Friday, November 15, 2019

E.J. Cohoon Praised in Editorial in The Independent, Nov. 14, 1919

From the editorial page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, Nov. 14, 1919

The Spirit of the Age

One of the most successful young business men in this town is E.J. Cohoon, tin and sheet iron worker. Within a few years this young man has built up a busy and prosperous industry, not only in Elizabeth city but in the surrounding country. I discovered the key to his success one morning this week when he was called into the office of a down town business man. This man had entrusted the storage of a stove to Cohoon’s establishment and the stove came back minus a leg and a door. “What are you going to do about it?” asked the man.

I looked for Cohoon to say, “I’ll see if I can’t find the missing parts. If I can’t find them, I’ll order some new parts. Maybe you’ll get them in two or three weeks.” That’s the way so many small business men do things. But this man Cohoon didn’t do that. He said:

“Mr. -----, you can’t wait for new parts. You need your stove now. I’ll go down to the some hardware store and send you up a new stove as good or better than the one you have. Maybe I can dispose of your stove and get part of my money back when I get the missing parts for it.” And Cohoon went out an ordered that stove without loss of time.

That’s modern business. That’s the spirit that built Wanamaker’s, Sears, Roebuck & co, and most of the truly big business houses in this country. It’s the spirit of the age and the men who adopt that spirit are the men who score the biggest business successes in every community.

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