WHAT IS A MODEL STOCK? 41 
To get clearly in mind the distinction between a BB and an 
MP, let us consider a typical example. A silversmith may 
take $10 worth of silver and make it into a plain silver dish. 
He will get $14 for it. Another silversmith may take only 
$8 worth of silver to make the same kind of dish; but his 
workmanship is superior in style and artistic ideas, so that 
his dish is not plain. He also gets $14 for his product. 
When the dishes are put side by side and shown to customers, 
one will feel herself better served by getting the dish that 
has $10 worth of silver but a small amount of art; another 
will prefer the dish with only $8 worth of silver and more 
art. The first gets exactly the kind of article meant by a 
BB; the second, on the other hand, gets'an MP. 
There is the distinction. Ideas make the MP. Inirinsic 
worth makes the BB. 
Of course, it is an error to assume that because the price 
of a BB is right, the style must or may be wrong. It is clear 
that both price and style must be right to sell the great 
quantities. It is perfectly clear, moreover, that the price 
cannot be right if the style is such that people will not buy 
in quantities sufficient to get us the lowest production cost. 
We must keep clearly in mind at all times that goods to be 
sold to the masses in mass quantities cannot be what the 
masses consider ugly. As excellent an instance as history 
affords is the dwindling of Ford’s sales of his Model T when 
competition was supplying a far better looking car at a com- 
parable price. As soon as Ford came out with the Model A, 
conforming to the best in small automobile style, Ford sales 
once more shot skyward. Merely material value without good 
looks will not make a successful BB, any more than good looks 
without inherent value will make a satisfactory MP. An MP 
should carry a larger gross profit; this contains no element 
of profiteering but is a reward to the merchant for applying 
to it art, style, science beyond the bare necessities of trade. 
If our MP does not sell so well as our BB, we shall make a 
smaller average percentage of profit on the two items under 
this arrangement. We may make larger total profits than 
if we had no BB or MP, however, since a BB should be profit-