The daily Alaskan., 1914-03-12

business and sending It to dealers who do not and who cannot by any possi- ble means return 1t to do its proper and necessary work In local business circles.
 The big city mail order houses that sell goods at retail through the medi- fum of catalogues to farmers and oth. CTS all over the country buy nothing from their customers. They invariably exchange goods for money. never money for goods. They employ no labor in the communities where their customers must earn their living; they buy no farm products; they own no real estate; they pay no taxes; they have no money on deposit in the local banks; they do not advertise in the local newspapers; they do not give credit: they do not even pay the freight on goods they sell. Every cent taken by them out of the community Is per manently lost to the business of that community.
 These are all plain and evident truths, are they not?
 We would ask this very same farmer, who would be insulted were he charg- ed with negecting to keep his soil en- riched to the highest possible degree, to explain how he can deliberately rob his community by buying his goods from out of town concerns.
 Farmer Planted In Community.
 The farmer plants seed in the soil. and in order to produce results he must keen that soil fertilized. Being him. self planted in the community, he does his trading in a foreign city and there by assists his continuity In becoming poor. '.s"
 Why should this farmer have great CT respect for the seed which he plants than he has for himself, his family or his neighbor?
 There is a community In Minnesota in the center of which is city en- bracing about 10000 people, and 1t is conservatively eStimated that some thing more than $300.OOO annually is sent from there to mail order houses for the purchase of goods which could just as well be secured at the home stores.
 This estimate is based on the figures secured from reliable sources in the aforementioned community - that Is, from the banker, the express agent and the postmaster.
 This. perhaps. Is the strongest eVi- deDce Of "rObbing" a community.
 The answer to the above may be that a man has a right to buy where he pleases. It is his money be is spend ing and he has the right to send 1t away if he wishes, particularly if he feels that he is to be the gainer thereby.
 A Glorious American Privilege.
 Quite true. In this glorious America of ours every citizen Is privileged to consult his own pleasure in spending his money. He can spend 1t or hoard i it up. or he may contribute it for the purpose of building monuments to the memory of great men. No one can lawfully dispute that right. Likewise the soil rObber has the | right to use his land as he wishes and without any consideration for its fu ture fertility The land belongs to | him. and he can do as he pleases with i if. He is a free man. surrounded by hundreds of laws enacted for the pro lection of his rights.
 Pause, and Consider.
 The parallel drawn between the two cases has a tendency to give the com munity robber a chance to pause anC l consider
 i He should give the matter very serious attention and thought and en deavor to figure out method by | which he can increase its wealth, jus as the honest farmer increases tht richness and productlveness of his soil In this way only can large and sub | stontioI community be attained.