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Show II. S. AID SPEAKS TO CREDIT MEN Instalment Selling Is Discussed Urging business men to "sell merchandise, mer-chandise, not terms," Wilford L. White, chief of the marketing research re-search division of the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, U. S. department of commerce Tiim. day told the Associated Retail Credit Men of Salt Lake City that Instalment selling, as practiced In the business world today, is "not cause for great alarm" In itself. Mr. White said that the state of the nation's business two or three years from now may determine (on instalment sales) whether there is "any profit in the sale made today." He pointed out to credit men gathered gath-ered at a luncheon in the New-house New-house hotel, that instalment buying for 1S38 was estimated at $4,500.-000 $4,500.-000 000 of the $38,000,000,000 in retail re-tail sales in the United States, or 12 per cent. Instalment salea declined more proportionately from 1929 to J935 than did total retail sales, he said. Mr. White emphasized that Instalment Instal-ment contracts entered into during and prior to 1929 contributed to the last depression, and said: "Instead of learning our lesson, however, certain abuses inherent In this type of selling have been expanded ex-panded under competitive pressure. Unless proper control' can be promptly gained and maintained! over these factors, the situation is apt to become more serious than it was in 1929." Mr. White's thesis was that, while Instalment selling and buying on the scale practiced today Is not In! itself alarming. The practices arising aris-ing from competitive Instalment selling may work havoc, he said. |