Manuscript/Mixed Material Handbook of Buying (October 1931) and Confidential Letters About Stuart Chase.

Title

• Handbook of Buying (October 1931) and Confidential Letters About Stuart Chase.

Created / Published

• 1931/10

Headings

• -  Consumer protection
• -  Business ethics
• -  Manuscripts

Genre

• Manuscripts

Notes

• -  An original issue of volume 6, number 1 of the Consumers' Research, Inc. journal Handbook of Buying (October 1931), sent at that time "only to subscribers to the Confidential Service of Consumers' Research." The thirty-page issue focuses on food products, medicine and hygiene, and cosmetics; rates them; and offers other product information of interest to consumers. A detailed index appears at the back. Stapled to the cover of the issue are four typed pages of correspondence exchanged among officials of a manufacturing company whose products are under review in the issue. The material was delivered to the Consumers' Research office by mistake. The letters discuss Mr. Chase, dismiss the seriousness of the threat he poses to industry, and strategize about ways to get on his good side regarding products under review. The cover of the journal bears handwritten references to page 17, where red lines single out product information about disinfectants manufactured by Lehn & Fink, and to page 20, where red lines single out product information about the toothpaste Pebeco. Consumers' Research, Inc. was the forerunner of Consumers Union, formed in 1936. The Handbook of Buying, which first appeared in December 1929, has since become Consumer Reports. Entire folder reproduced as facsimile page images: 43 pages.

Call Number/Physical Location

• Container 2. Subject File: Consumers' Research
• Folder: Correspondence, memoranda, clippings, and documents, 1928-31

Source Collection

• Stuart Chase papers.

Repository

• Manuscript Division

Digital Id

• http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/amrlm.mss15628_04

Online Format

• image
• pdf
• online text

IIIF Presentation Manifest

• Manifest (JSON/LD)