The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1927. THE CHANCING TIMES.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1927. THE CHANCING TIMES.

An article that is attracting well deserved attention on the part of business “ men and bankers appears in a'reten issue of Trade Winds, the magazine of a the Union Trust Company of Cleve--1 land, Ohio. The author was Robert I R. Updegraff and the subject of his study was the new American “tempo’’ by which he meant the swift changes Ii that are taking place almost overnight in industry and its relations with the consumer. Here is a short ex- | tract which will show what the author had in mind when he spoke of a trad “tempo." First, in the public’s disconcerting willingness to turn its back on established institutions, products, methods, ideas, as evidenced by the rusting rails of hundreds, of abandoned trolly lines; by the difficulty a woman with long hair has experienced for the past two years in finding a hat large enough to fit her head; by the rutliles. wiping out. of denominational lines, and the establishment of broad ‘community’ churches, and by the fact that the only thing that saved the great solidly entrenched phonograph industry was the timely introduction of a new and vastly superior machine built on a new principle. Next, in the pitbiic’s promptness, amounting almost to aggressiveness, in accepting new products, new methods, institutions ' and ideas. Witness radio, balloon tyres, the metropolitan tabloid pictorial newspapers, the Chrysler car. the ] bootlegger, Duoo finish, electric refrigeration, pale ginger ale. National Cash Register stock—not to comment on the " celerity with which the nation accepted ’ its newly created bad breath !’’ The s rather flippant style in which these :l illustrations are cited is no doubt intentional. What Updegraff is trying to t bring home, says a New York paper, a is that the world is living in an age I when industries really spring up and R go out of business almost without pro- t] vious notice. One invention follows b another, one new scientific discovery g, supersedes an older one. What is in demand to-day may be nothing more than junk to-morrow. The bigger in- P' dustrial concerns recognised this n . chance in “tempo” long ago. That is why their research departments are the wonder of the world, and fre- K : quently the despair of the shareholder,

whose immediate thought is dividends. Tt is the research work, the billowing down to the last possibility every item, discovery or invention, in an effort to

cheapen cost, or meet a coming do maml. that keeps these farsighted or

their own “tempo" at a moment's notice. and stay in business. And the lesson lias an equal application to the business man. If he does not look ahead, he is apt to iind himself in an ambai'ras.sing position when the world decides suddenly that it is tired of the old. and must have the new. The real reason for these quick changes is nor that human nature itself has undergone a sudden change. The secret lies in the fact that the channels of informal ion are so perfected Unit a new anti useful invention, device or foot I article, or any other commodity, can lie made known .simultaneously over thousands of milt's of territory in Llie. briefest possible time. The manufacturer of n washing machine, for instance, tan make that machine a familiar household word to many millions cl we-men from the Atlantic to the Pacific and beyond, more quickly than, ill the older days, he could have acquainted the women in the town adjoining his own that he had something new and desirable for them. And last but not least, the installment purchase plan, itself a national habit through exploitation. affords him n certain and a profitable market.