of the dentists. Well, experience has shown that it not only can be done, but it is being done.

Two facts stand out; I may be jumping a little. I want to emphasize two facts that stand out. Half of our business is referal business; that is, satisfied customers who tell their friends who write in for our catalog and material. In fact, our money-back guaranty— and I defy anyone anywhere to show us that we did not give their money back to.

Our refunds in our business is a matter of 8 percent.

Now, there are the two points that prove to you that the theory is all right.

The other idea is just a theory and nothing else.

And, a little later, you will hear, in a few seconds, you will find where many people through gratitude send us the names of people who need teeth and want us to send literature out. When I went into this I found that that was just an open and closed proposition. It is amazing. It was amazing then and did not seem possible, and the more I delved into it, the more I investigated it, the more fascinated I became about it, and it all led to my taking this responsibility of taking this business over.

I believe at this point, with your indulgence, I will read these letters.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Suppose you read one letter, because time is getting short.

Mr. BATT. All right. You will get a great kick out of them.

Mr. BULWINKLE. And, you can put four or five of them in the record.

Mr. BATT. Let me have four or five of them, if I want to. I would just as soon leave them for the record.

Mr. BOREN. Leave them for the record.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Read one sample of what you want and pick out any number that you want to, and put four or five in the record.

Mr. BATT. I will read one that I think is exceptionally good, but they are all intensely interesting. This letter happens to be from Brooklyn, N. Y. It is not from a remote place either. It is from E. A. Bowers, 210 Fenimore Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.

GENTLEMEN: In acknowledging receipt of my teeth, I wrote you that I was delighted with them and that they were a perfect fit-I also told you I would write you again after I had had them for a while.

There is nothing in the world that I have ever owned or bought, that has pleased me more or has given me such genuine satisfaction as these teeth. They are beautiful, and as nearly like my own teeth as they could possibly be. I put them in as soon as I got them, and I have worn them and slept with them ever since, with no discomfort of any kind. I would not part with them for a thousand dollars.

You returned the impression to me several times, and I want to thank you for doing so and for your patience. The trouble I had until I made the last impression was that it stuck to the roof of my mouth so tight that I was terrified and therefore could not leave it in long enough to get the proper impression. It may interest you to know how I solved this problem. All I did was to put a little vaseline on my gums on one side of my mouth, so that when I pulled it, it allowed air to rush in and the plate came out easily. This may be of use to you in some other case.

I have showed the teeth to several friends, and you will undoubtedly get some business from some of them as soon as they recover from the Christmas-holiday expenses. And, this may or may not interest you.

There is a dentist here in Flatbush named Daley. I do not know him, but a chum of his has been a friend and neighbor of ours for many years. Daley had an office on Flatbush Avenue, an expensive location, and charged high for his work. Some months ago he told our friend he was not going to stay there and starve to death. So he moved to another location and cut his prices down to $15 and up. My friend was surprised when I told him I was expecting a set of teeth I had ordered from you, and was astonished when they came and were so completely satisfactory. I gave him your literature to show to Daley, and he said that Daley remarked that he ought to send his work out to you.

I want to thank you again for the splendid work you did for me and to assure you that I will do my best to show my appreciation by telling all my friends about it.

Sincerely yours,

MRS. M. K. BOWERS,
210 Finemore Street,
Brooklyn, N. Y.

I would like to read one or two more, if you please. This letter is from Indianapolis, Ind., written January 16. It is from Virgil Fields, Indianapolis, Ind., still not a rural letter:

GENTLEMEN: I could not write sooner because of an injury to my eye and because the post office is over a mile from my home. However, now that I am able, I want to thank you very much for my fine plate. It is perfectly satisfactory in every way. I do not desire a more expensive plate. I am pleasantly surprised (to say the least) at having found someone in the dental business who is conscientious. My dealings with dentists have caused me to believe that they are all racketeers. I was very skeptical of your company, in spite of some of my own relatives having recommended you to me. I corrected the fault in my plate myself, which I mentioned in my last letter. I used a knife and sandpaper to eliminate the depression in the roof of my plate. I decided there was no use to trouble you with that and so there wasn't, me and my relatives. Thank you.

You will receive more business from

When the package came to me, concan of Fasteeth. I said, "Oh, oh, these That is why they sent me that powder," well I didn't need to use the powder.

