The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-05-24
rrwspApERs THAT KEEP BAD. COMPANY.

1t is the determination OF III pIcoon0 -"
ment of The Progressive Farmer, Mr.. Subscriber,
that only reliable advertisements shall be admit
ted to our columns.
Tt may be wrong, but is is our belief that we
have no more right to introduce a man OF bad
morals or dishonest intentions to your family
through the medium of our paper than we would
have to take such a fellow along for a personal
visit to your house.
We NAV he wrong. but we think that when you
ask us and our-correspondents into your home
week after week as associates for yourself and
your wife and children, that it would be a gross
abuse of your confidence for us to carry with us
swindlers, dishonest dealers, get-rich-quick
schemers, liquor sellers, vulgar quacks, etc., etc.
and that any editor who insists on having such
associates ought to be unceremoniously kicked
out.
These ideas, we say, may be old-fasbioned and
unbusinesslike, but we are sticking to them never
theless. Of course we lose money by this policy.
We have on our desk at this moment a letter
from a d~istilling company in Georgia who would
pay us several hundred dollars for the privilege
of accompanying us into your home week after
week, and soliciting trade from the young men
and old who read our paper.
And there is another ADVERTISER firm which.
pays thousands of dollars annually to farm papers
from New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta and
Louisville which circulate largely in North Caro-
line-whose patronage we have never solicited,
though we could almost certainly have had it for
the asking. But much as we need the money, we
have not taken the business because the product
is not what it is represented to be. On the con-
trary, we have exposed it in our columns. But
when one of the farm weeklies so largely circu-
lated in North Carolina received from one of it's
chief correspondents an article exposing the
preparation as a swindle on stockmen, the reply
came back that the management of the paper
could not afford to print the article-because for
sooth, to tell the truth would mean the loss of 3d.
900 a year in advertising patronage.
Now, The Progressive Farmer, Mr.. Subscriber,
is not run solely as a money-making institution,
and we shall not take advertising that we cannot
tell the truth about. We know it doesn't pay to
reject these orders from respectable sharpers-and
we don't care. But we are wondering this morn
over the associates whom we take with us into
your home. We are wondering if YOU give more
consideration to the business men whom we intro
duce to you than you do to the advertisers in pa
pers that are ready to admit anybody and any
scheme! Of course, you ought to give our ad-
v%ertisers this increased consideration, and that is
the only reward we wish for the loss we sustain
in rejecting undesirable business.
Whenever you wish to buy anything, look in the
advertising columns of The Progressive Farmer.
1t you don't find it advertised, write direct to us.
If you do find it advertised, rest assured that
the advertiser will treat you fairly, and if YOU
wish further information, ask him for particulars
and prices. Keep it in mind that whatever sharp
ers and scoundrels other papers may try to carry
into your home, The Progressive Farmer feels
responsible for the good character Of