ill, and, in
fact, there are not infrequently deficiencies to make up.

For these services, and according to the nature of the goods being sold,
various commissions are charged, usually ranging between the limits of 4
and 8% of the net returns of the sales. Plain unfinished goods which are
marketed in large quantities are charged for at a relatively low figure,
while fancy goods, sold in smaller quantities and requiring more effort
and expense to sell them, are charged for at a higher figure.

The selling agent also guarantees the credits of the firms to which he
sells, so that no losses for bad debts can fall upon the manufacturer,
but, at the same time, he will decline orders from any concerns except
those with whose credit he is entirely satisfied.

Not infrequently when the manufacturer conducts his own selling
operations, he will use the facilities afforded by the commission house
for the financial part of the business only, taking advances on his
goods, having his sales cashed, and his credits guaranteed, etc. For
these lesser services, of course, the commissions charged are smaller.

When goods are charged out, the bills are payable to the commission
house, and so, as far as the customer is concerned, the commission house
is the principal in the transaction. In many cases certain modified
arrangements are made, but in most instances the business is conducted as
herein described, and it may fairly be said that the bulk of the dry
goods of all kinds produced in the United States finds its way into the
market through commission house channels.

Making Plain Goods
for Future Orders

It is the policy of most cotton mills, and certainly of those making
plain goods, to run steadily all the year round, and thus the commission
agent, whether he has secured advance orders on the goods or not, has
constantly flowing into his hands an assured stream of merchandise which
must eventually, when sold, pay him a commission. Thus the securing of a
good account means an assured source of revenue to the commission agent.

There are no more important selling organizations for textiles than these
dry goods commission houses, many of them having an immense and
profitable turnover, and their businesses are conducted on a very high
plane of efficiency, and probity, although, in itself, there are many
evils attendant upon this method of the distribution of merchandise, and
which exercise at times a most adverse influence upon the