Carson City daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1907-1930, 1913-11-26
APPLIES TO CARSON, AS WELL

Stand at the postoffice window any day and watch the pro-
cession that files past the money order business and you may
find a clue to the relatively small business going to Tonopah
merchants. Everybody is carrying an envelope addressed to
some mail order house which advertises prices. 1t is estimated
that at least $4,000 will go this month to such concerns in Seat
tie, Chicago and Kansas City. This money is for the purpose
of buying Christmas gifts and winter wear, every dollar of which
should be sepnt at home.
There is n o excuse for this, says the Tonopah Bonanza, and
the responsibility rests with the local merchants, who fail to
advertise prices to let the people know what they are ready to
do better than most Of the mail order houses.
Every dollar of this money should be kept at home, and
it would remain at home if proper steps We're taken to keep
buyers posted o. what stocks r carried and at what prices
commodities may be had. Nothing of that kind is attempted.
Business men hide their prices, a S if they feared some would
come and ravish them of their wealth. They seek to do business
by candle light methods, instead of coming out boldly into the
effulgence of the electric glare and inviting buyers to come and
inspect their goods.
1t is proverbial that mail order goods are never up to the
catalogue representations, for the descriptions r. s cunningly
worded as to deceive all but the most careful buyers. A case in
point is found in the courts of Indiana, where a woman bought a
sewing machine from "a mail order house and then found she had
acquired an inferior machine, not worth one-haf the price she
paid. She told her story to the local Merchants association
secretary. Instead of being laughed at and told to look for a
policeman to listen to her troubles, she was asked to make IN
affidavit of the facts. Armed with this the merchants began
suit against the mail order house for obtaining money under
false pretenses. Every word of the testimony was printed and
circulated throughout the entire state. When this suit is disposed
of the business men will follow with another complaint in the
federal court, charging the same house with using the mails to
defraud, and from every indication they are going to win both
suits.
This is a sample of the aggressive tactics that keep bust
ness at home, and a little of this vinegar and ginger injected into
the Tonopah field would bring a change in the methods and cut
down the bread line at the money order window.
TOnopah has a monthly payroll estimated at $4,000, or the
enormous sum of So 100000 a year. There is not another camp in
the state that an make a showing equal to this. Ely comes next,
but the payroll of that camp is divided between three towns, ex-
tending over a length of fourteen miles. Tonopah should do ten
times the business it does, and the mail order should be unknown.
Let your light shine by letting the people know what you r
asking. This can be done by judicious advertising with prices
attached. Don't be afraid. Quote prices first, last and all the
time.
Reno, though its papers say nothing about it, need not think
that it has any cinch on chicken-p ox and measles. There IRE other
places and they are not far distant. But it wouldn't do to men
ton it: it might hurt the town.