Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-06-15
WHERE Do YOU BUY?.
Home Trading Is Next to the
Very First Law of Nature.
STAND BY YOUR OWN TOWN.
What Two Well Known Writers Think
of Mail Order Traders-Some Food
For Reflection by Woman Who Buys
Through the Catalogues.

We are face to face with the fact
that the commercial strength of the
country town, the natural social and
business center of every rural com
munity. is being gradually undermined
by the "peculiar' competition of the
SO called catalogue houses in the larger
cities. Last year at least SO 100000
chat should have gone to the retail
merchants of the middle west was sent
away from home to these mail order
concerns. This is serious. 1t is dou-
bly, serious because it is cash bust
ness and II continual drain on the
finances of the whole rural community.
for none Of it ever comes back. The
money that the farmer or the wage
Garner spends with the retail merchant
in his home town remains in circula-
ton in the neighborhood but the money
sent away is like so much lifeblood
lost to the community. 1t cannot even
be reached by the tax collector to be
made to bear it's share of the cost of
public improvements and public pro-
lection.
Every good citizen owes allegiance.
first, to his family; second to the COM
munity in which he lives. and, third.
to the nation. This is the theory, &C.
cording to Richard A. Haste, well
known writer on home trade topics.
But when the nation is in peril and
no Ic fnr ha1 orfG hot 20
and friends for the nations good. We
call this patriotism. And the first
duty Of the loyal citizen is to the ma
ton, for it embraces both the COM
munity and the family welfare.
We don't think much of the men who
ran away to Canada to escape their
duty during the days Of the civil war
We don't think much of the woman
who neglects her family that she may
entertain her friends. Selfishness,
when home is the object. Is almost a
virtue. What are we to think of peo-
pie who pass up their town and do
their trading in the cities in the hope
Of saving a few cents? If they live in
the town, If they be lawyers. doctors.
preachers. teachers. bankers or COM
mon wage earners, it is from the town
they get their living; If they be farm
ers, it is the town that affords them
markets and the good things of mod
ern civilization, and, more than that.
1t is the town that gives value to their
farms. What shall we think of such
people if they deliberately ignore the
allegiance they owe to the community
for protection and the very bread they
eat and send their money, some Of
which may come directly from the
public purse. as in the case of school
teachers. to the cities for the things
they can get at home? What shall we
think of them?
This is what William Allen White
thinks of them in Emporia, Kan. 1t is
straight talk, but is has the ring of
good sense in it:
"The man who buys his goods of a
mail order house and expects his
neighbors in Emporia to buy goods Of
him or buy labor of him or to buy
professional service Of him is econom-
ically leech. He is sucking Industrial
blood out of the town and gives none
back. He sends his profits out of
town like Chinaman and has no
more right to standing in the COM
munity than a foreigner We are all
neighbors industrially in this town.
and the man who sends away for his
goods is not one Of us. He is of an
other Industrial system and deserves
no mans support in Emporia."
What is true of Empora, Kan, is
true of every other town in the United
States. One Of the primal obligations
any good citizen owes to the commu
nifty in which he lives is that of recip
rocal trade. 1t is only thus that the
community interests Of the country
can be maintained.
This buying Of catalogue houses and
through soap clubs Is fad that has
grown up in the commercial garden
like rank weed. 1t grew and -four
ished because there was no attempt
made to keep the garden clear Of such
growths. People have been so busy
about other things that they simply
forgot the obligations they are under
to their neighbors and to themselves
as community. And even since
there has been marked awakening to
the need for civic improvement, for
building up the industrial and ethical
interests Of the home town, the work
ers seem to have overlooked the most
important feature of it all--the protec-
ton Of the retail trade of the home
merchant.
The women's clubs all over the coun-
try have been doing a remarkable
work in molding public sentiment
along right lines. They have been
leaders in movements for identifying
the home, the streets and the town.
They have led the fight for better san.
itation and in many localities are
potent force for honesty in municipal
affairs. But as yet they have not
taken up the protection of the life Of
the home town, on which the success
Of all their other measures must de-
pend.
Give Street Trees Plenty Of Room.
With strip scarcely one yard wide
ii