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Show Grocers see cu r in food prices soon . $ J & & gVENT OF PEACE ASSIGNED AS CAUSE DELEGATES to tha National Rotail Grocers' association being e.itertained Sunday on the roof garden at the I j. o. McDonald Chocolato company. After a drive through the city light refreshments were served. C;-olshevism Attacked and -ti:.jPlea Made for Better fll ! Cooperation. fhe part played by the retail grocers Til the war and the problems facing them 5 Ifl the reconstruction were the two prin-' prin-' 1 themes discussed at yesterday's fning sessions of the twenty-sixth anal an-al convention of the National Retail ocers' association at the Hotel Utah. 'J Pleas for greater co-operation among " tall grocers, arraignment of the IT, ckers, the advocacy of legislation t curb price discriminations, severe itlclsm of the "cash and carry" and iV'fain store systems of retail merchandis-''"'tand merchandis-''"'tand a warning to retailers that with 1 signing of the peace treaty a down- "V. ird trend In foodstuffs probably will X within thirty days, were some of s subjects presented at the morning i afternoon meetings. Uayor W. Mont Ferry formally wel-Tied wel-Tied the delegates from all parts of the X Mtry at the opening session yesterday i ng and In his address took occasion P score Bolshevism. Mayor Ferry stated l;iV.it one of the dangers of the present ' Vw is In the men who, under the guise Us Americanism, are attempting to un-s'.iVmine un-s'.iVmine the government. He made a Sjonj plea on behalf of Americaniza- 9-' n this he was heartily seconded by 'Pin A. Ulmer of Toledo, Ohio, vice A' isiient of the national association, .0 responded to the mayor's address of Icome. iconstruction Convention. This convention," he said, "will be , the natureof a reconstruction meet-,' meet-,' We must all unite in a determina-'P determina-'P -Jj-n to advance the principles of Ameri-v Ameri-v 41 item. The retailers throughout the intry are rooking to this body for R ,. dance and I hope that this conven- 1(1 1 n will go down in history as one no-i-"J'ie (or its constructive stand on pnjn-les pnjn-les vital to the country." kith Mavor Ferry and Mr. Ulmer . r.!p-,re warmly applauded in their refer- xs to subjects of a patriotic nature. i y Villiam Murdock, a director of the Salt ke association of retail grocers and at jr years of age one of the most inter- Ing figures of the convention, wel-' wel-' tied the delegates to the city on be- jry"r-fot the local association. In do:ng-l do:ng-l he gave them a brief history of the city and of the state, noting the rapid development which bus taken place. The convention has a three-fold purpose, pur-pose, according to H. A. Spinney of Dorchester, Dor-chester, Mass., one of the national trustees trus-tees of the organization, who replied to Mr. Murdock's welcome. The most important im-portant of the purposes, according to Mr. Spinney, is the education of retailers to the present needs of the country and of their business. Another purpose is cooperation co-operation between retailers, manufacturers manufactur-ers and wholesalers and co-operation be-veen be-veen retailers and the general consuming consum-ing public and between the retailers themselves. War Complicates Problems. President John H. Schaefer of Davenport, Daven-port, Iowa, in his address called for the re-establishment of the retail grocer's business on lines approaching those of the days preceding the war. The same problems, he said, face the retail grocer today as those of before the war, with the additional complications brought about through the war. In opening the afternoon session, President Presi-dent Schaefer announced that the Germans Ger-mans wrere ready to sign the peace treaty and, after a thunderous applause, he asked the convention to stand for the singing of "America." This they did with right good will. Before beginning the afternoon program. President Schaefer Schae-fer pointed out that the end of the armistice armi-stice and the coming of peace meant much to the grocers. He anticipated that there would probably proba-bly be sharp declines in the prices of many commodities carried by the retail grocers, while others that would probably proba-bly remain stationary. He called attention atten-tion to the enormous supplies of canned goods which the government now has in its hands, and stated that in his opinion these stores would probably be released on the open market within thirty days. The best manner of distributing this surplus, sur-plus, President Schaefer said, would be to put it on the market through the wholesalers and then to tho general public pub-lic through the retailers. James A. Cunningham, chairman of the wavs and means committee of the association, asso-ciation, in his report, asked for an extension ex-tension of tho national organization to include all the 350,000 retail grocers In the country js a step that would carry the benefits of co-operation already enjoyed en-joyed by members of the association to all men in the business. Mr. Cunningham pointed out that It Is not the function nor purpose of the association asso-ciation to fix prices, but rather to gather for exchanges of ideas as to the best methods of conducting the businesses. He criticised unfair competition, unscrupulous un-scrupulous advertising and other business practices not