Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1909-02-11

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chance to vent my spleen and person
al grievances against the most pro-
minent enemies OF the store-keeper.
I will try to show before I'm
through that the ramiications of
| the Mailorder Houses do not only
affect the store-keepers but every per-
son in the community.
The subject is much deeper than it
would seem on the surface.
In fact it is one Of the great nation
al economical problems before the
American people and is puzzling wiser
heads than mine, so what 1 expect to
say, will only be the ideas which have
come to me in my study and observa-
tons of the question.
The Mail-order House is an institu-
ton of comparatively recent origin,
covering period of not to exceed
twenty-five to thirty years. l can we'll
remember the first catalogue that I
saw of Montgomery Ward & Co., way
back in the eightys. 1t was very in
significant specimen compared to the
| biblical size of the ones published
| now. 1t took time to build up the
| business, but the growth has been
steady and before long the mail-order
business attracted other people who
entered the field armed with practi-
cally nothing but the catalogue. It
was easy money at first, for the in
the issuance of the catalogue. When
the orders came in, the mail-order
man would take the money enclosed,
go out to the jobbers and buy the
items and have them shipped. They
would charge a fair profit on these
| goods of course and we can easily see
that if the orders came in fast and
furious, which they did, it was fine
thing for the promoters. This met
hod was employed a number of years
until the merchants throughout the
country began to complain to the job
bers that the mail-order houses were
selling so many goods that it was
menacing their business and asked the
| jobbers to quit selling the catalogue
! people from hand to mouth. The
| jobbers needed the appeal, which
made it necessary for the mail-order
| people to carry stock. Here is where
other troubles not looked for began
| for the retail merchants. The cata-
logue man would go into the market
and buy inferior grades of goods,
| make arrangements with mills to
manufacture certain quantity of mer-
| chandise as per their specifications,
these specifications providing for the
cheapening of the goods in quality,
which goods were then listed in the
catalogue to be of first quality, and
embellished with the most extrava-
CANT adiectives, with generous
sprinkling of the word free. Have
you ever noticed what a popular word
free" is? You take any mail-order
catalogue and on every page that word
is repeated dozens Of times. When
YOU really try to find out what is free
it SINNERS down to the catalogue or
/ ether advertising matter.
The competition of the mail-order
house is not legitimate. You read
any page in the catalogue and you
will find that the prices quoted are
often compared with those of the local
merchant, without any regard for the
truth of the comparison.
They will print the merchants
prices abnormally high and their own
correspondence low, thereby creating
bias on the part of the prospective
customer against his home store.
This prejudice is one of the hardest
contend with. The farmer has it
dinned to his mind every time he op-
ems the family book, that the local
merchant is robber and swindler
until he actually believes 1t.
The business of the mail order
houses have grown wonderfully dur
ing the last ten or fifteen years. The
plants now operated by those in
Chicago, for instance, cover many
acres. They have erected plants for
the manufacture of certain lines of
goods. The reason for this, suppose,
was that the manufacturers from
whom they had been buying would not
lower themselves to make limitations
Of their regular goods.
Now we come to the question pro-
pounded dy the postmaster:
Effect of Mail Order Houses on the
Rural City and Its Territory.
The fact that the mail-order bust
ness has grown wonderfully fast