and he supplies the most imperative need of life-food.

Considered in this aspect, his vocation rises to a dignity that is not generally accorded it, which is perhaps one of the reasons why the problems of food distribution have not received the scientific attention to which they are entitled.

The chain grocery store is, in fact, almost the first attempt that has been made to apply the methods of scientific commerce to the retail business in dry groceries.

It represents a new application of an old principle, made possible largely by that handmaid of modern administrative efficiency, the telephone, and born of the necessity for economy created by the increased cost of commodities, especially foodstuffs.

Under the old system, the grocery business was unorganized. The stores were, for the most part, small affairs. Each one was a separate commercial integer presided over by its own proprietor, who did his own buying and was generally his own salesman.

In order to meet the somewhat capricious demand of a comparatively small clientele he was compelled to carry a wastefully large stock. If he miscalculated his demand, the unsold remnant was subject to rapid deterioration. Most of his business was done on credit. Collections were costly and slow and bad debts were numerous.

Unless his capital was unusually large he had to buy on credit because he sold on credit, and the jobbers or wholesalers who gave him financial accommodation were able to control and delimit his selection of goods.

The quality and assortment of his stock were often poor, and trade was therefore difficult to retain. The credit he extended made his customers extravagant, and the credit he was forced to ask often proved to be his own undoing.

It has been impossible to get at the exact cost of distributing dry groceries under the old system. As a rough approximation, based upon the experience of the few jobbers and wholesalers who were willing to be communicative, we may assume that goods bought by them from the manufacturer for $1 are sold to the retailer for $1.12.

Of this 121⁄2 cents 211⁄2 cents is net profit, and the remaining ten cents represents the "overhead" costs of doing business, including rent, heat, light, cold storage, buying and selling expense (including the expense of traveling salesmen), bad debts, clerk hire,

advertising, cartage and delivery charges, packing, depreciation, interest, taxes, and in

surance.

The expense and profit of the old-fashioned independent retail grocery have been even more difficult to ascertain. A year ago the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University made an exhaustive investigation into the expense of operating retail grocery stores, not including "chain stores, department stores, mail-order stores, or fancy grocery stores."

It is admitted that inadequate bookkeeping made a precise report impossible, but the result of the investigation is set forth in the table on the next page.

While my own inquiries would lead me to conclude that the average retail grocery store is compelled to make a gross profit of more than twenty-one per cent on sales in order to net a gain of four per cent on its stock turned seven times a year, I am content to accept the "common" experience as shown in the table quoted. On that basis an article sold by the jobber to the retailer at $1.121⁄2 would have to be resold at $1.42% in order to realize a profit of twenty-one per cent on the selling price.

As this article originally cost the jobber $1, we are probably well within the mark in assuming that the average cost of distributing groceries in the United States under the old method is at least forty-two and one-half per cent, and that the consumer pays $1.421⁄2 for what the manufacturer sells for $1. From the figures furnished by the proprietors of several chain-store systems and verified by comparison, I conclude that their gross profit on sales does not average over fifteen per cent. Of this about four per cent is net and eleven per cent represents the overhead cost of doing business. As they generally buy from the manufacturer direct for cash, this means that their price would be $1.17% for an article which the so-called independent retailer must sell at $1.42%1⁄2 if he is to make an equal profit.

The fact that $1.17% will go as far and buy as much in a chain store as $1.42% will in a retail store of the old type is of course mainly responsible for the rapid growth of the chain system, but the proprietors of the chain stores claim that they reduce the cost and raise the standard of living in other ways.

Because they sell only for cash, it is maintained that they induce economy in buying. This is probably true, for the man or woman

who pays actual money at the time of purchase is generally a more careful buyer than the person who says, "Charge it," and must ultimately pay bills the verification of which either as to price or quantity is practically impossible.

It is also claimed that the chain stores are able to offer a wider assortment and fresher goods than the ordinary retailer.

