ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AT THE PLANT OF STUDEBAKER BROS. MANUFACTURING CO., SOUTH BEND, IND.
Out of the merchants' association has grown the retail credit reporting agency—the exchange of information being conducted as a private enterprise. The expression, exchange of information, is used advisedly, for the service of these agencies consists mostly of reports giving the experiences of other merchants. To quote from the prospectus of one of these concerns:
Our company does for the retailer what Bradstreet and Dun do for the wholesale dealer. We arrive at the result, however, in a different way. We give accurate information as to how people pay their bills, regardless of their financial standing.
This information we get from merchants and professional men by means of a thorough canvass of our entire territory. We visit all people doing business, whether our subscribers or not, and in this way secure the names of all consumers in business or private life.
We are thus able to tell the grocer how Mr. B. pays his butcher, his tailor, his hatter, his doctor, and every other trade or profession he deals with, and each of these in turn is furnished with the same kind of information from the grocer; thus we establish the exact credit standing of Mr. B. with the entire trade of the city.
Acting upon information thus furnished, every merchant or professional man in the city knows from the most reliable and trustworthy source to whom he can safely give credit and whom he should refuse.
For example, we here give a specimen rating with an explanation of the same.
"John Doe, carpenter, 187 Broad St., 5G 2F."