The Day Book

Raw Methods Of Hartman Furniture Co. Shown Up

People in tightened financial circumstances have only the choice of two evils as a means of escape: the loan shark or the installment house.

Both take advantage of a person who isn't able to fight back. Both operate in about the same manner.

The system by which the installment house traps its victims is illustrated in the experience of D. R. MacDonell, 1006 Leland avenue, and the Hartman Furniture Company.

MacDonell, through the press of circumstances, was driven to the Hartman store in June, 1912. MacDonell is a young man. He had just been married and he took the installment means of furnishing his little four-room flat.

He selected some furniture. It came to $350.

MacDonell hesitated. It seemed such an enormous debt for a young man, just married, to incur. There was the possibility of sickness, of lack of employment, staring him in the face.

But the shrewd clerk who was selling him the furniture knew the installment game. He assured MacDonell that the Hartman people were very sympathetic in time of trouble.

"Don't you read our ad in the daily papers?" the clerk asked MacDonell. "That's our boast, when sick or out of work payments are suspended."

This reassured MacDonell and he made the purchase. He paid $32 down and agreed to pay $15 a month.

When the furniture arrived at MacDonell's flat he found that it was not the same that he had selected at the store. It was a load of fixed over stuff. Many of the pieces had been scratched and then revarnished.

MacDonell refused to pay for the junk and insisted on the furniture he had ordered. The company raved and threatened, but the man stood firm.

Finally, probably fearing they would lose a sale, they agreed to take the stuff back and send what he ordered.

For several months MacDonell paid the installments promptly. But then misfortune stepped in and he lost his job. He soon was over $100 in arrears.

The Hartman Company laid back and said nothing.

MacDonell secured another position. He kept that until he had paid over $200 on the furniture.

Then another reversal and he found himself once more out of work.

MacDonell and his wife went to Ottawa, Canada, where he secured a position. He wired to his mother-in-law to place the furniture in storage as he wanted to return to Chicago in the future and start housekeeping again.

He then sent a check for $37.50 to the Hartman Company and a letter in which he said he would try and clean up all his arrears the following month.

But bad luck interfered with MacDonell's plans and he was unable to pay when the next month came around.

He asked for more time. The Hartman Company did not answer.

But while the MacDonells remained in Canada the Hartman people got busy. There had been over $250 paid on the furniture, but the company backed its vans up to the storage house and grabbed the entire lot.

When the MacDonells returned to Chicago a short time later they found their furniture gone and went to Hartman's and demanded an explanation.

"Why, you were back in your payments and we sold it for $93," was the answer he received.

"But I only had it a year and paid over $250 on it," MacDonell told them.

"Well, we sold it," was all they would say.

They refused to say to whom they had sold it.

And MacDonell is out his $250 and has nothing to show for it.