The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1906-02-27
MAIL ORDER HOUSES.
Take Advantage Of Suspicious Side Of
Human Nature.

human Nature,
A correspondent in 4 Cohoctou, N. II,
paper, under the heading, what ca.
hocton Nest Needs has the following
to say Of mail order houses.
What Cohocton really needs lies deep
er, in my opinion than anything that hes
yet been touched upon.
First--I firmly believe that the bestin.
terests Of both the farmer and the mer-
chant are identical, each with the other,
You cannot injure either one without
injuring the other 70 make my mean
ing plain we will suppose that you have
q load Of potatoes that you wish to draw
10 market; ii you take good team, one
horse representing the merchant aud the
other representing the farmer, hitch them
to your load Of POTATOES representing
the profits Of bottle farmer and mer-
chant, and il they are good and true
horses and pull together, you will vesy
soon get your load Of potatoes Or profit
to market Ii on the other hand you
attach one horse to the front and the
other to the rear Of your load, you may
work as hard as you will; but YOU will
never market your load.
Every dollar that is diverted from
It's legitimate chanel Of trade in Cohoc,
ton, whether by merchant or farmer, In.
lures the merchant first; but it lust
as surely injures the farmer. That dol
lar with its profits and earning capacity
is gone from the town Of Cohocton for.
ever, and never comes back. When
enough Of these dollars are diverted that
business ceases TO be profitable. Mer-
chants, the most Of whom rent Their
stores and houses, must necessarily seek
other localities OF occupations. This
means empty stores and dwellings and
deprecated real estate When real es-
tate in village ceases 20 have 4 market
value just as surely will every farm and
every piece of property surrounding that
village or tributary to IL be deprecated
in sympathy with ii. Oh take 1t the
other way If Cohocton could be any
means grow to be little city az 10000
population, il there farm within miles
but what would Immediately he worth
more money! We think not.
Prosperous merchants means better
stocks, better home markets, better
schools, better churches, better public
benefits Of every sort aud better bust,
ness means not only lower prices for tho
merchants goods, but ii means also bet
ter prices for everything the farmer
has To sell. II means also that every
properly owner, not only IN the village
but outside, is worth more money AM
can get more money for his real es,
tate
This Is not only true Of Cohoeton, bul
Of every little village IN the United
States. Mail order houses in the large
cities have, very shrewdly, for years tax.
en- advantage OF the suspicious side oi
human nature and tried BY every means
IN their power 10 create the impression
that your home dealer II a ro6aey and
yillainan they have prasperad amag
ingly at it. From smRil beginnings theS
have made money by leaps ana bound.
until they rival frengied iinancicrs as 4
menace to the industrial prosperity OF
the country at large and especially Of
the small towns and villages.
II is an alleged fact among people
who have Investigated the matter that
mail order houses cannot do busines:
without an average profit on their sales
Of 80 per cent. The little merchant
can DO business on a smaller profit. Foi
a mail order house to charge a profit oil
80 PER- cent on standard goods would
mean that they must 20 ont Of bust
ness, They know thai their patron,
want goods cheap 80 they give then
cheap goods. But they are very bright
people, these mail order men. 10 max,
you think they are under selling youl
home merchant, they win take wei
known standard article and make lead
er Of it, devoting a whole page to Il
They tell you how your home merchant
Is robbing YOU. They know that yor
won't buy that article because yot
think the entire line II equally as chepp
and You want something little better