Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1901-01-09
LEwISrowN, MONT, Jan. ., 1901,
PAIRONllE HOME MERCHANTS.

the. subject Of ~patroniling home indus
tries and resident merchants aud trades
men.
Deputy Runhler Of the Lewistown
p~ostonice says the patrons Of that Office
send out Of the country -. Ooop per month,
that is to say the money orders issued
will average that amount through the
twelve months of the year, This isl
s6O,oOO per year, and it is safe To. say
that four-ffths Of that amount, or Sls,
600. is for goods purchased abroad
which could have been procured right
at home. Doubtless the amount sent
out from the other money order Offices
of the county aggregate nearly as much
as those Of the Lewistown office, and
the larger remittances are made through
the banks. This is impossible TO esti-
mate. but to place the total at sl:5,OOo
per year would he a very conservative
figure.
Just think what Il drain this is upon
the county and how unfair it j. treat
ing the men whose investments are all
here. who have assisted in building up
the country and its towns, whose living
must he earned from the profits Of blsi-
ness in Fergus county and whose whole
futurc-you might SAYS involved
in the success Of thc various
business ventures in which they are
interested.
The farmcrdocs no ask Montgomery,
Ward n co. To buy his grain, or his
hay, or his hogs; he expects the home
merchant and the neighbors 10 afford
him a market and pay n good price FOR
everything he sells. II a merchant
accepts the load of grain he brings IN
and says Il will give you credit for
this" the farmer feels that he is being
robbed, hat ON the other hand the
farmer will take the cash received from
that sale and Immediately send onc-half
or more Of il to Chicago or some other
city and buy the goods which he could
procure right at home by paying f,
slight advance in price.
Many is the man and woman who
will scan a catalogue and, finding what
they want quoted Mt a lesser price than
it is marked in the home store, send FOR
that article, wait a long time for rs
receipt and after paying mail or cSprcss
charges find that he or She has secured
an inferior article and paid as much for
il as they could have secured the better
article for Mt their home store.
Day after day, when the coaches are
unloaded. large packages are noted
which have been ordered from stores in
st. Paul, Chicago, st. Louis and other
cities and are to be used by people
%abundantly able to pay their home
merchant the price he asks for similar
articles. There was a time when
charges were exorbitant and people
could not be blamed for not buying
some thing at home upon which a profit
Of two or three hundred per cent had
been marked. But competition has
brought prices to a lower level. The
books of the leading merchants in the
county show that while sales have
largely increased the proportion Of
profit has greatly diminished until to-
day some merchants are selling goods
at the margins marked in the cities and
towns of the Mississippi valley states.
II is doubtless a fact that the families
of some of our mcrchants-and perhaps
the merchants thcmselves-are equally
guilty of this offense and thereby dcbar
themselves from critici2ing others, but
we are o now speaking Of individuals
or of individual eases, but Of the gen
eral practice of expecting other people
TO buy the products of your own lands,
labor and machinery and at the same
time depriving those same peopleof the
profits of selling you your furnishings,
your luxuries and anything else which
you may need.
During the year 1901 let us all try
and treat our home merchants more
fairly. II an exorbitant price is charged
call the proprietor's or managers atten
ton to it in a gentlemanly way, and