1909. The Japanese go through their large department stores in great crowds which often include sight-seeing parties from country districts, and bodies of students from various schools may be seen in the stores at almost any time.

In Macy’s, New York, some dresses, furs and other materials are sold bearing tags, “This will not wear well,” or, “Fashionable, but fragile.” The general advertisements of the store say, “If that tag is not on the article you are considering, you may properly draw the conclusion that the article will give reasonable wear.”

A Continuous International Exposition

A great department store in New York is like a continuous international exposition of merchandise. On rush days the influx of purchasers may run as high as 200,000, requiring traffic management of no mean order of ability in order to prevent accidents and congestion interfering with business.

At certain times some of the largest stores take on 2,000 or more extra employees at a time, representing a 50-percent increase in personnel.

In one New York department store a small Negro who had concealed himself in a closet but later escaped was subsequently lost in the darkness, and although all the lights in the building were turned on and the entire staff of detective and watchmen of the store undertook to find him, it was all to no avail, and, for aught we know, he may be in the store yet!

The efforts made by great department stores to hold their business are truly noteworthy. In England it is possible for a home owner to telephone his favorite store and place a request to have his country house closed and his town house opened. At least one of the great New York department stores maintains a bank for the convenience of its patrons, and, incidentally, for its own convenience.

Buyers for the department stores roam the entire earth, including remote parts of China and Persia, searching for articles of merchandise that will be appreciated by their patrons.

It is said that as yet there are few department stores in all Sweden. There are no mail order houses at all in Sweden, and there is no house-to-house selling. Most of the stores are what would now be considered old-style, yet are models of efficiency and service.

Department Store Chains

There are now several department store chains, the first of which, the J. C. Penney Co., founded at the beginning of this century, now operates nearly 900 stores.

Many have noticed the increasing tendency of druggists to stock immense varieties of other things besides drugs; of grocers to encroach on drugs and meats; of butchers to dispense groceries ; and of gasoline filling stations to sell almost everything under the sun.

An attendant at a filling station, when asked what kind of store the proprietor was running, is said to have made the following reply:

“Well, he has auto parts for sale, buys butter, eggs and poultry, deals in real estate, paints houses, marries folks in his capacity as justice of the peace, runs the postoffice, sells stamps, hams, molasses, etc., and takes boarders upstairs. I reckon you’ll call it a drug store.”

Edward A. Filene, president of the department store in Boston which bears his name, thinks that the great department stores throughout the country must unite in chains or themselves go down before the chain stores. He expects to see the organization of a chain of department stores having a volume of sales unexcelled by that of any other group in the country.

Inception of the Chain Store

It is claimed by some that the first chain stores were the saloons operated by the great brewing interests. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. established its first chain store in 1858. The Jones Bros. Tea Co. followed in 1872. The first Woolworth Five & Ten Cent Store was established at Watertown, New York, sometime prior to 1880.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. operates 15,737 stores. They add about 300 new stores a year, and their net annual profits average about $2,000 a store. There are now 1,760 Woolworth stores in the United States, Canada and Cuba, and 434 in England.

We have collected from various sources some statistics regarding stores. We cannot guarantee their accuracy, but present them for what they are worth. There are said to be in the United States 1,549,168 stores doing among them an annual retail business of $53,207,000,000. If these figures are correct, the annual turnover of the average store is about $34,000. That would mean a daily turnover of about $100.

We presume that in this general statement the huge establishment of Sears, Roebuck & Co., with daily sales of almost a million dollars, is counted as one store; and no doubt the same is true of the huge Woolworth, Safeway and Montgomery Ward stores, each of which has a daily turnover of more than half a million dollars. In this connection we may say that in January the total sales of the 33 largest store systems in the country amounted to $142,173,094. Their average daily turnover was therefore in excess of $172,000.

In 1929 the retail business of the country was put at $50,034,000,000; of which amount $10,772,000,000 was turned over by the chain stores. This is 21.5 percent of the total. In the last few years 500,000 independent dealers, or one in every three, have gone down before the chain stores. In 1930 it was estimated that if the then present rate of absorption continued, 90 percent of the independents would be out of business by the end of the year 1934.

