River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-07-19
PATRONlZE HOME INDUSTRY.
A Good Citizen Spends his Money
Among the Local Tradesmen.

The member of a community who
habitually ignores his home merchant,
mechanic or tradesman and makes
his purchases and spends his money in
other towns does not deserve the
name of good citizen and should not
be countenanced by those who have
the best interests OF their own locality
at heart. That it pays TO trade near
home is well established fact, and
no town or city ever prospered whose
citizens, enticed by the alluring bats
held out by the merchant in the big
cities, spend their money with them.
The local merchant and mechanic
are interested in the progress and de-
yelopement of the town and country
in which they live, and every dollar
that they amass is re-invested, and re-
mains in the neighDorhood. As they
prosper their taxes increase, and Just
so much those of others are lightened.
They assist in keeping up your
schools. churches and other public
institutions and charities. But the
person who spends his money in some
distant city puts il beyond assisting
i'm any local enterprise. The man in
the city upon whom you bestow your
custom has no further interest in you
or your surroundings than the cash
he received from you. 1t is no con-
Germ of his whether you are as devoid
of social, church or educational
privileges as the inhabitants of Bor-
rioboola-Gha,o or whetheryour streets or
highways are well made or an aborigin-
al Indian trail. The surplus money
which he has to bestow will go to en-
rich the excequer of institutions from
which you will never receive any
benefit, and to add TO the wealth of
communities in which you have no
financial interest.
And further, there is no good reason
for this impolitic and unbusinessli Ike
diversion of trade. The business men
in the smaller cities and towns can
and do sell goods, year in and year
out, as cheaply as do those of the
larger places. The lower expenses,
cheaper rents and immunity from
the exhorbitant municipal taxes
which preyail in the large cities en-
ables them to do so and still make a
living profit. But the shrewd city
merchants. by advertising certain
goods at rediculously low prices, man.
age to attract gullible patrons to their
nlaces of business, with the knowledge
that they will succeed in selling them
other goods at advanced prices to re-
| imburse themselves for the loss on the
leaders and leave themselves a
handsome profit.
The home merchant is established
/ here and expects to pursue his
business among us indefinitely. The
| continuance of his trade is dependent
| upon this fair and uniform treatment
| of his customers and the quality of
| his goods. His field is limited, and
| should he resort to shady methods or
hoist dishonest wares upon his patrons
his reputation would be gone and his
| trade consequently lost. But the
metropolitan merchant has wide
| and almost unlimited field. His
| patrons are from all parts of the
| country. and if he can be so fortunate
as to get one good deal" from each
| one. he does not expect them to re-
turn. The ideal community is that
| i'm which there is a reciprocity of good
| feeling among merchants In all
| branches of trade, mechanics, profess
| sional men. working-men and farmers,
each ayailing himself as far as possible
of the Others services, buying his
goods or employing his labor, as the
case NAV be. The community where
| this NJ lctice obtains is always found
to be an exceptionally prosperous one,
populated by cheerful honest neighbor-
| iy and enterprising people, and a
| good place for the home seeker u
| locate in.-Ironwood News Record,