THE FABULOUS DUSTPAN

...is the Hoover Suction Sweeper and here is the story of the family that refused to stand still and, in rolling with the punches, achieved an international name. Daniel Hoover was a tanner in Starke County, Ohio, and his son, William Henry, bolstered the business by making horse collars, which led to a full line of superior saddlery. Refusing to let the automobile ruin him, he turned to leather work for the cars, and when they discarded leather equipment, leather sporting goods kept the factory and its employees going, and there were World War I contracts. Their sleeper was the invention of asthmatic Murray Spangler, an electric suction sweeper, over which they fussed and fiddled, tried to sell and found themselves swamped when a very small ad in The Saturday Evening, Post brought them a landslide of requests for a trial offer, in 1908. Pretty soon the tail began to wag the dog until today the company is represented in 67 countries and employs 15,000 people. Here is how they built their dealer organization, developed a sales organization to counteract rumors about their machine, learned that servicing was a broad highway to sales, and gathered know-how from mass producing to mass marketing, with common and uncommon sense. A comfortable, carpet slipper Job of reporting on big business, this is an intimate picture of determined enterprise, unquenchable drive and belief in quality products. Even women should have an interest in the people who changed her housecleaning habits.