The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1906-06-19
FOR THE CONSUMER.
FACTS OF VITAL INTEREST RE
GARDING HOME PATRONAGE.
Menace to Local Prosperity in Contri'
buttons to Centralized Wealth
of Metropolitan Con-
Germs.

Dear Mr. Consumer: What shall 1t
profit you if in saving $50, $50, 500,
$500 on the one hand you injure your
self $50, $l90, $500 or $1,000 on the
other?
We are writing to you at this time,
says the Retailers journal, OF Chi
cage, to say that we believe every dol
lar you save by buying goods away
from home costs you two.
If you are farmer, did you ever
stop to inquire what makes your land
valuable? 1t is not the land itself,
nor YOU that's certain.
Suppose your land, with all its great
natural fertility, and your splendid
methods of cultivation, We're located
in the middle of Texas, with no other
cultivated ground and no railroads
within hundreds of miles of it.
1t wouldn't be worth much, would
it?
The sole reason why your land is
of more than nominal value is because
a community has grown up around it.
If you acquired your land years ago
when the neighborhood in which you
live was sparsely settled, you have had
the pleasure of watching it grow in
value as the community has grown
and prospered.
First came the neighboring farms,
then the towns, and finally the rail-
roads, which the towns brought near
to your land, all contributing to yours
and the general prosperity.
1t must be clear to you, in the light
of history, that your interests can con-
tinue TO groW and prosper only if the
entire community in which you live
shall continue to grow and prosper.
If your community goes backward,
you go backward; if its growth and
prosperity are retarded, the growth
and prosperity of your individual in
terests are retarded.
How, then, can you expect to ad-
vance your interests by taking pound
weight from the prosperity of your
community for the sake of tempo
rary, personal gain in the measure OF
pennies?
The greatest menace to this coun-
try is admitted to be the centraliza-
ton of wealth, which carries with it,
under our present economic system,
the tendency to build to tremendous
proportions a few chosen communi-
IF
favored ones.
Yet, let us tell you what you of the
smaller communities have done in a
single year to hasten forward this
tendency, instead of resisting it as
might have been expected of you:
In the year 1905, out of the money
earned in your communities, and be-
longing to the commerce and indus
try of your communities, you contrib
uted to two mail order houses alone
located in the city of Chicago, the stu
pendous sum of $80,000,000!
Think of this for moment, and
then consider that it is only the be-
ginning; that dozens of other con.
Germs of the same kind CLEANED from
the farms and the small communities
of the land a golden harvest of a size
which only can be guessed at.
Startling when you try to realize il
all at once, isn't it?
The two institutions which abb
sorbed $S0,O00,0O0 of your money il
one year. although the largest Of their
kind in the world, still are reaching
their hands for more. One already has
expended not less than Sl,000,000 for
an immense new building, and the 9TH
er has bought the site for an addition
al structure which will cost as much.
If the business of these two giants
shows the same percentage of increase
during the present year as in 1905
| their draft upon the country for the
year 1906 will be over S100,00O,0 900!
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