TIIE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: NOVEMBER 2, 1913.
8-B
Saving millions by co-operation
saving of $30,375 through this
(EDWOIttAE)
11 Creeping into the lives of men every where
is the thought that co-operation is better
than competition. We need each other, and
by giving much we will receive much.
"We are reacii?ig enlightened self-interest.
Cf Co-operation is the act of working jointly together.
Co-operation is the act of two or more persons
uniting their skill or resources to produce something,
to buy something, or to share the profits on something.
Co-operation is based on a well established fact, that
two or more articles of a kind can be produced more
cheaply than one; that two or more articles of a kiiid
can be bought, and afterwards sold, more cheaply than
one. It's a simple principle.' A child can see it and
understand it. A stick of candy costs a cent. Six
sticks can be boughtrfor a nickel.
cjp Take the matter of this piano transaction as an
other illustration:
Cf The manufacturers" yho are interested in this plan
saw that if they could sell more pianos they could
build them at a reduced expense. To sell more pianos,
they must get the co-operation of piano dealers like
this house and other large distributors throughout
different sections of the country.
m To sell more pianos, these dealers were shown that
they would have to be content with a smaller profit
on each piano sold. But by selling many mmre pianos
they could make a larger aggregate profit
m To sell many pianos jinstead of a few, it was unani
mously decided that the dealer's proposition to "his
feptomers would have to be ittractive. That it wojild
have to be fair, square, open and above board and,
above all more liberal in all its conditions than
pianos are regularly sold upon;
F It was also pointed out that the co-operator's -proposition to the
public would have to be uniform, on each and every piano distrib
uted on this plan. That each and every person who participated in
this co-operative plan should share and share exactly alike.
F In contrast to this plan, the usual method of selling pianos has .
been: if thdre were twenty pianos sold of a given grade, they were
sold under twenty different conditions of sale, and, in many cases,
at actually twenty different prices,
F So, with these things in mind, certain piano manufacturers and
certain merchants (including ourselves) came together.
qp The manufacturer said: , "We can make better .pianos; and make
them for less money, if 'we can get a bigger market "
f The dealers (we were one of them) said: "If we can buy cheaper
so that we can offer more attractive inducements, we can make a
bigger market" which resulted in this Co-operative Association.
F After this Association was formed this plan worked out.
J We started with the idea of selling more pianos through an
incentive. But what would the incentive be? What would induce
you to purchase a piano? Logically, it could be but three things:
q (1) A lower price; (2) easier terms; (3) more liberal conditions
of sale, all the way through.
f We reasoned like this: Suppose something could be made and
sold at a profit, for a dollar each. Now suppose, by making twice
as many of these somethings, and by employing quicker and more
economical selling methods, these same somethings could be made
and sold at a profit, for seventy-five cents each. What would be
the result?
Cff The result would be that two sales would be made, aggregating
one dollar and fifty cents, where there had been but one sale made
before, amounting to only one dollar, and two persons would thus
save twenty-five cents each by the transaction. Do you catch the
idea?
(ff Now what has happened?
Cf We have worked out this plan. To put it into effect, the three
incentives above mentioned have become the very "warp and
woof1 of this whole proposition. The price has been lowered; the
terms have been made so easy that, as some say, "they are almost
ridiculously low," and it is left to your own good judgment, if the
conditions of sale are not the fairest, squarest, and most liberal upon
which you have ever known anything to be sold.
Little stories
ol co-operation
A thrifty housewife Bpont a couple
of wooks up state last summer.
While there she met a farmer who
had fine, fresh ogga to sell. The
farmer had been selling eggs to the
country storekeeper, who In turn had
been shipping them to the commis
sion merchant In the city, the com
mission merchant In turn selling them
to the city retailer, from whom you
buy them.
Now this good woman saw a
chance for a bargain, and made a
deal with the farmer, to ship her
twenty-four dozen eggs each week,
for which she was to give him eight
een cents a dozen winter and
Mummtr. Coming home she told her
friends and neighbors. Jtetult nine
families with hers divide the twenty
four dozen eggs, and divide the cost
of getting them by express (which
amounts to about threo centB a
dozen), making fresh eggs cost her
and her frlendB, the year round,
about twenty-one cents a dozen
all through co-operation.
