Warren sheaf., 1903-05-07
! heplySto 3'l1 20 Viking Correspondent.

Editor WARREN SHEAF:
Your Your Vi}hEiing correspondent must
bean q ardent supporter of mail or
der i houses. ol'uiGses How aMarshall county
farmer arr ere can consistently blackguard
! his u nome ll'nle merchant is hard to under
stand. The Viking man took excep-
tion to an article that originally ap-
peared IN the Hallock Weekly News,
y which 1ltla was written in support of
home trade, and was reproduced in
yourSpaper.
+ The article pointed out the advan-
tages Of trading with your home
merchants, thereby furthering the
interests Of the farmer and the local
towns. 49,
ME-. Correspondent did not say
anything about the good that the
merchant does-how he helps to pay
the county expenses, and helps the
farmer rlts when his supply house money
is gone; and I" will bet dollars to
peanuts that whoever your CORE
spolrsadtent olsadsten may be, he is probably en-
joying credit at the present time
fron3sthe very men he is advertising
in a=S'derogatory =' way.
+ know of stores in Warren that
advertise to meet any competition,
including supply houses, but am of
the opinion that men of the stamp of
your correspondent would want
goods at supply house prices, with
the option Of paying when it should
please them. Give your home mer-
chant your money two weeks in ad-
vance, accompanied with the order.
for that is the way you must do when
you.send to the city. Give him the
same chance, or how can you expect
the same results?
The advertising of the supply
houses is Of a high order. They en-
ploT experts in their line, and cheap
shoady goods are made to appear
frst-class-on paper-but we have
known that when the victim has re-
ceiVed these grand bargains that
they were found very much inferior
to- eytods he could have bought at
lhElo IKE money cr less.
Your correspondent illustrates his
argument in a very able manner,
and we regret very much that such
ability should be thrown to such an
ignoble cause; but at the same time
while he may be satisfied with his
own comparison of values he is not
a competent judge.
He says: last year the mail or
der houses in Minneapolis sold st.
Louis white lead at 4,75 per hun
dred pounds, while the same lead
sold at So in Warren
We are inclined to believe that
your correspondent is mixed on
brands. AS near as we know a
large percentage of all the white
lead sold in this country is made in
St. Louis. However, there are sew
eral manufacturers of this line in
St. Louis, and some of them are ir-
responsible as to their product.
We know of ONE firm, in particu-
lar, that sells white lead branded
"St. Louis white lead, ground in
PURE linseed oil - They do not say
it is pure white lead. Oh, no, that
would interfere with our state laws.
It is simply barytes ground in lin
seed oil. No lead about it. This is
the article sold by the supply houses
at $4.75.
We know of two houses in War
ren that carry some of this so-called
white lead, so as to meet the supply
house competition. They sell it for
$5 per hundred pounds, and make
more money on it than they do on
the pure white lead at SO.
Red Seal white lead is worth &c
per pound on the market today.
Add your freight to that and see
how much upon lead the Warren
merchants beat you.
The comparison is fair and holds
good on hundreds of other articles,
if the purchaser takes the pains to
compare not only prices but quail
ties.
We venture the assertion that if
any of our local stores should show
a stock like the T: M. Roberts, for
instance, before that king Of supply
houses failed and lost his former
customers thousands of dollars, that
the trade of such a store would leave