Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, March 27, 1909, Page 37

l | BEMIDJI, BELTRAMI COUNTY AND NORTHERN MINNESOTA. PATRONIZE HOME INSTITUTIONS MAIL ORDER HOUSES DOOMED. The Knell of Destruction Has Fallen Upon This Octopus of Commercialism and City Ruin. Merchants, Newspapers and Magazines Everywhere Now Aligned Against This Blighting Factor so Impoverigshing and Deterrent to Public Improvement, Schools, Churches and Home Prosperity. Citizens of Bemidji and Beltrami county, do you patronize home industries, or do you remit your good, hard money to a lot of grafters who have no interest in your home city? Do you contribute to the coffers of those who are, through various ‘“catch-penny” schemes, annually piling up millions of ill- deserved profits, or are you confining your money to home circulation? These are leading questions, but since the Pioneer is, by general concession, the recognized mouthpiece of Bemidji and this section of the Northwest, we have the un- reserved right and prerogative of making these inquiries, in the interest of home merchants and general residents as well. A TALE WITH A SEQUEL. It is well known that mail order houses, in high-sounding terms, flout the fact that they annually expend upwards of $25,000,- 000 for advertising purposes. Taking it for granted that their vaunted assumption is true, how many millions of dollars of trade does this fabulous sum represent, all at- tracted from out-of-town trade, and how much does it represent to the cities which are burdened with that class who make a practice of buying from a rank outsider in- stead of the home business man? ‘Well, this prodigious sum spent with mail order houses means lasting loss to schools and churches, local properity and public improvement, successful labor and the much-desired sentiment of harmony and co- operation. In fact, the patronage extended to mail order house grafters is extremely detrimental to every known local interest. Think about it, and then determine whether we are right or not. AN IMPRESSIVE DEDUCTION. It is a fact familiar to all that schools and all desired public improvements, such ag paved streets, perfect sidewalks, parks, city buildings, schools and colleges are wholly dependent upon the tax levy. This being true, it necessarily ensues that if the local business men are prosperous they are invariably disposed to deal generously with public clamor for needed conveniences and beautification of their respective baliwicks, whereas, on the other hand, business stag- nation and depression in commercial circles unfailingly cause every taxpayer to become a watchdog of the city exchequer. This il- lusiration of taxation resolves itself into but one conclusion: when the home mer- chant is not earning the profits his business warrants he becomes either antagonistic or apathetic to any public-spirited movement which may be suggested, regardless of its source of emanation or intent. How necessary it becomes, then, that each person should buy his commodities from the men who have fnvested their money fn their midst. Of course, The Pioneer s not upbraiding the out-of-town buyer, but fs endeavoring to guide and influence home patronage of home merchants by eciting the manifold evils which germinate from such a perni- cfous practice, And in this undertaking it fs not alone, Nearly every Ilegitimate newspaper and magazine has joined in a : ’ ST ke LAY P b I R B ke BB ek [’,w e s e S L S IR e i I B WT@ By o e L L T i g 3 | crusade against the mail order house im- position, while, as a matter of self-protec- tion, business men’s organizations have banded themselves as one man to crush the octopus which is daily sapping the life not only out of their own business, but of that future greatness of their place of resi- So many people fail to consider the fact dence. that the occasional dollar they send to a mail order house cuts any figure with the welfare of their home city. They do not comprehend, evidently, that they may be only one of the many who do the same thing. They should ponder this matter earnestly and then sum up what the aggre- gate amount of their occasional dollar sent to mail house ledgerdermains represents within a year. A dollar given to a mail order house is a dollar forever lost to the city. And a dollar lost to a city means per- manent detriment to both a citv and its people. Remember that, also. AS TO SCHOOL GIRLS AND BOYS. This class of America’s coming citizens we must also admonish. They are, of course, in a plastic stage of wisdom, and should thus be adequately advised as to the duty they owe the home merchant. While they are sending their dimes, quar- ters and dollars to the deceivers who mail to them the well-known alluring catalogs, they should not neglect the thought that it is the loeal business element which makes their education and fitting and training for future responsibility possible. The money expended by the school children and more advanced students represents a ponderous sum at the end of the year, and the said sum