Its Tremendous Growth

In 1914 Printer’s Ink made an elaborate investigation of chain stores and learned that there were then in existence 2,030 chains, with 23,893 units, or 12 units to a chain. By the year 1930 there were 7,837 chains, with 198,145 units, or 25 units to the chain. Thus, in sixteen years the number of units was more than eight times as great; there were almost four times as many chains, and there were more than twice as many units per chain.

Of the 7,837 chains, 18 chains operate more than a thousand units each; 28 operate from 501 to 1,000 units each; 117 operate from 101 to 500 units each; and 155, from 51 to 100 units each. In other words, there are 318 chain store systems each of which has 51 or more stores in the chain.

At the close of the year 1931 there were said to be 9,785 chains of stores of all kinds, distributed in 41 different lines of business. Of these, 47.8 percent had but three stores; 82 percent had 10 or fewer; and 92.1 percent had 25 or fewer stores in the chain.

The Federal Trade Commission has been making a study of the grocery chains. It estimated that there are 395 such chains in the country, with 53,400 units, or an average of 135 stores per chain. The stores in these chains are estimated to do an annual business of seven hundred million dollars. That is an average annual business of $13,000 per store, or a turnover of $35 per day each; and that is probably pretty close to the truth.

Recent studies show that the food chains are now making 281/o percent of the food sales, and in the larger cities of over 30,000, where the chains are most numerous, they are making approximately 48 percent of all the sales of food in those cities. The studies also show the tendency of housewives to make all their purchases as far as possible in one shop. Hence the food stores are constantly extending their lines.

It takes some six months to three years for a new branch of a chain store to crowd its way into a neighborhood already well served by independent stores or by other chains, and these months are necessarily less profitable than those that follow, because they are and must be months of savage price-cutting.

A survey of drug stores shows that there are 60,000 stores in the field and that they handle annually merchandise of the value of $1,500,-000,000. This is an average of $25,000 per store per year, and a turnover of about $80 per day. Of the drug stores, 6,000 are chain stores estimated to do an annual business of $300,000000, or just double the amount of the general average for drug stores. These chain drug stores derive nearly 33 percent of their business from soda fountain and lunch counter sales.

Buying and Selling Is a Science

Buying and selling is a science that calls for and utilizes the world’s highest-priced help. Before a store is located, the engineers whose business it is to do so have charted the town. They know just how many people average to pass a given corner every hour of the day and every day in the week, and they know what kind of people they are and about what kind of goods they will buy.

Five and ten cent stores are usually located in the immediate neighborhood of the large retail stores; nut shops are usually located near railroad and ferry terminals; dealers in men’s footwear have learned to avoid residential districts.

The competition for desirable locations is so keen that the larger chains maintain files showing the dates of expiration of the leases of stores of rival chains and at the right time they make an effort, often successfully, to cut the ground from beneath their competitor’s feet by taking over the building in which he has built up a successful business.

The thing that makes the chain store inevitable is, of course, the power that comes from collective or centralized buying. The Woolworth company was reported as having 36 buyers for about 1500 stores in 1928. It is estimated that the number of stores selling the same variety of wares if independent would require at least 5,000 buyers. The Woolworth company therefore not only saves the services of 4,964 buyers, but it possesses the advantage of buying in such great quantities that it can almost name the price it will pay for a certain thing and no doubt often does so.

This price is far less than the independent store must pay for the same article; indeed manufacturers have gone so far as to say that if chains and independents were on a price parity there would be no more chains. It is estimated that the Wool worth stores handle from 750 to 800 different items.

As illustrating the colossal advantage which the great buyer has over smaller buyers, the story is told that a few years ago when the eastern wholesale grocers wanted to buy their goods for the next season they were unable to get a price from the California canners until those canners had first made their annual bargain with Armour & Co., at that time the largest buyer of canned fruits and vegetables in the United States. What this meant in effect was that Armour & Co. would get the best price and if there were losses or disappointments these would necessarily be added to the price quoted to those buying in smaller quantities.

There does not seem to be any way by which the obvious unfairness of such a system can be overcome except by having all the businesses of the country merged into a single great industry. That is what it will come to in the end. The Lord himself will be at the head of that industry, and it will be operated, not for profit, but for the general welfare of all the people.

Limitations of the Chains

There are undeniable difficulties connected with the operation of chain stores. Though the public patronizes them, their general attitude is unfriendly. They are looked upon as intruders who have come into the community aiming to put out of business the true and tried and, it must be admitted, often sorely tried neighborhood grocer.

