The Citizen. [volume] (American Fork, Utah) 1903-1912, 1906-12-22
BILL SIMPSON" ON CATALOGUE

HOUSES.
To the Editor:-The article on "Cit-
les Against Home" read in your pa
per a short time ago set me tp thinking
II was only lately, | saw obe of the
leading farmers in this Community
carrying a large, bunglesome c. dialogue
from Chicago catalogue hous4 home
with him. 1t happened that I was
drawn into discussion Of this question
with him and was actually Surprised
to hear him express himself as he did.
In the first place, I feel proud of the
ia ct that have never patronAed one
of these concerns In preference TO deal
ing with our home merchants. Probably
one reason why have not felt inclined
to send my trade away from home is
because, it has only been few years
since found my financial condition
such that 1t became necessary FOR me
to arrange with someone tocay'ry my
account over crop season. In fact,
1t has not been more than year since
found it necessary to run an account for
a short time and I am not one 30 forget
full Of accommodations as to order from
a catalogue house and send them the
money with the order when our home
merchants have been good enough to ex-
tend credit to me when / needed it.
But cannot say this influence has
been the only one to cause me to trade
entirely at home. know IL I, or any
ofmy neighbors, wantto buy something,
II they would only 60 to one of our
home merchants and tell what they
wanted, he will furnish 1t to us just as
cheap as we can get II from catalogue
house. Now don't mean he will let us
have first-class goods at price we
would buy them for second-cla goods,
but mean that for the same class of
goods they will sell us just as cheap as
those other fellows. In figuring the
cost of goods from catalogue houses.
we don't want to forget to figure in
the cost of sending the money and pay
ing the freight or express. II it is any
thing liable to need repairs, our home
merchants can get them for US, but il
is almost impossible to get them from
a catalogue house. OF course the mer-
chants In our own town cannot afford
to sell us goods just as cheap as these
catalogue houses and wait six months
or year for their pay when these 9TH
or concerns require US t. send tie CT sh
with the order, or as soon as the goods
are received. They could not afford to
do that: I remember when one of our
neighbors family met with sickness and
the father was taken away, leaving the
family in destitute circumstances. We
started out to take up collectia(
them. Every merchant in q
contributed something. No ond
10: ssking q catalogue house tok
on this fund. OF courre imagine how
much good il would have done to have
asked them to.
am not philanthropist and | am
frank to say II anything could be paved
in the long run by buying from the cat
alogue houses, might then think about
II. but do not believe you save one
cent. know it is a mighty hard mat
ter for home merchant to come out
even on sugar. When he sells me or
any Of my neighbors dollars worth,
II must weigh up to dollars worth,
but when any of US buy hundred or
so pounds from a catalogue house it
can be Just little short and we think,
Of course, 1t has sifted through the bag
or something is the cause of it and we
let it go at that.
know of one of my neighbors buy
ing a cook stove from catalogue house
When the stove came II looked just ex-
actly like the picture in the catalogue,
in fact. II was like It only it weighed
about one-half or two-thirds as much
as the same size stove would IL il had
been bought from one of our hardware
men. My neighbor told me II was the
last thing he would ever buy away from
home, because he knew he was stuck
on the stove, for it was just like the
one in the picture and the fact of II
being light weight did not give him
any excuse for refusing to take it.
Since then | was telling one Of our
hardware dealers about II and he said
he could have got the man the same
weight stove and delivered it to him at
about $3.50 less than what it cost my
neightor, counting the freight.
| expect the editor can see am not
much of an advocate Of buying from
mailordcr concerns and | don't believe
anyone else will be If they thoroughly
investigate before buying. 1t won't
cost any Of us anything to see onr home
merchant before sending your orders
away, and then IL we don't like the