December 18, 1901
Merchants of the City Get Together For Protection
Tonight in the Chamber of Commerce rooms there is to be a meeting of the retail merchants of the city to form a sort of protective association. The meeting has in view two special objects – a means of informing the members of the proposed organization of the names of those whose trade is undesirable, and the collection at the least cost to the members themselves of bad debts.
It is thought that by circulating among the associated firms a list of those who are found to be systematic “dead-beats,” a safeguard can be thrown around the merchant who suffers from extending too much credit.
“We are, all of us,” said a retail merchant in El Paso street, “subjected to the annoyance and loss of giving credit to well-appearing men who come here holding positions of more or less responsibility. They are, however, of a vicious stripe, and seldom remain long in one place. They have grown to be professionals in getting credit and of disappearing just the time when their accounts will no longer be extended. We want to get at these people, and we want to have them known among the merchants generally, so that they can be held in check when once they are found out. Then, too, by placing our accounts in the hands of one agent, that is, the doubtful ones, we may have them collected at a less cost proportionately, and here again we may know who are professional ‘dead-beats.’ There are, too, other mutual interest of the retail merchants, which can best be furthered from time to time by concerted action and joint effort.”
The association is to be modeled on one recently formed in Roswell for like purposes, and the prime mover in the local scheme is Maurice Simon, an attorney formerly of Roswell, who gave The Times an interview of some length a few days since.
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