Goldsboro weekly argus., 1914-01-29

recognize the sign without hesitation
You may say in your letter that i
doesn't require much study to decide
whether it is better for me to buy al
home or from the mail order house.
believe you are right. l have de-
cided to help the home merchant keer
his head above water, instead of add
I am going to do what I can to save
the small towns
Respectfully yours,
For the benefit of those who failed
to read the first letter sent to the Lar
kin company by the Topeka woman, it
is herewith printed in full:
Larkin Co.,
Peoria, Ill.
Dear Sirs: Some time ago, at the
suggestion of a friend, I wrote for
your catalog, and received it. 1 have
also received several letters from you
asking me to act as secretary for the
organization of a Larkin club. In your
last letter you especially requested
an explanation of my delay. / there
fore desire to briefly state why / have
not as yet undertaken the organiza-
tion of club.
! After receiving your catalog and
carefully studying your plans, 1 talked
the matter over with some of my
friends and they advised me to have
nothing to do with the plan because it
involves patronizing a distant institu-
ton for merchandise which we can
buy here at home, of our home mer-
chants. They argued that we should
be loyal to the people who make up
our towns, who pay our state, county
and city taxes, and upon whose sue
cess, in business the prospects of our
city town and state depend.
They claim that if people did not
send their money to you, they would
spend that money at home, and the
profits of the transaction instead of
going into the treasury of a distant
corporation, would go to our local
merchants to be invested in our own
community.
| Do you think that we owe our sup
port to our own community in such
matters?
I note what you say in one of your
letters:
Housewives of every class are Lar
kin secretaries-the wife of the mer-
chant as well as the wife of the me-
chanic-the teacher as well as the
saleswoman."
If what some of the merchants tell
me is true, I cannot understand why
the wife of merchant or saleswo-
man would want to act as secretary
of club, which has for its object TAX
ing away from home stores and send
ing the profits to a distant city. Will
you please name the merchants wives
or saleswomen in local stores who are
acting as secretaries of Larkin clubs
their point of view. If have been
misinformed of the attitude of local
merchants in this matter, I would
| like to be corrected.
Perhaps I am wrong in taking the
position that we should be loyal to our
own town, and should support those
who support US. But if we should all
quit trading at home, the result would
be to distroy all our local stores, which
means that the small towns would
practically cease to exist and there
woud be incalculable depreciation in
property values, both in small towns
in this view of the case, I would be
glad to have you set me right. If the
Larkin company is bearing it's share
of the burden of supporting local in
stitutions and local enterprises,
would be glad to have you point out
where and how this is done, so that ]
may be able to answer some of the
criticisms which l hear of the policy
of patronizing firms like yours.
I have said nothing about your pri-
ees, because this other question seems
to be the dominant one. Some deny
fatty that your prices are low. If
were to enter into a discussion OF
prices, it would involve many other
considerations, such as the advant-
ages and disadvantages Of buying ar
abnormally large quantity; the ad-
yantages and disadvantages of paying
cash in advance; the advantages and
disadvantages of buying without see
ing-the goods bought, etc.
These considerations have inf1uenc
ed me to refrain from organizing {
Larkin club. If | have been misled BY
what I have heard about your plan o
business, would be glad to have yol
correct any misapprenhensIon
Very respectfully,