Because their business runs into the millions they are able to turn their stock more rapidly and renew it oftener than the small retailer They claim also that a grocer having several hundred points of contact with the public instead of one can buy more intelligently and less wastefully, and so minimize the loss that accrues from the deterioration of shop-worn goods. All this seems reasonable enough

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and is sustained by the rapid growth of the chain-store grocery business in the United States.

Fifteen years ago there were comparatively few chain stores. Now there are about twenty different concerns each of which operates over one hundred stores. One of them is supposed to have over one thousand stores, and there are several with from two to three hundred different establishments. In some cases a system will include only one city and

its suburbs.

In others a single system will have stores in several different States. There are many smaller concerns operating from ten to fifty stores. Nearly all these are growing rapidly. In most cases the owners of these systems are practical retail grocers who commenced

as the proprietors of a single store and have had the vision to see the advantage of a multiple business.

As already remarked, the telephone has greatly simplified the problems of administrative supervision and stock replenishment. This instrument makes it practicable for the manager of the district store to keep in constant touch with the main office and warehouse.

He is thus able to supply all demands promply without being overstocked.

Some of the larger chain-store companies are themselves manufacturers. Most of them roast their own coffee. Many of them have canneries and bakeries. In the Middle West there is one concern that deals in fresh, salt, and smoked meat slaughtered and cured in its own packing-house.

The aggregate business done by the various chain-store concerns operating more than ten stores each is not over $300,000,000 a year. This is less than five per cent of the total grocery trade of the country. The economy that the present high price of food will shortly compel seems likely to increase the appeal of the chain store for a public that will have to pay the equivalent of $12 a barrel for flour, $3.65 a sack for potatoes, 60 cents a dozen for eggs, and 50 cents a pound for butter.

Under such conditions, the economic usefulness of the chain store will be increased and its business will doubtless show an accelerated growth. That it is destined to become a very important part of our commercial machinery seems self-evident.

Whether this destiny can be best fulfilled by yielding to the centripetal influence that tends to bring big business into a co-operative correlation and sometimes into combina

tion is a question that naturally suggests itself to the thoughtful mind.

If ten stores can distribute goods more economically than one, and two hundred can serve the public better than ten, it is logical to expect that a thousand under a single

management would be still more efficient, and the trend of development seems to be in this direction.

In the preface to the first of these articles upon "Big Business Junior in America" I said:

Many young Americans, and some older ones, frequently complain that all the big things were done during their fathers' generation; that the country is now developed, that the great opportunities are gone or are pre-empted by the corporations, and that he who is not born within the charmed circle of wealth is doomed to mediocrity and obscurity, no matter how great his ability and industry.

This is not true. Within the past decade many new forms of big business have grown up in the United States. They are Nation wide in their scope, employ armies of men and women, and perform an important public service in that they contribute to the comfort, enjoyment, or economy of life.

They have made thousands of men rich and scores of men millionaires, and have provided distinguished careers for many who are still young and were unknown youths when they grasped the opportunities that always exist for the observant, optimistic, and courageous. Doubtless the next ten years will offer many other novel openings for the young men who are now entering upon the business of life. To encourage them to look for such chances this and the succeeding articles are written.

They will deal briefly with the history and probable future of those departments of big business junior in America, by which is meant the business or industries which, though young, have become sufficiently stabilized and standardized to attract general public investment in their securities, and National enough in their scope to be recognized as outstanding and permanent parts of our economic fabric.

The chain grocery store is rapidly approaching, if indeed it has not already reached, a stage of development that justifies the attention of our ablest business men and financiers, and for this reason I commend it to the attention of all those who seek the opportunity of big achievement.

