Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-02-28
BISMARCK

that we give him Is to so per cent
of our money that he never did a
thing to produce.
The merchant, like the gambler,
creates nothing, but they do absorb
money like sponge absorbs water.
What good does the merchant do
anyway? II he gives away any
thing, where did he get 1t? He got
it from the farmer and others whom
he skins. He helps support churches
with money got the same way, said
churches being Of very little benefit
to the farmer, who cannot attend
them in winter because it is too cold
and the town is too far away and in
summer he is too busy.
& We are told we should trade at
home and keep the money in the
country. The merchant sends away
for his goods, SO the only money that
stays in the country is the mer-
chants profit. Why not let the far
1mer keep that profit and improve
his farm with 1T? AS
There is not a single good reason
for buying at home They tell us
competition is the life Of business,
but it seems as if they want our life
and business without any compe
tition hi, s5
The constitution gives to all equal
rights; then why has not the farmer
a right to buy his groceries and other
things where he wants to the same
as the merchant does?
N Now about tax paying. According
to statements in the newspaper the
average merchants assessment is
not more than that of the average
farmer. And which is there most of,
merchants or farmers, and which
make the most money?
81 A rich merchant buys an expensive
piano in the spring and objects to
it being assessed because he just got
it. A farmer goes to town, buys a.
machine on time for which he must
mortgage his soul; the machine is as
sessed a few days after, and the far
mer must pay taxes on that which
he does not own.
But, you say, the merchant has
doomed the country and brought in
lots of settlers and made land worth
more Ito the speculator) Yes, this
I is all true, but has it helped the
farmer? Let us see, prairie fires are
as frequent and destructive as ever,
help is twice as dear and twice as
hard to get, grain is lower in price.
The cattle and sheep industry that
once paid well is now almost de-
lstroyed. Hay and hay land is scarce.
| Taxes are higher. If farmer wants
to buy piece of land he must pay
$4,000 for a piece of land really
worth no more than it was ten years
4 ago (then about $200).
4 Then where and how is the farmer
helped? The only ones who have
been benefited by this land boom are
the real estate men and the mer-
chants. How many merchants pat
ronize each other? Some farmers
have little money in the bank.
If the bank had more business the
farmer might get more interest on
his money But when Mr.. Home
Merchant wants to borrow money Ito
build a bigger store to do more
skinning) does he patronize his home
bank? No, he goes back east where
he can get it cheaper and erects
buildings which are of no good to
the farmer. Country storekeepers
say, come and buy Of us, we have no
rent to pay, we can sell cheaper. And
yet they skin us as badly as any other
storekeeper g.G.
| Now about this credit business. A
Bismarck merchant stated that he
never lost anything by trusting far
mer, so it can't be such an awful
risk to give them credit. If the
merchant did refuse money could be
got at the bank at highest interest
and the farmer send for his stuff and
still save a great deal. How did the
home merchant treat us during the
hard times? If we got credit at all
we had to mortgage our 500 team
to get his 1o0-pound flour sack, This
world is moving. The primitive
merchants were peddlers, next store
keepers, then catalogue houses. The
local storekeepers have succeeded in
legislating the peddler out Of exist
ence, which, by the way. is the one
| and only good thing they ever did