Page 107 - Past Chair Book-Pre 2020

First Annuo I C 'nz rntion 111

P r e s id e n t S t r o n g : Have you anything more under the
head of new business? If not. are there any suggestions'
H r . F e r n l e v : I have a matter headed "X ew Business.”
although I have no business except through your courtesy.
There was formed in the South about two years ago the
Southern Machinerv & Supplies Dealers' Association. I hat organ­
ization is not in very successful operation. It is without a
secretary, and of course we all know that an organization which
has no secretary does not amount to anything— that is we who
arc secretaries know it. ( Laughter).
It would seem to me that this may be a very opportune time
for your Association to absorb the Southern Machinery & Supply
Dealers’ Association. They are to hold a meeting in St. Louis in
about thirty days. I don’t know the exact date, but a gentleman
outside told me a while ago that thev had not even notified then
members of this meeting in St. Louis although the Manufacturers’
Association had been notified of it. I just tell you of it because
if your Secretary or a committee should go to St. Louis and
manage it adroitly they might get them in. The business in the
South is large because of the timber and cotton industries. You
will have to handle it peculiarly, because in the South they feel
that they are the Nation.
P r e s id e n t S t r o n g : My idea is that to absorb them as an
Association will not be possible, but we might take their members
away. There arc some members in that Association who want
everything on top of the ground, and do not want anybody else
to have anything. They do not want the manufacturer to sell
anything in the South, and if lie does sell it they want him to hill
it through some dealer who may not have anything to do with it.
They are not fair.

M r. S tkei.inger : They think we are too conservative. In
fact, they do not hesitate to say on the side that it would be very
unprofitable to have a lot of slow burning people.

M r. B rion : They said that they could see the finish of this
organization if we did not adopt a policy, and that policy was that
the manufacturers must not sell their goods direct except through
the nearest jobber.