ACHIEVEMENT.

Mataura Ensign, 25 July 1914, Page 2

ACHIEVEMENT.

AND MR J WANAMAKER.

PIONEER Iff ADVERTISING. (By C. R. Macauley in "New York San') If John Wannniakcr Ikul accompli,slied nothing more during his lifetime than to associate high ideals with a great mercantile enterprise and weld them inseparably together lie would have been building big. paving achieved this end while he still goes, vigorous and active, to his daily work, it is appropriate that lie' should he known as the "Merchant Prince of America."

Mr Wanamaker's workday is not limited to the hours he spends in his suite of offices'oll the seventh floor of his Philadelphia establishment. He works from the time he leaves his bed early in the morning until he returns there at night for a well-earned rest,. In motor-cars, on trains, driving through tunnels, chugging across rivers on ferry-boats, John Wanamaker is constantly working. Shortly after the doors of his store have ppened for the day and almost, before the army of salesmen and saleswomen have uncovered their wares Mr Wanam ik'>r has taken his place behind his big flat-topped mahogany desk. From this vantage-point, like a captain 011 the bridge of a great liner, he directs every ,department of his vast business. No detail is too trifling to enlist his attention. He keeps in close touch with every corner of his store from basement to top floor and maintains an acquaintance with everything that goes oil in. each corner. Achievement. is'Mr Wanamake.v's watchword. He carefully marks the goal and then "Full speed ahead!" is the order. He drives on at an amassing pace and those about him must step lively to keep up with him. * A-'vertisisig a Science.

Mr Wanamaker has reduced big advertising to a science. Perhaps more than any one man in the United States .John Wanamaker has. succeeded in establishing the value of honest statements to the reading public. For the reason that he was a pioneer—that he blazed the way—M'- Wanamaker 'has set the pattern for great merchants throughout .the country. He lias translated white paper into money that goes across his counters and this translation hfis been achieved through his intimate knowledge of just what he has to sell and his remarkable ability of making store news alive and interesting.

As an example of the importance Mr Wanamaker attaches to this department of his business it is enough to say that the signed, "editorial," appearing . 'daily among the Wanamaker announcements, is almost invariably ! written before lie sets foot inside his office in the morning. These are. written by his own hand in strong, even and condensed cliaracters._ Sometimes they are composed in his home and usually on odds and ends of paper. Often he writes them en route to his store, and if he happens to have a red envelope about him he uses that as a background for the statement to be issued to the buying public on the next day. 1? or these "editorials" he draws inspirations from every source. Crossing the Hudson lliver in a ferry-boat from Jersey City to New York recently Mr Wanamaker's attention became fixed upon a noisy, businesslike little tug-boat that was towing an overshadowing great hulk to its mooring. Result—an interesting simile applied to his own business in the next day's newspapers. The Upward Course.

Though born in 1838, Mr Wanamaker does not look a year above 50. The glint of his gray eyes has kept the keenness of youth. He is robust, genialfaced and his hair is but just graying at the temples. He'apparently has stopped growing old and ceased counting his years, though his first breath was drawn before railroads had made much progress in this country; before the time of the perfected telegraph system, the telephone, the electric light, the wireless, the typewriter, and even tlie steam printing press. ' The son of a brickmaker, John Wanamaker's first business experience was "turning bricks" and doing odd chores about the yard. He was the oldest of seven

children and early in his boyhood was obliged to give up going to school to earn his own way in life.

His first job was in a publish-ing-house in Philadelphia; his wages 1.25d01. a week. Then he found a place in a clothing store it I.oOdTSI. a week. From there he went, to Tower Hall, the famous old clothing house of Colonel Bennett. '

During these boyhood day?; •lohn Wanamaker begin to put personality into business. , The customers of Tower Hall began to ask when they came into the store, "Where is John" and in-sist,-*d that he supply their sartorial wants.

In 18(31 this boy "John" had managed, by careful economy, to wve lOOOdol. With his .friend Nathan Brown, under the firm name of Wanamaker and Brown, he then began business for him•■elf. Their small store was at Sixth, and Market. Streets, Philadelphia, on the site of what was once the home of the immortal George Washington. Wanamaker and Brown's first day's sales amounted to the stupendous sum of 24.67d01. The first year's sales aggregated 24,3G7d01. To-day the business of Mr Wanamaker must be summed up in the fens of millions. It is estimated that during ,'iis entire business career Mr Wanamaker has distributed into the homes of the American public merchandise reaching half a billion dollars in value. Yet with all these activities behind him he is planning and working diligently every day from eight o'clock in the morning until seven in the evening with all the buoyancy, enthusiasm and .strength of a voung man with all his life before him.

