COAL - Clpdigital.org

32 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
How TO USE COAL
so as to obtain the best results, correct construction
of chimney flues, and inspection of same.
and other points of general interest that will
readily occur to you, and which I need not particularize.
While every man can continually increase his
knowledge, by the experience that comes to him,
it is a slow process, and one that is limited in its
scope and usefulness, by reason of restricted outlook
and opportunity. Consequently, there is a
necessity for a broader outlook, and for opportunities
to profit by the experiences of others who
are engaged in the same business, or who have
interests that are closely allied. These experiences,
as well as articles based on them, find expression
in the various journals published for the
coal trade, and if the publications in question only
used their columns for the above class of items
subscriptions would be a good investment on the
part of the dealer. What then shall be said when
we consider what is placed before the readers of
the ably edited weekly and monthly journals—
trade news from home and foreign markets, review
of conditions, correspondence from representatives
at the great commercial centers, special
correspondence from members of the editorial
staff, not to mention other well known features?
Simply this, the
DEALERS CANNOT AFFORD
not to take the great coal trade papers.
Apropos of this subject, I ask your indulgence
while I read an article from my scrap-book:
"The trade newspaper serves best the man who
is anxious enough to concentrate all his energies
on his business to seek all possible aids and is
willing to pay something for news or other information
collateral to his purpose. No retail dealer
can hope to keep pace with competition in this
day of progress and neglect to study constantly
the commercial situation in his own trade, and in
its relation to the business of the times. When
we think how busy the great leaders of commerce
and industry are, and recall also how well informed
they are, we somehow conclude that the
reason why they are leaders is because they are so
well informed. The man who conducts a business
successfully can never be too busy to read.
If he is not enough of a manager of his own establishment
to find time to keep posted, he should
close his doors until he can open them with eyes
clear as to the true policy of his trade."
The lesson is. Plan to take regularly, and read
faithfully, the coal trade papers. Less than
twenty cents per week pays the bills. You send
your subscription and remittance to cover, and
they "will do the rest."
Plan to keep a stock of the commodities you
sell on hand, especially coal. You expect "the
butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker" to
have goods available when you want to buy, and
if they do not you would be quite likely to ask,
"What kind of a business do you run, anyway?"
especially if the grocer should be out of flour
early in the month and says he will not purchase
a new supply until next month because the price
will be lower then, or that he has
AN ORDER IN FOR SHIPMENT
next month when the new price circular goes into
effect. Small consolation in such explanations.
isn't there, for a customer who wants the flour for
use to satisfy the immediate needs of his family
in that direction? How much different would it
be if it was coal that he wanted, instead of flour,
and similar reasons were given for not being able
to supply him?
Plan to keep in touch with your sources of supply,
and enable the sources of supply to keep in
touch with you. Your name in an association's
list of members settles one question at least—you
are a regular recognized dealer or you would not
appear in the Year Book and membership lists.
When an inquiry comes to hand from a firm with
whom the wholesaler is unacquainted, the first
thing the wholesaler does is to take down the
association lists and ascertain if the party making
the inquiry is a dealer; that is, the wholesaler
does this if he is desirous of protecting
legitimate dealers, and that is what he ought to
do, for dealers are entitled to this consideration.
By this I do not mean that sales should be confined
to association members, but to dealer/s
equipped for the transaction of a retail coal business,
and not to the consumer.
Ingredient No. 2.—P-U-S-H, Push.
How shall we P-U-S-H? P—PERSISTENTLY;
U—UNCEASINGLY; S—NOT SLOTHFULLY;
H—HARD. Expressed in one word, all this
means work.
Carlyle has said, "The modern majesty consists
in work, and what a man can do is his greatest
ornament, and he always consults his dignity by
doing it." These are wise sentiments, put in
good, terse terms, and taken in connection with
the fact that where we are is of no moment (the
question is. what are we doing there?), furnishes
an incentive to us to do our best at all times and
not look mournfully into the past, bewailing our
mistakes. Uncle "Zeb" has put the case very
forcibly, when he says, "If we could go back and
lib our lives ober agin none of us would make
the mistakes we hev. We'd simply
MAKE OTHERS JUST AS BAD
or a plague sight worse. Fact is natur' calkerated
on a man picKm' up a bumble-bee by the