Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-04
pATRoNIzE HOME HOUSES.

SATRONlZE HOME HOUSES.
Complaint is made by local merchants
that there has been marked revival of
the disposition on the part of great por-
ton of our people to avoid the reciprocal
obligation that is binding on every man
deriving his support from community to
trade with home dealers, provided they
offer him the same advantages that those
of a rival market do.
Our dealers aver that great many of
our citizens send abroad for supplies, from
liquors to furniture, and breadstuffs to case
goods though the same articles can be OBJ
tanned here at the same price that is paid
abroad, and in addition that many foreign
purchases are made at higher cost, with
the added freight and loss of time. To
Just that extent the local trade is injured,
and correspondingly the whole community
is harmed. If one thinks that he can be
prosperous when his neighbors are not,
where prosperity depends upon exchange
of products and labor, he is grievously mis-
taken.
Every man in community owes it to
himself as member of it to give his "cus-
tom" to the dealers in his own town, and
he has the right to expect a return of the
favor, if favor it may be called. The
surest way to kill town is to starve its
tradesmeD, manufacturers and general
dealers. If they cannot sell their goods to
their neighbors they cannot employ labor,
invest capital or contribute to the support
of the community Merchants of probity
and unquestioned truthfulness have as
sured US that scores of consumers in large
way in Sacramento and many household
ers are sending abroad for their supplies in
response to the urgent appeals of drum
mers or the fancy for a foreign market,
when for the same expenditure and at the
same length of credit, they could purchase
identically the same goods at home and
keep the money they spend circulating in
their own community.
To buy abroad when you can purchase
at home as well is to augment drain upon
the financial resources of the place, and to
cripple your own business, since you lessen
the ability Of your neighbor to patronize
your establishment We are prepared to
go beyond that proposition and demon
strate that it is economy for the citizen to
pay something more for goods in his own
market rather than to send his money out
of the community. We assume that the
reason for this is so patent that no elucida-
ton Of the proposition is at all necessary.
One merchant explains the difficulty
which he encounters in this manner "The
outside commercial traveller comes into a
local establishment and solicits an order
He throws down IS piece and invests il
in the goods of the house in some way
Maybe it is a half eagle that is thus dis
pensed In such cases he rarely fails with
his suggestive and persistent art that
amounts to what is very nearly hypnotism
to secure fat order. Now if send my
solicitors into the local market to spend
$40 pieces am at a great disadvantage
The outside drummer comes once in two OF
three months, my men go about delivering
collecting and seeking orders daily. Be
sides, the local buyer will submit to the
bride of gold piece spent over his counter
by stranger, but is likely to resent il
from local dealer as if it were bride. II
l am driven to support by sales to the
country only, there is no special reason
why | should contribute to the support Of
city institutions ] owe the town nothing
not even taxes, that will not permit me to
make part of my living in it." There
is wisdom and suggestion of danger in
the quoted remarks that should call halt
in this matter of permitting the outside
houses to carry off trade that belongs at
home. If fifty or sixty thousand dollars a
month are sent out in that way that would
secure Just as good results to the buyer by
expenditure at home, the money circula-
ton of the community is not only reduced
by that much, but business capacity is
crippled and business volume limited and
the result is a narrowness of venture and
failure to contribute 10 the material in
terests of the very men who send away for
their supplies.
We encountered a merchant only the
other day, who has been in business in this
city for thirty years, who threw open his
books TO show that his Sacramento trade,
once large and important, is not sufficient
to pay his ground rent, and that his bust
ness is wholly dependent upon the trade
of Central and Northern California, due
10 the "crazev for buying abroad. He
exhibited also letters from his country cor
respondents asking why, when they visited
this city, they find the brands of foreign
dealers among the goods the people OF
Sacramento are using; why it is, in short,
that the importer can sell TO the country
satisfactorily and against the San Fran
cisco houses, but not TO his own people?
There is no answer to be made to such in
ouiry that is not humiliating The
story is told of one who sent into the