Page 23 - Past Presidents' Club Book 1

24 The Xalional Supply amI Machinery Dealers’ Association

ii]) the Association so you will get back your dues many times over.
When the Xalional Hardware Association was first organ­
ized. the manufacturers threw up their hands, and wanted to
know what they could do. Within a year they found that in­
stead of being an enemy it was a friend, and instead of seeking
ways to work against it they were working with it, and many
will come now and say they are making money on their goods
now that they neyer could haye made if it had not been for the
Xalional Hardware Association.
Our plan is to go to manufacturers, try to get them together,
and s tv to them, “first fix vour prices so you will make a profit
and then listen to us and fix it for us.”
Within the last week some of the officers of the National
Hardware Association got some manufacturers together who
would not speak to each other. They often sold at a ruinous
■price, and would have sold at a much more ruinous price the
coming year hut for our Association. Now they will make a bet­
ter profit than they attempted to make last year. So it will be
with this Association if you and the officers work together. The
Secretary's suggestion is a good one. Write him and give him
something to work on. That is the best way to help him. Do not
hesitate to complain. I never do. 1 kick to Mr. Fernley right
along, and he takes it good naturedly. You can aid your Sec­
retary very much, and you will soon in that way become interest­
ed in the work.
I am very sure that Mr. Fernley was correct in the statement
that there is not a member of the National Hardware Associa­
tion, even the smallest member of the Association, but who gets
a return of ten to twenty times his dues, and the largest one over
one hundred times. You can accomplish the same work, and
you can do it quicker than the National Hardware Association
because you have a line of thought to follow, and theirs was all
original.
I think what the Executive Committee would most ask of
you is that you aid them, and if you have a thought, do not brood
over it, but bring it to the Secretary and put him to work.
M r. F e r n l e y : I would like to supplement one point Mr.