The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-07-26
Home Trade League Is to
Put Up Il Fight.
PEOPLE OF WEST AROUSED
Retail Merchants Organizing for the
Fray; Five Hundred Thousand Are
Interested i'm Matter.

Chicago, July l9.-War has been de
clared on the great catalogue houses Of
Chicago and other cities by the 100000
retail merchants of the west.
The mammoth institutions spending
no money in the communities whence
they derive annually millions of dollars
OF patronage are forcing increasing
numbers of home merchants to the wall
and, so their opponents claim are max
ing commercial grave yards of once
prosperous towns
An organized attack on the catalogue
institutions is to be made by the trade
legue of America which has existed for
several months in Chicago.
The backbone of the league is formed
of commercial associations, national,
state and local in character, in Illinois,
Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas and
Minnesota. Alfred C. Clark is manager
of the league. ..
''There is probably" said Mr.. Clark,
mo question that is causing such an
xety in the mind of the interurban
population today as the attitude of the
mail order houses. This business, which
aroused no unusual comment in its in
cipiency, has increased by leaps and
bounds until it's volume now aggregates
hundreds of millions of dollars year
and the country merchants and the citi-
Zens of the thousands of American vii
lagos and cities stand aghast at con-
dition that spells ruin to their personal
fortunes and threatens to make OF their
once thriving ''home town. commercial
graveyard.
Naturally the business of the man
ufacturer and jobber is likewise affect
ed as the country retail merchant is the
foundation on which they have built
and the downfall of one means ruin to
the other.
ct has become question of national
Importance and that it should result in
concerted action on the part of the man
ufacturers, jobbers and country mer-
chants to combat its influence on trade,
was natural sequence, and to do this
the Home Trade League of America, a
nonprofit sharing organization, was
formed.
"Unless present intolerable conditions
are corrected soon the result will be that
a few cities will do all the business OF
the country and the thousands OF for
merly prosperous cities and villages
throughout the nation will have no
reason for existing. The modern mail
order house quotes in its catalogue ev-
erv human necessity from baby's CRIB
to a burial casket-hence there will be
no necessity for local towns and cities
other than convenient stations where
the people can buy express or postofflce
money orders to send to mail order cat
alogue concerns.
"These mail order houses are not far
competition-they issue propaganda
to convince the consumer that the job
Der and country merchant are in a. con-
spracv to maintain high prices to his
detriment, which is not true. They are
not fair to the jobber, the man who I'M
Willingly has contributed to their sue
cess by supplying them in retail guam
titles at jobbing prices anything and ev'
ervthing they wanted. | say they are
not fair to the jobber as they state in
recent circulars to the consumers that
the iobbers lost $56.OOO,OOO during 1905
and that they added that sum to their
average profit for 1906, and expected the
consumer to pay it.
81 want to say right at the outset
that the Home Trade leaguers are not
conspirators and that one of the strong
features of this of necessity vital fea-
ture, is to have the manufacturer and
the iobber place the country merchant
in position to enable him to meet any
competition"
w. G.. Webber, state secretary OF the
Minnesota Municipal and Commercial
league and also district organizer of the
American Society of Equity, stopped
over in this city Wednesday and remain
ed until Thursday morning, says The
Owatonna Chronicle. He was enroute
from Mankato to his home at Roches-
ter Mr.. Webber is well known here
having been instrumental, in organizing
the Owatonna Commercial club and ac'
tive in the organization of the Steele
County American Society of Equity.
In conversation with Mr.. Weber 1t
was learned that movement is being
started to organize strong society OF
uniop probably to be known as a mer'
chants congress which will consist of all
of the various board of trades, business
organizations as municipal and com
mercial clubs in the various cities as
well as the state business organizations
of the northwestern states for the pur-
pose of having a strong union to better
the commercial interests of this section
of the country.
Such an organization if properly start
ed would do much towards the better
ment of conditions in the northwestern
states and would be powerful weapon
in the hands of business organizations
and merchants to have laws made ant
enforced which would cause a genuine
reformation along business lines anc
place the business men on safer ground
1t is thought that some reformation
along these lines should be secured il
possible and at any rate the congress
of business men and societies would nj
doubt do much good.