The public trade with the chain stores because they feel that they must make their income go as far as possible in the purchase of the necessities of life; but they do not appreciate the utter heartlessness of absolutely no credit for even a day, or the inconvenience of always carrying home their own parcels. Therefore, in times of prosperity, illness or bad weather, the telephone is again brought into use and the oldtime grocer’s order boy and delivery truck are again at the door.

Not all chain store managers are honest. It would be strange if they were, but the honest ones have to bear the obloquy that in the community attaches to the dishonest ones. No chain store has any mortgage upon a community. If it builds up a very large business it is liable before long to suffer from the encroachments of another chain store in the immediate neighborhood.

All the arguments in the world will not convince the mothers in a neighborhood that it is a good thing to see all the merchandising opportunities of a community in the hands of big concerns that have no local interest in the neighborhood.

Before the advent of the chain store a boy might learn merchandising and might hope to be a merchant on his own account in his mature years. The inducement held out to such a boy by the chain stores is a small inducement. Tie must go where he is sent, and he will always be under the thumb of somebody who will see to it that he does not have a moment that he can call his own.

The larger chain stores, in their own defense, are obliged to employ stool pigeons. These are shifted from store to store and city to city. Their job is to find out what employees are crooked and to help in getting them fired.

There have been instances in which honest chain store managers have been double-crossed by crooked supervisors. When inventories are taken the recording of quantities on hand is always done by the supervisor, and the store managers are then at their mercy. If the supervisor is honest and accurate the store manager gets a fair deal, but if he is dishonest or inaccurate he can make the manager appear short when he is not short and make him appear not over when ho is really over.

The Department of Commerce made a study of the history of chain stores and independent stores over a period of five years in a southern city of 60,000 population. The study shows that the independent stores have a mortality rate of 55 percent, while the chain stores’ rate of mortality was but 17 percent. This shows that an independent store is three times as likely to fail as a chain store; but it also shows that the chain stores may and sometimes do go into bankruptcy. One of the things that sometimes helps them to do it is that they get to fighting among themselves. The housewives in a neighborhood, when such fights are in progress, always view them with equanimity.

Things the Public Resents

Not only do the store owners and their families and friends resent the destruction of their businesses and the general destruction of individuality, individual initiative, personal responsibility7 and self-reliance when the store manager is substituted for the store owner, but the local bank resents the cutting into its business when the funds of the community are sent away every day for the use of Big Business in New7 York or Chicago. It is a common observation that chain store managers take no interest in local affairs but store owners in times past were looked upon as among the mainstays of the community.

The Michigan Tradesman tells of at least one chain store concern where a clerk was employed whose business it was to pad sales slips by making errors in addition. The errors were always in the one direction. In nine cases out of ten they went through unobserved. When detected it was only necessary to apologize. If a careful housewife notices too many errors in addition, especially if they are all in favor of the store, her business after a while goes elsewhere.

W. P. Johnson, secretary of the Virginia Wholesale Grocers Association, has made the statement that if the public bought nothing from the chain stores but the standard advertised goods or the specialties offered for sale, every Friday and Saturday, every chain store in the United States would be closed within six months. This may or may not be true, and it probably is less true than Mr. Johnson wishes it were.

Legislation Against Chain Stores

In 1929 Indiana passed a law requiring the payment of annual license fees of $3.00 on one store; $10.00 on each additional store up to five; $14.00 on each additional store up to ten; $20.00 on each additional store up to twenty; and $25.00 on each additional store over twenty. The Supreme Court has decided that the law is constitutional, and this form of legislation is spreading rapidly.

In the legislative year 1930-31 more than a hundred such bills were proposed during the sessions of forty-four state legislatures. In Wisconsin the tax reaches to $50.00 on each store in excess of thirty; and in New7 York state the law proposes $1,000 a store for every store above a given number.

It is believed that during the past year public support of anti-chain store legislation has diminished, owing to the necessity that people have felt for doing everything possible to reduce their expenditures.

Since 1928, under a resolution of the United States Senate, adopted without debate, the Federal Trade Commission started an investigation, which is still under way, inquiring into the chain store system. It has been retarded by the recent fire in Washington which destroyed practically all of the Federal Trade Commission's records.

