New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1906-07-25
Running Farm Values.

Running Farm Values.
Here is something that should set
the people Of the smaller cities and the
whole country, for that matter, think
ing: Montgomery, Ward s. Co., are
building the greatest building in the
world nothing like it has ever before
been constructed for commercial pur-
poses. It will have floor space OF
more than fifty acres LIS, 900 square
feet, 5000 square rods-a larger tract
of land than is comprised in the farms
OF some of the eastern farmers.
The largest store in this city has
less than 5000 square feet in all of It's
departments and it would take 272
stores of this kind to make one such
as this great catalogue house is hav-
ing built, and it is but one Of the many
in the United States.
This great business is made possible
through the infdelity Of the people OF
the country and the smaller cities who
refuse to spend their money at home.
Hundreds and hundreds Of dollars are
sent from this city alone through the
postoffice, the banks, and the express
Office for goods that might just as we'll
have been bought at home.
It is true that the prices in some in
stances are better but not greatly so.
A saving Of SIS on an order for $50
worth Of goods may be made in some
cases as the prices stand today, at the
same time if you go to the local 8mer-
chant with the same proposition that
the catalogue houses offer a How him
to make up the package without your
seeing the material and trust him to
give you the value of the money as he
feels justified in doing, you could do
business with him on the same basis.
There are some farmers who have
an idea that the towns and villages of
the community in which they live are
of little worth to them and that they
have no part in helping to keep them
alive, and on the other hand there are
many places where the villages forget
that they are dependent upon the far
mer for all their prosperity and refuse
to meet them on equal terms.
Farm values are fixed by the dis
lance the farms are from good mar
ket and desirable commercial al centre.
If the town, by reason Of any circum-
stance, be dead one, the farmer will
have to look elsewhere for a market
Time and money must be spent in
transporting his products to a place
where they caa be sold, and instead of
diversified product he will be able to
market that which he is able to ship
without great risk.
The farmer is not the only one who
is striking at the very welfare of the
country towns; there are just as many
people living in the towns who are
gradually cutting their own throats,
and there are merchants, who are pro-
testing against this evil, who when
they do not keep the article they want
for private use, instead of going to
some merchant in the same town who
deals in that class of goods, sends out
and has the shipment made from some
other place.
The time is coming when we have
got to learn the golden rule over
again. We cry out against the trusts
and yet we are the very people who
are making the trusts possible and are
ignorantly but surely building up one
of the greatest evils that has ever de-
spoiled this country of its value.
Chicago may be proud of the immense
building that is being erected in her
midst, but we of Brown county are not,
we need the thousands of dollars that
are spent by our home people in this
Chicago concern right here in the
county.