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-