Students of American financial and legislative conditions believe that the thing that will take place before long is a sales tax similar to the Canadian sales tax, which was moderately successful during the World War and has been more so since. No matter how the tax is collected, the public pays it in the end.

Chain Stores Abroad

Chain grocery and drug stores have found their way into Alaska, and while that is not a foreign country, it is far enough away to be one. There are 434 Woolworth stores in England, and 60 in Germany. The first chain stores in Germany did not fare well, but the conservatism of the German people has gradually been overcome and it is believed that the Woolworth stores will succeed. Instead of being five and ten cent stores, they are really six and twelve cent stores, since the German coins have about that value.

The chain store is not entirely new to France, because in Paris there is a chain of wine shops which is 106 years old. However, the five and ten cent store as we now know it has invaded Paris and has caught the fancy of the Parisian poor. A Parisian newspaper correspondent says that the inauguration of these stores in Paris will have a far-reaching effect upon the French people. Hitherto the French have been so economical that almost everything they have in the way of furniture and clothing is secondhand. Whether the advent of the cinq-et-dix store will lead to the general purchase of new merchandise and the general abandonment of French thrift remains to be seen.

Keen Continued Interest in Radio Debate

Corona, N. Y. “This is simply to let you know that I heartily endorse your challenge, given over the radio Sunday, May 1, for a radio debate in order that the people of the United States may decide for themselves as to what organization is carrying out God’s commandments in the earth at the present time. Shall be only too glad to help back this broadcast financially.” M. D. Z.

New York, N. Y. “I was intensely interested in your talk over the radio this morning. If the statements you made are not true it is inconceivable that the representatives of ‘organized Christianity’ will sit still and let your challenge be unheeded. We of the radio audience are thinking, and expecting a lively scrap, but if out of all of it the smoke and confusion is cleared away from the Bible, we will feel grateful for the fight. It looks like a David and Goliath fight, now, but we will wait to see which one loses his head.” A. L. N.

Yonkers, N. Y. “It is my humble opinion that if the Federation of Churches can prove that their doctrines and activities are based on the Word of God they will welcome the opportunity you have offered them of doing so in a public debate. Failure to do so can mean but one thing: they know they are guilty of the charges laid down in the Bible that have been brought to their attention by you. The people have a right to know the truth, and surely they owe this much to the ones who are supporting them.” A. A.

Haledon, N. J. “I had the pleasure of hearing your address, May 1, over WODA, Paterson. In regard to your challenge to the clergy to a debate, they should accept that challenge and bring forth their proofs from the Bible. If they refuse to do so, then, by their silence they stand condemned before the Almighty God and are unfit to pose as His representatives.” C.W.II.

Ford Workers Not Overpaid

THE Ford company workers are not overpaid. There were so many idle days in 1930 that the average wage, even with a daily rate of $7.60, was only $959.20 for the year. Wages are often cut by the simple process of laying men off and then after a time rehiring them as new men at lower pay. And, besides, it is too bad to have private police kill unarmed workers who seek better conditions of work, and to injure them with gas bombs, and turn the fire hose on them in bitter winter weather. Too much prosperity has turned Henry’s head.

Bricks and Brickbats

Pope Admits His Blessing Does Not Work

THE pope seems to be out of luck. Two years ago he gurgled out a blessing on all the ■world and now, in the year 1932, he admits that perhaps never in history has the world been afflicted with such grief and suffering. All he needs to do is to get the mental connection and learn not to have so much to say. Incidentally, his speech was intended to be a rebroadcast for use all over the Western world, but conditions were unfavorable and it could not be heard on these shores.

Beer Trucks Still Parade Chicago Streets

SOME have taken it for granted that the imprisonment of Al Capone and his two brothers, along with “Messrs.” Guzik, Druggan, Lake, McGurn, Nitti and Volpe, had put an end to organized crime in the city of Chicago, yet a dispatch from that city under date of February 28 says that business is going on as usual, under the direction of Murray Humphries, and that “beer trucks parade through Chicago’s streets unmolested by law enforcement officers and deliveries are made throughout the city under the noses of policemen”.

