Omaha daily bee., 1893-12-10
DISCUSSES COUNTRY CHECKS.
One Nebraska Merchant Looks Mt the Cues
ton from the ankcr' Standpoint.

One Nebraska Merchant looks at the Cues
ton from the mixer Standpoint.
Woop RIVER. Dec. 52ro the Editor of
THE BEE: VIII you kindly allow me a small
space in your paper for a little social chat
with my fellow merchauts} To begin with,
l would like to ask those Omaha wholesale
merchants who expressed themselves so
severely against the rule which the
clearing house OF Omaha has adopted
in regard to checks on country banks
If they are not using those severe
denunciations to pacify their country
customersl We all know, or at least we
ought to know, that all banks are entitled
10 the exchange they charge on country
banks. for their time ana the money which
they have tied up is worth al they charge
on those local checks. | would like to have
some of my fellow country merchants point
me out some reasonable objection they
can have against sending Omaha or New
York drafts instead of checks on their local
banks. / for one do not see any reasonable
objection whatsoever TO sending Omaha
exchange, as our banks do not charge their
customers anything for drafts on Omaha
or New York. The only point | see in the
way of an objection is that "a man cannot
pay or discount his bills before he has got
the money in the bank. OF course l have
done the same thing, like a good many of my
fellow merchants are doing, that is, sending
in checks for certain amounts they expect
to have at the bank by the time the check
returns. Right here is where the shoe
pinch IS. But we all know that sending in
a check for an amount we have not got at
the bank is not doing business on business
principles. OF course n good many Of my
fellow merchants will say: 1--WE can save a
good deal of money by sending those checks,
as we may not have the exact amount AT the
bank sufficient to pay q bill, and therefore
we have TO lose our cash discounts, which
on goods that are billed q per cent off for
cash Is quite an ITEM To those merchants
who are making these objections | would say
that If their credit is any good whatsoever
their bank will grant them q loan long
enough to take advantage of the discounts.
To those wholesale merchants of Omaha
who are SO much afraid that Omaha would
lose a great deal of its trade on account of
tho action of the Omaha clearing house
banks | would say that they can rest assured
OF never losing any good merchants trade
If they put then prices down on a level with
Chicago, Kansas City and other competing
points. The difficulty now in dealing with
Omaha wholesalers is: |. Their prices do
not always correspond with other competi-
tors at other trade %centers. .. You cannot
one time out of ten get an order filled COM
pletely. Right here is where ! for one am
going to register a kick, as | have to pay
extra dravage on every Back order that is
sent To me. 1t is not the retailers fault if q
wholesaler cannot fill an order on n staple
article, consequently the one that makes the
extra expense should pay It. In conclusion |
would say that am with Thomas Fitzpatrick
on the tariff question and the quicker this
new tariff bill becomes law the better it
will be for the state of Nebraska. To my
notion laboring men will DO benefited by it,
as the main thing on the free list is raw
material. | cannot see how any farmer who
is selling his wheat at 81 cents per bushel
can argue high tariff when he does not get
enough for mis- own produce to pay him 81 a
| day for his lbDr. NOury- etc.