Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-02-09
DO YOUa
That Is, Do You Think Il Justice to
Your NeIghbor and TO Your Home E.
Business Men to Purchase in
Toledo When You Can Buy
F in Napoleon as Well2
If you do, God Help your Illlberal
Spirit. and May You be Convinced
.ofYour Fatal Error Before IL Is
EternalIy and Everlastingly
Too Late.
Reciprocity the Only Safeguard for
the Development of ANY Town In
This"Land of the Free and the
Home Of the Brave"


Home OF the Brave"
Occasionally we meet q man who says
to us, why / can send to Toledo, or
Cleveland, or Chicago, and get printing
done cheaper than you do 1t. We in
variably reply to our friend on this
wise; Certainly you can get your print
ing done in Chicago cheaper than we
can doit-some cheaper, but, suppose,
sir, since you are business man here,
that your patrons should all take the
same notion you have and conclude
the economical thing for them to do,
would be to quit buying OF home
merchants and send to the city for
their calicoes and muslins, boots and
shoes, hardware and cutlery, groceries
and provisions, flour and feed, and
every other article that they daily
stand in need of-what would you think
of that treatment. Could you continue
In business? Would you be encouraged
to go ahead, to struggle on waiting for
something to turn up?
The facts are, that when the express
sage and freights and all expenses of
shipping are added to the original cost
price in Toledo, you have paid almost
the money for your goods, that you
could have had them at home for. Be-
sides, you have that much detfacted
from the business and enterprise of
your own town, injured that much,
your individual dealer and perhaps sent
cash to the merchant in Chicago, that
should have constituted credit on
your running account at home with the
man who has been charitable enough
to trust you for months and may be
years previous.
Don't you, my friends. feel little
mean, when you think of sending off
for goods that will cost you small
amount more in your own town, than
in the metropolis? Don't you now?
Indeed don't you? If you don't we fell
for you! Besides, there's another side
to this matter. If you can buy the
goods and the labor we have to sell in
Toledo cheaper, we certainly can buy
the goods you have for sale cheaper
elsewhere. Can't we? Why not? It's
poor rule that won't work both ways,
ai'nt it? And if you have to pay us a
little more for printing than you would
pay the Jobber in the city, don't we
pay you little more for your flour or
clothing than we would have to pay
the city merchant for his goods?
Therefore according to your own argu-
ment, you cant lose anything, since
what you pay us above city prices we
pay back to you in excess of the same
prices.
But let us look at this matter still
further.
What are towns like Napoleon for?
Who keep them up? Why do business
men succeed in their ventures? What
is the secret of country town develop
ment?
Is it because the people of the town
and of the country go to the city to
trade-to sell their produce and to buy
their necessaries? Surely not, but it is
because of that reciprocal exchange of
commodities-goods or cash for butter
and eggs and pork or upon the other
hand, cash for commodities to sell, and
labor.
No country town could exist, let
alone developing and improving, were
it not for the fact the people support ii
by supporting the business men of it.
If the business men of Napoleon were
refused patronage on the grounds
advanced by patrons that they were
buying henceforth in the city because
they could buy a little cheaper, there
would be general bankruptcy in no
time and nothing in the wide world
could prevent it.
My friendly business man, have you
any pride in your town and do you
wish to see it bnilt up and made city
ofitself? Your home is here and it is
here permanently. You have lived
here for years past and you will live
here for years to come. You will die
here, if you are not caught in a railroad
wreck on your way to the city to buy
cheaper goods, and here will you be
buried. You can add to the prosperity
of your village or you can detract
therefrom.
You can add to it, by patronizing
home enterprise and your home busi-
ness men, or can detract from it by
spending your money with other peo-
Pile at distance, belittle yourselves in
the estimation of all true citizens and
finally go down to your grave ''unwept
and unhonored.n