Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-18
A NEIGHB0RLY FAIR.
Proposed as a Valuable Means Of
Accommodation to Farmers.
A WAY TO AVOID THE MIDDLEMEN.
Instances Cited Where 1t Is Cheaper to Buy
Away From Home.
A FEW BITS OF QUEER DISCRIMINATION

some interesting views on the subject of
neighborhood interchange that are worthy
of careful consideration in these times when
so many producers and consumers alike are
trying to devise ways and means whereby
the number Of middlemen may be decreased.
So much is written and talked on the
subject that it is strange there is So little
capitalization of thought into action and
method, though the ccmplexity of selfish
interest is prob ably the reason that there is
none, for WAYS and methods to put money
into each persons purse are very devious.
For instance, on railway running out of
| Pittsburg you can ride six miles for the
same money you pay for four, provided you
are commuter. The explanation is that at
the six-mile station there is an opposition
railway within few rods, while the four
mile station is two miles away from it. 10
go to the iour-mile station. also, costs you 10
cents on a commutation ticket, while you
| can ride on the same railway three and one
half miles for cents, and for the same
reason as given above.
O. 1t is also notorious fact that you can buy
some articles manufactured in this city 400
or 500 miles distant from Pittsburg cheaper
| than you can buy them here, and simply on
account of competition in the outside mar
| ket
A Plan for Neighborhood Exchange.
Mr.. Grimes proposition is that, by means
of neighborhood exchange, such as is carried
on in the United Kingdom, the bulk of buy
ers could save freight and the middleman's
commission, and sellers could secure better
prices at the same time that consumers
got more for their money. The
| arrangement be refers to is the
neighborhood fair, in which people in the
| olden time in the Old World secured what
each wanted from the other, without being
forced to buy 1t in a distant distributing
center. This was once almost the only way
people supplied themselves with the bulk of
what they needed, and still prevails, to
considerable extent, in Ireland and Scot
land, and to a degree in England.
Of course, railway and other trapsporta-
tion companies would not look with
favor on the revival of the system,
nor would the middlemen, and
the facts that it is difficult to
have boys taught trades in this country, and
that the learned professions are crowded so
| as to be unremunerative to the majority of
schooled men, and that American boys, as
rule are averse to following agriculture or
clerks, etc., more numerous from year to
year, but Mr.. Grimes insists that the coun-
| try should not be run for the benefit of those
who wish to live by their wits, and that if
people produced more they could buy more
and hav. more comforts generally, and
would not be injured by the extra labor
necessary to procure them; that S7-a-week
clerk would be happier if he labored at
heavier work, made S14 week and spent it
1 r. III
enervating employment that procures him
an existence only hal: so good.
An Elaborate but Practica: Theory.
Mr.. Grimes theory is somewhas elaborate,
bu5 undoubtedly practical, and if any enc
will follow the train of thought it generates
| and note the manner in which much bus-
ness is done in Pittsburg and within a
| radius of 40 miles thereof, he will find
state of affairs scarce ever noticed
bv the bulk of the hundreds of thousands
under whose ewes it is passing. For in
stance: A man who lives down the Pitts
| burg and Lake Erie Railway early a score
of miles was one day passing along Liberty
street. and in front OF a commission house
saw some very fine Concord grapes for sale
at S4 hundred weight. He also noticed,
BY the tags on the packages, that they had
been sent there for sale by one
of his neighbors who lived within
half mile of his place He
went to see that evening, and told him il he
would leave him 200 pounds of grapes at
the station, which was within few rods of
the would-be buyers house, he would give
| him the same same price they could be had
on Liberty street. The grower refused, and
when pressed for reason said that grapes
ought to be worth cents a pound, and he
| for one would not break the market.
Persuasion and entreaty failing to shake
| the resolution of the grower his neighbor
the next day called at the commission mouse
and bought what he wanted-not at S4, but
at So 80 per hundredweight--bou his
neighbor's grapes and had them reshipped
to a point within half a mile of where they
were grown. They were delivered by the
! commission merchant at the station, and
| the freight was 25 cents on the 200 pounds
purchased, so that the buyer got the grapes
| for which he had offered 81 for S3 62]%, and
the grower was out not only so cents a hun
dred, but 10 cents freight and 17% cents
commission-in all 771Ilcents.
Refuses to Patronize Home Industry.
This transaction set the consumer to OBJ
serving and thinking, and he found that his
neighbors, who were mainly farm garden
| ers, scarce ever offered anything for sale
about home until they had failed to find
| some kind of a market for it in the city, and
since then he refuses altogether to support
"home industry" buying all his supplies in
| the city.
The same state of affairs prevails pretty
generally, and man made a lot of money
last summer by going out into Westmore-
land county and running a garden farm
near the big factories lately established In
that county. He sold his stuff at home at
much larger prices than he could get in the
city, and could not supply the demand. He
had less than 20 acres of ground,
but while his neighbors, with five to
ten times as much land, could scarce raise
money to pay taxes, he made small fortune
out of one seasons crops. 1t is true he knew
his business better than the venerable moss
backs around him did theirs, but he saws
| they show disposition to attempt to get a
| slice of his pudding next year.
Back of Beaver Falls is rich dairy coun-
| try, but the greater part of the butter made
| in it is shipped to this city and then sold to
people who i've in Beaver Falls.
Now, Mr.. Grimes view is that neighbors
ought to nave exchange days, when they
could swap commodities, and that there is
scarce farmer in the country that does not
need something that his next-door neighbor
produces. He doesn't expect his plan to
meet the appreciation of merchants and
transportation companies.
Famous Cough Remedy.
The following is partial list of the
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