The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-10
SEVERE ON MERCHANTS
Remedy is In Their Own Hands
To Suppress the Stamp
Evil.
To the Editor of the topeka State Jour

To the Editor of the Topeka State Jour
nal:
I can not understand why, after so
thorough an explanation as you gave
the premium stamp fraud, that mer-
chants will so blindly persist in using
those stamps solely for the up-building
of an ilIegitimate concern at their own
expense. I say fllegitimate because any
commercial institution that does not
enter into fair and honest production
or distribution is ethically and econon-
ically illegitimate-
It is as unnecessary as it is evil and
burdensome, and were it not for the
gross stupidity of the merchants them
selves. II would not stand moment
It's life and development depend en-
tirely upon the ignorance and servility
of Topeka merchants. That it has a
tremendous hold upon the business
community no one will doubt, but 1t
lies with the business men and them
alone, TO stamp out this impending
evil.
That business is done on q very mar
row margin is well known by every well
informed person, and to levy an extra
burden OF three per cent upon the
business of the city is one that many
can not endure. It is also apparent that
those who obtain these stamps get but
practically nothing for them, and yet
they will continue to accept. in fact
tain that the merchant really will re-
duce the price of his goods in case they
do not take them.
The merchants through ignorance. in
cantation or otherwise have permitted
themselves TO be inveigled into the
stamp scheme; have made themselves
a target for all manners of reproach,
until today their standing for perfect
uprightness is not beyond question.
This is but a common experience of
most merchants Nearly every business
in this city today is giving stamps
Some giving three and five for one, and
it would not be alarming at all if some
one would give them with funeral ex-
penses.
1t was but a short time before the
holidays that the retail grocers held a
meeting for a thorough discussion OF
the dangerous inroad the stamp cpl
demic was making upon the city, and
at that meeting it was the consensus
of opinion that it was a foolish burden
they had allowed to fall upon them,
and had it not been for one prominent
grocer, l am satisfied a movement
would have been put on foot that would
have resulted in it's immediate over
throw. This grocer said it would never
do TO drop the green stamps as long
as the blue stamp concern was in oper-
alton Think of this logic. For illus
tration: Put hundred saloons in our
midst to run the joints out of town. If
this man is sincere his intelligence must
go at a discount, if not some of the
merchants are in collision with the
stamp concern themselves, and are
getting their stamps at a reduced price.
Under such circumstances they would
certainly want the business TO continue.
We are one of the very few firms who
have stood out Independently against
the stamp evil. neither lending aid nor
sympathy to the enemy of an honest
business. and if your repeated and en-
thusiastic efforts to aid the merchants
IN stamping out this nuisance is not
crowned with ultimate su' cess they
ought to suffer the penalty of their own
folly for as long as these concerns are
patronized they viii thrive, be they one
or many. Yours truly,
n. ROBBINS.