Page 37 - Past Chair Book-Pre 2020

First Annual Convention 41
I think it was not for the reason that he did not want the dealer
to have that, but because he felt quite positive that his chief com­
petitor would not grant it.
I think the feeling amongst the manufacturers, so far as
we have been able to learn, is in favor of granting the dealer a
larger percentage. They feel we need it. It is wrong to go before
the manufacturers' association before they have had a regular
meeting —the meeting called in Xew York was a meeting of lathe
manufacturers— to go before them before they can discuss it, and
say, “we want to know now and can't wait six months, but want
to know now whether you will do this.” It is wrong.
One of the objects of this Association is to work on friendly
terms with the manufacturers, and I think we can accomplish
more by working friendly than to go to them and insist on any­
thing at the present time.
As to getting fifteen per cent, I think we will simply get
nothing. The twelve and a half per cent at present may lead to
fifteen per cent later.
If the record of this meeting, or a resolution, is presented
to the manufacturers before the next meeting, requesting that
they take action at that time, I think we will get a favorable reply.
M r. M a r s h a l l : I may be wrong in this, but I believe I am
correct, when I say that the manufacturers were the originators
of that contract. We did not delay four months’ time when they
came to us and asked us. We were “Johnnie on the spot,” and
went to New York and spent lot of good time. We went
away happy, thinking what we would get. They asked us to come
there and open up our hearts and tell them what we wanted, and
we did so, and they practically agreed to it.
The Manufacturers’ Association is so much influenced by the
little end of their association that, at their meeting in New York
(I was present at the time and heard what the members said),
they allowed a man who has applied for admission into our
Association, and who was a member of their association, to come
in and say “I am a dealer and I am a manufacturer, and I know
as a dealer that I can make money at ten per cent,” and another
man, who never sold goods through a dealer said “It is a clean
ten per cent.”