Evening Journal

Editorial
Opinion
Nowadays "Perils of Merchants"
Bridgeport Post.

The greatest danger in managing a store, nowadays, is that it will get into a rut. The merchant who is afraid to make a noise; who dreads the day his bills fall due; who is afraid to "spare money for advertising," who devotes most of his time to watching little things, to worrying about trifles—he is in danger.

In effect, he is trying to found and build a store on his fears, not on his aspiration; on misgivings, not on confidence. He forgets that fear is a destroyer—not a builder; that misgivings will pull down that which confidence would build to completion.

It is a dangerous thing to fetter a store with a lot of baseless fears of what might happen; to dread what might follow the exercise of ordinary aggressiveness and enterprise. Under such conditions, the merchant's policy itself is the very worst calamity that could happen to the store.

Such a policy places a store in the position of depending upon "location," chances of various kinds; and upon the patronage of those people who do not read advertising. These, however, are so scarce in this city that if they all patronize one store they could not support it.

The merchant who advertises adequately builds upon his hopes, not upon his fears. Confident and aggressive advertising makes store-management a business fit for men—men of nerve, resources, red blood.