Page 35 - Past Chair Book-Pre 2020

First Annual Conzcntion 39

That shows the way the wind is blowing. The drill people
know that the machinery people must make some money, but at
the same time when he is marketing his machinery he does not
say “Please don't cut the price,” but "Please don’t add anything
to it."
I have a contract in mv office from a manufacturer whose
name you all know. In that contract he stipulates “You must add
nothing to our selling price,” but not a word about cutting that
price.
For that reason I think the manufacturers realize the mer­
chant is going to get all he can for the goods, and now that you
have secured the agreement with regard to territory and with
regard to the price that shall be quoted by the manufacturer so
you are not in competition with the manufacturer, I think there
is no reason for any merchant cutting the price. He is simply
giving up his bread and buttei, and the merchant who has been in
business for any length of time knows there is no sense and no
reason in cutting the price. Most merchants today have their
own prices for exclusive lines, and they can get their prices. It
is simply up to them to demonstrate the quality of the goods.
There are few merchants today who are in any way tempted to
cut prices.

M r. Shiim.ky : 1 think the point Mr. Clarke makes will quite
eliminate the tendency to cut prices where goods are controlled
by the individual merchant.
Tf I am selling a certain machine that nobody in Philadelphia
can sell, if I control that line myself, the temptation to cut the
price is largely eliminated, and not onlv that but the feeling that
you can make your own price, where there is no public price list,
will prompt you to get a good margin.
I do not feel that the work the Committee did in Cincin­
nati has by any means been unfruitful, because I know immediate­
ly following that a large manufacturer posted a letter directing
all prices in a certain territory should be twelve and a half in­
stead of ten, as had been the practice. Another person expressed
himself as being willing to give a larger margin provided

the trade would fall into it, and 1 think that is the thing they are