The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-11-13
When You GO Abroad for Your
Necessaries You Slight Home
/. Merchant and Fay More for the
Good low One Man Got Rich
Off Suckers.

OFF Suckers.
!. "A few weeks ago IA Chicago COM
paratively young man retired from
business and will henceforth try to
worry along On the income from $780,
00O, 900. In 1892, the year before the
worlds fair at Chicago he was a tele-
graph operator on q Minnesota rail-
road. His immense fortune was con-
tributed to by hundreds Of people and
hundreds OF people are contrib uting
to other mems fortunes In exactly the
same way. - "a ss|s. sts
Once Lowly Operator.
The man in question is Richard w.
Sears Of the great mail order house Of
Sears, Roebuck & Co, who seventeen
years ago was a wayside station op-
orator. His practical interest in the
business he founded ceased with the
sale of the last half Of his stock hold
ings. in the big mail order house to
New York syndicate. w ! = ;ss=, = .
= From telegraph operator at Red
wood Falls, Mimi, to the millionaire
head of the greatest mail order estab-
lishment In the world; and from that
to gentleman farmer, are the steps
Of his career. AS operator he got $50
a. month. Since he blazed a trail in
the mail order business his savings
have averaged a million and half
year.
Mr.. Sears has announced to his
friends that he intends to devote him
self to his family and to his model
farm at Gray's Lake, Ill. There are
four children-two boys and two girls.
Watch Put Him in Business.
Mr.. Sears choice of his singular1y
successful career, he used to say,
hinged on the fact that watch firm
at Fredonia, N. Y, sent him a watch
with the privilege Of return if he
couldn't sell it. They sent him a $3.50
watch which they said he could sell
for $11.90. He found the railroad
men. of his acquaintance were eager
to buy watches. He resigned his tele-
graph post and went to Minneapolis.
In two years he cleared up enough
to branch out in Chicago, and in two
years he amassed 100000 on watches
| alone. In 1894 he went into partner
ship in Chicago with A. w. Roebuck.
The present Sears, Roebuck & Co.,
has a capitalization of $4,000, 900,
with sales of more than $5O,000,OO0
yearly. The common stock last week
| sold at $98 a share, double the value
| of a few months ago.
So far as Mr.. Sears is concerned he
acquired his immense fortune honest
| ly, as the word goes. That is he ac-
| quired it in the legitimate pursuit of
| a legitimate business
| Bargains Not Bargains.
He offered things for sale at prices
| which purchasers imagined to be q
! bargain. but which he sold at a large
| profit. That purchasers paid more for
! their purchases than they We're worth
or could be bop&ht elsewhere was
their fault, not his. The Fredonia
watch company which sold him his
| first watch for $9:4O would have sold
anybody else at the same price. Young
Sears got $11.90 for them just the
same. His patrons imagined they were
getting bargains, while as matter of
fact they were paying $3.50 more than
the open market price. Sears saw his
opportunity; saw that people wanted
to be duped and knew If he didn't
dupe them other persons would, SO he
went after the money and suckers and
got them: What is true of watches
Is true Of everything else his mail
order house handled and that is why
he retired while comparatively young
to enjoy his $25,000,000.
Stock of Suckers Is Limitless.
He sold $14 stoves for SIS, So suits
for SO, $14 dresses for $19, 48 cent
carpet for IS cents, 81 silk for $1.19,
$40 parlor suit for $53.25, 10 cent
tooth brushes for 13 cents and so on
down the line and his firm and other
firms are doing the same thing today
and will continue to do the same thing
as long as people grow older and more
foolish. .'. ,..>
| While the mail order man is ac-
cumulating his millions the home mer
chant is struggling to make both ends
meet. He is paying for his legitimate
profits to help pay for the schools to
educate your children, the policeman
who protects your person, the fireman
who protects your property, the streets
which. improve your town, the
water which you drink and to MAIN
tain the city in which you live and
prosper. The mail order man contrib
utes not cent to your home insti-
tutions, seldom gives you value re-
ceived and after he has filled his
stronghold, retires to his farm, lives
his life of ease and complacently
smiles on and: pities the poor fool who
SO guilelessly contributed to his COM
| fort i. =, - =.
J Who wouldn't be a mail order man?
4 1n.fl llIln nan Vrln