The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-02-26
THE DEPARTMENT STORE.

Senator Lexow's committee in New
York is still busily engaged in probing
the trusts and combinations of capital
and is eliciting many details Of their
organization and workings hitherto
unknown to the public. Beyond this it
is improbable that the investigation
will accomplish anything.
There has been steady fight against
these combinations of capital and bust
ness. by the people through public
speakers, the press, the legislatures and
congress ever since they began to at
tract public notice. but in the face of
all opposition. have grown up the rail-
road pool, the packing house combine,
the sugar trust, the rubber trust, the
tobacco trust, the lead trust, the whole
sale grocers' combine, the coal trust
and others too numerous to mention.
One of the newest combinations of
business and capital-and one which is
already, though comparatively in its
infancy, exciting more violent oppOsi-
ton perhaps than any of the others is
the big department store. Already the
legislatures of some states are being
asked to do something in the line of
suppressing these enterprises. In this
case, however, the opposition does not
come from the masses of the people.
The people rather like the department
store. 1t comes from the smaller deal
ers in merchandise, those who have not
sufficient capital to handle more than
one line of goods.
It is difficult to see how anything can
be done with these big stores. That
they result in great economy in the
handling of goods cannot be question
ed. Ten clerks in one big store will do
the work Of perhaps 25 in five small
and al dira0tinT7 of
one manager instead of five managers
By having so large and varied
stock to offer and commanding so
large a capital they are enabled to
make much larger expenditures for adj
vertising than the smaller establish
ment can afford and by the extent and
variety of their advertisements fire.
quently drive small dealers discouraged
from the field Few merchants in New
York city, aside from the big stores
feel that they can afford to advertise
in the World and Journal. Those pa
pers are crowded with the advertise
ments of the great concerns.
That these large establishments can
and will if they deem it necessary, I'm
dersell smaller concerns goes without
saying.
What then is to become of the small
dealer? If the department store has
come to stay, and it will doubtless
prove as tenacious as any trust, he is
| confronted by a condition and not a
| theory as Mr.. Cleveland would say.
! There is an old adage which saws
something about fighting his satanic
majesty with his favorite element and
another about the canine covering be-
| ing a remedy for the wound inflicted
! by his incisors. Why should not the
small dealers apply this principle to
! their business? What is to prevent a
/ dry goods dealer, a shoe merchant, a
] groceryman and dealers in as many
! other lines as may be deemed advisa-
| BILE, from forming combine and merg-
ing all their stores into one big one?
| Could they not then hold their own
with the big store?
They could then enter the advertis-
ing field, also. With their combined
capital they would be in a position to
also draw customers by utilizing the
daily press.
A witness before the Lexow commit
tee one day this week declared that
competition is ruin, but such a combi-
nation as is here suggested would at
! least render the question of who is to
/ be ruined a problematica1 one. AS
matters now exist it must be apparent
who will ultimately be the victim. The
small store keeper must travel the
same road pursued by the small oil re-
finer, the small coal miner and the
small manufa cturer.
The tendency of the age is toward
economy in time, labor and expense
and there is little probability that any
effectual means will be found for ar
| resting it Competition is becoming so
| fierce and relentless that it seems inev-
liable that it must ultimately destroy
not only itself but that upon which it
]