Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1914-08-14
NOVEL EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED
BY CITIZENS Of NEBRASKA TOWN

mercial age; their merchants pro-
totypes of those who. years before,
by their narrowness and penny-grasp-
ing business methods, paved the way
and made welcome the first catalog
sent their town. They present to the
eye silent, grim array Of empty
store buildings and deserted streets
that give mute witness to the folly
and ignorance of the people on the
one hand, and the apathetic incom-
petence of the merchants on the 9TH
er; the peoples error lying in their
obstinate, blind devotion to the siren
voice of the catalogue, and the mer-
chants, in their reluctance to look
the truth straight in the face and the
unwillingness of their sloth-like
brains to put forth the effort neces-
sary to adapt their business methods
to the changed conditions that came
into existence with the advent of the
catalog in their community.
Although great is the number OF
the towns that have never recovered,
and probably never will recover, the
fact that they could have done SO is
amply proven by the few that did.
Scattered here and there over the five
states covered while gathering the
data for this series of articles would
occasionally find little city that
bore every evidence of prosperity;
whose store buildings were all occu-
pied; whose people we're hustling and
happy; and which in general had the
appearance of being the community
expression of pride, stability and con-
tentment. Upon arriving in such a
city and noting these prosperous con-
ditions, that we're in such marked
contrast to those prevalent elsewhere,
my first thought would invariably be
that the enjoyment of some excep-
tionally favorable natural condition
would account for it's being spared
the fate of it's neighbors. 1t seemed
in violation of all known laws of reas-
oning and logic that one town could
SO abundantly prosper while it's
neighbor. a score of miles away,
would be slowly decaying under the
same general conditions. Investiga-
ton however would always prove my
supposition wrong. Answering my
inquiries as to what they owed the
of their community happi-
ness and prosperity. both profession
al and business men would say, in
substance: Cooperative, intelligent
and persistent effort on the part of
our merchants in teaching the people
the truth about mail-order competi-
ton and educating them to the dol
lars and cents wisdom of comparative
before sending their
money away from home"
I found that many different meth
DDS had been employed to accomplish
this result, and although they were
all based on the same fundamental
theory, I think the one that proved
most successful and at the same time
NOSE expensive in dollars and effort,
was the plan adopted by the business
and professional men Of city of
some 5000 population located in
Nebraska. Crops had
been good and prices high for two
Or three years and the farmers who
had humbly begged accommodations
in the way of credit, and in many
Eases cash, during the preceding hard
lines now found themselves out of
lebt with an abundant supply of
ready money they were dying to
spend. The big mail-order concerns
who keep watchful eyes on every lit
lie nook and Granny of the country
md are always the first to take adj
,antage of favorable trade conditions
hat hold the promise Of increased
sales lost no time in getting their al