ncluded fifty dollars for lawyers' fees, which was promptly O. K.'d by
the manager. After all, I had only obeyed instructions, which were to get
the business and hold up prices, 'peaceably if you can, but forcibly if
you must.'"

An interesting relic of these fierce days of cut-throat competition was
given to me by Mr. John F. Steward. It reads as follows:--

TO AGENTS FOR THE SALE OF HARVESTING MACHINERY:

The undersigned, manufacturers of harvesting machinery, call the
attention of their travelling experts and local agents to a practice
which has grown among them for a few years past, and which has become
so disreputable and is carried to such an extent that we feel it
necessary to bring it to your special notice. _It is the habit of
trying to break up sales made by other agents when you have not been
successful in securing the sale._ It has become a very common
practice, as soon as a sale is made by one agent, for the agents of
all other machines to try to break up that sale, by
misrepresentations or by lowering the price, or by trying to convince
the purchaser that the machine which he has bargained for is not as
good as the one which the other agent sells. This practice is
disreputable, and should not be tolerated by any manufacturer. We
wish it now thoroughly understood that we will not tolerate this
practice in any agent, and we will be glad to have reports from you
of the agents of any machines who have tried to break up your sales
of our machines in this way. There is nothing that tends more to
demoralise business than this practice, and we wish it stopped.

Machines should be sold upon their merits, and not by disparaging or
running down other machines. You will find that your customers will
place more reliance upon what you say if you leave all other machines
alone, and show the good features of your own and demonstrate them in
actual work. An agent never makes any progress by running down or
trying to show the defects of others, and you will be better able to
sustain your prices and the reputation of your machines by following
the course indicated above. Therefore, it is our wish that you should
hold to your prices firmly, present your machines in the very best
possible light, and use all honourable means for making a fair and
honest sale; but if you are unfo