A ROMANCE OF BUSINESS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1926, Page 1

A ROMANCE OF BUSINESS

Mr Samuel CTowtlier, who assisted in the preparation of Air Henry Ford’s “ Story of Aly Life,” has now chronicled another romance of commerce, and lias written a biography of the late John H. Patterson. Air Ford has declared that the secret of success is to diagnose a general need, and to supply it. Patterson’s career exemplifies that principle. In tho early ’eighties of last century he and his brothers were in the coal trade in Dayton, Ohio, in a comparatively modest way. The store or office of 1884, was no different from the store of office of 1784 as it is from its modern counterpart. In a hundred years there had been little change in methods. There was no business equipment worth mentionin'g. The typewriter and the telephone were rarities, and there was no effective means of keeping check on money received. A dishonest employee could, at small risk, to himself, divert proceeds to liis own pocket. In 1884, an agent Showed Patterson a crude machine called a> “ cash register,” which compelled the salesman to recoH-. payments by punching holes in a r>’ <r tape. The brothers tried the devic m their mining store and turned a regular loss into a. regular profit. Then they tried it in their retail office, and stopped a considerable leakage. They bought shares in the company which manufactured it, but the first year’s operations were discouraging, and they sold out. Soon afterwards J. 11. Patterson, acting on a. sudden impulse, purchased a controlling interest in the concern for 6500 dollars,— almost all that he possessed. But immediately he repented of the transaction and offered 2000 dollars to have the bargain cancelled. The seller refused, so Patterson had to make the best of a. had job. From flint moment until tho moment of his death be saw the world in terms of the cash register. He believed that this machine would make mankind financially honest. He perfected it and developed salesman! ship into a fine art. His maxim was that the most efficient salesman is a contented customer. At first the only establishments to employ tho cash register were tho saloons, but little by little, thanks to Patterson’s propaganda. business men realised that it was an economy, not a luxury, and now. of course, its use is universal. Although he had an enormous income, he probably spent less on himself than any rich man in the country. The rest he gave away.