I sincerely apologize for my distrust. taining my teeth, I opened it and saw a teeth don't fit and are not intended to fit. but I was mistaken. My teeth fit me so (They feel better in my mouth than out.) You can use this letter or any part of it if you care to or I will write another if you so desire.

VIRGIL FIELDS.

In connection with this powder, I want to call attention to one thing. There are several powders, Fasteeth, Dr. Meridith's, and I believe there are others. They are advertised nationally all over the country. One of them, I believe, does a volume of half a million dollars a year.

Now, when you realize that our small activity is just the 10 houses that make plates by mail and only do three-quarters of a million dollars altogether, against the estimated $300,000,000 which I believe is the dentists' bill in the country, as testified to in the Senate hearings on S. 194, you will realize that this vast amount of powder that is sold around the country is not sold because we do not make plates that fit, because we make only a very small number of plates as compared with all of the plates made in the country.

Mr. BOREN. How many mail-order manufacturers did you say that there are?

Mr. BATT. I believe there are but 10, sir, of which only 2 are of any size. There are only 2 of any size, the U. S. Dental in Chicago and the Cleveland Dental Plate Co., East St. Louis. Besides that I would say that there are maybe 5 or 6 small concerns in the mailorder business, but that is all there is in the whole country.

69188-42-6

Mr. BOREN. And you estimated that they manufacture what percentage of the total plates?

Mr. BATT. I figured roughly that our volume of it-I do not know exactly-but I figured that the volume of these companies is around $750,000, as compared to $300,000,000, which is, I believe, the dental bill of the country, according to statements made there.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Are you through with the letters?

Mr. BATT. Well, it is up to you. There are some wonderful things here which merely show this. Many of them are ungrammatical. I am sorry that the two I did pick up are from cities. Let me pick up some from the rural neighborhoods.

Mr. BULWINKLE. All right; pick up one.

Mr. BATT. Just to show you the gratitude and the reasons why this is the only way they can get this kind of service.

Here is one from a convict, incidentally, and we make plates for instance for convicts, people who cannot get plates easily in any other way. Here is one from Saskatchewan. Here is one from Cynthiana, Ky., box 174, which leads me to believe that that is a party living in the country and comes into town to get their mail.

Mr. BULWINKLE. If they were living in the country, they would be on an R. F. D.

Mr. BATT. All right; I will find one from an R. F. D. address and then be sure about it. Here is one right here from Hendersonville, N. C.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Now, you are getting right down home.

Mr. BATT. And, it is rural route No. 1. Maybe you know this gentleman, Carroll Wagner, route No. 1 box 314-A, Hendersonville, N. C. It reads:

CLEVELAND DENTAL SERVICE,

East St. Louis, Ill.

HENDERSONVILLE, N. C.,
December 12, 1941.

GENTLEMEN: Day before yesterday, I received my upper plate from you and I want to thank you for the excellent workmanship. I am more than pleased with it both in looks, feeling, and fit. I put them right in and have had them in day and night now. No trouble in talking and I eat surprisingly well, for this is my first plate.

I shall not hesitate to tell my friends where my plate came from and what it cost. I shall be only too glad to recommend you whenever I can.

Again thanking you for the splendid job you did on my plate, with which I am wonderfully well pleased, and assuring you in only a few months you will hear from me again for my wife is now having all her teeth out and will be ready for both upper and lower plates.

Sincerely yours,

CARROLL WAGNER,
Hendersonville, N. C.

Just one more and then I am not going to ask you to listen to any more.

This one here is grammatically terrific, but comes from a man you can tell has never been able to get any plates. He did not get plates from us, incidentally, but he wanted plates, and this is his experience. It is from N. D. Butler, box 74-

Mr. BULWINKLE. Let me ask you a question here. Let me see that letter, please, before it goes into the record.

Mr. BATT. You may take all of these letters, and you can by the paper and the phrasing, the homely phrasing, that no one could fake them if they wanted to.

Mr. BULWINKLE. I do not care about seeing any of the rest. Mr. BATT. We ask them to answer on the back of our literature, so as to keep the names there.

Can you read that?

Mr. BULWINKLE. Yes; I can read it; but I am not going to let that go into the record.

Mr. BATT. Very well, sir.

Mr. BULWINKLE. I would like to ask you a few questions right here.

Mr. BATT. Yes.

