The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-05-26
Merchants As Well As
Consumers Are Gouged
The FOLLOWING inquiry has been received:

The following inquiry has been received:
ITO the Editor: Do not the retail mer-
tariff revision help us, or would it merely help
the retailer? Does not the retailer figure
upon Is to 33 per cent profit? CONSUMER"
AS a general proposition the retail merchant
could not overcharge II he would, and would not
II he could
He could not. because his competitors, sell
ing at fair prices, would get all his trade.
He would not, because he seeks by fair
prices and honest dealing to build up an element
called good WILL" which is of tremendous value.
Many of the things sold by retailers have
their retail price fixed by the manufacturer.
This Is especially true whenever the manufac-
turer Is a trust. 1t is also true that on trust
made goods the price to the consumer is higher
and the profit to the retailer Ia smaller than on
goods not handled by a monopoly trust.
The reason is that the competition
that fosters fair dealing between retailer and con-
sumner compels independent wholesalers and
manufacturers to charge reasonable prices and
to give good goods. Once trust secures COM
plete monopoly 1t need not fear competition and
it can and does fix not only the price 1t receives
but also the price the consumer shall pay the
retailer.
Before answering Consumers" second
question. it is necessary to make quite clear what
Is meant by profit. To buy eggs at 10 cents a
dozen and sell them at Is cents does not mean
that the grocer has made cents profit. Retail
merchants must pay rent taxes, insurance,
wages. and they must figure losses by reason of
damaged and lost goods, bad accounts, and all
such.
1t is fair to say that the retailers real profit
is what remains after paying all expenses and
fair salary for the merchants own time.
This idea of profit" makes that word mean
the same dividends and it Is fair to say
that no retail merchant makes any such profit
at the rate Of 20 per cent on goods he sells to
the consumers trusts "dividends'' Is net
profit and is declared after all expenses, wages
losses and bad accounts are taken care Of This
matter was neatly threshed out in the senate the
other day between the blind senator, Gore of
oklahoma, and Smoot the Mormon senator from
Utah.
Aldrch and Hale, demanding high tariff
for the cotton and woolen mills of New England,
practically indicted the merchants of the country
OF being the ones who "fatten on the consumer"
- Gore denied this. He said:
you say, SIR that the retailer takes a
profit of 33 per cent But that's gross profit,
not net profit Out of that must come rent,
taxes wages, freight, losses and all other charges
1t is not dividend such has been declared
by the New England cotton and wooden manu-
facturers who asking for more "protec-
tion." They have paid dividends of Sc per cent
in single year. How will the senator from
Maine (Ha1e) explain these enormous. these ex-
tortionate divdends?"
Senator Hale didn't attempt to explain, and
Smoot jumped in with question. He asked:
"Win you name manufacturer who has
declared such a dividend?"
Smiling blandly, the blind senator replied:
"The Troy Cotton & Wooden mandatory
in 1907 declared a dividend Of 81 per cent The
Acushnett Cotton Manufacturing Co. of New
Bedford, Mass. the same year declared divi-
oeho Oh 90 per CENT ana tne dartmouth Cotton
mandatory OF New Bedford the same year also
declared dividend of &c per cent"
Senator Smoot: should like to ask the
senator II that dividend was payable in cash or
was it stock dividend?
Senator Gore: 1t was In cash; and in order
to shield such enormous dividends in the future
they have resolved to double their capital stock.
II there be any other inquiry. shall yield.
But Smoot had enough, and the New Eng
land senator's looked relieved when he let the
matter drop Gore paused for another question,
and none being asked he concluded:
"Sir, II is miserable sham to try to say
that the merchant is robbfng his customers. The
trusts, seeking a shield. malgn the retail mer-
chants of the United States. 1t is not true and
will not SIT in silence and hear the millions
of retailers in this country made scapegoats to
bear away the sins of the greedy trusts and
monopolies in this country