The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-08-10
My Town, or Community Patriotism

My Town, or Community Patriotism
A new book, entitled my Town, or
Community Patriotism" written by
George Blackstone Irving gives some
excellent ideas on community patrio-
tism In a chapter, entitled Zone
Reason for Town Decay" there are
lsome interesting things regarding the
big mail order houses. Through the
courtesy of the author We quote the
following:
In a broad sense the big city mail
order store is the deadly enemy of
10000 towns. Millions of dollars of
property in smaller communities Will
not realize 100 cents on the dollar be
cause of these catalogue stores.
Already deteriorating churches and
schools attest their pernicious social
influence. Abandoned towns are in
evitable, due directly to the unjust
competition of the big city mail order
stores, whose business is taxed for
city improvements, and whose own
ers give their donations, and greatest
of all their efforts, to the cities in
which the catalogue stores are locat-
ed. thereby diminishing taxes and inn
pairing constructive genius for a
towns local welfare. The mail order
store is thus the enemy of community
| welfare. The big city store has al
ready destroyed community prospect
| ty in the city, and the mail order
house is fast accomplishing the same
results in the smaller cities and
| .,aaVohant 10 ON
| barrased, then the newspaper pub
Usher, the hotel keeper, the banker
and other business men of the town,
the very influence which have taken
the leadership and supported church
and school, celebration, baseball, ly-
ceum course, and in fact, have main
| tanned the entire social fabric of the
community, while the farmer has
been tilling the soil. Sears, Roebuck
a. Company do not attend the funer-
ais of their customers Tor even send
fowers), but the home merchants do
Friends at weddings and funerals
are more desirable than donations to
soil fertility if at the price of com
munity embarrassment which dona.
tons are Insignificant compared with
the greater loss of local social wealth.
Making purchases of the mail order
house is a species of gambling both
as TO price and quality, and one cause
for the public's patronage of these
stores is to crafty this gambling
spirit.
Every community which will leave
its patronage with its home mer-
chants will possess additional to what
| it has today a factory or the equiva.
lent of a manufacturing industry.
The shopper who buys only from
her home merchant is more thrifty
than she who buys from mail order
stores, for in the former case she is
not hypnotized into buying some Gle.
yer engravings and deceptive descrip-
| tons of merchandise of mail order
house catalogues. She does not in.
crease her order TO make up n ship
! ment. Briefly stated she buys more
| nearly what she wants. Thrift and
economy more often follow home pa.
tronage, while prodigality in buying
is the habit of the patron of the big
city mail order store.
The truth is said a Chicago bic
| sloic mdhdSeT W lne writer, 'Inat
better values can be secured by a
woman in her home store for the
same money than in the city store
and il she will allow her home mer.
chant o prove il she will be wiser
and richer Other managers of big
city stores have also said that mer.
chandise can be purchased cheaper
from local merchants than in the
stores OF the big cities. and as stu
dent of this subject with years of ex
perience among both wholesale and
retail stores. the writer declares with
out any degree of hesitation that ex
cepting leaders Especial cut prices as
baits), a shopper can buy cheaper al
home and is the richer in dollars and
cents as well as indirectly in social
wealth"