The Nevada County picayune., 1917-12-13
THE BUY AT HOME DEPARTMENT.
Biz Interests Sway Opinion
MAIL 0RDERS PERHICIOUS

Closed and PaId lI Per Cent DlNi-
 dend - Small Consumers Should Unite.
 1 Copyrighted, 1914. by Thomas J. sullivan.1 Commerce has made all winds her messengers, all climes her tributaries, all people her servants.
 A statesman may do much for com merce-most by leaving it alone. A river never flows so smoothly as when | 1t follows its own course without either aid or check Let it make its | own bed: it will do so better than you can Perfect freedom Is az necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citi- zenship.
 For years the men who sway the minds and mold the opinions of the public-the magazine and newspaper writers and political lenders-have with all the power and invective at their command pointed out the ne farfous practice of what they termed ''big business" and the interests" These titles were bestowed upon them simply to designate them as concerns which combined their capital for the purpose of illegally controlling either one industry or another
 Writers Should Look Further. No man will dispute the fact that residents of small prosperous com munities where a general business Is carried on do not enjoy pronounced advantages over the people living in cities where the population is con gested.
 But the publicists who are holding the "big interests" up to the scorn of human mind should look further, as there is new big interest appearing upon the financial horizon which threatens to eclipse anything which has yet appeared. We refer to the catalogue and mail order retail traders.
 As an example we will take one of the large mail order houses of Chicago, and little meditati will show what its business means to the small town. It is capitalized at the enormous amount of $5O, ,OOO, 900, sold at $10O per share; $10,OOO,OOo is preferred stock. and $4O,OOO, 900 is common stock.
 Paid Y Per Cent Dividend.
 We are credibly informed that this nf hYrui. ness in the year 1913 and paid a divi dend of IT per cent. Wouldn't these figures appall you? Ought that not to be material for the pen of the muck raker." or are the magazines silenced by the counting receipts for adverus- | ing?
 Where did this S100,O00,0O0 come from? It came from the consumer everywhere between the waters of the Atlantic and the shores of the Pacific, from people who prefer buying "cheap goods" from picture book rather than good goods over the counters of their retail mere hants
 And what return does the big cor poration give the local town for the money that it takes out of it? None. It delivers the cheap goods, and that | is all.
 Cash Controls Shipments.
 It sells only for cash If money does not accompany the order the goods are not shipped. Your financial reverseS, sickness or other misfortunes do not concern it.
 Mail order houses are merely teaches in the side of industrial humanity. 1 They drain the small community of it's dollars, and. weakened by the loss of it's financial strength, the local town totters and falls a victim of the greed of the new big business. :"
 Many persons lose sight of the fact that business enterprise is not neces- sarily an octopus simply because it is engaged in what is sneeringly called by many big business" or because it employs q large amount of capital. A mammoth corporation may be conduct ed on as correct business principles and can be as regardful of the rights of competitors and the general public as is the humblest establishment own. ed and conducted by an individual. II is the motive that inspires the manage ment in each case and the methods adopted in carrying out the controlling policy that determine the morality or immortality. the sight or wrong, the l justice or injustice, of its claims to 1 public confidence and support Should Unite Against Evil.
 But the case is not a hopeless one. Let the business and professional men the merchants. lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers, farmers and labor ers-join in spreading abroad the evan gel of ethics in business. fair dealing and rational cooperation, and great progress can and will be made toward the settlement of the vexing questions that now confront the business world.
 The evil which is bound to follow in the wake of the new big business" ought to furnish food for thought and
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