Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1914-08-14

ways ready machinery in motion.
Soon after the first good crop had
been harvested and sold they began
their campaign of unrest and inuen-
do. Every mail brought hundreds of
appeals to the citizens of the town
and country to-: "Cut out the middle
man." Save money" Buy direct
from the factory" cease being
hoodwinked by your country mer-
chant" and countless other insin-
uating phrases of similar nature.
1t took" and took good. The seduc-
tive influence of the beautiful illus
trations, and the we'll chosen words
OF the silent salesman soon had the
merchants of the town at their wits
end as to how to combat this insid-
uous influence that seemed each day
to be gaining firmer hold on the
purse strings of their former patrons.
Conditions eventually came to such
pass that few of the old school
"storekeepers" supinely gave up the
ghost, while there was yet time"
they said, ITO save a little from the
wreck"
The fate of this little city would
very probably have been that of
countless others had it not so hap
pened that three or four of it's mer-
chants were genuine live wires who
refused to admit defeat, and were
deep and broad enough to realize
that new condition existed that had
to be met in a new way. These few
men by persistent effort, and by APP
peal to that do or die" spirit latent
in all of us to a greater or less de-
gree, finally imbued their brother
merchants with grim determination
to fight 1t out to finish, and that
finish had to be victory.
After deciding on their plan Of
campaign they organized themselves
into q Trade-at-Home league, the
purpose of which was to establish
bureau of comparative investigation
for the use and benefit Of the consum-
ers living within the city's trade
zone. The active work was done by
committee of ten representative
business men who took several
months to get things in readiness for
the curtain to rise on this pioneer
drama Of commercial art, but when
that time came. they had demonstrat-
ed beyond a doubt the fundamental
soundness of the theory upon which
their labors were based.
A catalogue from each Of the three
mail-order houses doing the bulk of
the business in that territory had
been taken and carefully gone
through, page by page. and from
every line of merchandise was chosen
from one to a dozen articles that, as
near as could be determined by the
and descriptions, SEEM
ed to be of about the same quality
as similar articles carried by the To-
cal merchants. When the list was
they begun buying these
articles from the catalog houses
through the medium of their friends,
their wives, and their clerks. AS the
goods came in they were taken to the
display rooms and there carefully
analysed both as to quality and work
Shoes were sawed in half,
furniture taken apart, mattresses rip
ped open and in fact ever article was
dissected. To each arti-
Gle was then attached a card showing
the result of the investigation, dwell |
ing in detail on every essential fea-
ture of construction and material. |
The card also had the catalog illustra- |
ton and description attached show |
ing the net cost of the article deliver
ed there. Exhibited by the side of |
this article was one of as near the |
same quality and style as could be
found in a local store, which was |
treated in exactly the same manner !
as the mail-order article, the attached |
card giving the same information for |
as was shown on the |
other.
The committee in charge of the !
work was absolutely impartial in
the exhibit, as it was early /
decided that for the work to accom-