" A Bom Organizer.'' Colonel "Bennett, who had Tower Hall when John Wanamaker first started a« an errand boy, once, said : "John seems to be a natural born organizer. Tie is always organizing something." This has apparently been true of Mr Wanamaker all his life. He is a conspicuous type of the self-educated American, who has succeeded in ?limbing the mercantile ladder from the first rung to the top. His powers of concentration are remarkable and he is a good listener as well as an entertaining and engasring conversationalist. | During President Harrison'? administration Mr Wanamaker found time to become a public servant in another capacity than that of providing for the public'ir mercantile needs. During the four years that he held the portfolio of Postmaster-General he introduced into the Post Office Department many improvements, notably, sea post offices, abolishing the lottery, enlarging free delivery and establishing rural delivery of mails. He reorganized the entirepostal service of the Pacific,, slope and largely increased the mailing facilities in remote sections of the country. He was an earnest, advocate for better roads to facilitate the mail deliveries. He championed postal telegraph and postal saving depositories. He inaugurated the movement for a comprehensive parcel I post.

On thfe wall fronting his desk is a large oil portrait of General Benjamin Harrison. Mr Wanamaker, often looks at it and with a twinkle of quiet humor says: "There is the only boss I ever had."

Imaginative Side. There is a deeply imaginative and poetic side to Mr WanamakerV character. In liis office lie lias surrounded himself with many things that strongly emphasise this characteristic of the great merchant. There are rows upon rows of exquisitely-bound books. Rare prints adorn the walls. Three bronne busts of Abraham Lincoln look down upon him as he works. Some of the rooms of his suite on the seventh floor of the Philadelphia building were transported in toto from the Wanamaker exhibit in the St. Louis Exposition. One of these, a music room, to which he is in the habit, of retiring for extreme, privacy, lias a great stained-glass window that reveals the legend around which Richard Wagner constructed his immortal opera of "Tristan and Isolde."

Occupying another part of the interesting seventh floor is a private art gallery. Here two colossal paintings epitomizing the life work of Milialy Munkacsy, "Christ Before Pilate" and "Tlio Crucifixion," are to l)e seen. No price has ever been placed upon these masterpieces. They are not for sale. Often the great merchant enters this impressive room alone, remaining there for half an hour or more. Who can say what inspiration he receives for his daily tasks from these solitary visits.

Epigrams and Maxims. As a further example of the poet iesidiiig in the merchant, the writer is privileged to nresent a number of epigrams a no maxims culled from Mr Wanamaker's daily advertisements. "Books go well with gardens." "homebody must have a vision and put years of strength and

{tower back of it to shape things towards the ideal." "I have always had a broom in my hand." "A great ship'or a great store must just go on and do great, things and get bigger hv good service and never 100 big trt correct its faults." "We are not the mere automata of business. We are men and Women reaching out heart, and hand to make life easier and to make ihe world happier." "Business must rest upon ihe uncrumbling foundation of confidence in one another." "Business to my mind is the means to exchange knowledge, labor or skill for a living." "Strength in all around and jusKice in every part." "It is difficult to keep the business tracks clear of business grasshoppers." "A misplaced light on the shore has led to many a shipwreck. It is equally fatal to a storekeeper if his advertising chief handles a light that misleads."

"Not to be afraid is something, but courage to go straight on is infinitely more." "Keep up the old standards, and day by day raise them higher." "I think we have tried 1,0 do our best, but the best is vet to come."

"To arrive rather than begin is the real thing." "You and I have simply found some work to do, and Ave have borne hard upon it." .

"Every great undertaking is made up of the sum of past endeavors, pi us ambition and the new visions."

"Every man and woman is capable of making a discovery that may be important and useful to the world."

"On every ioad there is some young man coming on." Each new achievement is but a point to encamp on for the night only—-the next morning to awake early and climb,"

"Let them consider. In the meantime we will march on." "There are knights of politeness and princes of sunshine." "Mankind is one family." s _ "Laeh time that a woman bakes gingerbread it ought, to lie better gingerbread than that which came out of the oven the time before." Smiles are roses along the way." . "I never look at a sunrise that it does not give me a sunrise feeling."

"Tell your story and quit."