Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1907 — TWO BIG QUESTIONS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TWO BIG QUESTIONS

THE “MORAL OBLIGATION” AND “DOES IT PAY?” SHOULD BE CONSIDERED An Honest Answer to These Will Keep the Trade with 'the Home Merchant Every Time. (Copyrighted, 1906, by Alfred C. Clark.) When the thrifty person or his wife sits down for the first time—or any time—with the mail order catalogue and its temptations, there are two, and only two, points to be taken Into consideration. One of these is moral obligation, and the chances are that that will be dismissed as sentimental nonsense. The is—Will it pay? and to that the thrifty person will be inclined to interpret an answer from the prices quoted in black-faced figures in the catalogue. Neither of these questions should be lightly dismissed. Moral obligation IS not sentimental nonsense, and black-faced figures' sometitaes lie. The duty a man owes to hia own community and his Obligation to trade at home are so often reiterated in the country press that, possibly like some of the preaching, it has a tendency to harden the hearts of the sinners. What has your neighboring town

given you, Mr. Farmer? A market for your produce. What has made 25 to 50 per cent, of the present value of your farm? The accessibility of a market. You know what your grandfather did on that same farm? Drove his hogs and hauled his grain 30, 50, maybe 75 miles to the nearest market town, and received prices for them that would make you howl about the trusts. And he hauled back the family supplies for which he paid what you would consider monopolistic prices. Do you happen to know what j the old farm was worth then? Well, I it lacked a good deal of being $75 or SIOO an acre. Yes, the home town, with its handy market, has advanced the value of your property and made you worth several thousand dollars more than' your grandfather was worth. The home town affords schooling for your children, and perhaps social and church privileges which your family would not otherwise enjoy. The rural mail routes and telephone systems, radiating from the home town, as spokes from * hub, bring to your home the greatest conveniences of modern times. Have you ever noticed that the first thing the settlers of a newly-opened reservation do is to send for a wagon load of mall order catalogues? Well, 1 haven’t. They lay out a town site every six or eight miles, start two or three general stores, build a school house, a church, a blacksmith shop, a grain elevator, petition the department for a post office, and start a newspaper. They know, from former experience that, with these things close by, life will be endurable, whatever hardships may come. They know, also, that without them they must live lives of isolation and endure an existence that is contrary to all natural human instincts. On the other hand, It goes without saying, that the average country town oannot exist without the support of its tributary territory. Then, if that town affords the advantages for the rural cjtizen that hare been enumerated, there exists what we may call an Interdependence and a moral obligation between the two. Are you, Mr. Thrifty Farmer, Jiving up to that obligation when you do your trading with the mailorder house? To this line of argument the farmer may answer that his greatest obligation, his first duty, is to his Immediate

household, .and tltat among the duties to his family and to the heirs of hts estate is that of practicing judicious economy—buying where he can buy the cheapest and to the best advantage. And this brings us to the second point in the argument—the paramount question in this commercial age—‘"Will it pay?” By most people an affirmative answer to that question is accepted as the call of duty. As a matter of fact, "Will it pay?” is a test to apply to any project or proposition. There are commercial, as well as political, demagogues, and the man who Is appealed to on the score of patriotism q|- profit, duty or dollars, can scarcely do better than to sit down by himself and submit that questionj—“Will it pay?”—to his own best judgment. Provided always, that he goes to the very bottom of It What are the relative advantages of buying at the local store and ordering from a catalogue house? Advantages, understand, that figure in the question, “Will it pay?” Don’t get away from that question. It certainly la very comfortable to sit down by /your own fireside and select a dress pattern or a sulky plow from a printed description and a picture of the article; much more comfortable, in fact, than hitching up and driving to town on a raw day. A consideration more Important, perhaps, is that the printed price In the catalogue seems, in some cases at least, to be lower than the price quoted at the local store. Isn’t that conclusive? Let's see. The 'catalogue describes the goods and quotes a

price; maybe it gives a picture of the article also, but you don’t see the goods. The local merchant shows you the goods; you may examine them critically; he may allow you to test them or to call in an expert to advise you. Is it fair to conclude that the catalogue article is the cheaper just because the price is lower? An element that must enter into the comparison of goods and prices is, that in any attempt to fool the customer, the local merchant is decidedly at a disadvantage. He must show goods, not merely describe them. His business depends wholly upon the limited trading area of his town and his ability to inspire confidence within that circle. He cannot afford to make a practice of misrepresenting his goods. The mail order house is not so tied down to the maxim that “Honesty is the best policy.” It has no neighbors, no fellow citizens, no mutual interests with its patrons. Its trade area is wide and always shifting. Naturally these conditions do not demand extraordinary vigilance In supplying hon-est-made goods. And where Vigilance Is not a needed employe In the business he Is generally taken off* the pay roll, which makes a saving in expense, as well as in the cost of the goods. If lower prices are quoted by the catalogue house, may not this account for it? “Will It pay?” Is It a matter of economy to buy inferior and damaged goods when the same money, or even a little more, will pay for goodß of the best quality? Which course does a man’s first duty to his own household dictate? But to get at the bottom of that question, we must consider the farreaching general effect of mail order trading. If single catalogue houses are to be capitalized at $40,000,000, they must be reckoned with along with Standard Oil, the beef trust and railroad mergers. If they are allowed to suck the blod from our country towns, your grandchildren will find conditions much the same as those of your grandfather's time. Their markets will be 30, 50 or 75 miles away. The towns and villages will be deserted, and the “hubs’’ will be too distant to send the radiating spokes of rural mall, telephone lines and other modern conveniences far Into the country. CHARLES BRADSHAW.

The fire of publicity is the medium the mail-order houses are using to destroy this community. It is up to you, Mr. Merchant, to fight the devil with fire. By the aid of the local press you can hold him over the scorching flames, and put a stop to his devastating competition so far as this community is concerned. Will you not assist in the good fight?