COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



151 



imcertain how the country merchant would take 

 the innovation. The means of communication 

 in those days were somewhat uncertain, and in 

 many places the highways were used instead of 

 railroads. Little progress was made in the work 

 of the commercial traveler before the beginning 

 of the civil war in 1861. Business then began to 

 be done upon high pressure ; goods were bought 

 and sold at large profits, and they constantly in- 

 creased in price. The commercial traveler then 

 became almost a necessity, and men who did this 

 work were in great demand. As a result of in- 

 discriminate employing of men and their pecul- 

 iar surroundings the commercial travelers were 

 judged very harshly. After the war inflation 

 ceased, goods fell in price, and the demand for 

 them became more regular. Although the sup- 

 ply was still large a smaller number of men were 

 required upon the road'. From that time a bet- 

 ter class of commercial travelers was employed. 

 The system has grown, until at present there are 

 more than 20,000 commercial travelers in the 

 United States, and their aggregate sales reach 

 about $2,000,000,000 a year. At first many of 

 the merchants and manufacturers of the large 

 business centers would not employ commercial 

 travelers ; but they gradually fell into line, be- 

 cause this means had been adopted by others. 

 While the old method of visits from the small 

 customer to his creditor in the large business 

 center was found to have been very expensive 

 and often inconvenient, yet the new method of 

 making sales was found to have reached the 

 other extreme about 1885. It is somewhat on 

 the decline now, owing to objections that will be 

 noted below. In many of the States laws have 

 been passed requiring licenses of commercial 

 travelers, on the ground that their sales are quite 

 as much within the law as any other. Georgia, 

 Alabama, Tennessee, and the District of Colum- 

 bia exact a fee for a license to sell goods. In the 

 latter the price is $200 a year, and the alleged 

 reason is that Washington tradesmen wish to be 

 protected from commercial travelers who repre- 

 sent houses in Baltimore. North Carolina has 

 particularly stringent laws against commercial 

 travelers, and some of the other States have such 

 laws to a less exacting degree. New York has 

 no restrictions on the traffic. 



Merchants say that it costs from $10 to $20 a 

 day to maintain travelers on the road, and the 

 goods they sell must pay this expense. By long 

 absences days or weeks the samples they have 

 are out of stock, and often other goods are sub- 

 stituted which the buyer considers not so de- 

 sirable. Again, travelers sell to everyone in the 

 same town, and thus create injurious competi- 

 tion. A still further trouble arises with mer- 

 chants from commercial travelers who, in order 

 to make a good bill and secure a large commis- 

 sion, frequently add to the quantity of some of 

 the goods ordered ; and as the country mer- 

 chant does not always care to send back goods 

 that he may not want in the near future, he 

 finds himself overstocked with staples, much to his 

 own annoyance and inconvenience. Travelers 

 often call on retailers at a time when they are 

 especially busy, urge them to purchase when 

 they have no fair opportunity of inspecting the 

 stock, and take up time that should have been 

 occupied in looking after their store interests. 



The selling to everyone in the same town begets 

 an injurious spirit of rivalry one man buying 

 because another has done so and it is believed 

 to be far better for the retailer to purchase goods 

 that a competitor has not inspected at the same 

 time ; which would probably be the case if the 

 country dealer visited the principal markets and 

 bought from the stock in store, instead of select- 

 ing from a traveler's trunk. Dealers often buy 

 because of friendship to the traveler rather than 

 from an actual desire for the goods, and at a 

 time when many dealers would have preferred 

 to let their stock run down with a view of re- 

 plenishing it later with entirely new goods. 

 These reasons are given to show the disadvan- 

 tages of the system of selling by sample through 

 commercial travelers selling on commission, and 

 as a special reason why merchants should visit the 

 leading markets, thereby becoming acquainted 

 with those with whom they transact business, 

 and in return ^gaining the advantage of being on 

 the spot when the latest styles are shown. 



The merchants of the interior, as a whole, hav- 

 ing tried both the plan of themselves going to 

 New York and having the commercial travelers 

 come to them, are now adopting, to a considera- 

 ble extent, a compromise between the two. This 

 method avoids the expenses incident to both the 

 former and the present method. It consists of 

 sending out, at the request of the country dealer, 

 an " express sample trunk," in which is placed 

 in separate departments a sample of everything 

 that is in the stock at the main establishment, 

 with prices marked. This trunk can be sent to 

 the country merchant, who has the opportunity 

 of examining the goods at his leisure and com- 

 paring the samples with his stock. He can then 

 give his orders understandingly. On each sam- 

 ple is left a space for the order, and the dealer 

 can mark it on the wrapper of the goods before 

 him. Thus, for one fourth of the expense re- 

 quired for maintaining a commercial traveler, 

 the New York, Boston, or Philadelphia house 

 can send its goods to be exhibited to the pur- 

 chaser at a time when it will best suit him, and, 

 by a prompt return of the trunk with the order 

 therein, the goods can be supplied within a very 

 few days, without a competitor in the same town 

 even surmising that the country dealer has made 

 such purchases until the show window betrays 

 the fact. Thus the customer is enabled to keep 

 up with the market between those seasons when 

 he would usually visit the great centers of trade. 

 If he only wants a certain line of goods, he can 

 direct that the express sample trunk shall con- 

 tain only such samples, and a better assortment 

 can be sent him. He can also converse with his 

 partners and salesmen as to the quality of the 

 goods before him, and make comparisons, which 

 he might dislike to do in the presence of a trav- 

 eler, and could not do when merely looking at 

 samples in a hotel. The stock in the store and 

 the samples in the trunk can be placed side by 

 side. 



CONGO FREE STATE, a sovereign monar- 

 chical state, created in Central Africa by the 

 general act of the International Conference of 

 the Congo, signed at Berlin, Feb. 26, 1885, which 

 recognized Leopold II, King of the Belgians, as 

 Sovereign of the Independent State, and declared 

 its territories neutral and free to the trade of all 