THE BELGIAN YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IN DANGER

Not the least of the misfortunes which the war has caused in Belgium is the almost complete ruin of the Young Men's Christian Association work in that country. The Brussels Young Men's Christian Association, in spite of the fact that the Protestant population of the city is very small, had before the war several hundred members and was beginning to play an important part in the religious life of the city. Its effectiveness was due largely to the enterprise of the two foreign sections, German and Anglo-American, which disappeared entirely at the outbreak of the war; and, as millions of Belgians are wholly or partially objects of charity, the society is now almost absolutely without funds. I visited Mr. Van Duynen, the Brussels secretary, in February, and found him without a fire. "We have had no heat in the building all winter," he said. "We can't afford it." For the past two years he has received only a fraction of his always modest salary, and if help is not forthcoming it is possible that it will be necessary to abandon the work entirely. When a few hundreds may save the life of this useful work and a few thousands would keep it going generously, Americans will certainly not allow it to die. Minister Brand Whitlock has given assurance that funds addressed to him for the Young Men's Christian Association will reach the proper hands safely. A letter sent to the Department of State at Washington for him will be forwarded to him at Brussels, or subscriptions may be sent to the address below. It is hoped that well-wishers of this useful organization will not hesitate because they are not in a position to give largely. The smallest contributions, as well as the largest, will be gratefully acknowledged and faithfully forwarded. ROY T. HOUse,

State University of Oklahoma,
Norman, Oklahoma.

AN INDIAN IDEAL OF UNCLE SAM The cartoon in The Outlook for September 20, 1916, representing Uncle Sam caught in a trap, is keenly offensive to the older Indians, many of whom come to my house continually to read pictures and to learn the news.

To say that the cartoon is painfully sacrilegious to the finer feelings of old Indians is not overstating the matter. They say that it should have represented a boy Congressman impersonating Congress in the trap, while Uncle Sam comes and says that the brotherhood will not catch his boys that way again. As the car. toon is drawn, Indians think, it belittles Uncle Sam and slyly depicts the railways as superior to him.

Indians regard Uncle Sam and all government in nature, among men, animals, plants, and

all things (invisible save as manifest in persons, life forms, acts, and processes), as Wakantanka (Life Deity). So, while Uncle Sam is Congress, as well as all persons and parts of our Government, even the most minute parts, yet a person or a group of persons such as Congress, or even the President himself, might get caught in a trap because of lack of spontaneous bravery, or as a punishment for "crookedness" (owotonna-sni). But to represent Uncle Sam himself as caught in a trap is the same thing as to represent Life Deity as caught in a trap, as Indians regard matters.

My explanation that the picture was first published in the New York "World," an honest paper which does not make a specialty of religion, is unsatisfactory to the Indians, who think that a spontaneous reverence for Life Deity should preclude anybody from representing Uncle Sam himself as caught in a trap. Sincerely, A. MCG. BEEde, Ph.D., Missionary to Indians.

Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

"HAIR-SPLITTING"

A devoted reader of The Outlook, I have been somewhat interested in following the controversy recorded in recent numbers between the so-called "Catholic" and so-called " Protestant" factions of one of our prominent religious denominations. My only comment thereon is just this: When eminent divines-leaders of religious thought in the Church-any church-can spend their time and energy in such profitless discussions as this one, in recording which The Outlook has wasted so much of its valuable space, it is easy to understand why the Christian Church does not make any stronger appeal than it does to red-blooded men who have no interest in theological hair-splitting. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

W. A. LANING.

SAILORS AND LITERATURE

In the October 25 issue of The Outlook I enjoyed, in particular, reading Mr. Sherwood's article, "Turning a Landsman into a Sea Fighter." However, I do not agree with the author in his two statements, ie., “The navy does not encourage the study of literature. Reading is not encouraged."

Having spent four years in the regular service on my own account, I had arrived at just the opposite view. On practically every ship in the navy a well-stocked library may be found, with books on every conceivable subject. I know from experience that the bluejacket is encouraged in reading and the study of literature by both his superior officers and his fellow-men. This, I believe, has been even more so since Secretary Daniels instituted the educational system aboard ship. Dallas, Texas.

Z. M. DUCKWORTH, JR.

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"Airplane" is recommended by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as a substitute for the word "aeroplane," which most people, it is to be feared, pronounce "airoplane." The Committee makes at present no further recommendations as to the "aero group of words, which include aeronautics," "aerodrome," aero squadron," etc. Nor does it suggest "airman" and "airwoman" instead of aviator and aviatrice. 66 Aeronaut," it is said, is in disfavor with the flying men because "people were all too prone to pronounce it 'aeronut.''

