Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1907 — TRADING AT HOME [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRADING AT HOME

MANY REASONS WHY IT IS THE BEBT POLICY. SELF-INTEREST A BIG FEATURE That Which Benefits the Community as a Whale Benefits Each Individual—The "Why and Wherefore." As self-interest Is the law which governs the transactions of trade, it is the first light in which the subject of “Trading at Home” must be treated. Sentiment has little influence In trade. The prosperity of any community depends on the volume of business transacted within its borders. The facility with which business can be transacted depends largely upon the amount of money in circulation and any influence which takes money out of a community is detrimental to the financial welfare of the community. It is in this respect that trading with mail order bouses cripples a community. Money which should be kept In local circulation goes to swell the volume of money in the distant city Instead of remaining at home to be turned over and over again as the medium of transfer among local merchants and their customers. The effect of this diversion of money is net confined to the merchants who lose sales thereby; it extends eventu- | ally to every member of the com- | munity. It is a ourtailment of business which affects the value of all property even to the labor of the man who is dependent on a day’s work for his liv- ■ tag. It reacts upon the people who purchase away from home in a degree which more than offsets any possible saving in price that may be effected in the purchase. Every dollar sent out of any community for goods which can be pur- - chased at home represents a percent-

age of injustice to the community itself. In the first place, some merchant loses the profit on a sale. Not only that, but the price of the article represents so much of the merchant’s capital which is tied np in the article and Is not working. Having capital tied np means that the operations of the merchant are curtailed to that extent He has that much less to Bpend; that much less to pay in salaries to his clerks; to pay in patronage of the butcher, the baker and the other purveyors of the necessities of life; to invest in property, in newspaper advertising; to deposit in bank where it may be used by other members of the community, or to devote to church or charity. The money which goes to the mail order house decreases the per capita of circulation in the community; a factor which determines largely the value of all goods or property on the market; the scale of wages and the interest on loans. It is not hard to trace the effect of the diversion of money from its legitimate channels. When money is scarce trade languishes because of the lack of circulating medium; merchants and all others curtail expenses; the volume of trade decreases and nothing restores activity in trade but an Increase from some quarter of the circulating medium. When the volume of money Increases, trade moves and it moves as fast as the volume of money will permit. Money that is working is constantly producing profit to all; money that is not working produces stagnation in trade. Accordingly, It is to the interest of every member of a community to confine his expenditures as nearly as possible to the community in which he lives. Every dollar he spends at home helps to make his own holdings more valuable hpcause they are more salable. When a community has money with which to buy there is little diffloulty to sell and if the money Is not diverted, it revolves constantly In the financial circle of the community, earning a profit for everyone who handles it and turns it over. Accordingly, the money spent at home la bearing compound interest tor the community. Its effect Is apparent even to the outsider. Spending money at home Is a species of loyalty which snakff materially tor the progress of

composed of the sort of people who . spend their money at home it advances rapidly. There Is money for public improvements, money for new enterprises. The money which the loyal man makes at home is at home; the city grows, the streets are improved and the marks of prosperity and progress are evident on every aide; ~— : < ; ; We are wont to inveigh against the wealthy man who makes his money in one town and invests it in another. We criticize him for want of loyalty to the community which produced his wealth and feel that we are done an injustice by his failure to put his money in home enterprises which would increase the business and prosperity of our city. The criticism is justified and it holds just as good in a lesser degree to the man who trades out of town. It is the same offense on a smaller pcale. The effect of the reverse policy is promptly seen. The writer has in mind a notable Instance. Two cities of about 15,000 population each are situated on opposite sides of a river which is a boundary between two states. Each contains several millionaires who made their money in the lumber trade in the two towns. The millionaires of one of the cities are putting their money into other industries in the same town as the lumbering goes out. As a result, the town is rapidly forging to the front; everyone is prosperous, the demand for houses exceeds the supply; property is valuable and every one is working. The millionaires of the town across the river are investing their money in western and southern pine lands. The town is languishing for lack of money; new industries cannot start because of lack of capital; merchants are falling ; stores and houses are being vacated; people are moving away and a general air of poverty and decay pervades the place. Few cities present such strong examples of the value of money spent at home but the same principle holds true in every community. It is due

every community to reinvest the money it produces in the community which produces it The chance of being swindled is an argument used against trading with the mail order houses. Goods advertised at cut prices often fall to measure up to the description of the advertisement. The few cents which is saved on the price of an article so bought is usually sacrificed in the quality of the article. Buying from the mail order house Is buying blind. A purchaser never thinkß of buying from a home merchant without examining the goods, but will often send his money to a mail order house with blind faith that the article will prove to be as represented. How often this faith is misplaced can be proven only by comparing the goods bought from mail order houses with the goods offered for sale at home. If the mall order buyer would follow this system for a little while, he would probably find that the goods offered at home are of better quality and as good bargains as the mail order goods, taking quality into consideration. If this presumption is true, the buyer of'inail order goods is a distinct loser, as he has secured inferior goods and has robbed the community in which he lives, as well as himself, of the use of the money. P. R. SINGLETON.

The catalogue man recognizes in the advertising agent his most powerful assistant. He realizes that it is advertising which brings him his orders. Let the local merchants awaken to the fact that the local papers can do for them just what the advertising agents do for the catalogue houses and the flow of money to the city mail order houses from this community will stop.

[image: Drawing - comic]