| Show thinie IT OVER did you get a fountain pen with a bill for one dollar from an alleged cripple in new york did you get three neckties with a bill tor one dollar from an alleged blind man in st louis if you then you are the fortunate exception thousands and thousands of people throughout the country fell for those pleas of charity with the result that legitimate merchants at home were deprived of business to which they are justly entitled the incident inspired the editor of the messenger at manti utah to editorialize a little on the menace of mail order merchandising and the peddling of house to house canvassers two evils which are slowly but surely sucking the lifeblood life blood from the small towns throughout the nation it will not be amiss to remark right here that during the past year moab people sent tens of thousands of dollars away to mail order houses for merchandise during the three weeks preceding christmas the moab postoffice post office was literally swamped under a deluge of merchandise from chicago kansas city and other mail order centers the volume of business sent away from home we venture to say will surpass the combined business of any two stores in moab this is community suicide no other name will correctly describe it if kept up it means that moab will become bankrupt one by one the local business houses will be compelled to close their doors when that happens the town of moab the county of grand and the state of utah will lose a liberal taxpayer one who helps finance their schools helps build their roads and helps maintain their local governments gone also is a liberal supporter of the local church and every other factor that helps maintain community life the editorial front the manti messenger which we hope every resident of moab will read for it applies as wll to moab people as to manti people follows last week another nail was started in a financial coffin and only needed the gentle tapping of a couple of hundred local people to drive it home and thus advance one more step in the direction of the cemetery of local business institutions A couple of weeks ago the first nail of this particular caliber was sent home evidently it was so successful that the second one was sent and if business prospers there will be a stream of them in the future was only a small thing too small perhaps for most folks to pay much attention to but in the aggregate it amounts to a great deal enough small things make a big thing the small tin lizzy has made henry ford the wealthiest man in the world nickles and dimes built the tallest structure on earth rain drops make the mighty mississippi a few fountain pens a few neckties and a few hundred and one other things in the future will make its sender rich and will dig the financial grave of those of our own people who have made it their business to furnish us these things and who do it at a reasonable price cant we see the writing the wall already three of our business institutions have gone with their taxpaying church supporting and employment creating abilities we talk about high taxes yet we drive out from our the very institutions that help us in these things and what of the horde of agents who grind our front yard paths to duat without a dime invested even the sample case of goods they present is loaned them by some out of state concern who does not care a rap for us or our taxes or our churches or our labor problems the local business institution pays a higher rate of taxation excepts income tax than any other concern in the world in addition to paying their full share of state school county and city taxes they are assessed a license and they are the first place to be hit when a donation is asked or a favor is wanted and they pay it too did you ever ask a canvassing agent for a donation for your church for your poor in the ward to help a sick friend or to pay a license or a tax and get it try it on the next one who displays his wonderful bargains and see how much you get how much do you think pawnee bill and lame duck in some far away city will give you for these purposes if you buy their wares which they send you and enclose such a pleading personal letter think it over mr business man mr farmer mr day laborer mr professional man think it over just what kind of a town would you have if there were no business institutions herec just how much do you get from them that you get if they were not here now just think of your investments in bank stocks in telephone stocks in business stocks in your homes and your schools and your children your church that you get to the present extent you laboring people you professional people just how much of your employment is due to these institutions A business institution cannot exist without support mantis business institutions cannot exist without YOUR support the messenger force hopes you sent these goods back as we did when they came and that you will continue to do so if others come dont fall for the chanty pleat it might not be true granting that it is and you want to be charitable you need not go two or three thousand miles away to find a worthy object on whom to expend your charitable benevolence we are told in the scriptures that he who fails to provide for his family is worse than an infidel or words to that effect well we are one large family here in the fuller sense and the admonition applies to us as a people just the same as it applies to the im mediate family circle think it over |
