The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-04-12

try merchants and kindred industries
the villages and towns dwindle or dis
appear, and the country at large
finally resolves itself into a system
consisting of one great center of sup
ply on one hand, and an unbroken ex-
panse of agriculture on the other.
With the innumerable small CONNER
cial centers must also 60 the ready
facilities that make suburban life en-
durable the doctor, the lawyer, and
all of the professions that cater to the
convenience of communities = all
drawn to the one congested vortex 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
people and government must exist
only as feeders. Thus in theory the
catalogue house commences long
stride toward universal justification,
a condition which some political econ
omists say is ideal, but against which
all Intelligent humanity struggle
aghast, knowing that the price is the
extinction of the last atom of individ-
uality, reducing all men to single
unit as cohesive and indistinguishable
as a mass of dough. This view, even
if drawn with broad strokes, is yet the
fnality of the catalogue house theory.
There is no class who rebels against
monopoly, centralized power, and
justification more than the farmers;
and yet their response to the sap
sucking tentacles 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 destroying that
touch-stone of progress, credit with
out which the great west would be yet
wilderness. Under the catalogues
regime it would require ten times the
money now in use to carry on the ex-
changes of commerce, and, by the
difficulty of it's 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 represents the greatest
axioms of political economy in bring
ing the consumer and producer in
closest touch. He represents the idea
of the completeness of communal or
ganization, and thus the ideal society
with the most varied happiness of life.
The country merchant by the benef-
cence of widespread credit furnishes
millions of capital that has turned
the desert to a garden and many a
poor man from poverty to opulence.
He gives the choice of selection on
the spot, the advantage in economy
and effective result few consider. He
stands as the visible guarantee of his
goods which is an everlasting incen-
tive to the highest standards of quail
ity. And finally when the quality of
the goods, the variety presented to
view, the choice of selection, the
quickness of delivery and the inesti-
mable value of credit when needed, the
saving of freight, are all considered.
he lays the goods in the farmers
hands at less cost than any catalogue
house can ever do. North Dakota,
alone, probably purchases in supplies
each year 500, 10000 600 and pays there
fore later on after the crops are har-
vested, sold and the money secured.
Wipe out the country store and this
$50, 900, 900 would go out of the state
before a dollar came from the crops
and would require a mortgage on
nearly every farm in the state to raise
the money.
The popularity of the catalogue
house is based on prestige not war;
ranted by facts. A voluminous
catalogue profusely illustrated, glow
ingly worded and presenting bats for
cash in advance, conveys the i'm
preston of bedrock prices, but max
ing no account of freight, expressage,
exchange, cash discount, loss of time,
misfts, and poor quality. It's a
myth: but the danger comes in the
credulity of the people who continue to
bunco themselves, impoverish their
community to fatten the deluder;
to send their stocking -hoarded saw
ings east and then lean on their
country merchants for necessities
until another crop puts them on their
feet again say the advantage of
the catalogue house purchase is
myth, which allures the farmer and
GHOSTS tho mprchantc an1 ub;oh mill