Parade of Aluminum Ignorance Continues

THE medical parade of their ignorance on the dangers of cooking in aluminum continues. We have the word of a gentleman twenty-eight years a druggist that there is absolutely no excuse for a doctor’s being ignorant on this subject, as the United States Dispeii-sary, standard work of the United States Government on the subject of drugs, provides all the evidence needed. Meantime Dr. E. H. Howe, editor of Industrial Engineering Chemistry, tries to earn his salary for his employers by saying, “There is a certain editor of an Eastern publication, with exact support unknown, and a Mid-Western dentist who appears to spend on this crusade more than his visible income justifies, who are the leaders in this unfair movement.” He then goes on to say that the widespread use of aluminum ware is sanctioned by the best known medical journals; and so it is, and if you look at their advertising columns you know the full story. They want the revenue from the advertisements for aluminum cooking ware. But we prefer to keep our subscribers well.

Business Picking Up in Pawtucket

T>USINESS is picking up in Pawtucket, R. I.

The gas mask industry has received a boom; 20,000 have been shipped to the fighting forces of China. It is not known at this writing whether this shipment of gas masks was blessed by the local priest before it was sent forward. But prayers to Baal have been offered on behalf of the Chinese by those whose business in the community it is to offer such prayers, and at the present time it looks mightily as if the Chinese are going to need them and then some. A prospective market for several million gas masks is looming up in China. The Chinese are getting more and more civilized every day.

The Killings at Chapei

rPHE killings at Chapei, Shanghai, were executed with neatness and dispatch. Twelve airplanes appeared out of the haze at 11: 20 in the morning. In perfect formation they flew over the mass of Chinese humanity in Chapei and bomb after bomb blew hundreds into eternity. In twenty-five minutes after the first attack the Japanese were back with fresh supplies of bombs. At the time of the bombings eight great fires had been burning in Chapei uninterruptedly for a period of twelve hours. No doubt hundreds of Chinese perished in the fires as well as in the bombings. The United States has been the great educator and civilizer of the Japanese.

1,350,000 Homeless in Shanghai

THERE was no war about Shanghai; at least that is what the Japanese claim, and they ought to know. But a little item in the daily news touches the heart. It merely says that as a result of the recent military movements “Chinese official sources estimate that more than 90 percent of the 1,500,000 residents of Chapei, Hongkew, Yangtsepoo and Woosung (suburbs of Shanghai overrun by the Japanese) are homeless”.

These poor things never have enough to live on. They are always hungry, always ill-clad, always inadequately housed, and right in the middle of winter the strong and remorseless arm of the military in a few days plunged more than a million people into depths of sorrow and trouble beyond our power to imagine. What a shame it all is, anyway I

Staggering Farm and Factory Work

enry Ford is trying to devise some scheme by which his men can work on farms in the summer and in factories in the winter, and it must be admitted that the basic idea is excellent. The Jewish Agricultural Society, moving along similar lines, has purchased a tract of land near New Brunswick, N. J., subdivided it into five-acre poultry and truck farms and placed a selected group of New York City needle workers upon it. It is hoped that these needle workers may devise a plan of working at their trades in New York in the winter and getting the benefit of farm life in the summer.

Who Manage the Big Corporations?

THE financial editor of the New York American points out that the fifteen directors of the United States Steel Corporation have among them less than one-half of one percent of the corporation's capital and one of the directors has exactly one share of stock. And then he lets us in for a look at the Power Trust, and there we see that its nine directors have exactly sixteen one-hundredths of one percent of the aggregate capitalization. Yet the directors of these two trusts have the absolute and final say as to what shall be done with properties in which four hundred thousand stockholders have interests.

An Unusual M. D.

HE other day, out in the witness work, with a company of Jehovah’s witnesses, in a

little village in northwestern Pennsylvania, one of the workers ran across the local M.D., and found that he had become a subscriber for The Golden Age, through having read some copies of back issues distributed by a brother anxious to make good use of them.

He manifested an interest in meeting the editor. As we met, we said to him, “Brother, you must be a good deal of a Christian, to be an M.D. and yet interested in The Golden Age.” Back came the surprising answer, “You are engaged in a very dangerous occupation, but you have not told the half of it.”

We thus learn again what we always knew, that there are honest, upright men in every walk of life who know the conditions that hedge about the human family and in their hearts sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in our midst. More power to this honest M.D.

How a Great Italian Cave Was Discovered

URING the World War, while Italian troops were being conveyed from one position to another, an entire truckload of soldiers disappeared. Investigation showed that, in a certain place, the crust of the earth broke through and that truck, with all its contents, was plunged into a cavern now found to be about three thousand feet deep. The skeletons of a few of the soldiers have been found, but the truck containing the remainder has not yet been located. An attempt will now be made to explore the entire cave, which is believed to be the deepest known fissure in the earth's crust.

