The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-09-03
WRITER TELLS OF
MAIL ORDER RESULTS
(By David PowelD

West went through the same mall-order
fad some five or six years ago that is
now affecting the people OF the north
west, and as the great catalogue
houses of the large cities grew with
leaps and bounds there went up a wild
cry of distress of every town and VII
lage in half a dozen states. Many ana
varied were the plans they used TO
stem the tide of money flowing past
their doors in never returning
stream. but as such efforts were gen
erally of a spasmodic nature and
founded on wrong principles, they quite
naturally failed in their purpose. NOT
until the great need that existed for
relief had crystalized into the general
sentiment that education of the con-
sumer was the only way to secure per-
manent results, was any headway made
| by the merchants in regaining their
lost business.
Throughout that entire section Of the
country are scattered numberless small
towns and villages that are steadily
dwindling IN population and CONNER
cial prestige They present to the eye
| a silent, grim array of empty buildings
and deserted streets that give mute
witness to the monumental folly of the
people on the one hand and the apa-
thetic incompetence of the merchants
on the other; the peoples error lying
in their obstinate blind devotion to the
siren voice of the catalogue, and the
merchants in their reluctance to look
the truth straight in the face and put
for the brain effort necessary to adapt
themselves to the changed conditions
| that came into existence with the ad-
vent of the catalogue in their commun-
ity.
Most of the towns so affected lacked
the kind of men, and the proper spirit,
to come back, and stand today crum.
bling relics of bygone commercial
age; their stores quite in accord with
the general delapidatedness of the
entire community, run by the same
type of men who years before, by their
narrowness, their cheap economies ana
unfair business methods, had paved the
way and made welcome the first cata-
logue sent to their town.
Although by far the great majority
of the communities have never ree0V-
cred, there were many that did, ana II
was the writer's pleasure while gath
ering the material for this series oil
articles, to occasionally find one that
bore every evidence of prosperity
whose store buildings were all occu,
pied whose people were hustllng and
happy; and which in general had the
appea1 ance of being the community
expression of pride, stability and con
. tentment. One could not but wonder
: by what means such favored cities
were spared the fate OF their neigh
bors. The answer was quite simple
hard, intelligent, cooperative work by
the merchants in educating the people
of their community to the wisdom OF
cooperative investigation BEFORE
sending their orders away from home.
One of the most successful methods
. employed to accomplish this result was
adopted by the business men OF city
of some l0, 600 inhabitants in one OF oul
. Southwestern states. Crops had beer
good and prices high for three or foul
. wears and the farmers who but shorl
! time before had been only too glad tt
accept the accommodations in the way
!. for credit, and in many cases cash
! that were of necessity extended by th'
! local merchant, now found themselve
I with an abundant supply of cash an'
as natural as day follows night wer'
diving to spend it. The heads of th'
big mail-order houses keep watchtu
ewes on every little nook and cram.
of the entire country and are Away
the first to take advantage OF faVoraDl
, trade conditions that hold the promls
of increased sales, and 10 this case !
was but a short while after the tirs
good crop has been sold until ever
farmer in the district was being urge
by every mail to Save money, Gu
out the middleman, cease benz
bribed by your local merchant, an
countless other phrases of similar nat
ure. 1t took" and took good, and tn
merchants of the little city were a
their wits end to overcome the seduct
i've influence of the beautiful illustra
J tions and we'll chosen words Of tn
! Silent salesman" They soon realize
they we're IN for the biggest fight Q
] their commercial lives, and as ther
4 bappened to be three or four live wire
! among them who were deep and broa
j enough to realize that new conditio
existed that had to be met in net
way, the took ample time to study tn
question from every possible angl
before finally deciding the way to DO II
/ The results obtained fully demon
/ strated the fundamental soundness
/ the plan they adopted. The merchant
Il and professional men of the city organ
II ized a Trade at Home League, the pul
II nose of which was to accomplish an
II maintain a bureau of comparative il
II vestigation, and every consumer With
II the city's trade zone was invited by
II personal letter to join, free of an
III obligations as to fees or dues eithe
II present or future. The purpose an
II plans of the organization were pull
III iished in the press and although man
HI of the mail-order buyers laughed u
II their sleeves at the undertaking ar
III cock-suredly remarked to their trienC
II that it couldn't be did" fifty-six fa
II mers ioined at the first public meetln
II after organization. Although 1t mu:
II be admitted that most of them did S
II merely out of curiosity, there were
II few who came in with an unbiased wi
II lingness to be shown.
II After deciding on their plan Of can
III paign, and for about three month
iii making tnelr puDllC dHiOulCelhohI al
II sending out the invitations, commi
II tee of ten representative business me
III had been hard at work preparing Il
U scenery and arranging the plot Il
IN this pioneer drama of commercial ar
III Their work had been done quietly, Il
HI none the less diligently, and when Il
Ill time came for the curtain to raise {
u the first act they had demonstrate
= beyond a doubt the soundness of Il
theory on which their labors we
founded and felt assured of victory.
A catalog from each of the thr,
mail-order houses doing the bulk of Il
business in that territory had be-
taken and carefully gone through, pal
by page, and from every line W
chosen from one to half dozen art
cles that, as near as could be dete
mined by the illustrations and descri
s tions, seemed to be about the sa1
quality as similar articles carried
the local merchants. When the Ii
was completed they began buying the