Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1909 — Some of This $25,000,000 Was From Jasper County [ARTICLE]

Some of This $25,000,000 Was From Jasper County

Richard Sears, a member of the firm of Sears, Roebuck & Co., the noted mail order house of has disposed of his interest in the firm for $25,000,000. Twenty-five million dollars is a large sum. It is so large that ordinafy men can scarcely comprehend what it means. It means money enough to buy an entire county, and this vast sum was acquired in the space of 17 years by selling goods to people by mail. This 25 million does not represent all the profits of the concern during this time, for there are several other stockholders who profited proportionately. The very fact that one man made so much clear money in so short a time is reaping big profits from those who patronize it. They are selling inferior goods for good prices. There are no home merchants who have piled up $25,000,000 in the past 17 years selling goods; there are none who have piled up one thousandth part of that vast sum. Then why send your money away from home to amass fortunes for strangers when you can do your own town and your own county some good by trading at home? It is at home that you must look for buyers of your products, and it is to home institutions that you owe your support in return for the favors and support you deceive from them in many different ways.—Columbia City Post.