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Show Editorially Speaking . . . How Not To Do Business The story is told of a merchant who once went out of business. While in business he made no money for himself. He succeeded in keeping his competitors from making money. He started in business with a stock of goods, and an-' an-' nounced that he would undersell his competitors. If his competitors offered merchandise at a dollar, he announced that his price would be 90 cents. When he went out of business he owed a large sum of money. He settled with his creditors on a basis of about 10 cents on the dollar. His idea of business was to cut the price. That is all that he knew about business. As a result he chalked up a miserable failure, folding his tent, and quit. Not only did he lose money but he deprived his competitors com-petitors of a profit, and the trade was demoralized. And his creditors footed the bill. It even caused other business houses to fail, and because of no fault of their own. No community can thrive unless people who do business busi-ness make a profit. This applies to merchants, farmers, industrialists, and all. When some fellow thinks he can outsmart the rest of the crowd by elimination of profit he is nothing short of ridiculous. It costs money to operate a business, and anyone who thinks he can escape this cost is absurd. A |