The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1912-04-04
Do TRADING At HOME
Patronize Local Merchants and
Eradicate Mail Order Fever.
WILL HELP TOWNS PROGRESS
Look For Bargains In Home Stores
and the Home Town Will Surely Con-
tinue to Develop and Prosper-Make
This Year Memorable One.

and the Rome Town Will Surely Con-
tinue to Develop and Prosper--Make
This Year Memorable One.
During the course of the new year
there will be renewed, or. rather, con
tinued, throughout the length and
breadth of the United States the fight
against the mail order menace. All
indications point to campaign of OPP
position in 1910 that will surpass in
effectiveness any efforts heretofore put
forth by the merchants and other bust
ness men of the smaller cities and
towns and by such of the citizens not
in business as have come to realize
that mail order buying saps the life
blood of the community.
The campaign of education went
on with frightening strides during
1909. Communities which a year or
two ago were on the verge of dissolu-
ton from anaemic exhaustion. blood
loss through business loss, have been
aroused to their condition and show
unmiStakabe signs that they know
what has caused their ailment and are
going to try hard to overcome the
cause.
While, as matter Of course. many
towns still need to have the prod of
the knowledge of the art of self pres
ervatiOn thrust into them up to the
hit, there is scarcely a neighborhOod
outside the great cities which has fail
ell to experience some acceleratiOn in
the movement toward Il revival or Il
retention of home trade.
The problem, boiled down to the bit
ter dregs, is this: SO far as business is
concerned, are the hitherto prosperous
towns of the United States to become
mere suburbs of the enormously over
grown cities?
That is exactly what the problem
looks like TO a man up Il tree of obSer
walton. 1t really requires no climb to
a high altitude to make the discovery.
The way to calculate is to calculate.
If you have been q student of the
spreading disease, perniciouS anaemia.
which has been affecting the smaller
towns of this country for about a
dozen years past, due to infection
from the microbe of mail order trad
ing, you can calculate easily, without
hiring experts, that unless somebody
does something toward graduating the
germ the town community will CON
tinue to decline by slow exhaustion.
The main trouble with Il great many
of our towns is that they don't prop
erly diagnose their own symptoms I'M
til the disease germ has got Il strange
hold. The mail order menace is like
the hOokworm, which was exploited
so widely in the press during the past
year. The hooliworm attaches itself
to the vitas and hangs on, sucking
out the vitality. one hookworm
doesn't do much damage. The patient
could stand one or 4 dozen or score
and never experience any vast dis
comfort or get that tired feeling
which is said to make the hookworm
victim careless whether school keeps
or lets out before recess. but a hun
drcd hookwormS, all working at once
on the same subject, are calculated to
cause him to loaf on the shady side of
the fence instead of hOeing corn.
One mail order buyer in communi-
ty isn't much of Il menace. But when
hundred. a thousand, become mail
order bugs" the community is mighty
likely to suffer that wilted feeling that
comes to cherry tree when some
truthful George has skinned its bark
with his little Ratchet.
The trouble is that many of the
Georges who are hacking away at
their community tree with the mail
order ak are not candid enough to con-
fess it and promise not to do so again.
They want to let the other Georges do
ito 'feSs up and ask forgiveness
promising to go and sin no more
Many mail orderers send their orders
secretly, and when the goods come
they say nothing as to where they
were bought.
This, by the way, is Il good sign too
When a citizen becomes ashamed Of
himself for helping to sap the life
blood of his own town by pouring cash
into the Golfers of distant and opulent
strangers it is an Indication that the
leaven Of civic pride is working with
in him.
Who in this community is payin"
constant tribute to some gigantic cor
poration store in a city that cares
nothing for this town save to get its
money? 1t is a fine thing to put mon
ey in circulation. far finer than to let
it rust in tomato cans or retired socks
But the citizen, man or woman, who
has the interests of the home commu-
nifty at heart prefers TO put the money
In circulation around home. Like
bread cast upon the waters, it Will
come back to you after many days if
you cast it upon local waters. But if
you cast your bread upon the ocean Of
the mail order trade it will get swept
into the gulf stream and never come
back.
Bargains are all right. All of us love
to get bargain when we trade. But
if all of us should send our money to
Chicago or Boston or New York or
San Francisco for bargains when the
home merchants are Offering bargains
also how long will the home merchant
last and how long will the home town
continue to develop?
The thing to do il to begin the new