In view of this programme, if I were asked how a man might rise to the position of manager of a big store, I would suppose him to be a man of fair general education. Then he would probably be apprenticed to the business of a draper with departments not exclusively confined to the one trade. Such a concern is to be found in every provincial centre of any size, the draper handling millinery-, furniture, carpets, fancy goods, silver ware, and sometimes hardware. Apprenticeship in such a store would give the observant, educated man much general knowledge. From such an apprenticeship the man would graduate to the position of a buyer, learning the value of goods, their marking for sale, and the anticipation of demand. It is in this stage that the budding manager finds the problems growing acute, for the buyer is the crux of a business, and on his judgment in buying and pricing for sale nearly everything depends. It is not only that he must buy the right thing at the right price, but he must be able to price it for sale. If be prices it too high, the customer is lost; if it is priced too low, the profit is lost. Pursuing the qualifications for a first-class manager, work as a buyer would be the great step after the routine of apprentice ship and the duties of junior salesman, and successful work as a buyer would determine whether he would go further. Ile must be a man of good health, and in these strenuous days he cannot hope to succeed with out hard work. It would be a good thing at this stage if the man who is ambitious for success would study the lives of men who have made world wide reputations as traders. There are three or four men particularly whose careers would help the ambitious man—the late head of the Bon Marche in Paris, Mons. Boucicault, assisted by Madame Boucicault, John Wanamaker of Philadelphia, and Marshall Field of Chicago. In points relating to the ethics of trading, the future store-manager cannot do better than model his attitude to his work and his responsibilities on the careers of these men. In their conduct of business many points were common. When they started, the higher moral tone prevailing to-day as not so pre valent in trade. The question of fixed prices had not been so firmly established. These people led in marking their gooc's in plain figures— the same price for the rich or the poor. In the shop people got the
same treatment—rich or poor were treated with the same courtesy. If the goods were not satisfactory, these storekeepers were prepared to return the money spent for the goods which had not pleased. At the back of the success of these three men, one sees the sane policy of honesty, plain dealing, fair treatment, and responsibility for every transaction ; and that is wily I set great store on the value of their lives to traders, and urge that the ambitious man should be familiar with them.
But the man who is to succeed must work, and when he becomes a manager he will have to work harder than ever. If he does not reali,e this, it is far better for him not to start climbing. The position of manager of a store in London might have been a light task twenty years ago, but to-day stores do more for the people, and the people are in closer touch with the manager. For instance, the telephone alone has doubled the personal burden of work borne by the store-manager. Much can be done to lighten the work of the manager by system, but even with the best system in force, the manager's hours are all too short for the performance of the duties which crowd on him. In America the store machinery is usually simplified by system. The managing director chooses the buyers of the house. Then there is the merchandise manager, who checks tue purchases of the buyers, and no' uyer would dare exceed his buying authority without reference to the consent of the merchandise manager. Then there is the manager, whose chief duties are the engagement of the staff of salespeople, clerks, and employees of the firm, and there is a manager in charge of a separate department 'for dispatch work. In England the trnmager of a store practically does all the work of these departmental managers— engaging the buyers, the selling staff, the rank and file, and undertaking the onerous work of checking the buyers' purchases. It stands to reason that the work of the manager would be better done if the duties were divided and systematised on the American plan ; and there is no doubt that the English store —now in its infancy—will develop on those lines as its activities expand, throwing less and less strain on the manager, who to-day holds all these reins in his hands.