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An article with the title "Motoring in Europe Before the War" has a pleasant suggestiveness of serenity, good hotels, and economical runs, but those were not always the experiences of its author, D. F. Platt, as he describes them in "Motor Travel." In Hungary, at least, the cost of gasoline-$1.20 a gallon—might make a motorist here think kindly of Standard Oil. The 66 Hotel Veresi Szalode was recommended as a "good hotel." The party saw a sign "Szalode" and ran the car in, to find a most primitive and uninviting inn. "Later," says Mr. Platt, "the joke was on me, when I discovered 'Szalode' to be the Hungarian word for any hotel!"

A grain elevator at Girard Point, Pennsyl vania, will be the largest of its kind on the Atlantic coast. It can load into the hold of a vessel 60,000 bushels of grain in an hour. Three vessels of the largest type used in the graincarrying trade can be loaded at one time in the slips.

"We are all much amused at the hunt in Belgium for the newspaper' Libre Belgique' [Free Belgium]," says an English correspondent of the "American Printer." "The latest talk is that it is printed in a motor car. It must be a small sheet; and that motor cars have something to do with its audacious defiance of the [German] authorities I do not doubt." The German leaders are sensitive; witness the report that they put a price on the life of Raemaekers, the Dutch cartoonist, for picturing their misdeeds in his powerful and caustic cartoons.

Jerome K. Jerome, the well-known writer, is said to be engaged in the humble but honorable pursuit of driving an ambulance for the French Red Cross.

"Is this beef too rare for you?" the landlady asked her critical boarder, as reported in the "Christian Register." "Well, since you ask me, Mrs. Skinner," replied Mr. Simpkins, "I would like it a little oftener."

A book called "The Soldier's Catechism," which contains many helpful hints for the civilian as well as the soldier, tells how to remove grease

spots from clothing.“ Place a piece of brown paper, newspaper, or other absorbent paper," it says, over and under the stain and press with a hot iron." It recommends this inexpensive way for the soldier to keep his trousers creased: "Moisten the crease lightly with a moist sponge and place the trousers inside of a blanket once folded on top of your mattress. By sleeping on them the heat of your body will give an excellent crease."

Referring to the care of shoes, the "Soldier's Catechism," in answering the question, "What should be done with shoes when they become thoroughly wet?" says: "Fill them with dry oats, bran, or sand, and dry in the shade; never near a fire.”

"Five things that are forbidden in time of war," as enumerated in the "Soldier's Catechism," are: (1) To cause suffering for the sake of revenge; (2) to wound, except in a fight; (3) to torture in order to get a confession; (4) to use poison in any way; (5) to lay waste a dis trict needlessly. This list might be commended to the consideration of certain European Powers.

A wrapping machine which can be adjusted to wrap packages of various sizes rapidly, in a uniform manner, has been patented recently. Department stores and mail order houses which put up thousands of packages daily by hand may find the new invention useful.

A recently published account of the life of Elizabeth Fry," the angel of the prisons," tells of the opposition to her philanthropic work, which seems much like that encountered by prison reformers to-day. "Impossible!" said her opponents. "The women in Newgate Prison could not be reclaimed. Bad they were, and bad they would remain. Newgate was a place for imprisonment and punishment, not for teaching and improvement. Besides, the women would steal or destroy any materials that might be brought in for purposes of instruction," etc., etc.

Mrs. Fry was not dissuaded by any rebuffs, however, and the results of her efforts were later described by a visitor: "I was taken to the entrance of the women's wards. On my approach, no loud or angry voices indicated that I was about to enter a place which had long been known as 'Hell above ground.' The courtyard into which I was admitted, instead of being peopled with beings scarcely human, blaspheming, fighting, tearing each other's hair, presented a scene where stillness and propriety reigned. . . . Mrs. Fry was reading aloud to sixteen women prisoners, who were engaged in needlework. Each wore a clean-looking blue apron and bib. . . . The looks of tender reverence they cast on her testified to the influence she had obtained among them."

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