The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1906-09-28
CATAL OGUE HOUSES PRE- VENT IN D
s' DEVEL OPMENT OF TOWNS

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 reprinting:
To the Forum: You touched the
heart Of the subject the other day
when you recounted the incident Of
how Sunhagen, the jeweler, promptly
subscribed to lift a local church debt
as follows:
Sunhagen, the jeweler. .$25.00
Chicago catalogue house. ..... 00.00
It is a mistaken idea with many con-
sumers that the catalogue house sys-
TEN Of trade is q benefit to the com.
munity at large.
The catalogue house is modern de.
vice Of trade, the motto of which
might aptly be "heads. win; tails,
you lose" And the process of opera.
ton, a sort of cat-in-the-bag trade. or
swap unseen" so far as the consum-
er Is concerned.
The catalogue house occupies cit.
adel Of security from which radiates a
system of tenticles reaching into the
heart of every community; and a
counter system of well creased skids
along which glides to their Golfers the
wealth Of the land. There is deft 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
a. emulation Of prepayment, thus art
fully exacted, looks like the inception
OF another Tontine insurance scheme,
which, IL developed unchecked. may
some day invite another uprising of
the people, and at least furnish fame
tor a Moses, a Roosevelt or a Lawson.
The theory Of the catalogues sys-
tenn. If carried to its logical conclu-
sion, means q stop to commercial de.
velopment. Capitalization. and mo-
nopoly, compared with which the beef
trust is q roadside peanut stand. 1t
means the extinction Of the country
merchant, and the obliterarion Of in
land distributing centers. With the
country merchant and kindred indus
tries. the villages and towns disap.
pear and the country at large finally
resolves itself into q system consist
ing Of one great center of supply on
the enc hand, and an unbroken ex-
panse Of agriculture on the other.
With the innumerable small CONNER.
cial centers must also 90 the ready IA
cilities that make suburban life en-.
durable-the doctor, the lawyer. AMI
all Of the professions that cater to the
convenience and happiness of COM
munities-all drawn to the one con-
gested vortex Of strenuous life. and
leaving the balance of the country to
the loneliness Of toll to enrich the one
great octopus of city life. This con.
dition attained, and monopoly is ripe
for its final stroke that makes all com.
merce the servitor of the great trust,
for which peoples and governments
must exist only as feeders. Thus in
theory the catalogue house commences
long stride toward universal trustifi-
cation, condition which some politi-
cal economists say is ideal, but
against which all intelligent humanity
struggle aghast, knowing that the
Drice is the extinction of the last atom
Of individuality, reducing all men to a
single unit as cohesive and indis-
tinguishable as mass Of dough. This
view, even If drawn with broad
strokes, is yet the finality of the cat
alogue house theory. There is no class
who rebel against monopoly, central
tied power, and classification more
than the farmer; and yet their re-
spouse to the sap-sucking tenticles OF
the catalogue house does much to
transfer the wealth Of the country to
the great centers-unwittingly they
are sending abroad wealth, which, in
the channels of trade at home, would
replenish and multiply. They are
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 touchstone
of progress, credit without which the
great West would be yet wilderness
Under the cataloguers' regime it
would require ten times the money
now in use to carry the exchanges Of
commerce and by the difficulty of its
procurement, to that extent retard
the development Of the country.
The country merchant and all he
stands for represents a theory directly
opposite to that Of the catalogue house
he represents the greatest axioms
Of political economy, in bringing the
consumer and producer In closeA
touch. He represents the idea Of the
completeness Of commercial organize.
ton and thus, the ideal society with
the most varied happiness Of life.
The country merchant by the benefl-
cence Of widespread credit furnishes
millions Of capital that have turned
. - :.