Modern Trade Association

(Continued from Page 12) of your mental equipment here today, and that is, each one in business should respect each other's investment.

'All of you have investments in your establishments in the various cities and towns in the sovereign State of Arizona. As an excellent commentary on life in the West, most gf you are personal friends, and while this may not be true of all the members of an industry in a given'state, it is a fine example for the business men in the rest of our country. However, even if you are not drawn to your competi- tor as,to like him personally, and respect him for his ability, you should respect his investment, and so guide the management of your own investment as not to impair the invested capital by unfair competition, by secret rebates, or by any-of the bad practices which have grown up in many industries.

It is now considered by those who hold the best interests of our country at heart that there is more danger in breaking dow! the business fabric through these evil practices, and would be more destructive to the gensral welfare, than the possibility of price fixing and monopolies.

Another most important fact to remember in connection with your activities is that with the changing methods and systems of business during the last ten yeais withits scientific research, mass production and highly developed distributing systems, have brought about the neceisity of equally great changes in the vario.us trade associations. It is now just as possible for a trade association to be out of date and old-fashioned as it is for a merchant, and such an association that has not kept pace with modern methods and who js performing merely the sarne service as they did ten or fifteen years ago, is no longer capable of beneficial action to any given industry.

It is the duty of every official as well as every member of the trade association, such as your own, to so ihange association methods as to measure the services of the issociation with modern-day methods of merchandising and so increase its scope as to be in step with the industf itself.

There are some twenty thousand trade associations now actively performing duties to business men in the United States, whose management and guidance of these volun- tary, groups_is of utmost concern as well as value, not only to the m,embers, but to the general public itself.

You will probably be interested in a word about the roofing industry. While it has no formal trade association or organization, many constructive steps for the industry, are being done by a group of manufacturers who are intensively and sincerely interested in the welfare of the industry, its customers and dealers.

Through this informal group evil practices of many kinds have been abandoned, and those principles of good business ethics which measure in the proper way in the public interest, have been adopted.

The industry has worked harmoniously with the Pacific Coast Building Officials' Conference to the end that higher type roofs are specified in various cities where building codes guide construction work. This prevents the use of improper and sub-standard material, and protects the owners of buildings from poor workmanship and incorrect grades and standards for any given type of construction. Moreover, by a suggested consumer list, which is in effect in the three Pacific Coast states and to some extent in Arizona, it takes. the resale price to the consumer out of the guess work area, and suggests the proper profit level of each item manufactrr.red. This consumer list will unquestionably be in effect in the Inter-Mountain states, including Arizona, within a reasonable length of time, particularly if the lumber merchants consider it beneficial.

The roofing industry feels that its dealer business is the backbone of the trade, and is sincere in its efiorts to develop and hold dealer business, and particularly to co-operate with the lumber merchant who is, or should be, a building.ma- terial merchant.

A number of conferences have been held on the Coast in the past year between the organized lumbermen and committees of roofing manufacturers, and favorable progress has been made along good merchandising policies. The final results of some of these conferencei will favorably affect the West generally, including Arizona, which should make for the good health and profit of the lumber merchant of Arizona.