The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1916-12-07

In Seattle thanksgiving Lay OF y.
E. Hanna. j. K. Hawkins left the
next day to attend the funeral which
was held Tuesday Of this week. Mr..
Hawkins expects to be in Seattle about
three weeks.
Miss Walker, of the home economics
extension department Of the State
College, gave a talk on cooking,
sewing and household management be-
fore about twenty ladies at the club
house last evening. The meeting had
been postponed from Tuesday on ac-
count of the inclement weather.
We got bundle of old papers at
the Courier-Reporter Office this week
with which to start fires in the morn
ing. Being somewhat short of read
ing matter we started looking them
over and found in the bunch copies of
nearly all the weeklies published in
the nearby towns. We started perus-
ing these in rather a critical state of
mind comparing them with our own
local weekly. After a careful exam
nation of dozen or fifteen we de-
cided that our own paper is without
exception the best of the lot. This but
strengthens us in the belief which we
have always held, that the Courier
Reporter is the best small-town week.
ly which we have ever seen. That
this is the case reflects great credit
upon the publishers as they are doing
it, not because of the support given
them by the business men of Kenne-
wick, but in spite of it. A paper
necessarily depends for it's support
upon the advertising given it by the
various businesses of the town, and
while some of the storekeepers of
Kennewick are good advertisers, a
goodly percentage of them are not.
We have here in Kennewick five
stores handling groceries and the last
issue of the Courier Reporter carried
an ad for but two of them. We have
two drug stores and in the same is
sue appeared the ad Of but one. We
have two dry goods and furnishing
stores and we failed to find either of
them represented in the advertising
columns. Our shoe store was like
wise absent from the advertising col
umns as was also the clothing stores.
In view of the showing made by the
advertising columns we again say we
fail to see how the local paper can
make the showing it does with the in
Indifferent support given it by the
business men Of Kennewick.
In line with the above thoughts it
also occure to us that the merchants
of Kennewick might look to their fail
ure to let the people know that they
are in business and what they have
in stock as a reason for much of the
mail order business that is daily go
ing out of town. The merchant who
has complete stock, priced right,
and who thru his regular weekly adj
vertisement lets the people Of the COM
munity know what he has and what
the prices are, need have but little
reason to fear the catalogue houses.
Exhorbitant prices and failure to car
ry in stock what the people want are
largely responsible also for the large
mail order business. Let us quote two
instances. We have a friend who
wanted new cover for his Ford. He
inquired at a local dealer who said it
would cost $15. This appeared too
high and he appealed to mail order
catalog with the result that he got
the material for the cover for $40
and spent about two hours putting it
on, saving on the one transaction
$3.50.
Again, we wanted a pair Of rub
Der boots for the "old man" and pair
each for the two boys. They could not
be had in town so we simply looked
in the catalog and fired in an order,
getting the goods back in four days.
The business men sometimes criticize
the farmer for sending away for so
much stuff but it seems to us that
Mr.. Business Man is more at fault
than anyone else.