The Dickinson press., 1915-12-04

take life easy7 Just now ]. cannot
think of one-no not one that has
become rich in the mercantile game
in all that time. Several business
men in these, different towns are
comparatively well-to-do but they
did not make their money in the
mercantile business. They made it
from Investments, on the side, in
lands, bank stock, cattle, etc., and
their wealth is not the result of their
store business. We know of many
smart men who put considerable
money into the mercantile business in
the last fifteen years and lost it.
They went broke" as the saying is.
They were attentive to business,
working early and late. They were
not at all extravagent in any way and
managed to the very best of their
ability, but they could not make
their business VIM cut for them. On
the other hand, I Know of dozens of
farmers, and many Of them foreign
ers, who started on their homesteads
some twenty years" ago with seventy
five per cent less capital than the
average merchant started with, and
who have by their industry and fru-
gality become rich, many of them
having already retired from their
labor on the farm, and moved into
town to enjoy the comforts and fruits
of their labor in their declining
years. Besides having money in u
banks on deposit, many of them hold
"a good fist full Of notes and first
mortgages on the other fellows
quarter.
I noticed in one of our papers a
few days ago a statement which said
that two thirds of the money on
deposit in our banks was owned by
our farmers. Now these facts do not
agree with the Liederbach- Meyer
statements. I do not know of a
single merchant in any of the towns
I have mentioned, outside of one or
two exceptional cases, who, have
money in their local banks on deposit.
But the very opposite is the rule. AL
most every man in business is paying
the per cent interest on borrowed
money in order to continue doing
business. Well, why is it? The
merchant, as a rule, has as much.
brains and executive ability as the
farmer. He is. just as careful and
dCC6Iluo w LID OOo1llSSS DIS ClOS6ly DIS
the farmer does. Why is it then that
they have not all gotten rich in those
years as the farmer did, if they
charge the poor farmer from rs to
100 per cent profit for every thing
they sell him, and if sold on time,
ten and twelve per cent on top of
that as our friend Liederbach would
have you believe?
No, the trouble with most all the
merchants in these towns is that
they, are, too anxious to do business.
They place too much confidence in
the man from the country. They
buy his, butter and eggs and always
pay him as much and often more
than they can sell them for. They
extend him too much credit. The
business man is; as a rule, an easy
mark. He is strictly honest in his
dealings, always pays his bills and
his word is good. He thinks all his
customers are honest and almost
anyone can open up an account with
him after putting up a pretty good
story and making several good prom
Uses. The merchant believes him to
be sincere and let's him load up with
goods out of his store that he has
paid his hard cash for and is turn
ing over to the customer at a very
J small profit. Nine times out of ten,
the fellow that has been accommo-