Manuscript/Mixed Material James Couzens Papers. Couzens Speech: . . . Before the Birmingham, Michigan Real Estate Board, October 7, 1925.

Title

• James Couzens Papers. Couzens Speech: . . . Before the Birmingham, Michigan Real Estate Board, October 7, 1925.

Names

• Couzens, James

Created / Published

• 1925/10/07

Headings

• -  Automobiles
• -  Business ethics
• -  Real estate business
• -  Manuscripts

Genre

• Manuscripts

Notes

• -  Carbon typescript with original handwritten corrections, on legal-size onion-skin paper, of a 1925 speech Michigan Republican Senator James Couzens made to a group of Michigan real estate agents. Couzens incorporates many references to his earlier work at the Ford Motor Company in his advice to the real estate men that the best way to please the consumer is to be honest and reliable. He emphasizes the value of providing good service and putting ethics before salesmanship, and warns them: "The real estate business should not be called a 'game.' I remember in the early days of the motor car business, our dealers and salesmen used to refer to the automobile business as the 'automobile game' and to this I took violent objection . . . . It is usually speculation and gambling that makes business a game." He continues, "President Coolidge said at your national gathering last year in Washington, 'You are the sellers of America.' Don't oversell it. You are the progressives of the community, the merchants of optimism and confidence and to maintain that you must have a code of ethics. You have a code: I hope you will adhere to it." Reproduced as facsimile page images: 7 pages.

Call Number/Physical Location

• Container 146. Additional Papers: Miscellany
• Folder: Speeches, April 1920-1926

Source Collection

• James Couzens papers.

Repository

• Manuscript Division

Digital Id

• http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/amrlm.mss17012_03

Online Format

• image
• pdf
• online text

IIIF Presentation Manifest

• Manifest (JSON/LD)