River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-01-19
From St. Paul Dispatch Monday. January g. 1911


the inducement is not SO tempting
Mary CHATS my wife) came to
me about Christmas time and said:
Tom, | wish you would put a
money order for So in this letter
and mail it for me. | want new
hat" So l took a few dozen eggs
and what butter we had to town and
sold them at cut rate to the coun-
ty merchant to get the So. 1t is
true my wife made the butter, and
thus in a way was paying for the
hat, but she had not laid a single
egg, and the oyerworked hens and
rooster were victims of fragrant
confidence game. And when the
hat came it was a caution to snakes.
The ribbons and flowers were not
in harmony with my wife's COM
plexion. though she was mad
enough when she saw it to turn al
most any color If it had come
from home milliner it would have
been rejected at once bit the cata-
logue house had the $500, and there
was no help for it. The whole amily
agreed that it was money thrown
away. Even the dog barked his
dissent when he saw the thing and
was frightened into noisy protest.
Of course, this is only one instance,
but there are many others even
more distressing in their results.
know farmers who are always in
debt to their local merchants while
their cash has gone to the railroad
for freight bills and TO the cata-
logue houses for articles which do
not rank as either luxLries or nee
essaries, but simply as eg-pullers
to gull the unsophisticated How
would you appreciate selling your
stock and products on credit and
the purchaser using his money to
buy similar articles in a distant
market for cash? Unless we can
stand together and refuse to build
up and develop this cormorant
which preys upon US wesdo not de-
serve to have thriving towns for
markets or the advantages which
always come from being surround
ed by business community. We
have it in our power to help our
selves or to help the other fellow
So far the other fellow seems to
have the advantage while we emu
late the roll Of chumps with brilliant
success.
| noticed an article in the Mail
Bag on the second, by Mr.. D. Nor
gan, on parcels post. l think if he
had his way Uncle Sam would serve
US farmers our breakfast in bed.
He would throw so much work on
Uncle Sans shoulders that we
would have to take care of the old
gentleman in an insane asylum l
think all we should ask of Uncle
Sam is to see that the cards are not
stacked and then play the game
telephone and railroads as he says
they do in England, so we would
have to let out government con-
tracts for hauling the farm produce
think read in the newspaper, not
long ago, that that was very expen-
sive. The article said that the
contractors of the Twin Cities got
a good price for doing the job and
little extra for the officer that let
them have the job.
l will never forget the Star Route
contracts that were brought up dur
| ing the Cleveland-Blaine campaign,
where it was proved that the
government lost several million
dollars. 1t has been demonstrated
many times that a man can do Job
! himself for one-half what it will
cost the government to do the same
amount of work. | believe l would
get more out of my potatoes by
hauling them to town and selling
them on the open market, as l
would have a chance to let several
people bid on them, than | would
if l mailed them to a party who paid
twenty-five cents to telephone me
the offer for them. If use the tel.
ephone and railroad very much
would not raise enough on the farm
to pay the bills.
Mr.. Morgan says if we could send
our eggs to town by mail it would
solve the cold storage problem
Not at all, the cold storage people
would pay more than he would for
eggs, poultry, veal, ETC., and natu.
rally get them. Why not put your
cold storage houses under the
supervision of the dairy and fooc
department and let that department
date and seal every case and pack
aoe that Does in there and DIVE then