Warren sheaf., 1911-05-11

MAIL ORDER HOUSES, DRUM
MERs AND FARMER SMITH
| The little communication of farmer
9. ]. Smith in last weeks paper, rela-
tive to mail order houses and drum
mers, caused little stir among a
few travelling men, who are not IA
miliar with Mr.. Smiths style of hui
NOR. The Sheaf published the COM
munication as a contribution to the
discussion that has been going on in
| this paper in regard to the undesir-
ability of patronizing the mail order
houses. The Sheaf as is well known
has always taken strong ground
against patronizing these concerns
We did not realize at the time when
we published Mr.. Smiths article what
hilariously funny article it was, and
that it would furnish such an exuber-
ance of mirth for the valiant knights
of the Grip. Had Mr.. Smith known
how funny he can write, he probably
would not have offered us the article
at all, but would have sold it to some
magazine at big round sum- The
Sheaf certainly had no thought what
ever of offending in the least the
large and useful class known as ira
Yelling men-far from it-but we
thought it could do them no harm and
possibly a lot Of good to let them
know what a plain, blunt farmer
thinks of their occupation and of bust
ness in general. Merchants, profess
sors, bankers, railroad presidents and
even country editors, have been very
profuse in advising the farmers how
to run their business-and much of
this advice undoubtedly has been
good, and intelligent farmers every
where have listened to the sugges-
tions and profted thereby. A person
in one business can often give valu-
able pointers to the over-worked, rut-
bound plOdders in another business.
Some one not railroad man, has re-
Gently pointed out to the railway pres
idents of the country, how they might
save millions of dollars annually by
different methods of management.
Why then, is it not possible that a
I n1ain c0mmon.conco fornoo,. WOW Lit
/ upon an idea once in awhile that busi-
ness men might do well to consider
He may not be able to express his
Thoughts with such nicely and de
lcorum as the city gentleman. yet
for all that, he ought not to be raved
at and called a fool, every time he
opens his mouth. That Mr.. Smith
makes point in his communication
cannot be gainsaid. Certainly the
wholesaler must add the cost of main
tanning statesmen on the road to the
price he charges the retailer for the
goods. The catalogue houses have
no statesmen to pay and loudly adver
tise that they save their customers
this expense. 1t is no use to deny
that the wholesalers as well as the
country merchants do have to com
pete with the mail order houses. Some
wholesale houses have actually triel
to eliminate the expense of keepins
men on the road by resorting to cato
} 1ogues and circulars with which t
reach customers, but as far as We
know the method has not proved
success. Business men as rule ar;
too busy to read the catalogues whicl
are usually consigned to the waste
: heap, and the house that sends around
a living representative at regular in
: tervals, gets the business Houses
that cut out their travelling men los
business to such an extent that they
were forced to return to the old me
} thod. In former days the country
merchant used to visit the wholesale
! houses in the large cities for the pur
pose of purchasing stocks of goods
] but he does it less frequently now L
, involved considerable expense an6
floss Of time for the merchant to de
this, and he has found that he car
do equally as we'll by ordering through
| the travelling representative of the
house. The travelling man generally
carries full line of SAMPLES. virtu
ally brings the wholesale house to the
merchant of the smaller towns, who
thus is enabled to make his selections
as satisfactorily as if he had gone tc
the cities, and in many cases more so
i If the travelling man is of the right
kind, he enjoys the confidence of the
retail dealer, and can and often does
give him valuable business sugges
tions. He will not as Mr.. Smith in
Inmates. try to unload on him unsal