THESE STRONG BANKS
Combined Assets $3,000,000.00
Vouch for Us!
References by Permission
National City Bank, New York Continental and Commercial National Bank, Chicago
Read these three letters. These three banks with their combined assets of three million dollars vouch for our financial responsibilityâfor the integrity that stands behind our guarantee. We also refer you to Dunâs or Bradstreetâs commercial agencies or to any other bank in America.
WE GUARANTEE
SATISFACTION or MONEY BACK
IF you are not perfectly satisfied with any article you buy of usâsend it back and we will return your money, including all transportation charges.
Copyright, 1923, by Gordon-Van Tine Co.
COME AND SEE US
WE realize that seeing is believing and we therefore would like you to come and see us, look things over and check up our statements so that you will realize that what we have said is the truth. So we want to make you this offer: Come to see us, investigate in any way you desire and if you find that we have misrepresented in any way the quality of our goods or the scope of our service, we will allow your railroad fare both ways.
We make this offer sincerely and hope that you can avail yourself of it. But, remember, whether you can come or not the goods and the service are here for you. The fact that we make this offer simply gives added proof and force to our guaranty. You can order from Gordon-Van Tine with absolute assurance of getting what you pay for.
Strategic Factory Locations Get Lowest Freight RatesâWherever You Live
REMEMBER, it makes no difference of whom you buy, the lumber you get has to be shipped in and the freight charges have to be paid. If you buy locally they are simply added to your purchase price. You pay the freight, no matter of whom you buy. When you buy of Gordon-Van Tine you are sure of securing the lowest possible freight rate, because Gordon-Van Tine will ship you from the nearest source of supply direct. You certainly pay no more and you may pay less.
Five Mills and Factories
Gordon-Van Tine own and operate five mills and factories. Two at Davenport, Iowa, where most of the millwork, frames, inside finish, etc., are made; one of the largest assembling yards and factories in the country at St. Louis, Missouri; a large mill and factory at Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and one of the finest mills and factories on the west coast at Chehalis, Washington. The lumber for your home will be shipped from whichever mill has the most advantageous freight rate into your, community. If it comes from St. Louis or Hattiesburg it will be the best quality Southern Yellow Pine. From Chehalis, the best quality Fir.
Ask us our prices freight paid to your station before you let any one tell you that Gordon-Van Tineâs price is high.
What Gordon-Van Tine Service Saves For You
THE advantages Gordon-Van Tine offers the homebuilder can be classified under the four heads of PriceâQualityâPlansâand Service, which are the four elements in any transaction.
As you consider these advantages in detail, we want you to keep in mind the fact that the Gordon-Van Tine Company has been in continuous operation here in Davenport since 1865. These fifty-five years have seen it progress steadily, from a little one story, one room, sash and door factory on the banks of the Mississippi, to the present mammoth organization with branch factories in the four quarters of the country.
Fifty-five years ago the resources of Gordon-Van Tine Company were those of its founder, Mr. U. N. Robertsâa cash capital of $700, a reputation for rugged honesty and sincerity and an indomitable energy. Today the paid up capital of the company is over $1,000,000.00âbut the honesty, the integrity and the energy are the same, bequeathed by the founder through his sons, the present owners, to this business.
When a Business Merits Your Confidence
We dwell at this length on the history of the Gordon-Van Tine Company not only because we are proud of itâbut because of what it means to you. Any business which has operated continuously in the same place for fifty-five years, and has during that time grown from a very small start to be one of the greatest organizations of the nationâthat business has proved its responsibility and its reliability. A concern with a record like that makes good. Without question it merits your confidence. So we tell you these facts about Gordon-Van Tine that you may know and realize the background of experience and record of performance that is behind every statement we make concerning the advantages Gordon-Van Tine offers home buyers in Price, Quality, Plans and Service.
Gordon-Van Tine Savings in Price
The corner stone of the Gordon-Van Tine Companyâs business policy and the most important reason for the progress of this concern to its present dominant position in the industry has beenâbetter building material for less money. We have made this not an empty slogan but an actual fact. We have accomplished it first, by more efficient manufacturing methods and, second, by selling the goods we make direct to the user, thus eliminating middlemenâs profits.
We are first and primarily manufacturers of building material and our mills are among the largest and most modern in the countryâour costs are as low or lower than anyoneâs. Years ago when we used to sell to dealers and wholesalers we competed successfully for their business on a strictly price basis. Today, selling direct to the consumer our prices are figured on the same basis we used to sell dealers. Gordon-Van Tine material, laid down at your station, therefore, represents an actual wholesale price.
You can prove these savings yourself by taking Gordon-Van Tineâs prices on individual items such as doors, windows, paint, hardware, roofing, etc., and checking them against local retail prices on like quality goods. The fact that we now sell every year as much material to consumers on competitive bids (individual orders for lumber, sash, doors, trim, hardware, etc.), as our total volume of complete houses amounts to, shows conclusively that our prices are right.
âBe as Particular as if the Material Went Into Your Own Homeâ
Our assemblers, men of long experience in the building Material Business, have only one rule to guide them in shipping or rejecting materials. We tell them simply. âBe as particular as if the material went into your own home.â
These men know lumber and millwork, hardware and paint, and all of the rest of the materials, thoroughly, through long years of working with them. They can detect hidden defects at a glance which the average man would not see. And if, in their judgment, whatever they are handling is not absolutely top quality, 100 per cent good, they throw it out. They are your inspectors, and they ship you the same quality material you would pick if you came to Davenport personally and loaded it yourself.
But the final proof rests not on what we say about ourselves, but on what our customers say about us. We have in our files thousands of letters from people who have bought from us, copies of some hundreds of which will be sent you in an early mail. This testimony will prove to you beyond all shadow of doubt that we do sell better material for less money. These customers say their savings average from 30 to 50 per cent. The primary reason for the success of the Gordon-Van Tine Company is this saving we made them and which we offer you.
What Gordon-Van Tine Guarantees in Quality
Savings at the sacrifice of quality are not actual savings. What, then, of Gordon-Van Tine quality?
On the cover of this book and on the order blank you have seen our guaranteeâbriefly it reads âSatisfaction Guaranteed or Money Back.â Nothing could speak more eloquently of the quality of our materials than that we invite every customer to return every stick we sell to him and receive every cent of his money back if he is not satisfied with it. We cannot afford to ship out anything that is not top quality. If you could come to Davenport or visit any other of our four mills, you could see for yourself the absolute high quality of Gordon-Van Tine materials. No place in America are there such quantities of fine building material of all sorts as at the factories and warehouses of the Gordon-Van Tine Company.
Complete Specifications
But even though you cannot come, you can inspect the specifications of materials which are furnished for Gordon-Van Tine homes on pages 9 and 10 of this book. These are the most complete specifications published by any building material firm and list out in the greatest detail all the materials which go into your home. The kind of material, the grade, the size are all specifically given and any one who is familiar with building will testify to the high qualities shown. Our guarantee is based on these specifications. We must furnish these qualities of material or we would be open to lawsuit and would be out of business in three months.
Again we refer you to the testimony of our customers. Many letters are shown in this bookâmore will be sent you in an early mail. Look them over carefully and read what they say of the quality of the material Gordon-Van Tine furnished them.
Gordon-Van Tine Plans
Fine material alone does not insure a fine home, and savings in material costs are easily dissipated through mistakes in plans and construction. Because it takes just as much material and labor to build a poorly planned home as one which is well planned...