Trade, Commerce, and Commercial Crises.

Marketing Methods and Salesmanship. By RALPH STARR BUTler, HERBERT F. DEBOWER, JOHN G. JONES. Modern Business

Series, Vol. III. (New York: Alexander Hamilton Institute. 1916. Pp. xxii, 555.)

Marketing Methods. By RALPH STARR BUTLER. Modern Business Series, Vol. V. (New York: Alexander Hamilton Institute. 1917. Pp. xxi, 346.)

Salesmanship and Sales Management. By JOHN C. JONES. Modern Business Series, Vol. VII. (New York: Alexander Hamilton Institute. 1917. Pp. xvii, 358.)

The reviewer has on his desk the 1911, 1914, 1916, and 1917 editions of this part of the Modern Business Series. There may have been other editions within these seven years. Comparing the editions at hand the evolution of the present volumes appears to be as follows: Volume IX of the 1911 edition consisted of "three separate treatises bound in one": (a) on advertising, (b) on selling and buying, and (c) on credits; (a) and (b) were written by Galloway and (b) by Butler; credits did not receive half as much space as either of the other two. The reviewer's copies of the 1914 edition are bound separately: "Advertising" was completely rewritten by Messrs. Tipper and Hotchkiss and made very much better; "Selling and Buying" was rechristened "Marketing Methods," a much better name and one that it has retained to date; and a new volume was created, "Salesmanship," which embraced the theory and practice of sales and the sales organization; this was written by DeBower and Jones; "Credits" was rewritten by Wahlstad. Volume III of the 1916 edition, "Marketing Methods and Salesmanship" is by the same authors (Butler, DeBower, Jones) and consists of the 1914 volumes bound together. In 1917 "Marketing Methods" by Butler was bound as volume V and "Salesmanship and Sales Management" by Jones was bound as volume VII.

The following differences between the 1916 and 1917 editions may be noted:

1. The editors and authors have sought to keep the texts abreast of the times where important changes of fact have occurred. For instance, the prominent role in public and trade discussions played recently by "price maintenance" would justify a more extensive treatment of that subject than was formerly given. Chapter XIII (volume III) of the 1916 edition on "Protecting

the Manufacturer's Goodwill" has been developed into two chapters in 1917, the second taking the heading "The Case for Price Maintenance." As far as the contents and manner of treatment are concerned it does not appear why the chapter was divided: there is quite as much argument for price maintenance in the first chapter as in the second. The sum total of additional information on this subject is a mere pittance. In the statement of the methods of price maintenance it adds a third method, by 'gentleman's agreement'; this is probably well taken, for the recent court decisions adverse to the other methods will likely bring this method more and more to the front. In this discussion the author refuses to state his position on the question of price maintenance, nor does he present the recent history of price maintenance legislation and court action; it is also regrettable that he does not give actual illustrations of the methods of price maintenance and how they work. The only other place where changes of fact have occasioned changes of treatment is with respect to chain and coöperative stores: the chain stores system and coöperative and jobbing enterprises are fast rising into prominence. Chapter IV (volume III, 1916) on the "Chain Store" contained somewhat extraneous sections (Nos. 60-66) on coöperative stores; in the 1917 edition these sections are carried forward and put into a new chapter, XIV (volume V), on "Substitutes for the Middleman." This chapter discusses (1) substitutes for the ordinary retail stores-(a) coöperative stores and buying clubs as organized by the consumers and (b) chain stores and direct consumer sales as used by manufacturers; and (2) substitutes for the ordinary jobber—(a) retail buying exchanges, (b) coöperative wholesale houses, and (c) cooperative retail chains. This arrangement is a great improvement over the 1916 plan and is a fairly good discussion of the subject.

2. Comparing the section heads one would get the impression that considerable data had been added; but upon examination it is seen that the apparently new sections are, for the most part, only divisions of former sections with titles prefixed (e.g., cf. pp. 35-38, 1916 and pp. 63-68, 1917, volume V) and the apparently new chapters are divisions of former chapters (e.g., cf. chapter VII, 1916 and chapters V and VI, 1917, and cf. chapter IX, 1916 and chapters VIII and IX, 1917). Here and there through the text a small paragraph is added but it adds little or nothing to the value of the chapter.

3. As to changes in the method of presentation, logic, or style,

the following may be noted: some sections are split up and the parts named, others are combined; many titles of sections are improved, and the sections are numbered by chapters whereas they were formerly numbered continuously through the book. There are many changes of phraseology but very few of them issue in greater clarity, precision, or better grammar. The editors have wisely dropped some irrelevant parts, as chapters IV and V (1916), on "The Training of Retail Salesmen," which were irrelevant and illogical interpolations in the exposition of the manufacturer's or jobber's sales organization. At the close of the volumes of the 1916 edition were found several pages of questions, arranged and numbered to correspond with chapters and sections, each question bringing out the chief point in its particular section; in the 1917 edition the questions are grouped at the close of each chapter in fine type, are unnumbered, are fewer in number, and are of a better character since they are thought-inducing rather than expository; in each of these respects the reviewer believes the questions are improved. On the whole, the number and extent of changes are much greater in volume V than in volume VII.

