company went bankrupt. At Modie Spiegel's urging, the company reinvented itself as Spiegel House Furnishings Company of Chicago in 1893. The principal difference was that the new company, like many others in the furniture business, sold on credit. The decision to offer installment plans, and the timing of the decision, made possible Spiegel's expansion over the next several decades. Expansion in the early 1900s The new Spiegel was more successful, and in 1898 a branch store was opened on Chicago's South Side. Another South Side branch went into operation three years later. The company's slogan"We Trust the People!"reflected its emphasis on credit merchandising. In 1903, Joseph Spiegel's third son, Arthur, entered the business with a plan to develop mail-order operations for Spiegel. After a couple of years of lobbying, Arthur convinced the company hierarchy to open a mail-order department, and in 1905, Spiegel became the first company to offer credit through the mail. The new service was reflected by the addition of a word to the company motto, which began to read: "We Trust the PeopleEverywhere!" This and the fact they did not charge interest on extended credit helped increase their business substantially. In 1906, Spiegel's mail-order sales were near $1million. To handle the success of the mail order operation, a new companySpiegel, May, Stern, and Companywas formed, allowing the Spiegel House Furnishings Company to devote its limited resources to conventional retailing, rather than assume the debts associated with building up the mail order segment. Arthur was named president of the new company. In 1909, Spiegel introduced the teddy bear to the American consumer, for the first time nationwide, by offering it in its mail-order catalog. The Ideal Toy Company partnered with Spiegel to launch this successful toy venture, and Spiegel for many years gifted its employees teddy bears to mark the company's anniversary. Spiegel began to diversify its line of products after 1910, offering apparel for the first time in 1912. After a couple of unsuccessful partnerships with independent clothing manufacturers, Spiegel, May, Stern and Company began offering its own line of women's apparel. The "Martha Lane Adams" line—named after its fictional designer—was so successful that it quickly became a wholly owned subsidiary of Spiegel, May, Stern, and Company and earned its own catalog. Martha Lane Adams' sales grew to nearly $2million by 1916. That same year, Arthur Spiegel died of pneumonia at age 32. In 1926, company executive