Show TWO BIG QUESTIONS THU MORAL ODLIGATION AND DOES IT PAYZ I SHOULD BE CONSIDERED An Honest Answer to These Will Keep the Trade with the I Home Merchant Every Time Copyrighted ISOti by Alfred C lurk When the thrifty person or his wife sits down for the first time I or any time with tho mall older catalogue and its temptations there are two and only two points to be taken Intfi consideration One of these is moral I obligation and tho chances aio Unit that will bo dismissed as sentimental nonsense The other Is Will It pay and to that the thrifty person will bo Inclined In-clined to Intel prat nn answer from tho prices quoted In blackfaced figures in the catalogue Neither of these questions should be lightly dismissed Moral obligation obliga-tion is not sentimental nonsense and blackfaced Humes sometimes lie The duty a man owes to his own community and his obligation to trade at home are so often reiterated In tho 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 I The fire of publicity Is the medium the mallorder houses are using to destroy this community It IE up to you Mr Merchant to fight the devil with fire By the aid of tha local press you can hold him over the scorching flames and put a stop to his devastating competition so far as this community com-munity Is concerned Will you not assist In the good fight given you Mr Farmer A market for your produce What has made 25 to j CO per cent of the present value of your farm The accessibility of a market You know what your grandfather grand-father did on that same farm Drove his hogs and hauled his grain 30 I fiO maybe 75 miles to the nearest market town and received prices for them that would make jou howl about the trusts And he hauled l back the family fam-ily supplies for which he paid what I you would consider monopolistic prices Do you happen to know what the old farm was worth then Well it lacked a good deal of being 75 or 100 an acre Yes tho home town with its handy market has advanced tho value of your property and mado you worth several thousand dollars more than your grandfather was worth The homo town affords schooling for your children and perhaps social and church piivlleges which your family would not otherwise enjoy The rural mall routes and telephone systems radiating from the home town ah I spokes from a hub bring to jour homo the greatest conveniences of modern times Have you over noticed that the llrbl thing tho settlers of a newlyopened reservation do Is to send for a wagon load of mail 6rder catalogues Well I havent They layout a town site i every six or eight miles start two or three general stores bcilld a schoolhouse school-house a church a blacksmith shop a grain elevator petition the department depart-ment for a post office and start a newspaper They know from formei experience that with these things close by life will be endurable whatever what-ever hardships may come They know also that without them they must live lives of Isolation and endure an existence exist-ence that is contrary to all natural human Instincts On the other hand It goes without saying that the average country town cannot exist without the support of if that its tributary territory Then town affords the advantages for the rural citizen that have been enumerated enumerat-ed there exists what we may call an Interdependence and a moral obligation obliga-tion between the two Are you Mr Thrifty Farmer living up to that obligation ob-ligation when you do your trading with the mall order house To this line of argument the farmer may answer that his greatest obligation obliga-tion his first duty Is to his Immediate household and that among the duties to his family and to tiro heirs of his estate IB that of practicing judicious economy buying where ho can buy tho cheapest and to the best advantage advan-tage And this brings us to the second sec-ond point In the argument the paramount para-mount question In this commercial age Will It pay Uy most people an affirmative answer an-swer to that question is accepted ns the rail of duty As a matter of fact Will It pay Is n good test to apply to any project or proposition There are commercial as well as political demagogues and the man who Is appealed ap-pealed to on tho score of patriotism or profit luty or dollars can scarcely do better than to Pit down by himself and submit that question Will It 11I1yto his own best Judgment Provided always that he goes to tho very bottqm of It What aic tho relative Advantages of bujing at tho local store and ordering from a catalogue house Advantages understand that figure In the question ques-tion Will It pay Dont get away from that question It certainly Is very comfortable to sit down by your own fireside and select a dress pattern or a sulky plow from a printed description des-cription and a picture of the article much moro comfortable In fact than hitching up and driving to town on a I raw day A consideration more Important perhaps Is that the printed prlco In the catalogue seems In some cases at leant to be lower than tho price quoted at the local store Isnt that conclusive Lets see The catalogue describes the goods and quotes a price maybe It gives a picture of the article also but jou dont see the goods The local met chant shows you the goods you may examine them critically he may allow you to test them or to call In an expert to advise > ou Is It fair to conclude that the catalogue article Is the cheaper just because tho prlco Is lower An element that must enter into the comparison of goods and prices Is that In any attempt to fool tho customer cus-tomer the local merchant Is decidedly decided-ly I at n disadvantage lie must show the 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 HP cannot afford to make a practice of misrepresenting his goods The mall 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 IU trade area Is wide and always shifting Naturally these conditions do not demand extraordinary extra-ordinary vigilance In supplying lion I estmado goods And where Vigilance Is not a needed employe In the business busi-ness he Is generally taken oft tho 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 cata-logue house may not this account for If 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 goods of the best quality Which course does a mans first duty to his own household I dictate Hut to get at tho bottom of that question we must consider the far reaching general effect of mall order trading If single catalogue houses me to be capitalized at 40000000 they must be reckoned with along with Standard OH the beef trust and railroad mergers If they nro allowed to suck the lilod from our country towns your grandchildren will find conditions much the same as those of > our grandfathers time Their markets mar-kets will be 30 50 or 75 miles away Tho towns and villages will bo deserted de-serted and the hubs will be too distant dis-tant to send tho radiating spokes of rural mall tele phono lines and other modern conveniences far Into tho country CIIAIIMS mtADlIAW |