in accord with the highest ethics. Quoting Theodore Roosevelt as saying "It is the duty of every man in a profession pro-fession to do his utmost for the upbuild- ing of it," F. P. Atha, vice president of the National Coffee Roasters' association, spoke of grocery retailing as a profession profes-sion in which there was need for more care for details than in any other business. busi-ness. He told the grocers that their greatest needs were for a cutting down on their credit expansion and a more minute knowledge of their business. Coffee Trade Brisk. Mr. Atha referred to prohibition as a great stimulant for coffee business, pointing point-ing out' the talk there has been of the revival of coffee houses and similar institutions in-stitutions to take the place of what few saloons will remain open until June 30 of this year. He referred to the "big five" of the packing: industry and their entry into allied al-lied fields of packing, which, he claimed, would be detrimental to the interests of ' the grocers. He said that with their entering en-tering the general field of grocery manufacturing manu-facturing there was a possibility that , they would gain a monopolistic control of food in this country, a condition, he said, which would be to the great disadvantage disad-vantage of the grocers, not only in their business, but in their private lives. He said that if the packers reach a monopolistic mo-nopolistic control they will dictate prices and margins that the retailer will be compelled to accept or get out. Other speakers of the day were John J. Ryan, the nation secretary; William Wil-liam Jeffry, the national treasurer, who made reports, and the committee chairmen, who detailed the accomplishments accomplish-ments of their particular branches during the past year. The principal address of the afternoon was made by Leon M. Hattenbach of Denver on the subject, "Cash and Carry vs. Credit and Delivery." De-livery." Mr, Hattenbach said that the great majority of consumers are willing to pay for the service given in the credit and delivery system, and that the place for cash and carry business in retail gro- fPrifq was vprv limitprl. Yesterday's invocation was delivered .by Professor Levi Edgar Young of the University Uni-versity of Utah. Organization Is Topic. The second session of the National Retail Re-tail Grocers' convention will convene at 9:30 o'clock with the appointing of a committee on resolutions. F. B. Connolly Con-nolly of San Francisco will then give an address on 'A Larger and More Efficient Effi-cient Organization." Following w'hich, addresses will be given by William L. Sweet, past president of the national association, as-sociation, and Paul Findlay, president of the American Specialty Manufacturers' association. Mr. Findlay, retail merchant of the California Fruit Growers' exchange, will address the convention this morning on the general subject, "How to Retail Fruits Profitably." Mr. Findlay is a practical grocer of more than thirty-six years' experience, is familiar with mer- cnanaizing in most oi n-s urfcincntB, anu is a well-known writer in the grocery trade press. t He is on his way back to California from a journey of some 13,000 miles, on which he has studied the latest methods of fruit retailing in the eastern markets. mar-kets. It is what he has discovered on this trip, in the light of his previous experience, experi-ence, that he details in his talks, and the subject is one of vital importance to every ev-ery retailer, in view of the immediate development of the fruit business which lies just ahead. "The business is in its Infancy," Mr. Findlay said, "and it lies with the grocer whether he will retain and make a profit in this branch or will let it all go into the hands of the specialist." The talk is accompanied with blackboard black-board demonstration on the right way to figure margins and profits, and any subject sub-ject raised on the floor, will be discussed after his regular talk has been de-j de-j livered. Reports will then be received from the auditing and credentials committees, after which the continuation of state reports will bead. Outing Is Planned. The afternoon session will open at 2 o'clock with addresses by Arjay Davies, president of the National Wholesale Grocers' association, and Dr. James E. Talmage, one of the apostles of the L. D. S. church, and F. W. Nash, manager of the footl department of the General Chemical company. The continuation of suite reports will then be had until the adjournment at 4 p. m., when all delegates dele-gates and their wices will go to Salt-air Salt-air for tho afternoon and evening. Manv interesting improvements in business busi-ness methods have been brought out at the convention. G. R. Weber of Pueblo states that it was found upon investigation investiga-tion that a great many of the retailer's troubles have been traced to the clerks. To eliminate this the retailers and wholesale whole-sale dealers of Pueblo have formed a school of salesmanship in which all clerks must take a short course. One of the many things of interest that is to bo brought up during the convention conven-tion is the simplified bookkeeping and service system for retailers. The system will be explained by R. E. Thompson, president of R. E. Thompson & Krotbers of Los Angeles, who is here with the v ico president of tho company, R. V. Lowiis. |