The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-07-13
DOES THIS TOUCH YOU !?

/
A Plain Statement of Facts Concern
ing the Evil of Patronizif,q Mai
i Order Houses and ltinerant Mer
chants-Reasons Why You Shout
Buy at Home.
i Shreveport Journal:
/ Under the caption of Don't Rol
Memphis, the Commercial-Appea
mas an editorial that is thoroughly
applicable to every other city an6
town IN the country. It deals will
that class of people who are prone
! to patronize the mail order houses
/ and the takers who travel about from
/ city to city with special showings,'
etc. Says the CommerciaI-Appeal
What excuse can you give tc
Memphis for making your living
in Memphis and then sending your
money away from this city for house.
! hold supplies, clothing and furniture?
Tactics of this sort will never build
great city, but these things are go
| Ing ON in Memphis every day.
You may think you are getting
bargains, but you arc not. A man
came to Memphis a few days ago
With a lot of samples of dresses and
other wearing apparel used by
women. He got a telephone directory
and sent out a cordial letter to Wo-
men asking them to call and see his
creations and confections. He as
sured each woman that she had been
especially selected for the honor of
seeing these artistically made gowns,
etc, etc.
inspection of these articles shove
tnat their duplicates We're for sale
ii Memphis stores at prices ranging
about 20 per cent less than the prices
asked by the itinerant vendor A
waist that one of the Main street
Etnerchants had tagged for sale at
5000 was offered by the temporary
merchant at SIS.
This man could not have sold ar
ticles cheaper than could the Mem
phis merchants, for he manufactured
them, in a city where the costs of
goods and labor are as high as in
any other city in the country. Be
sides, he had to pay his own ex-
penses and other expenses that the
local merchant absorbs. These were.
added to the price of the goods
Commercially, then, this is poor
business.
Isn't it a little unfair to run an.
account with a Memphis merchant
and let that account stand uneol-I
#lected from one to three months and
then pay your cash out to some itin.
Grant peddler?
But the question is broader than
the viewpoints from which we have
approached it. The Memphis mer-
chant pays big rents and enables the
owner of the property to pay taxes.
He hires help and enables the owner
OF some other property to collect
renta from his help.
Every thousand dollars worth OF
goods a Memphis merchant sells
makes business for somebody else.
Il a retail merchant, because of
the increase of his trade, hires ten
additional clerks, say at an average
price of SIS week, this means that
hs is probably affording labor suffi..
cient to support four or five families.
These families then are equipped to
pay house rent or to buy a home and
buy groceries, to pay water bills, and
to contribute generally to the activi-
ties of the city.
There is enough stuff ordered
away from Memphis every year, that
could be ordered from Mehnphians, to
support an added population of 10000
people. Now, if we had this added
population Of 10000 people, cannot
you realize what a tremendous asset
it would be in the city's growth and
prosperity?
IF the prices were higher in Mem
phis tran merchants in other cities
offer, then tlere might be some ex-
cuse for tisis to the person consti-
tutionally selfish, but the prices are
not highe. III Memphis than they are
elsewhere Even if they were, you
may be responsible for the added
price IN demanding big rents, and
demanding asphalt streets, in de-
manding a park system of 1900 acres,
ard AL the other good things this
city enjoys. You must pay for pleas
ire as well as meat and meal.
'sYou hear much about Atlanta.
Atlanta grows because the people of
Atlanta patronize their own mer-
chants, because they believe in their
own city, and as a matter of pride
they give TO Atlanta the preference
over every other place undr the sun.
1--WE have had a backward spring
In the Memphis territory there has
been a great flood Of water. We
have all of us got to dig to catch up,
And if we pull together and stand
by one another we will catch up.
Think this matter over, and II
you have offended along these lines
promise yourself that you will offend
no longer, and when an editorial OF
this sort may be written later on you
viii be one of the number who can
say, Tt doesn't touch me-
There arc people in Shreveport,
both men and women, who patronize
at every opportunity vendors of the
class to which our Memphis eontem-
porary refers. Needless to add