The Huttig news., 1908-01-04
OLD METHODS PASS
SYSTEMS OF LONG AGO WILL
 NOT WORK NOW.
CONDITIONS MUST BE MET
One Reason for Growth of Mail Order System Is That the Average Busi- ness Man Has Not Been
 Progressive.

Business methods are changing week after week and year after year The systems that our forefathers swore by, and which are often preached to us as examples that should be followed today, could n1ver be made to work now any more than the people would be satisfied with the old OK team and heavy cart as a means of transportation. The old style con veyances were the best Known in their time, and great discoveries have been made by means of the old sailing yes sels. In fact, the pioneers were the .ones who used these slow methods, but who will say that we can well dis pense with the fast-fying steam cars and electric lines or the ocean flyers of the present?
 Business methods are different and growing more different day by day, and we must adjust ourselves to condi- tions as they change. The spread of the catalogue house system has been tremendous, if that word can aptly be used to express it. There are ele- ments in the system that are good, and some elements that are bad. It is according to the way they are ap- piled. There is reason why the cata- logue house exists They will keep in evidence until there are better meth ods and more equitable systems ar ranged to supply the wants of the peo- pie, and until the people realize that while the system as a distribution agency may be all right, there is much more to the question that needs more careful consideration. Soon as the masses realize that trade in each local section is important to 1t, that any system that takes from a community the employment that it's people should have and that the profits in trade are essential to the best welfare of the people of community, the sooner will the mail order houses find their proper sphere and the sooner will the mer- chants of the smaller cities and towns come to a realization that they must adapt their business methods to the requirements of the times.
 The catalogue house system should be looked upon as an educational one. The large catalogues that are sent throughout the land are great books from which lessons can be learned and will be learned. The masses have not had knowledge of values placed we'll in their hands. Their economic education has been neglected. The farmer good cow. a. good horse. a good hog, and it is hard to fool him. His education has been such that he is "up to snuff" He is quite willing to pay the owner of a horse just what that horse is worth, and willing that the seller should have the profit in the transaction. Were he as well posted in the values of the things that he must buy for daily use he would be the same with the local mer- chant as he is with the man from whom he may purchase horse or a blooded COW or other animal. The big four-pound books are catechisms of commercial values. The farmers and the children of the family study them, and learn more about things in the commercial world. A few orders sent to the far-off dealers, and few disap- pointments, are sufficient to convince the intelligent man that he can do better at home.
 Communities that few years ago were the greatest buyers of goods by mail are today the best home traders. The people have become educated. They soon discovered that goods of a certain quality always had a certain value, the same as a good horse or a COW or some farm animal. They also realized that the policy of taking em- ployment away from the home people was wrong Perhaps the merchants of the place "brushed" up a little. They, too, began to understand that if they had all the stocks and kinds of goods that the people wanted, and made the prices right, and in addition kept the people rightly informed of these facts, that they could have the trade of the people of the community. Both forces working together-the farmer that he was doing wrong in sending away his money and that he could get just as good goods at home and the merchant that he had to adopt up-to-date methods-did that which was desirable: viz, kept in the town the business that should be kept there, solved the problem.