Four railroad men In this city
have for years been getting two car
loads of coal nt
tho mine In the
oarly fall, paying
the price of the
coal at tho mine
then dividing
tho coal and the
freight and haul
ing expenses, In.
this way they
have obtained
their winter's supply of coal at a
saving of over f 1.60 a ton through
co-operation,
Switzerland is one of tho foroaiotit
countries In promoting co-oporatlvo
societies, Switzerland has long taken
a leading position among nations In
economies, and was one of the first
countries In rrorantlng co-operative
oo-operatlve Idea, Today this thrifty
Uttlq nation fairly bristles with co
operative societies representing every
shade of eommorolal, manufacturing
and financial activity,
Fourteen young graduate dontiita
of a certain well known Dental Ool
lege, this Hummer purchased fourteen
dental ohalrs all at one time, and as
one purchase,
thorby saving
thirty dollars on
each chair, or a
total of four
hundred and
twenty dollars
through co-operation. Just aa three
hundred persons will save colteetlvely
$30,375 In the purchase of there thres
hundred pianos, or, will Wa Indi
vidually. One hundred and One do.
' lars and twenty-five cents,
In Russia the government Itoolf co
operates with various co-operative
societies. In one instance th govern
ment has loaned forty million doj.
Jars to ft Farmera' Oo-operatlve
Credit Society, charging the society
only five per eent on the loan, This
money Is loaned to the members of
these societies on long time and.easy
terms and eaeh member shares In the
profits of the society to which he be-'
longs, This information has just re
cently eome to hand through an offi
cial report of United Btates Am
bassador Curtis Guild.
Six young -women employed In
this city, keep house on the oo-operatlve
plan, They
rent their apart
ment, employ
their cook, buy
their groceries
etc., and divide
the expense. Re
sult a hotter
homo, a better
table more com
forts nt leu
expense than If each were paying
her board individually.
According to the lost official re
port there are 38,14 co-operative so
pieties n Germany with a total mem
bership of 4,670,740 members, Of
these 9,905 societies with 1,328,770
members are consumer co-opera-Uvea,
One of these societies at
Frankfort on the Main, last year did
a total business of $1,008,138, and
has a msmbersblp of 20,449 whose
individual liability Is fixed at $7.14
each.
There are 16,000 rural co-operative
banks In Germany with an average
membership of 100 persons each. This
membership Is largely made up of
(farmers and tho
banks are organ
ized to flnanco
the farmers with
all the loans
they require.
These banks ex
tend their operations over the entlro
empire and last year did a business
of on billion, floe hundred and fifty
$ven million mark$.
The co-operation Idea In Germany
is not confined entirely to financial
co-operation. There are distributive
co-operative societies, dairying co
operative societies, and other kinds.
Tho working classes of Germany
have found an idea which fives aid
to them In buying, In selling, and In
banking.
The members In this nation-wide move
ment felt the need of co-operation among
themselves. A a reeult. provincial or
Sanitation! wvna formed to propoxate the
oo-operatlon Idea, to educate the people In
ttvs movement, and to act aa a general de
fense oasod&Uon for the entire member
ship of the oo-operatlon movement.
2$:
vl i rl'li y 1 1
ffiSpSBU
w
The balance on
the piano, it pay
able 1 dollar and 25 cents, weekly.
The balance on the player-piano
U payable 3 dolfcus weekly.
WITHOUT
INTEREST.
ThU give you
195 weeks time in
which to pay for
the piano or the
player-piano.
Lessening the price
TTo lessen the price of anything and lessen it materially
is no easy matter. A merchant may sacrifice some of his
profit and thereby reduce prices a little. He may here
and there make an advantageous purchase, and thus
lessen prices temporarily. But to make a big, staple cut
in prevailing, prices it can only be done in one way, and
that is by selling greater numbers. Selling greater
numbers means making greater numbers, which in
turn means buying materials
cheaper, making for less cost,
and the elimination of expen
sive selling methods. Selling
greater numbers means con
centration and co-operation-centering
every energy on the
work in hand, and giving much
to others and receiving much from
others through working together.
Like this piano transaction -Where
every energy has been put forth? by
the manufacturers and ourselves, and
where every incentive, in turn, is be
ing given to our customers, to make a low-water mark in piano prices.