"Marketing Methods" (volume V, 1917) is devoted to "the technique of advertising and the technique of salesmanship-and to those considerations that must receive attention before either salesmanship or advertising is started on its mission of influencing the market"; it is written from the manufacturer's point of view. After stating the general "chain of distribution" it treats: (1) the retail outlets-general, specialty, chain, and mail-order stores; (2) the jobber's functions and problems such as private brands, exclusive agencies, price maintenance, substitutes for jobbers, etc.; and (3) the development of a selling campaign through jobbers and retailers, or through retailers, or direct to consumers.

Volume VII (1917), "Salesmanship and Sales Management," aims to present the "fundamental principles underlying the whole field of personal salesmanship, as revealed in the experience of a large number of successful salesmen" and "to formulate the principles underlying successful salesmanagement in all its phases." In the first part the selling process is carefully detailed through the preliminaries, the interview, and the agreement; there is a study of the "human appeals that sell," of the qualities and character of the salesman, of his duties, and of his relations to his house and customers. In the second part are considered the qualifications and duties of the salesmanager, the selection of salesmen, their

equipment and compensation; and it closes with chapters on the methods by which sales are reported and by which salesmen are stimulated to high efficiency.

Together these books make the best existing treatment of their field; in fact they are quite alone in their field, and the importance of this field is being recognized more and more; as "schools of commerce" are instituted in our universities the need of textbooks for courses in these lines is being acutely felt. The reviewer has used the 1914 and 1916 editions as texts and his conclusions, seconded by many of his pupils, are that the texts are sketchy and artificial for use by upper college classes; they are written for too popular an audience and not in the scientific strain and depth which fit college men; there is a crying need for genuine college texts in this field. The texts are also written from a purely business point of view; they are divorced from the economic principles developed by the earlier courses in the elements of economics (instance volume V, pp. 276-277 on prices); there is need of texts which correlate economic concepts and doctrines with practical business economics; texts so built will find a more warrantable berth in economics courses. Too many of the illustrations are by name only; to say, by way of illustration, that John Doe and Company practiced price maintenance by the "contracts" method is practically useless unless sufficient details are given to make the reader comprehend the John Doe practices with some definiteness; such illustration could be made to lend exceptional life and interest to the book by such fuller statement. Finally, the reviewer believes that, while the texts aim to be expository only, this exposition would be much improved if the historical side were given more attention; if the genesis of certain business practices, with their whys and hows, were delineated.

RAY B. WESterfield.

Yale University.

NEW BOOKS

CAPORALI, D. Istituzioni di diritto commerciale ad uso delle scuole di studi applicati al commercio. (Torino: Bocca. 1917.)

HARTLEY, E. F. Study of cartage costs in city of Washington. (Washington: Superintendent of Documents. 1917. Pp. 14. 5c.)

KITSON, A. Trade fallacies. A criticism of existing methods and suggestions for a reform towards national prosperity. (London: King. 1917. 5s.)

Analysis of the present foreign trade of the United States. (Boston, Mass.: Directors of the Port of Boston. 1917. Pp. 19.)

List of references on embargoes. (Washington: Library of Congress. 1917. Pp. 44.)

Official proceedings of the fourth national foreign trade convention held at Pittsburgh, Jan. 25-27, 1917. (New York: National Foreign Trade Council. 1917. Pp. 600. $2.)

Report to the American manufacturers export association by the American Industrial Commission to France, September-October, 1916. (New York: American Industrial Commission to France. 1917. Pp. 256. $5.)

First annual report on markets and marketing for the year ending December 1, 1916. (San Francisco: State Market Director. 1916. Pp. 110.)

Frank Waterhouse and Company's Pacific ports, a commercial geography, commercial dictionary, transportation guide and marine manual of the Pacific Ocean, with full information for importers and exporters. Third edition. (Seattle: Terminal Pub. Co. 1917. Pp. 352. $3.)

Accounting, Business Methods, Investments, and the Exchanges

The Administration of Industrial Enterprises with Special Reference to Factory Practice. By EDWARD D. JONES. (New York: Longmans, Green and Company. 1916. Pp. vi, 442. $2.00.) "The purpose of this work," as stated in the preface, "is to present what may be called first-class practice in the administration of industrial enterprises," or, in other words, "to trace the application of the scientific method in industry. . . The major topics dealt with are physical equipment, administrative organization and methods, the adjustment of the relations of employment, the buying and selling side of manufacturing. The proportions of the work are not perfect. Too much space is devoted to the highly technical subject of "layout of a manufacturing plant" and not enough to modern aids to an enlightened administration. The treatment of cost accounting is far too meager and there is nothing at all on managerial statistics and the graphical presentation of facts. Nevertheless, the ground in general is covered with judgment and as thoroughly as a work of moderate size addressed to the general reader would permit. At the end of each chapter is a well-selected bibliography of special works for the benefit of those who wish to delve more deeply into particular points of interest.