The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1917-10-18
The Mail Order
Problem Reviewed

That was cleaS gain which must be
set over to the credit of the town.
Piums, cherries, early vegetables.
scores Of little odds and ends. perish
able stuff that the farmer could not
or would not ship be turnetl into cash
ut the home town.
So il q man owns two hundred acres
within reach of town he will receive
two hundred and seventy-five dollars
. year direct cash value from that
town, none of which he would receive
from the mail order house.
To be sure tho town does not donate
him that amount, the town was not
built for the purpose of philanthropy.
yet he receives an actual cash benefit
because the town is there; and he is
under actual financial obligations to
, return the benefit by spending his
money at home.
1t is not an obligation that the law
would recognize, but it is one that ap-
peals to those independent, clean
hearted men of high honor who feel
that perfect honesty demands that
when benefits are received from
stranger or brother. friend or foe,
benefits should be returned.
1t is sometimes argued that the
town has forfeited its right to the
farmers patronage by selling too
high. But careful investigation will
not bear out that contention. Your
town is unusually prosperous if you
can count more than four merchants
who have cleared ten Thousand dollars
in the past ten years. That is thou
sand dollars a year for time and in
terest on capital. You can count five
or six others who have failed during
that time, lost everything. The jan
uary invoice will not show net gain
of five hundred dollars per business
man. That means the ordinary mer-
chant and his capital are not clearing
fifty dollars a month This does not
include an unreasonable profit on
goods sold.
, Social Obligations
1t is right for the country to spend
its money with the home town because
of the social obligations between them.
The town is the center of your COM
munity. From it radiates your rural
mail service; in its center your tele-
phone systems. On the streets of the
town you meet your neighbors on Sat
urday afternoons and exchange news
and experience. You go to it for
day of recreation when the snow
comes, the fair, or on holidays.
There during the winter lecture
course you hear great orators and ex-
cellent musicians. The political raj
lies, the church conferences or associ-
ations are held.
BY and by in the pretty little village
church whose spire you can see from
your farm. your son will preach the
gospel. In the brick building two
doors from the corner, farm boy will
open law office, and in the little
frame two blocks away another son of
the soil, just back from college, will
begin the practice of medicine.
There is the high school to which
you send your children, and there after
while your daughter will teach.
And some day when you find the
farm work too heavy for your age, and
want to get near the children. you vii
build on that grassy corner lot two
doors from the Methodist church and
move to town.
Yes, the town is mighty good
thing to have, pleasant thing; and
the more you put into it the more you
get out of it. For it grows according
to the trade it gets and the more it
grows the more it can buy, the higher
will go your land.
A good town, you know. where there
is plenty of work for carpenters and
bricklayers, and masons and smiths;
work for everybody at good wages, is
worth ten times as much to the sur
rounding country as the little sunburnt
village where the carpenter and the
"storekeeper" play marbles in the
streets.
The Moral Obligation
But the last and strongest reason
why it is right that the country peo-
pie spend their money at home is the
moral obligation.
The town is yours, yours to ruin or
| prosper The same sense of obliga-
tion should prompt you to support it.
as prompted our old Tuetonic ances-
ters in the forest of Germany to stand
elbow to elbow in protection of their
village. The same spirit of loyalty
| should inspire you as fired the High
| land Scot to spend his blood for the
welfare of his clan.
That country town with all its
faults is the most enli 6 1t n d
most moral. and happiest spot in
American civilization. 1t is good
safe place. Not too swift nor not too
slow. In touch with current Of pro-
gress, but not racing with greed. The
place from which come nearly all the
great business men. lawyers, scholars.