The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-08-01
Who Is Your" Friend?
From the southern Merchant

Did you ever STOP Mr.. Consumer,
you who patronize the mail order
houses, and consider who your real
friends are? No, we don't believe
you have, or you would stop patron
izing those fellows. You like friends,
you want friends; we all do. Let's
get our heads together little while
and see II we can't decide who Is your
friend, the mail order houses or the
home merchant
Who buys your produce? Who
buys your butter and eggs? 1t is
your home merchant. You would not
think of sending them to mail order
house, would you? They would
laugh at you. Who builds your roads?
Who builds your churches and school
houses, or any other improvements
that you may make in your city? Do
these mail order houses ever contrib
ute one cent toward them? No; it
is your home merchant who, through
his taxes and personal contributions,
does this. The mail order houses do
not care anything for you or for your
town. All they want is your cash,
and they want that in advance.
You say you can buy goods cheap
er from these mail order houses.
That is not so. Ninety-nine times out
Of 100 your home merchant will sell
you the same articles FOR even less
money.
l have investigated many cases,
and I have the first case to find
where the goods were cheaper than
you could have bought at home.
There is one case to which my atten-
ton was called recently which posi-
lively looked like crime to me. A
poor woman in small town wanted
to buy cook stove from her NOR
chant; the price asked was SIS. The
woman would not buy it, and told
the merchant that she could buy the
same stove in the East for SIS. The
merchant tried to argue with her and
told her there were many different
kinds Of stoves made, and the partic-
ular stove that he tried to sell her
was one of the best and heaviest
cook stoves on the market; that he
had used one in his own home since
he was married, and that was fifteen
years ago, and it was as good as new
even now.
The woman sent her postofice or
der for SIG to the Eastern catalogue
house, and in about three weeks the
stove arrived in the little town. In
order to convince the merchant that
she bought the stove cheaper she
stopped at the store to show it to this
merchant and to compare it with his
own stove. OF course they looked
something alike. The stove that the
merchant tried to sell her was a stove
made by one of the largest stove
manufacturers in the South and had
the firms name on it. The stove she
received had no name on it whatever.
The people that made it evidently
were ashamed to put their name on it.
The stove she received from the cata-
logue house was thirty pounds lighter
than the stove the merchant tried to
sell her, and the raw material, at 10
cents pound, was SO loss and the
81 freight that she had to pay on the
stove made IS loss altogether, so the
poor woman really paid SO more for
much poorer article than she could
have bought at home from her home
merchant and for an article made in
her own state.
There are some people VINO will
buy from the home merchant on
credit and when they get a few dol
lars they send them away to these
mail order houses. Do you think that
is right? OF course not. You would
not think for a moment to ask a mail
order house for credit, would you?
To whom do you go when you want a
favor or when you are in trouble?
Who comes to your house to comfort
you when you have sickness In your
home? 1t is your home merchant.
II all of you make up your minds to
patronize your home merchant for
everything you may need you will
have much better town in a short
while and you will not only be help
ing your town but the entire COM
! munity.