The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-12-14

place them beyond the range of the ordinary worker. Under ordinary conditions this cannot be as well done by competition, for the very great expense of numerous small establishments in competition, means that those expenses must come out of the consumer. Hence ordinary business prudence dictates that these be carried on in such way that despite expenses an income will be assured, and it is the con sumer must pay that income as well as the expenses incidental to the distribution of the mechandise.
 The retail business in any commu- nity is one that is accompanied by considerable risk. Those risks are due to bad debts and other losses which cannot be foreseen. The good customer is one who must pay for the bad, and the offices are such as to cover losses incidental to bad book accounts.
 Some stores conducted upon 6 cash basis make a speciality of small profits but quick returns, and the se- cret of success in many mail order and department stores is that they write up no accounts and insist upon cash.
 To operate such stores however involves great capital and usually when they succeed in establishing a business upon that basis, the quick returns are insisted upon but the small profits are superseded by very large ones indeed.
 The mail order houses and depart men stores of mammoth proportions also buy direct from the producing manufacturer They buy up for a very small margin of profit the en- tire output of factories. In conse- qucnce they place merchandise on the market at prices which some times are equivalent to the whole sale prices in other sections. A Chicago house recently made a particular feature of silk gowns at a price which was considered imposs- ible by ordinary retailers. A large order was filled for an Oregon city addressed to a reverend in the coast burg. The Chicago store was acurious to know just what a rev erend" was doing with all the dres- ses, and after filling the order placed sleuth on its tracks. The sleuth reported that the gowns ord- cred by the preacher" were adorn- ing one of the show windows of the biggest store in the Oregon town, ha and at price about two hundred per cent higher than the Chicago ca taloged schedule.
 The important point about this is that the people do not know any country is kept in a state of pro- found ignorance on manufacturing prices and costs of production. Bus mess has become as secret a profes- sion as the medical profession of an other day, and they use a jargon all their own.
 There never has been any decent effort made to bring home the facts to the people. There is not an average man in any community can tell offhand the relation of prices wholesale or retail to the actual val ues of the commodity. There is no standard; it is an empirical matter which fuctuates for a variety of reasons and price today has little or no relation to the actual worth ot a commodity Articles which cost trifle to produce are marked at a fabulous figure and occasionally, but mot often vice versa
 The cooperative movement is therefore not based upon any precise knowledge as a general rule of the economic facts. It is due to the ill. stinctive view that the consrmers are paying mote than they should for the merchandise which they pur- chase. But although this instinctit 2 feeling is beyond question founded upon fact. there is not the slightest probability that the real cause. of this imitation can be determined offhand and an intelligent view taken of the matter in this regard. A variety of causes are blamed for this condi-