means a corresponding loss to their own individual advancement, from the fact that if the various boards of school direc- tors possessed more resources, they would be able to supply a more thorough curricu- lum. While, as we aver, we do not chide the juvenile and student, we desire to im- press upon their minds the necessity of supporting their home schools by supplying money to their respective boards of edu- cation through the medium of home mer- chants. Adults, as well as school children, should recall the fact that the home business man is the one who stands behind every sale he makes. If he misrepresents an article, he will logse in the end, unless he makes good on whatever he hands over his coun- ters. With the mail order house it is vast- ly different. Many invariably palm off an inferior article as genuine, they never fulfill their claims unless by accident. and the buyer has no redress. He receives goods from the bunco steerers C. O. D.—as a pig in a poke, so to speak. If they are not as expected, the money for them has already been paid. There is no resort to the courts possible because of the expense involved, there 18 no sense of morality weighed by the mail order house, and thus the delvded and gullible are filched of their money with- out a hope of getting return, 1If you wish to retard public-spiritedness, reduce taxation to a losing level; if you wish to do that, patronize the malil order house parasites, On the contrary, if you desire to bufld up your city, cut out the mafl order house shell game artists and keep your money at home, If vou are in need of some certain article which you can not procure in your home eity, and which vou know can bhe secured from a mail or- der house, so inform your home business man and thug give him the henefit of any profit he may be able to make, Remember this, also. Ig a pity is good enough to hire in and thrwe. in, it is good enough to support by vour individual and unstinted co-operation. AS TO THE FARMER. The farmers are among the most remun- erative patrons of the mail order houses. This is a sad commentary, but is true, nev- ertheless. This statement is suggested by reason of the fact that farming communities comprise the bulk of population. But let us not digress. Every farmer delights in driving over good roads, and in trading in a prosperous city or town. He glories in the fact that he transacts his business in a mart of trade that is thrifty and enterprising, where all available labor is employed, where the spirit of good fellowship obtains and where every citizen is loyal to-the best interests of the city. But is the farmer in question loyal? Does he patronize home interests? If he does not, he is guilty of a public short coming. And if he does not, he will have ample opportiunity = to still further deprive his home city of purchase money, for it is a foregone conclusion, judged from the re- cent message of President Roosevelt, that the parcel post will soon become a reality as well as an incalculable convenience. However, how can the farmer expect the hiehway commissioners to expend vast sums on roads and bridges when they have not the wherewithal and how can the said officials be expected to be in control of suf- ficient funds for needed improvements when the tax levy or the county debt has been depleted or heavily burdened by rea- son of its people having sent their money beyond recall to a point from whenece it will never return? IN CONCLUSION. When a church is being built or is be- ing contemplated; when an additional school or public parks become a crying need; when water works, lighting or sewer extensions are imperative, do the patrons of the mail order houses appeal to these purveyor of second-class junk for assist- ance? Ah, no! Tt is the home business man who is expected to approve of the plans submitted, throw himself into the financial breach, and make the expected contribution requisite for the consuma- tion of anticipated structures or extensions. How about you? Do you realize these facts as potentials in this direction? This question is hypothetical in scope, even though it possesses but one phase— that of loyality to home merchants. The Pioneer, therefore, contents itself by charg- ing its thousands of readers to faithfully subserve the interests of their home -city by buying their gocds at hceme stores, and by pointing out the depression which will surely follow in case they do not, In brief, if a city is to be blessed with a sentiment of amity and concord; if it is to be provided with beautiful church edifices and commodious schcols; if it expects to expand and broaden by virtue cf thrift and its attractions; if it is to be given the ap- pearance of up-to-dateness, which goes to make a metropolis; if it is to have paved sireetgs, cement sidewalks, publiec parks, unexcelled lighting facilities, a pure and adequate water supply, a spirit of thrift and progressiveness, the people thereof must keep their money at home, and knock the mafl order octopus every jump in the road. Remember that,