SFAnd this we have accomplished. Through this co-operative effort
we are offering to three hundred persons a piano for two hundred
and forty-eight dollars and seventy-five cents, the same as has been
selling for -years at varying prices from three hundred and fifty to
four hundred dollars.
They are offered at one stable price, and that the lowest at which
such pianos have ever been sold. The price has the advantage of
not only being the lowest, but it is the utmost price, as well. For
when you have paid the two hundred and forty-eight dollars and
seventv-five cents, there are then no further payments starinervou
in the face. No interestno extras bobbing upbut just one low, I
siaDie ana aosoiuteiy nxea price 01 two nunarea ana iorty-eigni
dollars and seventy-five cents covering, everything.
Lesseiiintgi tile
terms
1
25
week
The initial payment Decenary to
obtain ent of these pianos H FIVE
DOLLARS. The five dollar, it
deducted from the price leaving
TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY
THREE DOLLARS' AND SF.V-
JNTYrI VE CENTS to be r
ONE DOLLAR AND TWI
FIVE CKNTS a week, wilt
INTEREST or further payment of
any nature.
Copj-rig-ht. 11S. by Stone & McCarricV, Inc.
f You can buy plenty of pianos at a dol
lar and 23 cents a week and even as
low as a dollar a week: It is no new, thing
to be able to get a piano on terms a3 low
as these you will see them advertised
almost every day.
tf But to get a piano like these at a dol
lar and 25 cents a week is a new thing.
V These are pianos
such as are seen
only in the best
homes. They are
pianos such as any
one might well
wish to own. These
are pianos of which
any one might well
feel proud.
Theyare instru
ments which reg
ularly sell for at
least ten dollars a
month and as much more as the cus
tomer will give.
But here you have as the result of
this co-operative effort a good, durable
and desirable piano upon the low and
uniform terms of only one dollar and
twenty-five cents a week.
m We do not ask you to pay these easy
terms and your neighbor some other
terms-and someone else still ofierterms.
F But the three hundred persons who
obtain these three hundred pianos pay
exactly the same terms to the penny.
ff Each and every one of them are priv
ileged to take one hundred and ninety
five weeks' time in which to .pay for their
piano. They can pay in less time if
they wish: That is to say they are not
compelled to drag out their payments
over the whole time alloted them, if they
prefer to pay in shorter time.
If they do pay in shorter time they
profit still further getting fifteen cents
(cash premium) for each and every week
the time is shortened.
Also player-pianos
One Hundred Player-pianos will
also bo sold on this co-operative
plan.
Tho usual price of these' player
pianos' Is five hundred and fifty
dollars each. f
The cp-operatlve price "will be
three hundred and ninety-five
dolars wltli NO INTEREST to
be added.
The player-piano will also be de
livered immediately upon tho
payment of five dollars.
The payments will be .two dollars
a week giving you one, hundred
and ninety-five weeks time in
which to make your payments
the same as on the piano. The
same unconditional guaranteo
that Is given on the piano Is
given on the player-piano.
You can also get your money back
at any time within thirty days.
You get the same privilege of ex
changing within a year, as that
given with the piano.
M of the unpaid balances will be
voluntarily cancelled In event
of death.
Also, a player-piano bench and
nine rolls of musio (your own se
lections) are included without
extra charge.
An arrangement will be made
with each purchaser whereby
new player rolls can be procured
at a special discount of 20
from the regular catalogue
prices.
We attribute the success of our
Player Department largely to
the fact that we have been care
ful to select only such Player
Pianos that would not only give
satisfaction to the purchaser,
but that would lend prestige to
this department of our business.
We believe that we have sold
more player-pianos than any
other piano concern In this seo
tlon of the country, and In this
great Co-operative 8ale we have
been careful to select only bucu
Player-Pianos that can be sold
upon, not only the manufactur
er's guarantee, but OUR GUAR-
All at the features of the co
operative plan nre carried
out In offering tho player-
pianos, with the elngle exception
that the terms on the player
piano are two dollars a week In
stead of as on the" piano one
dollar and twenty-five cents a
week.
Cut this coupon off, and mall tonight.
Messrs.
Without obligation on my. part, mall
photographs and description of pianos
and player-pianos being sold on your co
operative plan to,
Name
Street and No.
City
State .