The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-10-11

dealers, milk dealers and manufactur-
ers and shippers and packers of COM
modities will under-sell honest bust
ness men in order to gain the trade
and in order to make up for the cut
prices which they use as club to beat
down the market; they adulterate
their products and sell them at short
weights.
Cause Of High Living.
This dishonest competition by means
of short weights and losses by an in
furious adulteration constitutes one of
the real factors in the high cost of liv-
ing by way of illustration. suppose
house wife is short weighted one peck
on a barrel of potatoes. four ounces on
a pound of butter, half pint in a quart
of milk, pint in two quarts of vinegar
and this will about fill her market bas-
ket and you will notice that she has
been cheated out of 25 per cent. of
the money value of her purchases and
multiply this one market basket by
five thousand in your city and you
have increased the direct cost of liv-
ing by 25 per cent.
dishonest competition in other
words steals the trade from the mouth
Of labor and the milk from the lips of
the little babe; it tears the shawl from
the laboring mans wife and puts pa
per in the soles of the shoes of the
taller where good leather ought to be.
| dishonest competition is at the
root of all commercial favors and like
! a leach hangs on to commodity from
! its raw state from the time it passes
over the counter of the dealer in the
down town streets it is a lien and a
mortgage on progress and the sooner
the public pays off and satisfies the
mortgage the sooner will the honest
business world achieve that measure
of success it so justly deserved
Welcome Honest Competition.
Honest competition is to be heart
lily welcomed. 1t is the life of trade !;
it stimulates the circulation of com
merce in it's every artery and every
vein, but dishonest competition is to
be Stunned and avoided as you would
a scourge and a pestilence.
This competition begins with the
great trusts and combines and ends
with the smallest market stall on the
market. The big trusts and manipula.
tors of this country, ''gentlemens'
agreements and legal thievery have
practically eliminated competition in
the fixing Of the prices of commodities
and by a systematic scheme of rebates
and determinations have robbed the
people of millions and millions of dol.
lars. One of the largest trusts in this
country. through its president, admit.
, ted before congress that by this sys
tenn of dishonest competition it had
MIA Railway alone in nine years OF
over $13,0OO,OOO. In other words, this
$13, 900, 900 that the trust obtained by
dishonest competition was paid to the
trust by the consumers of it's products
How then can you blame the small
dealer who fights desperate battle
against the trust of this character, in
a vain endeavor to regain this faith
and secure his share OF the market?
"The fierceness then of this compe
tition, the absolute nominations OF
large quantities of capital have result
ed in this condition, the buying pub
lie is at the mercy of closed market
That this closed market is controlled
by dishonest competitors and that this
dishonest competition in this market
results in short weights, high prices
adulterated foods, that cheat not only
the housewife but through her the
family, and through the family the
community at large.
What is the Remedy?
Now, gentlemen, having considered
the conditions and diagnosed our case
what is the remedy?
First: Every honest purchaser
should as far as possible himself, ant
through his interest, patronize only