342 



SELLING LUMBER 



The Manufac- 

 turer a Former 

 Retailer 



Lack of Sup- 

 port for the 

 Salesman 



not discredit you when you, so hopefully and cheerfully, in the 

 morning go out to get orders, loyally working for your employers. 

 If they could look into our faces now they never would embarrass 

 you by putting a hundred cars in transit the next day. 



A Voice: You are right! (Applause.) 



Captain White : They send you out to do their work ; and the 

 reason that you are not closer to your employer is because your 

 employer did not grow up from a salesman to be the owner and 

 manufacturer of his forests. He grew up from a retail lumber 

 dealer; and there is a great deal of difference in the mental atti- 

 tude of a salesman who is trying to sell to the retailer and that 

 of the retailer who is buying f the salesman. They are antipodes ; 

 they are at sword's points, so to speak; but it is true; and you 

 can think of a good many of them that have gone from the retail 

 to the manufacturing business. The largest mills in the country, 

 you take the Fullerton Lumber. Company, the Long-Bell- Lumber 

 Company, and you needn't excuse me ; I was a retailer who got to 

 be a manufacturer and there is naturally a little difference of 

 mental attitude between the retailer who has always been buying 

 from the salesman, and then when he finally gets into manufactur- 

 ing and owns a mill, he looks with a little different attitude than 

 he would upon his salesmen, because he has never been a sales- 

 man. He doesn't know the trials ; he doesn't know the psycholog- 

 ical requirements in a salesman, and you don't always get the 

 proper support; naturally, he don't give you the support that he 

 would if he was in closer touch with you. Now, this doesn't apply 

 equally to all retailers, to all manufacturers; it applies more to 

 some than it does to others; but in a sense it is true. Why, I 

 had some salesmen out, and there was 150 carloads of lumber let 

 loose in transit from other mills all bearing one date, just as my 

 salesmen were getting ready to do some business over in the east 

 here. Now that, of course, lowered the price. A great many of 

 the dealers would say, of course, "Here is a lot of lumber offered 

 me, in transit here, so and so; you can see what it is right here; 

 so much of this; so much of that," and it lowers the price, even 

 if he don't buy; but if he does buy at a lower price, it has cer- 

 tainly lowered the price in that locality. And the law is such that 

 you can't find out anything about where this lumber came from. 

 In many cases your own employers put that lumber in transit. 

 That is a fact. (Applause.) And you know it. You should be 

 better supported at home. (Applause.) 



