Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-09-27

A sssshAu Deaker" fn Mississippi Makes
Some Statements IN HIS Local
Paper That We Would Like
to Have Answered.

From the Cotton Plant OF the sd inst.
we copy the following In answer to the
appeal TO ri by the writer, and in the
hope that our merchants may be able 10
prove to 9Sman Dealer that he is mis-
taken. His complaint is OF too serious a
nature to be treated with silence, and
we hope It will have immediate at
tention. We presume that merchants
want TO learn the truth, that they NAV
know what they have to face in the coun-
try. If the evil complained of by "SmaIl
Dealer" is permitted to 20 unanswered or
uuredressed, we may expect q more seri-
Gus assault upon u commerce thar any
difference In cotton prices win make.
Mr.. EditOT:-In the issue of the Mem
phis APPEAL of the 20th of September, I
notice the following statement in the
leader OF that issue;
The next Legislature OF Tennessee must
heed the claims Of the public. n lt from
the shoulders Of the tax-ridden merchants
the burdens which are O~snkrupting them,
and driving trade from our SLsts 70 localities
where merchants are free from the heavy
taxes imposed on them in Tennessee.
Now IS to the burden of taxation in
that State, and the causes which give rise
TO them, whether right and Just or not,
vi cannot say anything, being ignorant;
though, judging from the general disposi-
lion to tax, and to Tax heavily, and in
AAoAI GA40a 0hAENgEaR4AAI III gAdk OGsLGa Ky
well as a great many Others, we think
your merchants have some Just grounds
for complaint. But there is something
else besides b enormous taxation,
which bears heavily upon the prospects Of
trade in the city of Memphis, which has
done it a great deal Of injury, and is dss-
tined to do a great deal more In the course
of the future development Of the sur
rounding country, with its incidental and
commercial advantages.
The great evil arises from the great
want of dispropOrtion between the whole
sale and retail prices in their intercourse
with dealers in both of these departments
of trade. The wholesale dealer who lives
within reach Of tina trade, goes to his
merchants, his t0hoIesGle merchant, So
called, self styled, and makes a purchase
of a stock suitable for his business In the
country 1t may be fifty or a
hundred miles away, and perhaps
further, from that city. He rams
ports them to his place of business
and offers them to his customers,
and ct his WI counter is mel with the
proposition that he can go to the Bluff
City and the great market of the South and
Southwest, and buy the very same articles
at One-hslf or one-third of what he can
get them from the country dealer; or, in
other words, he can buy one hat, or one
suit of clothes, or one barrel of sugar, or
n sack of coffee, or ten pounds of shot,
or n bottle of quinine, etc, Just as cheap
at retail as we cOu ntry merchants can by
the wholesale. No difference at all. Now,
this drives the wholesale de slers, small
and large, from that great market of trade
to other markets, where he can find a dif-
ference in the two leading branches of
trade, wholesale and retail, sufficient to
allow him a little margin to induce his
customers to stay at home and trade, and
allow him to make a living out of his
trade. Now, this Is a statement of facts as
to that noble msrket-Memphis. The
dealers In the country are finding this out
more to their sorrow every day, and more
Of them who legitimatsly belong to Mem
phis are driven to st. Louis, Cincinnati
or elsewhere.
We can buy to-day cheaper on Main
at retail than we can on Broadway,
New York, Cincinnati, Chicago or st. |
Louis. But those cities have merchants
who deal exclusively as wholesale deal |
srs, and those who deal exclusively at
retail, and they keep up a marked dis
between wholesalers and retail |
srs when we spprosch them for trade. Is
q wholesale merchant in that great
who is a wholesale merchant, who
will sell only to the wholesale dealer and
70 non others ct wholesale prices, and re-
dealers who will do the same in their
inc, and keep up the distinction between
he two classes OF business?
The rivals of Memphis in trade know
fact, and they use it in the CONNER.
,isl csnvsss every season against them,
ind, what Is more, thoy make actual capital
,ut Of 1t.
The APPEAL, being the official journal
# that city, should correct this growing
md telling evil, or do sl in its power &
ret the Chamber of Commerce to remedy
If possible. There is being prepared 8
memorial to that honorable body, which
will set forth facts more at length and
open their eyes to their own sd-
By correcting this evil, Mem
)his can reclaim hundreds Of thousands
# dollars and make as much more out of
he country dealers.
Hoping to see the APPEAL strike q blow
hat viii be felt and needed, not only for
dsmph1s, but the country they ought to
Import, we will leave the matter for the
consideration Of those interested.
SMALL DEALER,