The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-04-08

at wholesale. The thing seemed mar
yelous. impossible But the thorough
business man goes beyond the cata-
logue and investigates.
l knew case where a range was
bought from mail order house. 1t
was a well-known make, tie number
in the mail order catalogue seeming to
correspond with the number in the
manufacturers catalogue. The pr-ce
quoted was less than the manufacture
er's wholesale price. The local dealer
who handled the same goods was help
less He could not make the sale ex-
cept at loss, and the mail order
house got the order.
But the dealer went deeper into the
matter When the range arrived he
examined it, and then discovered that
the mail order house had resorted to
the simple expedient Of changing the
number and the range shipped was a
smaller and cheaper one tlan the cata-
logue had seemed to indicate. 1t was
here that the local dealer discovered
that he had been regularly selling the
same range for less money than the
mail order house-and the buyer paid
the freight" The latter had no re-
course, for he had paid ais money, and
was unable to prove deception, which
would have been costly, if possible.
But there was one convert made to the
principle of home trade, learning his
lesson in the dear school of exper-
fence.
The most fascinating of the mail or
der schemes to the unthinking buyer
is the premium graft. Here the cata-
logue artist devotes his talents to the
Illustrations. for there is nothing more
delusiye. This handsome rocker
worth SO will be given you for sell
ing $40 worth of goods OF course,
the unreflecting buyer doesn't stop to
consider how any house can give 500
worth of goods for SO. He does not
even stop to reflect that the premium
house could not continue in business
without making profit But of
course he doesn't further reflect that
any house watch will resort to such
deception to sell goods is unreliable,
untrustworth., and undeserving the
patronage of any honest man.
Those members of the Trades AS
sembly who have been investigating
the mail order proposition have discov-
cred numerous cases of business fraud
perpetrated by those houses which
sell their products on the soap club"
plan because they cannot sell them in
the open market in competition witt
honest goods. They have discovered
! that better soap can be made for less
than half the money; that the pre-
NUNS, are listed so high that soa p
and premiums can both be bought
from an honest dealer for less money.
Frequent reports come to them of fur
niture which falls to pieces when put
to use; of chairs. supposedly leather,
made OF cardboard, and many other
/ frauds of like nature.
Frequent reports have come to US,
also, of soap club victims sending their
children out to 'peddle" their accumu-
lated stock, and buying standard
quality of soap for their own use.
1t has been said time and again that
nearly all the mail order houses are
unfair to labor. They are not only I'M
! fair to labor they are unfair to every
one with whom they come in contact,
and most unfair TO those to whom
they owe their existence-their de-
luded customers-whom they repeat
eddy rob for their own ACKNOWLEDGMENT
1 If you should buy an article from
/ your local dealer that is not up to
4 specifications you take it back to him
/ and he makes good. Not so with the
mail order house, which can defy him.
Besides. you don't like to admit you've
been stung.