The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1908-02-12

ago, laid down his pack and invested
his surplus, some $4,000. in cata-
logues about the size of family
Bible. and sad to say, they have
driven the Bible out of many a
home. The country newspaper, which
was the life of the rural commun-
tiles, and expressed their hopes and
aspirations: always full Of valuable
information, and carried the local
merchants advertising, has ceased
to exist, and in it's place you find
the big catalogue and its supple
ments. Every year millions of these
catalogues are sent out from Chicago
at an average delivered cost of 81
each.
"You infer from reading their
catalogue that they have no expen-
ses, and are doing business for the
producer and consumer without
profit, until one of them makes
sworn statement that his net profits
in the past ten years were $4,000
900, which sheds some light on the
cause of the failure of the farmers
sons as merchants, and in New York
state 80 per cent. of the merchants
are the sons Of farmers. Some of
the smaller towns have surrendered
their charters because the merchants
who formerly paid the extra taxes
necessary to maintain a village gov
eminent are no longer there, and
the United States census tells that
farm land in New York state has so
decreased in value that it's drug
on the market. At an open meet
ing Of local grange the question
of buying in Chicago was freely
discussed by the farmers. Most of
them admitted they could do better
by buying at home. and in the minds
of all who expressed themselves
here was doubt as to the advisa-
bility of sending their money away
from home, and all were opposed to
building up a great monopoly in
Chicago that would forever close
the door of opportunity against the
farmers sons to mercantile lines.
They considered it unwise, unpat-
riotic and un-American to transfer
the business of 100000 retail mer-
chants in this country into the hands
of two merchants in Chicago.
Minnesota is beginning to feel
the competition of the foreign mail
order concerns acutely. | know a
farmer in Sibley county who gave
his son $4,000 to start a general
store, and the boy only lasted two
years. 1t happened this same farm
er had himself been buying from
the catalogue houses for ten years
past, passing up his own town, and
the town passed his son up.
"The last census showed a de-
crease in many of the towns in
Southern Minnesota. AS an example
take the once f1ourishing town of
Ottawa, on the Northwestern rail
road, which the merchants had to
abandon because the people in that
locality sent their money to the
Chicago catalogue houses. There
; are at least twenty vacant buildings
in the town that are going to decay,
and the village charter was sur.
rendered.
The value of every farm in
Minnesota is determined largely by
. it's distance from a market. Ar
acre near the twin cities is worth 9
hundred acres away off in the coun.
try, and a farm close to village is
worth two farms ten miles out
: while in northern Minnesota today
e good land is practically valueless be-
4 cause there is no market. Drive the
t merchants out, and in many instan
. ces there will be no villages which
: today afford convenient markets tt
:, the farmer"