THE LUTHER BURBANK SOCIETY 



The trend of modern times, the evolution of 

 things as they are, is to bring the maker of a thing 

 closer and closer to the user of it — to let the 

 eventual user himself decide the characteristics 

 which the maker is to embody in it. 



We may take for example, as a parallel, the 

 manufacturer of clothing. 



Twenty years ago the maker of clothing de- 

 signed what he believed his public wanted, and 

 without consulting that public, manufactured 

 large quantities which he sold through wholesale 

 and retail channels, with the result that the public 

 was wearing not the clothes it wanted, but the 

 clothes its makers, several steps removed, believed 

 it wanted. To-day, in the clothing business, the 

 situation is entirely changed. The maker of cloth- 

 ing manufactures not a single garment in advance 

 to carry in stock, but instead designs and executes 

 a wide variety of models, embodying the ideas of 

 the whole range from which the public might like 

 to select. Then with trunks full of these models 

 — models of clothing which can be ordered to be 

 made, rather than samples of clothing already on 

 hand to be sold — the manufacturer's traveling men 

 take to the road, visit the retail stores, which in 

 turn call in their leading customers; and based 

 upon the judgment of the retailer, who is close 

 to the customer, and of the customer himself, the 



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