Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1918 — LOCAL MARKETS ARE ESSENTIAL [ARTICLE]

LOCAL MARKETS ARE ESSENTIAL

Equil Responsibility for Their Support Rests Upon the Farmers and Merchants. MUST ASSIST EACH OTHER Prosperity of Community Depends Upon Each of These Two Classes 'Buying Products and Goods of Each Other. (COpjllCht, itlf. Western Newspaper Union.) The first essential in the develops went of any. business is the possession of a ‘market? The manufacturer must have" a market for his products or he cannot succeed, no matter how valuable those products may be or how efficiently his plant may be operated. The merchant and (Jie retail tnerchant may have the choicest 8toc» of goods, but they may as well go out pf business if they have not a market where they can dispose of thelt stocks. The farmer may produce bumper crops, but they will rot upon the ground if he cannot find a market for them. The wage earner’s skill and muscle bring him no returns unless there is a market for hlslabor. The question of markets is the big one in every line of business and in every community the question is a vital one. In each community, which must* be taken to include not only all the people who live in the town but the farmed who live in the surrounding country as well,' We are two sides to the market question. The business men Of the town must have a market for the things which they have to sell. Otherwise they cannot continue in business. At the same time the nWifeiW'must have a market for the things which they raise or they may as well go out of business. When Either Faile Both Suffer. The merchants of the town can provide a market for the products of the farmers and the farmers can provide ' a market for the goods Which the merchants have to sell. As long as each class of citizens provides a market for the other class all Is well and the goose hangs high, but when either class falls to provide a market for the other the goose ft cooked, not only for the class which is deprived of the market but for the other as well. The farmer has a right to expect the town which is his natural trading point to provide a market sot his products, and the town is not performing its proper function as the trading center of its' community if it does not see. that such a market is provided. The responsibility of looking after the fulfillment dl this obligation rests largely upon the of the town. The farmer IS s'producer and he must dispose of his products before he can become a consumer. It. is, therefore, not only right but necessary from a business standpoint that the merchants should aid thp farmer in turning his products into money. Otherwise the farmer naturally will to spend in the stores of the town. Obligation on Farmers. On the other hand, the merchants of the town have a right to expect the farmers to provide a market for the merchandise which they have to sell, and the farmers are not doing their duty to their community if they do not provide such a market. In this case, alao, it Is not Only right but it is necessary to the prosperity of the farmers that they should aid the merchants in turning their merchandise into cash. Otherwise it is obvious that the merchants will have no money with which to buy the products of the farmers. This is a double-barreled proposition and the obligation rests equally upon both the merchants and the farmers to maintain the markets which are essential to both classes of citizens. Any town which would import from points hundreds of miles distant the farm products which it could buy at home would be pursuing a very short-sighted policy, for it would be making it impossible for the farmers in its territory to buy the goods of its merchants. As a matter of fact no town does this unless it is forced by unusual conditions to do so. A town may be located In a community which is not productive enough to meet the local demands, and in that case it is forced to import farm products but the town which is compelled to do this is at a disadvantage from a commercial standpoint unless it is essentially a manufacturing town, In Which case its products are sold to other communities and bring in enough cash to offset that'which Is sent away to purchase

farm products. Must Have Outside Business. In the average community, however, the town Is dependent for Its prosperity upon the money received from the armers In the ordinary channels of tfhde, rather than upon that obtained from the sale of its own products.* In the average town the merchants cannot make money and continue in business if they are dependent solely upon the people of the town, for their business. No business can last long with *ev- ■ it and nothing coming illy true that no buslated on the principle inning In and nothTo maintain the balpessary to the malnte- , rity in ajmmrthnttyj i even trade between qf thetowa.