Merchantman

THE BUSINESS BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN WANAMAKER, FOUNDER AND BUILDER-- Joseph H. Appel--Macmillan ($5.00).

"Any article that does not fit well, is not the proper color or quantity, does not please the folks at home, or for any reason is not perfectly satisfactory, should be brought back at once, and ... we will refund the money." Citizens of Philadelphia, turning from their daily preoccupation with the Civil War, were glad to read Merchantman John Wanamaker's announcement, found him as good as his word, helped him turn over his stock so fast that soon he was Philadelphia's biggest merchant, civic monument, U. S. phenomenon.

John Wanamaker was never exactly sure how old he was. He was born near Philadelphia in either 1837 or 1838, the eldest of seven children. The Wanamaker day started at 4 a. m., for the family worked hard, prayed hard. Born a Methodist, John became a Presbyterian at 12.

He deliberated long on his choice of professions: chose to be a merchant, went to work in Philadelphia as an errand boy. On his way to work he carried his shoes in his hand till he came to the city, to keep them from getting dusty. By the time the Civil War came, Wanamaker had saved enough money to go into business with his brother-in-law, Nathan Brown. The new firm advertised itself in conspicuous ways: by posters, by balloons, by tally-hos, by rhymed jingles in the newspapers.

By 1872 Wanamaker had opened branch stores in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Richmond, Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville, did not continue this experiment in chain-stores because he would not have a business he could not personally supervise. In 1876 he started a mail-order business, was the first U. S. merchant to send buyers abroad. In 1877 he bought the old Grand Depot next to the new City Hall, started his

"New Kind of Store." It was the first to use: electric light throughout, pneumatic tubes for cash-carrying, smokeproof walls, fireproof stairways.

As Postmaster General under President Benjamin Harrison (1889-93), he "established pneumatic tubes, ship-posts, pioneered for rural delivery, parcels post, postal savings, and fought for government ownership of telegraph and telephone." In 1896 he bought out A. T. Stewart, went into business in Manhattan.

When Henry Ford began manufacturing cars that sold for $900 ($600 lower than the comparable model of the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers) Merchantman Wanamaker became Ford's Manhattan and Philadelphia agent. When Wanamaker's new Philadelphia building was dedicated in 1911, no less a personage than President William Howard Taft pronounced the jovial blessing.

Son Rodman started his father writing his famed business editorials, which became a feature of Wanamaker advertising, helped to make his signature one of the best-known in the U. S. (Quotations from the Founder are still featured in the Wanamaker newspaper ads.) Author Wanamaker was apothegmatic. Examples: "Let us do things--do things." "No man can make horseshoes with gossip." "Success is not a haphazard affair."

Tall, heavy, clean-shaven, jowly, with little green eyes, big ears, big nose, petulant mouth, John Wanamaker's expression was called "cherubic--at times." Weak as a boy, he lived to be 84; though he took little exercise after he was 45, one day when he was 80 he caught 148 fish. In national politics an unfailing Republican, in local politics he was an independent. "His farewell handshake was courtesy and geniality itself, at the same time it was a gentle push toward the door."

This is the second biography of Wanamaker which Author Appel, his 30-year employe, has written. The first was John Wanamaker, a Study.

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