Show LOCAL MARKETS ARE ESSENTIAL equal responsibility for their support rests upon the farmers and merchants mv WT ASSIST EACH OTHER prosperity of community depends upon each of these two classes buying products and goods of each other f Colty copyright right 1917 western newspaper union the first essential in the development of any business Is the possession of a market the manufacturer must have a market for his products or he cannot succeed no matter how valuable those products may be or how efficiently his plant may be operated the wholesale merchant and the retail merchant may have the choicest stocks ot of goods but they may as well go out of business it if they have not a market where they can dispose of their stocks the farmer may produce bumper crops but they will rot upon the ground if he be cannot find a market for them the wage earners skill and muscle bring him no returns unless there is a market for his labor the question of markets is the big one in every line of business and in every community the question Is a vital one in each community which must be taken to include not only all the people who live in the town but the farmers who live in the surrounding country as well there are two i sides to the market question the business men of the town must have a market tor for the things which they have to sell otherwise they cannot continue in business at the same time the farmers must have a market for the things which they raise or they may as well go out of business when either falls both suffer the merchants of the town can provide a market for the products of the farmers and the farmers can provide a market for the goods which the merchants have to sell As long as each class of citizens provides a market for the other class all Is well and the goose hangs high but when either class falls to provide a market for the other the goose Is cooked not only for the class which Is deprived of the market but for the other as well the farmer has a right to expect the town which Is his natural trading point to provide n R market for his bis products ind and the town Is not performing its proper function as the trading center of its community if it does not see that such a market Is provided the responsibility of looking after the fulfillment fill ment of this obligation rests largely upon the the merchants of the town the farmer Is a producer and he must dispose of his products before he can become a consumer it Is therefore not only right but necessary from a business standpoint that the merchants should aid the farmer in turning his products into money otherwise the farmer naturally will have no money to spend in the stores of the town obligation on farmers on the other hand the merchants of the town have a right to expect the farmers to provide a market for the merchandise which they have to sell and the farmers are not doing their duty to their community if they do not provide such a market lu in this case also it Is not only right but auf it Is necessary essary to the prosperity of the tanners farmers that they should aid the merchants in turning their merchandise into cash otherwise it la Is obvious that the merchants will have no money with which to buy the products of the farmers elili Is a double proposition and the obligation rests equally upon both the merchants and the farmers to maintain the markets which are essential to both classes of citizens any town which would import from points hundreds of miles distant the farm products which it could buy at home would bo be pursuing a very shortsighted short sighted policy for it would be making it impossible for the tanners farmers in its territory to buy the goods of its merchants As a matter of fact no town does this unless it Is forced by unusual conditions to do so A town may be located in a community which Is not productive enough to meet the local demands and in that case it Is forc forced e to import farm farin products bu but it the torn town which Is compelled to do this Is at a disadvantage from a commercial standpoint unless it Is essentially a manufacturing town la in which case its products are sold to other communities and bring in enough cash to offset that which Is sent away to purchase farm products must have outside business in the average community however the town Is dependent for its prosperity upon the money received from the farmers in the ordinary channels of trade rather than upon that obtained from the sale of its own products in the average town the merchants cannot make money and continue in business it if they are dependent solely upon the people of the town for their business no business can last long with everything ery thing going out and and nothing coming in and it Is equally true that no business can be operated on the principle of everything coming in and nothing going out to maintain the balance which Is necessary to the maintenance of prosperity in a community ni there must be an even trade between betwee the bus business men of the town |