The Dispute over the Gran Chaco

HE Gran Chaco, an immense wooded plain east of Bolivia and west of Paraguay, is believed to be one of the best potential fruit growing countries in the world. Both Bolivia and Paraguay claim it, but neither has ever tried to settle it until just now, when Paraguay is trying to get some Germans to undertake it. Bolivia objects, and there may be war, but students of South American affairs say that the Gran Chaco is on ground too high for the Paraguayans and too low for the Bolivians. On one occasion some years ago a Bolivian army undertook to invade Paraguay through the Gran Chaco, got lost, invaded Brazil by mistake, and was sent home around Cape Horn. So there is no immediate danger of any great war over the Gran Chaco.

The Uses of College Athletes

OME of us have wondered in times past why it is necessary to throw away forty young lives every year in football in order that the boys and girls who go to college may get an education, but now we know. When the intelligent among the student body went on a strike for freedom of speech and of the press, and undertook to set forth the reasons for their actions in front of Columbia University, on April G, they were set upon by the college athletes, who manifested great skill in projecting eggs through the air, even if unable to project any ideas. Six of them pounced on one man, tied him, and dragged him through a hedge. They abused all the speakers. They came to be known as “administration men”; and it is a fair inference that their training in athletics is intended to be of use occasionally just as it was used on this occasion.

Aviation in 1863

IN THE year 1863 Solomon Andrews, a physician of Perth Amboy, N. J., went aloft over New York city in a cigar-shaped balloon the tilt of which was regulated by a weight that could be adjusted. In this ship he navigated against the wind, and took three passengers into the air and landed them safely. He swung around in circles a mile and a half in circumference, zigzagged back and forth, cruised about in all directions, and finally succeeded in returning to his starting place. The excitement of the Civil War crowded his achievement out of the public mind. He was an inventor with twenty-four patents to his credit.

Imprisonment of Six-year-old Boy

IN THE Sonora (Mexico) state penitentiary at Hermosillo, is a six-year-old boy serving a two-year sentence for stealing seven cartridges from the army barracks. The boy, Manual Hojos by name, said that he stole the bullets to get twenty-five cents to buy candy. Judge Silva, of Hermosillo District Court, sentenced the youngster to serve two years in a correctional institution. Since there is no juvenile prison there, the authorities seemed to consider that they had no alternative, and put the boy in the penitentiary.

Seems as if the best way out of this would be to have Judge Silva and the hoy trade places for the two years. The judge could then learn that penitentiaries are merely schools of crime and are no place for babies, and most certainly anybody can see that the six-year-old kid could not bring more disgrace to the bench. The chances are he would redeem it, somewhat. No boy of six can be a very bad boy; he has not lived long enough with grown folks to make him so. And the boy might have an elementary sense of justice, and even a little common sense, and that would surely be a help.

If it is all right to put six-year-old boys in penitentiaries, so that our civilization may be preserved, why not preserve it better by putting in the miscreants that are still younger? Why not lock up the five-year-olds, the four-year-olds, the three-year-olds, the two-year-olds, and the babes in arms? Is the majesty of the law in Hermosillo content that babes should disturb the peace by crying for sweets? Lock them up!

Lachine Gives Up—But Why?

WITH glee the "P. G. and E. Progress”, published by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of San Francisco, gives a headline “Another City Gives Up” and underneath tells the sad tale that ‘‘Property owners of Lachine, Quebec, have approved the sale of their municipal electric light plant and distribution system to the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company for $200,000”.

If we could know all the facts, what a sad story the above paragraph would record! In the first place, there is not a reason why the property owners of Lachine should have given up their valuable investment. They could have made a great success of it; for many others have done so. In the second place, while it seems nice to get $200,000 in cash, yet the money will soon be spent. In the third place, the chance of lower rates now passes, and the people of Lachine will pay and pay and pay in electric bills for the great error they have made in turning over their assets to a private corporation. The Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company will see to it that they get huge profits on that $200,000 investment, and the ones that will pay the profits are the good but foolish people of Lachine.

