The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-08-16
The CONSUMER
PAYS THE FREIGHT
RY o. A. CHARLES.

who pays the freight? The manu-
facturer, merchant or consumer
A useless question, you say, and we
agree, for freight, as well as other
expenses necessary to producing mer'
chandise and getting it to market,
must necessarily be added to .he cost.
The consumers pay the freight, OF
course, but let us see what this pay
ing freight actually means.
The home merchant buys merchan'
disc In large quantities from the ner-
est shipping points, so his freight
charges will be as small as possible.
He is receiving freight almost every
day and is thoroughly acquainted
with the method of freight handling,
collecting damages, rushing goods and
the mass of detail Incidental to the
transportation of merchandise.
How Is 1t with the consumer? In
the first place. by buying goods from
the mail order house, he pays the
railroads for hauling his goods a
greater distance than does the home
merchant. Then he pays great deal
more fractional freight, that is, he
pays the full hundred-pound rate on
more less than hundredpound ship
ments.
Most Mail Order Houses tell you
they ship your order from their near
est factory. That of course means
the splitting up of your order in two,
three or more parts, consequently you
pay the minimum rate on each sep
crate shipment. 1t also means that IL
you live In town, you have extra dray-
age on each seperate shipment or If you
live in the country, you would have to
make a trip to the freight house for
each separate shipment all of which
means either extra expense or the
loss of time.
The Mail Order House tells you that
the proper place to make claim for
goods damaged in shipment is at the
railroad office. Have you ever had any
experience collecting damages from
railroad? If you have you know how
difficult such collections are to make.
DAMAGES HARD TO COLLECT.
In collecting damages the consumer
Is at a disadvantage because he Is
not a regular patron of the railroad,
consequently his claim does not get
the same attention as that given to
the merchants claim.
The consumer is also at a disad-
vantage in collecting damages from
railroad, because, as a rule, ne does
not know how to go about making his
claim, and the railroad agents are not
anxious to help him, because the most
distasteful part of a railroads, work
is the handling of damage claims.
The Home Merchant, through his
associations, can bring influence to
bear that hastens the payment of his
claims, while the consumer simply has
to wait the railroads pleasure to col
lect his damages.
Notwithstanding the fact that the
Home Merchant does add the freight
to the cost of merchandise. he sells
this merchandise as cheap and In
most instances cheaper, than the Mail
Order Houses do. This statement Is
made after a most thorough investiga.
tion and any consumer who wants to
verify It can easily do so by taking
his Mail Order Catalogue with him
when he goes to town to price the
goods he wants to buy.
II the consumer would take half as
much time and trouble investigating
and comparing the quality and price
of merchandise he buys from the Mail
Order houses, with the quality and
price of merchandise offered him by
his Home Merchants-just half as
much time and trouble-as he takes
to make up an order from catalogue,
to go after the goods, to collect dam
ages for goods broken in t:ansit-he
would see that it would be true econ.
omy for him to buy at home.
| | repeat again, the consumer pays
the freight, but he doesn't pay as
much freight when he buys at home,
neither does he have to wait weeks
| for the goods he needs, nor does he
have to go to endless trouble and
worry trying to adjust damage claims
! with railroad companies.
Without fear of successful contra.
diction we say--it is true economy to
buy at home from Home Merchants.