Mr. BULWINKLE. You say that your concern makes from fifteen to eighteen thousand dentures a year?

Mr. BATT. Yes, sir.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Of those fifteen to eighteen thousand, what is the average price?

Mr. BATT. The average price is around $10, $10 to $11.

Mr. BULWINKLE. How much?

Mr. BATT. $10 to $11.

Mr. BULWINKLE. You went into this business about a year and a half ago, you say?

Mr. BATT. Yes, sir.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Prior to that time, what did you do?

Mr. BATT. I have always been in selling, merchandising, St. Louis, Mo.

Mr. BULWINKLE. For how long?

Mr. BATT. For the last 20 years.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Did you have any sales or merchandising experience in connection with dentures?

Mr. BATT. Knew nothing about the scientific part of this business, nothing whatever, and still only know the superficial part that I described to you.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Do you know anything about the mechanical part of it?

Mr. BATT. Know nothing about any of this business other than when I first went over there, and from that I have given you only what I have absorbed.

Mr. BULWINKLE. All of the knowledge you have then

Mr. BATT. That is what I have absorbed.

Mr. BULWINKLE. In your own laboratory in the last 18 months? Mr. BATT. And the questioning that I have continually done whenever I have the opportunity in discussing it with other people. Mr. BULWINKLE. Now, how many people work in your laboratory? Mr. BATT. Thirty.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Of whom do they consist?

Mr. BATT. I believe we have about 15 technicians; about 6 girls in the shipping end in the office, and I would say the rest, 8 or 9 people are porters, junior technicians-but, they are not technicians. They do grinding and polishing and things of that sort. And the men who handle the advertising and the records.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Now, about these 15 technicians that you have, what kind of technicians are they; what do you mean by technicians?

Mr. BATT. They are the experienced men who work in laboratories and are able to take impressions and build them into false teeth.

Mr. BULWINKLE. How many dentists do you have?
Mr. BATT. One. He handles the impressions.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Is he able to handle 18,000 impressions a year? Mr. BATT. He handles 18,000 impressions a year. Let me see whether my figures are right or not. They come in at the rate of anywhere from 25 to 200 a day and I did not figure it out in advance. You can figure it out for yourselves.

Mr. BULWINKLE. And then with the 200 a day, you think that he has sufficient time to do that work?

Mr. BATT. He certainly does. He passes on these impressions. If they have the correct detail then they are passed on to the laboratory. Let me add a point right here, sir.

Mr. BULWINKLE. All right.

Mr. BATT. We have one technician who also, in cases that are questionable, he consults, and I want to say this to you, that this is at the word of the technicians. The dentists know very little about impressions, as compared with what a good technician knows, and it is very hard to teach them to correctly interpret the details of these impressions. I want you to consider that in the light of what I said before about the run-of-the-mill dentists who comprise the mass of dentists in this country; not the fine dentists, and the topnotch dentists, because there are only a few of those, like there are only a few top-notch men in other callings; but the run-of-the-mill dentists rely upon the laboratory and the technicians to handle and to build up his so-called impressions, and that is what the technician calls it, building up.

Mr. BULWINKLE. So that you have one dentist.

Mr. BATT. Yes.

Mr. BULWINKLE. I notice here that you say "our dentist feels the temporary plate," and so on.

Mr. BATT. Yes; I understand.

Mr. BULWINKLE. Now, then, in the year and a half you have accumulated this knowledge as to what is best for a person that you have not seen, but the only thing you know about him is that he has a particle of wax to put in his mouth and that particle of wax comes to your laboratory.

Mr. BATT. I think I ought to be permitted to go a little bit further than that, sir. As a professional promotional and business executive who has handled involved work for concerns like the May Department Store, I learned to school myself in the psychology of business, and I told you from the very beginning, that this business impressed me because of its wide opportunity to serve, and I had to base my judgment in that matter on such things as these letters; on such things as the record of the business in the way of refunds; in the record of the business in the way of referals from one customer to another. Those are the means of judging a successful business, and I am not judging this business, sir: from any scientific viewpoint. I realize that there is a scientific viewpoint, but this is the mechanical and not the scientific viewpoint that I know; I know the men in the laboratories, where they are trained to properly handle this work, and since I have been there we have added a few people, a couple of additional technicians, one of whom came from the Public Health Service of St. Louis, in Kirkwood, the marine hospital.