New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1906-10-03
HEADS | WIN; TAILS YOU LOSE
Is the Modern Motto Of Big Gaia
logue Houses.
Threatens the Endurance Of Subur
ban Enjoyment.
An Excellent Letter Written by
VIVA. d. Sweet of Fargo.

The following letter written by ex-
Mayor William D. Sweet Of Fargo n.
D., to the Forum was published by
that paper some time since, and al
though it may be little old, it is we'll
worth printing.
To the Forum: You touched the
heart of the subject the other day when
you recounted the incident of how Sun
hagen, the jeweler, promptly sub
scribed to lift a local church debt as
follows:
Sunhagen, the jeweler -......... S25. 90
Chicago catalogue house 1885. OO.OO
It is mistaken idea with many con-
ssumers that the catalogue house sys-
tenn Of trade is benefit to the COM
munlty at large.
The catalogue house is a modern de-
vice of trade, the motto of which might
aptly be ''heads win; tails you lose.'
And the process of operation, sort
of cat-in-the-bag trade, OF a "swap
unseen so far as the consumer is
concerned.
The catalogue house occupies a cita-
del of security from which radiates a
system of tenticles reaching into the
heart of every community; and a
counter system of we'll creased skids
along which glides to their Golfers the
wealth of the land. There is a def in
genuity in the system, which retains
every advantage for the house, and
gives nothing in return, until the last
penny is yielded up by the farmer.
The accumulation of prepayment, thus
artfully enacted, looks like the incep-
ton of another Tontine insurance
scheme, which, if developed unchecked,
may some day invite another uprising
of the people, and at least furnish
fame for Moses, a Roosevelt or a
Lawson.
The theory Of the catalogues sys-
tenn, if carried to its logical conclu-
sion, means a stop to commercial de-
velopment, Capitalization, and mo-
nopoly, compared with which the beef
trust is roadside peanut stand. 1t
means the extinction of the country
merchant, and the obliteration of in
land distributing centers. With the
country mercha ant and kindred indus
tries, the villages and towns disappear
and the country at large finally re-
solves itself into a system consisting
of one great center of supply on the
one hand, and an unbroken expense
of agriculture on the other. With
the innumerable small commercial
centers must also go the ready facili-
ties that make suburban life endurable
the doctor, the lawyer, and all Of the
professions that cater to the convent
ence and happiness of communities -
all drawn to the one congested vertex
of strenuous life, and leaving the bal
ance of the country to the loneliness Of
toll to enrich the one great octopus Of
city life. This condition attained, and
monopoly is ripe for it's final stroke
that makes all commerce the servitor
of the great trust, for which peoples
and governments must exist. only as
feeders. Thus in theory the catalogue
house commences a long stride toward
universal justification, a condition
which some political economists say
is ideal, but against which all intelli-
gent humanity struggle aghast, know
ing that the price is the extinction OF
the last atom Of individually, reducing
all men to a single unit as cohesive
and distinguishable as a mass OF
dough. This view, even if drawn with
broad strokes, is yet the fnality of the
catalogue house theory. There is nc
class who rebel against monopoly,
centralized power, and classification
more than the farmer; and yet their
response to the sap-sucking tenticles
of the catalogue house does much tC
transfer the wealth of the country to
the great centers unwittingly they
are sending abroad wealth, which, il
the channels of trade at home, woul6
4 replenish and multiply. They art
sapping the life of home commerce
which is the basis Of social and indus
trial development; the first of which
makes life worth living, as the second
provides the abundant means of it
They are destroying that touchston,
Of progress, credit without which TIT
great West would be yet a wilderness
Under the cataloguers' regime, j
would require ten times the money nov
in use to carry the exchanges Of com
merce and by the difficulty of its pro
curement, to that extent retard the de
velopment of the country.
The country merchant and all b
stands for represents a theory directl..
opposite to that of the catalogue nous
he represents The greatest axioms 9
political economy, in bringing tn
s