Quake Felled Jericho’s Walls

A BRITISH archaeologist is reported as having discovered that the walls of Jericho collapsed in a great earthquake, and not because Joshua blew his trumpet. What could have been reported in the newspapers, and should have been reported in them as in every way confirmatory of the Bible account, is made to appear the opposite. There is nothing in the Scriptures that says it was the blast from Joshua’s trumpet that caused the walls of Jericho to fall. Without a doubt the direct cause was an earthquake, but the time of the earthquake was fixed by Almighty God to coincide with the trumpet blast. The discoveries at Jericho show that after the walls crashed outward the houses of the city were utterly destroyed by fire, and all this agrees exactly with the Bible account. “And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein.” (Josh. 6: 20, 24) The archa?ologists working at Jericho this past season have found this entire account true in every particular just as it was recorded in Holy Writ. The cable telling of their work says: “The report also tells of blackened timbers in burnt-out houses excavated on the site of Jericho, all pointing to the fact that the city was utterly destroyed by fire.”

Growth of Los Angeles County

THE people of Los Angeles county cannot be blamed for being proud of the growth of their paradise into what is now virtually one large urban and suburban district. There are 27 towns of over 5,000 population in the county, and there are in the county a round million of people outside of the city limits of Los Angeles itself.

The growth of the county in population is shown by the following table:

1850 ................ 3,530

1860 ............... 11,333

1870 ............... 15,309

1880 ............... 33,381

1890 .............. 101,454

1900 .............. 170,298

1910 .............. 504,131

1920 .............. 936,455

1930 ............. 2,240,208

The county is four-fil'ih.s the size of the state of Connecticut. Nine-tenths of its people live within 30 miles of the ocean, where its coast line stretches for eighty-five miles. The county has 1,500 miles of interurban tracks, comprising the largest interurban system in the world. For many years this county has led all the counties of the nation in the value of its agricultural production.

An End of Compulsory Medication

THE Citizens Committee Opposing Compulsory Vaccination, 11 Beacon St., Boston, has ten objectives: To repeal, at the next session of the legislature, the Massachusetts compulsory vaccination law; to put a stop to medical and surgical propaganda in the schools and institutions at public expense; to put a stop to the inoculations and vaccinations in the schools; to put a stop to the use of children as free distributing agents of medical and surgical advertising; to put a stop to smallpox, diphtheria and rabies scares as a basis for wholesale inoculations and serum profiteering; to replace the state “commissioner of health” with a “sanitary engineer” and corps of trained assistants; to unite the forces of drugless healers with all other forces opposed to compulsory medication; to watch for and expose all efforts of organized medicine and serum manufacturers to secure legislation establishing medical compulsion; to be represented at the two big national conventions, republican and democratic, by sincere men and women advocates who will urge national measures to obtain freedom from compulsion in all medical, surgical and health matters; and to endeavor to protect men, women and children from poison and disease, administered in the name of health.

What the Allies Promised

IN THE Treaty of Versailles it was stated that the disarmament of Germany was exacted “in order to render possible the initiation of a general limitation of the armaments of all nations”. Before the German delegates signed the treaty the Allied and Associated Powers, in a formal communication to them, said:

The Allied and Associated Powers wish to make it clear that their requirements in regard to German armaments were not made solely with the object of rendering it impossible for Germany to resume her policy of military aggression. They are also the first steps toward that general reduction and limitation which they seek to bring about as one of the most fruitful preventives of war, and which it will be one of the first duties of the League of Nations to promote.

In the Covenant of the League of Nations it was provided that the Council should draw up plans for the reduction of armaments to be considered and acted upon by the governments of the world. Yet -when the Russian Government, through its duly accredited representative, offered to totally disarm in a year's time if every other country would do the same thing, she was virtually declared out of order.

Realizing that the record of the churches in the World War was all that it should not have been, the World Conference for International Peace Through Religion is going to see what it can do in 1932 to back up the League of Nations in carrying through some kind of peace program.

The advertising matter says that represented in the membership of the World Conference are: “Roman Catholic Christians, Protestant Christians, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Buddhists, Confucianists, Hindus, Taoists, Shintoists, Moslems, Jews, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Jains, Theos-ophists, Bahaists, The Sufi Movement, The Brahmo-Somaj, The Arva-Somaj, the Ramakrishna Movement, The New Thought Movement and Christian Scientists.” There doesn't seem to be anybody left out, except the Newfoundlands and St. Bernards.

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