The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1917-02-07

Which IL the Greater Robber, the
Farmer Who Robs His Soil or the
Man Who Robs the COMMUNICATE
Glorious American Privilege - Time
to Pause and Consider.
Copyrighted, 1914. by Thomas ]. Sullivan
There are many and various kinds of
robbers loose today in this land of
plenty, but perhaps the two most un-
popular of them are the soil robber and
the community robber-the farmer
who robs his land of its producing
strength and the consumer who robs
his community Of its dollars
The high grade. successful farmer is
the one who increases rather than di-
minishes the fertility of his land Ev-
cry year be changes his crop with that
one object in view. He subScribes for
and reads very carefully the agricui-
turaI reports, paying particular atten-
ton to the reports on experiments made
by advanced and progressive farmers.
Why he does this is plain. He knows
very well that it would be useless to
plant good seed in wornOut soil It's
his wish and intention to make profit
on his investment in seed and labor as
well as In soil, and this, of course,
could not be accomplished if the soil
were not fruitful.
Bleeding Home Communities.
Today there are hundreds of thou
sands of American citizens who are
bleeding their home communities by
taking out of the channels of local
trade the money needed to transact
business and sending it to dealers who
do not and who cannot by any posi-
bic means return it to do it's proper
and necessary work in local business
circles
The big city mail order houses that
sell goods at retail through the medi-
um of catalogues to farmers and 9th
ers all over the country buy nothing
from their customers. They invaria bly,
exchange goods for money. never
money for goods. They employ no
labor in the communities where their
customers must earn their living; they
buy no farm products; they own no
real estate; they pay no taxes: they
have no money on deposit in the local
banks; they do not advertise In the
local newspapers; they do not give
credit; they do not even pay the freight
on goods they sell. Every cent taken
by them out of the community Is per
manentiy lost to the business of that
community.
These are all plain and evident
truths, are they not?
We would ask this very same farmer.
who would be insulted were he charg-
ed with neglecting to keep his soil en-
riched to the highest possible degree,
to explain how he can deliberately
rob his community by buying his goods
from out of town concerns.
Farmer Planted In Community.
The farmer plants seed In the soil.
and in order to produce results he must
keep that soil fortified. Being him
self planted in the community. be does
his trading in a foreign city and there,
by assists mis- community in becoming
poor
Why should this farmer have great
er respect for the seed which he plants
than he has for himself. his family or
his neighbor?
There is a community in Minnesota
in the center Of which Is a city en-
bracing about 10000 people, and it is
conservatively estimated that some
thing more than 100000 annually is
sent from there to mail order houses
for the purchase of goods which could
just as well be secured at the home
stores
This estimate is based on the figures
secured from reliable sources III the
aforementioned community that is.
from the banker. the express agent
and the postmaster.
This, perhaps, is the strongest evi-
dence of .'robbing' a community.
The answer to the above may be
that a man has a right to buy where
KHTD KT"@