The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-01-10
MAIL ORDER
HOUSES VS.,
HOME LABOR
REAL TRUTH OF THE GROWTH
OF CHICAGO, AND HOW ITS
PEOPLE VIEW THE WORLD, is
TOLD BY SECRETARY.
(By w. S. GilberD

The greatest sticklers for "home
patronage" are the mail order houses,
and without an exception, they insist
on employing home labor. One of
the great houses of Chicago makes a
boast that every one of its thousands
of employees are native Illinoisans. No
other product need apply. In fact,
precedence is given to Chicago-born
men and women.
What a stupendous lesson this is
for Ardmore and Carter county! 1t
is this spirit that has built Chicago
and converted her from a Cow traip'
to one of the largest cities of the
world.
1t was "Chicago first, last and all
the time" with her people, and she
did not have any more to build on
then, than Ardmore has today,
fact, not as much. Everybody was
intensely public spirited. 1t was this
public spirit, and not so much the
money, that first started the ball roll
ing, and as it rolled, it gathered mo-
mentum.
Do YOU know anyone who halls
from Chicago? If you do, you have
been almost sickened to death with
Chicago this, Chicago that, and Chi
cago everything" The sun was made
for or in Chicago with them, and
the stars shine just little more bril-
liantly in that city than anywhere
else in the wide wide world. 1t makes
no difference what the topic of con-
ersation,-Chicago must figure in 1t.
The world is Chicago with them,
and its bounds are the five great
oceans. l was there several years
ago, and happened to mention Pitts
burg. "What states that in?" replied
somebody, cts in Cook county, amt
it?" and Cook county is Chicago.
tried to get job there, but there
was nothing doing" "Where are
you FROM" was asked me, and when
i told them, they were not inter-
ested
eve are takers" they boast,-"not
givers,"- and laugh when you expos
tulate about the law of give and take
and tell them how they are just as
dependent on the rest of the country
as any other section. They look at
YOU in astonishment, and tell you that
YOU had better learn thing or two
before you "shoot off your head
One man actually told me that if an
other fire was to wipe Chicago en-
tirely off the map, that the commerce
of the United States would stop
Every farmer in the country is de-
pendent upon u.s." he said "Our peo-
pie have got them cinched. Why,
every house in Chicago has the farm
ers of the country working for them,
and what would they do without u.s.
And they really feel they have
mortgage on the farmer. They con
slider them suckers" and say that all
they have to do is to put out cata-
logues with a great variety of pictures
and the farmers fall for it.
However, Chicago is slowly but
surely losing her prestige. The aver
age farmer of the nation is waking
up to the fact that by eating the life
blood out of the small country stores
and towns, that they are also reduc-
ing the value of their farms and min
imizing their markets.
No wonder the greatest enemies in
! journalism toward the south are the
Chicago papers This diversifcation
of crops and general tendency of the
southern farmer to build up his own
territory does not go well with them.
Ardmore, in spite of the money still
being sent from home, recognizes
that the people of the surrounding
country are waking up to the futility
of expecting the county to grow, un-
| less everybody stands together.
To my certain knowledge, more
than fifty patrons of mail order
houses have Sworn or" They have
told me that in future they are going
to help with their little mite toward
creating positions for the boys and
girls who will soon be out of school,
and hunting them
| Let us keep up the fight - not
against the mail order houses,-but
against the ignorance OF the result
! in patronizing such places.