V.gabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

There's one thing you've'got to admit about this depres_ sion-it's a whale of a success.

***< fn a store window in Seattle there is a big sign that all of us will heartily indorse. It reads: ,,COME BACK PROSPERITY; ALL IS FORGMN".

>t** ft hain't no use to grumble and complain; It's jest as cheap and easy to rejoice. When God sorts out the weather and sends rainWhy-rain's my choice.-James Whicomb Riley.

*** t< :f ;f rt simply said that . .;; ol r"",ori"" in the east that manufacture wall paper had had to put on extra shifts of workers for overtime schedules to keep up with their order files. Folks, there's a BIG story behind that. A rnost interesting story. For that little news item refected the EFFECT of a merchandising campaign that is a tremendous success, even in the face of the general opinion that you can't sell things-particularly BUILDING things.

"He could dish it out, but he couldn't take it", is a slang expression that we see illustrated every day. The biggest depression howlers are those that are hurt the least-really HURT. You'll hear more calamity shouting from well dressed men and women in their clubs in one hour than you willin a week where those people gather together who don't know where their next week's supply of groceries is coming from.

They say that the large majority of depression suicides are made up of people who were not genuinely hurt-just had their winnings cut down. Personally f have known quite a number of men who suicided in the last two years, none of whom were really hurt, and most of whom still had substantial fortunes. They lost their surplus, and they "couldn't take it". Several I know of had lost millions but were still very rich men, when they took the short route.

The other day, away ;"J;""g the reratively unimportant news in a daily paper, I saw a little bit of a news item. Somehow it caught my eye. And then f discovered that it was the biggest piece of news I had read in many a day. It was under a very small and insignificant heading. Yet it should have been triple headlined on the front page.

These wall paper folks haven't been saying much, but they have been DOING wonders. They have created a huge amount of wall paper business that has their factories running nights, and they have furnished employment for thousands of men who would otherwise have gone workless. And they have' furnished a very much needed and appreciated service to a world of people. To show how they worked it, here's an example.

In one town f know a certain wall paper store came out with a big announcement ad. They offered quality wall paper at rock-bottom prices based on. the present low wholesale prices. But that wasn't what did the trick. They offered, in connection with the sale of paper for at least two rooms in a home, to furnish skilled labor to apply the paper for a price of five dollars for two 1q6rns-si2g nsf specified so long as it was a home. Get the idea?

Well, this store I'm telling you about booked SIXTYNINE orders the FIRST DAY after the ad appeared. With a minimum of two rooms to the order, that would be l3g rooms contracted for in one day. But the average was higher than that. It was about three rooms per order. Finding that a good sized living room could be papered, labor and all, for about $9-an unheard-of bargain-people rushed in. This store grabbed all the paper hangers in sight, but even then had to create a waiting list and take the customers in their turn. Another local merchant saw the point and followed the leader, and HE did a big business also, although the first store had booked many hundreds of orders before he got any competition. ***

They sold a world of wall paper. They pleased hundreds of customers and home owners. And they furnished employment to scores of paper hangers who were entirely without work, and thus in turn helped keep these men in the market as purchasers of living necessities. Multiply that case by hundreds and you will understand why the wall paper factories in the east have put on extra crews, and are running extra shifts to meet the demand for their materials. It's good to know that things like that can be done.

The world owes every:J.t: impulse to men who refuse to stay in the rut-decline to follow in the footsteps

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