Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1914 — HOME TRADE BOOSTS [ARTICLE]

HOME TRADE BOOSTS

So Does the Ostrich

WE HAVE all read of the ostrich, that extraordinary bird of the desert, which dines on scrap iron, lunches on stones and when danger threatens thrusts his head in the sand and believes himself safe from harm, because he cannot see the danger. Picture to yourself this gigantic bird, taller than a man, resting in fancied security because his head is hidden from view, although his body can b» seen for miles around. R . s ' too many of us who adopt the tactics of the foolish ostrich. We are told of an impending danger and think that we can escape it or avoid It by refusing to face it. We are informed that there is great danger of restriction of our facilities for local trade it our local business men are not given better, support; that we may find ourselves deprived of the opportunities, for marketing- our farm produce in our home town if our storekeepers find themselves stocked ip with goods, but with no adequate volume of local business. What Is more natural than that this may be the case If we do not stop sending our money away from home to the mail order houses In the big ■sltles? We must realize such possibilities and take steps to prevent them, f we don’t, we will find out, in ail probability, that our local merchants wilt look for other locations than In our town. • Which is the wisest thing to do—to look the conditions squarely in the ’ace and take the steps necessary “to counteract them or shall we, like the 'oollsh ostrich, refuse to face the conditions and decline to take cognizance ■f them? 7 We can permit matters to drift along until the inevitable occurs, or we can think.things over, carefully and with judgment, and take the steps necessary to protect our interests —the Interests of ourselves and those whq will i come after us. - ■ ’ Our community is built jip as the result of various interests, not the least of which is the tributary farming population. Our town was created because of the various interest* tha,t center here and because this is a natural point for the distribution of farm products and merchandise. The sale of the farm products brings the money for the buying of the while the ’merchandise supplies the necessities of those who raise the qrops. It therefore follows, naturally as one of the unfailing laws of civilization, that IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE FARMERS AND OTHERS WHO PRODUCE THINGS FOR THE MARKET, THERE WOULD BE NO OCCASION FOR THIS COMMUNITY. THERE WOULD BE NO NECESSITY FOR STORES AND SHOPS. . . On the other hand, were it not for the stores that are the mediums for the marketing of the crops, there would be a great lack of facilities for marketing and farming would not be .as profitable as we now "find it in our community. • If the business men of our town do not afford the requisite facilities for marketing such crops as must, be handled locally in order to give full advantage to the farmers, then the farmers will find out that they must look for a market elsewhere or accept a much smaller profit on that which they have to sell. On the other hand, if the farmers do not do their share toward the support of the business men, by spending their money locally and keeping it 1b circulation in our own town, instead of sending it to the mail order houses, then the local storekeepers will find it necessary to restrict their investments: in goods for the/local market, thereby resulting in a diminishing of the facilities for getting what we need at home. Thia la a point we must not fail to observe. We muat look the conditions squarely In the face and arrive at a conclusion as to what steps are necessary to preserve and to maintain the conditions which make for prosperity.. If we fail to do this, or if we temporize and let matters drift, we wilt find that we have emulated the silly ostrich, until the worst happens. SPEND THE MONEY AT HOME. PATRONIZE THE LOCAL BUSINESS MEN. KEEP THE MONEY IN CIRCULATION IN OUR HOME! TOWN.' WE NEED EVERY DOLLAR AT HOME TO HELP THE COMMUNITY. Let the ostriches'dp as they will and send their money to the mall order houses, but let us hope that we have but few of these foolish birds in thincommunity.