Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

JOSEPH RAY WATKINS 299
didn't learn what I do know all at once. It was a growth. The
idea was properly conceived, it germinated, it hore fruit. I knew
I had a good thing in Watkins' Liniment. At first I tried to sell
it to the trade. 1 soon learned that a man's competitors are not the
people to market his goods for him. Whenever possible, the drug-
gists substituted their own remedies where mine were called for.
They knocked me all they could. Instead of prospering with the
growing prosperity of the country, I got poorer and poorer. Then it
was I awoke to the fact that I could afford to take my goods to the
consumer. I decided that I would no longer trust my competitors
to push my goods for me. I realized that the majority of people are
honest; that most of them will pay their bills. I hired agents for
wages to carry the goods to the consumer. That system, although
an improvement on selling through competitors, was not entirely
satisfactory work. The present plan was gradually evolved, and we
have stuck to it ever since, and have built up much the largest business
of the kind in the world.
If there are those vvho imagine I am in business solely for the
money there is in it, they are sadly mistaken. This business is, and
always has been, my pride and my joy. Beside it all other interests
pale into insignificance. I am at my desk every day, opening mail,
looking over orders and reports; and nothing does me more good than
to keep in touch with all departments by frequent visits to every part
of our immense plant.
I have been a salesman myself, and I know what salemen have to
contend with. I therefore feel that my long experience in business
and in everyday life qualifies me to give advice and suggestions, to
sympathize v^'ith you in your troubles, to participate in your successes,
and to share in your triumphs.
The returns for Record-Busting Week have been a source of the
greatest gratification and the liveliest satisfaction to me. I particularly
appreciate and heartily commend the earnest united effort on
the part of so many hundreds of our salesmen to show what could be
done in six full days' work on the road. I am sure the results are
just as gratifying to the men who have done this excellent work as
they are to me. This week marks a new era in the medicine business,
and I trust the publication of the facts may be the means of
attracting the attention of hundreds of other first-class men, who
may in time be converted to the Watkins Way.
With the assurances of my kindest personal regard and highest
appreciation of your loyalty and co-operation, I am,
Sincerely yours.
Pres. The J. R. Watkins Medical Co.