Arizona republican., 1915-08-25
Where the People
 May Have Hearing
As to the Mail Order Houses

To the Editor of The Republican:
 If the mail order houses of Chicago are sending such immense quantities of catalogues to this city. it argues that these concerns are doing a large busi- ness here. That implies that a large number of citizens are going to a lot of trouble to buy inferior" goods at high prices. It is anything but cdh- venient to pore over a catalogue look ing at cheap wood cuts, reading fine print on poor paper and trying to i'm agine what the stuff looks like when it is so much easier to go down town and see the goods, examine and price them and to listen to the siren song of the local merchant Its a lot of trouble to get out writing material and, after dozens of references to the catalogue, list out the goods following carefully the formulae prescribed by the cata- logue house. You don't have to write and list and conform to disagreeable rules if you go down town to buy. And then you don't have to enclose your check, or go down to the post office and get a money order or an express draft. A lot of trouble, for the mail or der houses must have cash in advance.
 You might get credit at the local
 
 stores and pay only at the end of the month: much more convenient. Then you have to wait a long time before the goods arrive from Chicago. Why don't you get them from one of the stores in the city and carry them home with you or have them sent out to you in the afternoon? And when the goods finally reach you, you have to pay the eXpressman or pay the freight in advance before the railroad-will re- lease them. Its a lot of trouble to deal with the catalogue houses. Why will lot of people, big lot, go to all this trouble? Answer that MT. Editor, and I'll guarantee that if you address your self seriously to the task, with the single purpose to get at the gist of the question, without reference to the inn mediate financial interests of the Re publican and publish candidly the re- suits of your investigation, you will find the paper without advertisers. 1 very much fear you will not undertake the task, though if it were carried through without fear or favor. the re- suits would serve as an excellent and rruch needed purging out of muchpre- tence, nonsense and self deception. The ad-man will not st9rd z" t''r'
 the gentle editorial admonitions into wholesome, if caustic criticism, nor LIie gentle and approbative batting on the back to severe and well merited cas- tigation. Tho inoanahla roo~oha '+ "'Hd the business-like business man must be coddled and editorial InvectlVe iauncn- ed against the dupes who patronizes the catalogue houses at a saving of from 10 to 30 per cent.
 There are plenty of excellent reasons why very uncomfortable number of the citizens of Phoenix and vicinity continue to buy from Chicago. They are not deceived They are not going to lot of trouble to pay cash in ad- vance for inferior" goods and wait two weeks before the goods reach them. They do not suffer these inconVen- fences without a good reason. If the Phoenix merchants would repair their fortunes, it behooves them to get busy and to turn to some account the great advantages that they possess over their catalogue competitors else these rivals will be selling the Phoe-