Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-08-25
LESSON FROM
TROLLEY CARDS.
Advertising Men Alive to Value
of Home Trade.
THEY URGE LOCAL BUYING.

lie Un0E IUCHl 6UI ING.
Cars of Bronx Borough, New York
City, Carrying Appeals to Purchasers
to Get Their Goods From Their Own
Stores-A Policy of Mutual Helpful
ness and Cooperation.
In the trolley cars of Bronx borough,
New York city. are displayed some ad.
vertising cards placed among the other
advertisements. presumably without
charge. by the company which con-
trolls the advertising in the cars of the
borough. The cards inform the riders
and readers that the articles advertised
in the cars are to be found in the
stores OF the borough and advise the
intending purchasers to procure them
at home. 1t is understood. Of course.
that the quality of standard articles is
the same wherever they are purchased,
and 1t Is assumed that the merchants
Of the borough will make as reasonable
prices on the articles as any one will.
The position taken by the advertis-
ing company in thus helping along the
men who help it certainly seems to. be
a wise one. Local purchasers are in
duced to buy standard goods, adver-
tised all over the country rs we'll as in
the local cars. from the local mer-
chants. The latter are. in turn. ena-
bled to buy advertising space in the
cars. The Germans. who are prolific
makers Of wise sayings. have an old
saw which says, 'One hand washes
the other. and both become Clean" 1t
is an encouraging sign Of the growing
prosperity Of the borough that the To-
cal merchants are using more and more
space in the cars and that the bor-
ough newspapers are 1ourishing as
never before.
Isn't there here a moral to be CLEAN
ed by other places? The moral is, En-
courage home trade by all means. The
trade that goes out of a town does not
benefit it; it is the trade that seeks and
finds its natural outlet at home that
helps. 1t counts not only for the man
who gets it. but for the man who gives
it. for the latter helps his neighbor as
we'll as himself.
The uplifting Of the general level of
prosperity which is apt to follow keep
ing trade at home helps every man
and oma in a town by keeping
up wages. by distributing profits so
that everybody in a town gets a share.
direct or indirect. of the benefit.
The mail order houses have their
place in the business world. and they
do good-to the men who run them,
much money in the business. But
when they take out of any particular
town money that should be spent
there l%egitimately they cannot be said
to be a benefit to that town.
In addition. there is the personal and
social side of the question. Looking
at it as fairly as you will, buying
goods from a catalogue and sending to
a strange. faraway city the money
that has been earned in ones home
town. often with the advice and CO.
operation of ones neighbors. is a cold
blooded proposition.
How much better it is to meet your
neighbor man to man, yer your coun-
ter or owe his. and sell to him or buy
from him what one needs! If life is
made up of little things" as has been
said very often. the little friendli-
nesses and greetings Of personal inter-
course are worth something, probably
more than the small profit that is to
be gained by p%atronizing a house far
away that a be nothing but the en-
bodiment of business" And in many
cases the monetary profit is only i'm
aginary when the time and bother in
volved in the transaction and the real
worth of goods bought are taken into
consideration.
CHARLES N. LURE