Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-01-16
The REIAILIMERCHANI
Association Of the State Merchants Held Ifs First Session
II This City Tuesday MANY Interesting
Papers Read And Commit
IL tee Named .s

50 that you will know that every parcel
of goods you buy carries with it the
proper weight. In years past you have
called for and you have been paying for
paper packages instead of paying for the.
goods themselves. The parcels have;
been put up with light weights, which
was fraud not only on the merchant
but upon the public in general. h
ii We are here for the purpose of dis
scussing these things and to bring to-
gether our strength with your strength
in order that this must be stopped, and
that we may have pure food and that
we shall have full weight in the pack
age that is purchased. a:..
Our association has this in view and
/ want you to understand that as far
as our association work is concerned
that we are doing our very best that
everything in our business transactions
will be done in an honest way.
And there is another subject which
as an association we want brought be-
fore the house that will be Of most i'm
portant interest to the merchants of
North Dakota: We give to. man. a
bill of groceries in order to supply the
family with these goods and the first
thing we know the man tells us he
will not pay one cent of this bill , He
will refuse to pay us because he has
a $1,000 or $4,000 exemption to his
goods. We want this stopped The
doctors have a lien, and the merchants
want Lien. We are going to ask the
legislature and we believe they will
grant to us a lien of this kind so that
we can collect these bills from ou1
customers. I can appeal to you as citi-
ems and am sure there is no one who
will say it is not right
We only want to be paid for that
which is our due, and when we give
our goods out to parties that cannot
pay for them at the time we expect
that in limited time they do pay fol
the goods The doors of many mer,
chants, am sorry to say, have beer
closed, not because they were dishones
in their transactions as business men
but simply because they were defraudee
out of their goods by dishonest parties
We are here tonight to ask the legisla.
ture to grant us a lien, as the doctors
have, 50 that we can collect these bills
i, do not wish to further trespass or
| YOUR time and we will now listen to thu
reading of a paper by our friend ,Rober
Orr, on Courtesy to the Trade"
At his request Mr.. Orr's paper wa
deferred to tomorrow. =
Secretary King then made his annua
report, which we will publish later. Ir
concluding Mr.. King said:
Il wish to say in conclusion in be.
half of the citizens of Bismarck that
they have done everything in their
power to make this convention a sue
cess l understand they have expended
about $500 to entertain you as members
of the association. / desire to say that
they furnished us today with very
good spread and there was hardly a
corporars guard there. Some of the
gentlemen made the remark that they
were sponging. am here to tell you
that you are not sponging and that the
citizens OF, Bismarck have provided these
things for you as members for your en-
tertainnent.'
President Full announced that Gov
ernor Burke and Attorney General Nc
Cue would address the convention
Wednesday evening. .....
R. H. Shadwick of Fargo, read an
excellent paper on "Legislation' which
was as follows:
So many associations of men are
formed on purely selfish lines, to de-
mand legislation for the special bene-
fit Of those composing them, that to
treat, the topic Legislation" as
signed me, / will have to avoid the
usual mistake of men in similar
position, of catering to the present
auditors by advocating their demands
without any Discrimination.
I assume that this association OF
merchants is not altogether selfish
that the motives actuating it are
neither altruistic nor solely material
that it does not demand any legis-
lation that does not in some measure
conduce to the general welfare, that
it does exact from the lawmakfng
bodies Of the state special class legis-
lation. If I thought you were here
to exact the tribute of profit from
your fellows through legislation
which would take from the whole
people single penny and confer it
upon you as individuals, ] would be
opposing your demands.
| Too much assistance has been given
profit making enterprises by law, al
ready. Great fortunes have been built