The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 12, 1918, Page 10

Retailer’s HE retailer has only one friend — the consumer.” Such is the way 'a sec- retary of the Re- tail Grocers’ asso- ciation of a great western state Only Friend Is the Consumer Big Business Grinds the Small Merchant Just as It Does'the Farmer free of “friendly” wholesalers and other big business agents, to fight their battles. This organization can then co-operate with organizations of their real friends, farmers and work- ing people, to secure political- power and protection. big business, his farmer friends leave him. Without A FALSE KIND ‘ N T HEN the retailer butts into the farmers’ fight against trade he fails to meet his bills. The wholesale houses . summed up the situation in a confidential statement. The remark had to be confidential be- cause the other supposed friends of the retail grocers in that state would have taken his official head off had his words come to their ears. He had evidence to show that the wholesalers had divided the state among them- selves, thus practically dictating . where the grocer would have to buy and, of course, the prices. On the ers. other hand, the mail order houses g were cutting into the trade by more than they normally would by unfair | competition, in which they were ap- parently protected by their political power. More than that, the chain store method with its large centralized purchasing power, secretly catered to by the wholesalers and manufacturers, were re- placing the independent retailer with the hired clerk. Locally, if the retailer was doing a good business, the landlord advanced the rent to take up the favorable margin. ‘ A PARALLEL WITH THE FARMERS This picture of our independent city merchant, drawn by a real friend, is quite different from that his real enemies draw of him, but it is the stern, unvarnished fact. Like the farmer, he is helgless before the power of the special interests dominat- ing our marketing system; he simply passes on the . exorbitant prices levied by the monopolists, sel- dom getting more than poor wages for very hard work and nearly always having to shoulder the blame for the whole vicious marketing circle. The big interests use him for all he is worth to -them and when he fails they throw him away lllge a broken stick, for there are plenty of other sticks. No less than 17,000 local merchants failed in 19156 and over 13,000 in 1916, nearly double the rate of previous years. When monopolists were profiteering as never before, due to war conditions, the small business men were failing as never before. The points of similarity between the economic position of the small mer- . chant and the farmer are many. In all essential matters they are situated . alike. Both have a few thousand dol- lars invested but they get by only by hard personal work, including in most . cases work of other members of the - family. The monopolists and usurers . of all kinds prey on them both. With the retailer the exaction consists in putting wholesale prices so high that the retailer’s trade is reduced in vol- ume and so high that he must cut the margin out of which he gets interest . on investment and wages, to stay in - business. As with the farmers the . representatives - of special privilege ! are always telling him how “independ- . ent” he is, how interested they are in his welfare, how much time and money they are spending to bring in better methods of retailing. When a mer- chant fails through bad general con- | ditions, they lay it entirely to his bad i methods and solemnly warn the others i about their cooked-up reasons. | IN THE GRASP OF | BIG BUSINESS . ' Now there are many inefficient mer- ¢ chants just as there are some farm- i ers who do not use their heads on i their farms as much as they should. i On‘the farm and in the store there is ¥ room for a good deal of technical im- i provement.: But the important point ;} is that the conditions are so’bad that i~the good farmers, the good retailers, ,:2 the majority of them, can not: make: i a fair return. In a business in which E drudgery and long hours is the only call him to account in the regulation legal ways. can’t lend him money. No part of big business will or can do a thing for him because a merchant without a trade.mmpl_y isn’t a merchant any more. He is a broken stick and big busi- ness can’t use broken sticks to fight the farmers and other common people with. Probably the merchants who take up the cudgel for big business richly deserve this reward, but it is unfortunate that they do not realize soon enough that the consumer is their only friend in the business world and that their place is with him fighting against the common exploit- The accompanying article shows how the retailer fits into the present scheme of things. way out, the farmers and retailers are not able to put in as many new and better methods as they would like to. Again, as with the free advice of big business for the farmer, the retailers are beset with quack advisers. The first object of these quacks is to cover the tracks of big business, and they talk up whatever else is novel or strikes their fancy because whether the retailer succeeds or fails is .of no vital concern to them. This quackery even extends to' the universities, where educational work for retailers is being at- tempted. The experts may have the right motives, - they may have excellent judgment, but they are not free to advise retailers about means of meet- ing their important enemies—the wholesalers, the mail order house, the chain store. Any one of these groups have more weight with the state government run by the old-line politicians .and with the university under this state government than all the independent retailers together. Like the farmer the retailer’s first step to better conditions is realization that he is not independent as his exploiters tell him he is, but decidedly de- pendent and helpless in the grasp of these business powers. The next step is clean-cut organization HE CAN'T KEEP A GOOD THING DOWN The banks OF ORGANIZATION Many of our towns and cities now have a retailers’ association as well as a commercial club, supposedly to look after their special 'interests. Many of them are doing some good work, such as reorganizing the credit conditions of the town, but few or none take any steps against the spe- cial interests, probably because they are wisely afraid to do so. Many of them go to the opposite extreme of turning their organized power against their only friends, the consumers, by using it to hold up prices. In not a few of our towns and cities the-re- tailer must call up the association in the morning before he can tell a customer the price of potatoes or flour, and they allow their organization to be - used as-a cat’s-paw by combinations of commission men. Their organization commonly falls in with the control of the town by representatives of the large special interests and local special interests because it is not alive to what these interests are driving at. Local agents of the grain trust, the produce companies, the insurance interests, land specu- lators, old-line politicians, usurers, the vice ele- ment together are allowed to.dominate the town government and commercial club, to speak for the town and even to engineer hostile attacks on farmer organizations. ; Instead of tacitly, at least, falling in with the enemies of the consumers and passing on to the consumer without a protest the iniquitous prices levied by the interests higher up, the retailer should be a specialist in his line, defending his customers against fraud, against foodstuffs and other products unfit for use, against the exactions of manufacturers and wholesalers. He should aim to get his profit by large business on a small mar- gin rather than with small business and high margin. He should work with other rétailers closely to cut his costs of doing business either by co- operation or state action. RETAILER LIVES OUT OF CONSUMER’S INCOME The consumers need this kind of a man to serve them because it is a profession in itself which they can not take time to master individually to protect themselves. Some retail- ers have this spirit and beginnings have been made, and if a majority of them effectively work along this line, we shall soon hear very little of the terrible mail order house and the chain store or of running to the metropolis to trade. £ The difficulties of any other kind of trading are obvious. With the mail order house, the farmer can not see the goods and he can not get expert advicé on quality; with trading out of town there is the long journey and trading the farmer.does out of town is done chiefly because he feels that one can defend the 'proposition that the farmer should trade at home even if he must pay much higher prices there. One of the most powerful rea- sons why the small business man of the towns should throw his strength with farmers and workingmen is the income.: What they must have to eat, wear and otherwise enjoy makes the the few people fairly well off living g ‘ : : 5 St : by exploiting these classes. I wages You may have seen those toys about Christmas time that are loaded with lead * in the town are good and rents low, in the base. ‘You tip them down to the ground, but they bob serenely up again. . the wage-earners have more to spend; . It’s the same way with the organized farmer. His enemies plot and scheme to Po - lay him low, but he always comes up smiling. ' their crops, they will want more goods The farmers want to trade at home. . the dealing with strangers. What ' he can not afford to trade in town. No - fact that he must live out of their business rather than the demands of .‘ if farmers are getting good prices for.