Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1913 — LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER [ARTICLE]

LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER

English Lecturer Sees Much Benefit In Travel for Persons In Business. "If America could only send 100400 young men to Europe every year so that they might absorb some pf-the British poise and courtesy, and .we could send some 100,000 young men across the Atlantic where they could imbibe the vitality and enthusiasm of America, we should have an AngloSaxon organization and combination that could not be beaten.” Thus Mr. H. Gordon Selfridge In an Illuminating address to a large audience, mainly composed of his own employes, who filled the large hall of the Regent Street Polytechnic. They were assembled to hear a lecture by Mr. Bent on "American Department Stores,” and Mr. Selfridge, who presided, seized the opportunity to point the moral of the value of travel to business men and women. All nations, he said, had something to learn from one another. America had much to learn from this country, and that was recognized by the merchants of the great cities. Thousands of people Interested in dry goods come to Europe every year to study our methods and those of the continent, and it was probably this everlasting travel that made our friends on the other side excel in their own departments. And we in England had much to learn. There was nothing more valuable to those engaged in business than travel —even little excursions to Paris and the other capitals of Europe—because they were able to see how other people did things. And they did not want to learn from other people's mistakes but from other people’s excellences. In their business the important matter was to know how to improve methods by the teaching of experience wherever it was to be found. In England we excelled in a courtesy of service and patient endeavors to please which were not to be found in the large stores of America. The politeness that permeated all England was one of the things tjrat struck an American traveler directly he landed. But in America they found a tremendous vitality and daring in surmounting all obstacles. They had the enthusiasm of a young people. All Americans were optimists. They believed in looking on the bright side of things, and in the darkest crisis the optimism, of the country was overpowering. It was from this spirit of enthusiasm and determination In business that England Jhadmoat to learn.—London Chronicle.