methods required. The purpose was to create in each locality a greater interest in direct-by-mail advertising and thereby increase the volume of local printing. To supplement the exhibitions and lectures, the department issued literature designed to show the printer how to create direct-by-mail advertising, and pointing out to him the utter fallacy of trying to increase his volume of business by taking business from his competitors. At regular intervals, also, literature was sent through carefully selected mailing lists to the consumers of printing in various lines of business, showing them the need of direct advertising. This mailing list was compiled by the general office from information furnished by the local printers, and the literature sent out was accompanied by a letter urging business houses to place their orders for direct-by-mail advertising, such as catalogues, booklets, etc., with the printers in their particular localities.

Frank Stockdale, of System, a well-known authority on direct-by-mail advertising, has stated that previous to the working out of this plan the printers were furnishing scarcely one-eighth of the direct printing needed by the various industries. Some idea of the far-reaching results of a plan of this kind may be gained from the fact that the amount of directby-mail printing has already increased from about $175,000,000 yearly to over $350,000,000 as a result of this threeyear plan. The nation-wide campaign awakened interest in the printers and consumers of printing throughout the country as to the value and earning power of printed literature when sent direct to prospective purchasers of articles to be marketed.

This plan has paid for itself many times over. It is today keeping the printing plants up to normal production by the addition of new business. It has destroyed the old tendency to seek volume regardless of price and has enabled the printer to become creative rather than destructive in his business methods. It has also had the effect of increasing the

printer's purchasing power, in a great measure eliminating the losses so long endured from questionable credits.

The Financial Basis of the Three-Year Plan

The plan was financed chiefly by the Typothetae; the allied interests paid voluntarily whatever they felt to be proper in view of the benefit to themselves directly and indirectly. In five years including the two years previous to the three years of active effort the national organization of the Typothetae spent $348,773.73 or approximately $70,000 a year. Besides this amount the local organizations spent, in 1915, $160,093.11 in supplementing the work of the national organization, making a total cost to the Typothetae of $230,000 for the entire work of the plan. While the manufacturing and jobbing interests in many communities subscribed to local associations, still the burden of the financial support of the plan fell most heavily upon the national organization and its members.

The allied interests contributed $75,000 for the entire three years of the plan. Payments were made in 36 monthly instalments, which brought down the contribution of each company participating to a very small and convenient amount.

CHAPTER XII

BRANCH ASSOCIATIONS

Special Activities

There are certain activities in which associations are concerned that are so extensive as to require special permanent organizations to handle them.

The following activities relating to costs, sales, purchases, exports, vocational and technical matters, being more widely developed or more special in nature and appeal, are usually handled by branch associations which are affiliated with the general association and composed of such representatives of the firm making up the general association as are interested in the special activity.

A Cost Association

The organization of a cost association within an industry would have been considered, only a few years ago, an impossibility. Today it is a familiar fact. As manufacturers gradually began to realize that rule-of-thumb methods of estimating were obsolete and expensive, indeed, often ruinous, they looked more and more into the cost of making their product and began to base their price thereon.

The method of procedure for an association in establishing a uniform cost system is presented in Chapter XIII, so that all that will be given here are a few suggestions as to how a cost association can supervise, establish interest in, and develop such a system.

The cost association, of course, is made up chiefly of the cost men of the various members of the main organization. These men get together at different meetings to discuss funda

mental principles of costs in relation to the particular industry in which they are interested. Some will say that these men cannot confer without giving up the private facts of their employers' businesses. No one asks them to do this, but on the basis of "give and take" they can discuss different theories and methods of doing things; and any member who has sent his cost man to such a meeting will find out that it has been a good investment of time and money.

The cost association should have as its secretary if possible the man who put the cost system in the industry. He can then act in an advisory capacity to the industry in matters of cost, just as the manager of the advertising bureau or the manager of the traffic bureau acts as adviser in his particular field.

A Statement of Purpose and Procedure

One of the leading cost associations recently organized is that of the paper and pulp industry. Its purpose and procedure are set forth in the following statement.

PURPOSE

The Cost Association of the Paper Industry was organized for the purpose of bringing about co-operation to a high degree among manufacturers of pulp and paper and converters of paper to the end that there might be developed, in every plant, a cost system that will furnish proper methods of control leading towards economies in cost of production; and to assist in making the future of the industry economically secure, through the promotion of the sound business principle of taking into prominent consideration costs, accurately determined, when making selling prices.

MEMBERSHIP

The membership today is composed of paper and pulp mills and converters of paper located in the United States and Canada. Member mills may designate any representative or representatives of their organizations, preferably executives or cost men, to attend the official meetings of the association.

PLAN OF ACTION

Co-operative effort is the basis of all Cost Association activity. A definite plan of action has been worked out; first, by working through classified group committees in conjunction with a committee on co-operation, and second, by the formation of local divisions in various paper and pulp centers.

CLASSIFIED GROUP COMMITTEES

Classified group committees have been selected, or are in the process of selection, for each branch of the industry. The classified group committees handle all matters and all work relating to their respective branches between convention periods and take responsibility for furnishing programs of interest in connection with the national conventions. The chairmen of these committees are usually mill executives-other members being executives, executive accountants, and cost men. The classified group committees after agreement on cost fundamentals will devise simple, uniform, and elastic cost systems for their respective divisions of the industry.

COMMITTEE ON CO-OPERATION

The committee on co-operation is composed of cost experts, one from each of the important branches of the industry. The cost expert on the committee on co-operation representing each particular branch of the industry automatically becomes a member of the corresponding classified group committee. In this way this experience is always available for work in conjunction with his classified group committee, and through his membership on the committee on co-operation the accumulated experience of the entire committee becomes available for use by his classified group committee.

INDIVIDUAL SERVICE

The officers and executive committee and members of the committee on co-operation are ready to visit any member on request, for the purpose of rendering such advisory cost accounting service and assistance as may be desired. The only expense to members receiving this service will be traveling costs of committeeman.

The classified group committees plus the aid and assistance of the committee on co-operation furnish ideal machinery for doing constructive work for each branch of the industry.