Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1915-11-12
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
Events Of Interest from the
Seat of Government.
BY J. e. JONES.


The editor of every local newspaper
in the country hes been free in the
use of the slogan, Trade at Home. -
His clear understanding of the condi-
tions of his community make it plain
to his mind that If his town or city
had what was naturally due it the
local merchants would do a larger
business. and while the editor is mo-
toriously an unselfish member OF So
ciety, he cannot help knowing that he
has suffered with the rest of the COM
munity, and that his advertising COL
umns have been thinned out by the
mail order houses, the department
stores and the balance of that sort Of
fungus that drains the commercial
and industrial vitality of the small
towns and cities.
Examination shows that the local
merchant sells staple articles of mer-
chandise that are called for by name,
and he maintains the resale prices
fixed by manufacturers - no matter
whether the article is breakfast food,
jewelry, drugs, shoes, shirts or socks,
and he makes reasonable profit. AS
a "bait," mail order houses cut prices
on some of these staple articles, in
order to make it appear that they sell
cheaper, but their greatest effort is
made to sell goods which they claim
to be "just as good" but which are in
most cases of inferior quality, at
prices far above their actual worth.
The local merchant must either do
an honorable business or close up
shop. His principal competitor is the
catalogue house and the mail order
man, and those men actually make a
larger percentage of profit out of their
sales than the local merchant, who is
so often mistakenly accused of over
charging. An outraged public re-
belled against the old-time custom of
barter and bargain, and forced the
one-price system to be established in
reputable merchandising, but the mail
order and catalogue houses are "beat-
ing the old game" in new way.
Those are reasons why the federal
trade commission regards price
maintenance" as the biggest question
it has to handle. 1t is expected that
the commission and congress will
sooner or later put an end to the
methods of cutthroat merchandising
which are playing havoc with the
small communities and doing no good
to the large places or to anyone else
excepting the men engaged in these
practices.
Who Own Railroads?
Time was when little All Sid stuck
up his hand and answered teachers
question by informing that Wander
bilt, Gould and few others own all
the railroads." and the answer was
correct. Later on Wall Street held
most of the proprietorship. But the
interstate commerce commission finds
that there are now 622,284 persons
owning the railroads at this time.
Although the railroads have COM
planned bitterly about new laws for
their regulation, the number of stock
holders has been doubled in the last
10 years. 1t is related that it took
5000 American soldiers to wreck a
Mexican railroad at Vera Cruz, al
though three directors Of the New
Haven are supposed to have done a
more thorough job here at home. But
three or four United States senators
regulated the whole railroad bunch
and made the properties safe in
vestment for honest people. At least
the figures seem to bear out this con-
clusion.