Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1918-02-08
How to Build Upor Tear Down
This Community
The Menace of the Mail Order Houses

"HAT the mail order houses in the large cities have BECOME A
MENACE to the smaller cities towns and communities is proved by
the large patronage they enjoy from all over the entire country and
further subseutated by the number Of packages carried by tonspor
tahon companies, which under the law must bear the name or some mark of
identification by which the shipper Is known.
This mail order business got its inception from mn who made a habit Of
buying up secondhand goods, stock and bankrupt firms and hre-damaged or
sdvsgs goods from fire BOSSES To these were added goods that we're cu1ed
by manufacturers and graded seconds and thirds, etc.
These were shrewd business men, men who believed in advertising, and,
realizing the possibilities Of advertising commenced their business entirely
along these lines and to PROVE THE SUCCESS or ADVERTISING no
better evidence could possibly be oHeted than the hctha every weekly
paper-fnrm, industrial, social or religous-carres their advertisements and
also that they send out catalogues Of enormous Sizes beautifully Illustrated
and embellshed, costing hundreds OF thousands of dollars to publish.
Today they have grown to such enormous size that they own and control
factories. while they contract to sell the entire output Of other factories.
However the plants they controls and operate manufacture what is termed
in symmetrical p0rlonce competitive goods-somctling that every merchant
AS TO STANDARD AND HlGHCLAss GOODS MADE BY LARGE
AND RELIABLE FIRMS YOU NEVER SEE THESE GOODS ADVERTISED
SAME AS FIXED BY THE MANUFACTURER FOR ALL DEALERS.
Therefore when one orders articles of the low-priced and cheaper kinds
seconds and no cheaper than he can buy right at home when freight charges,
money order fees and postage arr added.
Thousands of dollars annually are being sent to these mail order houses
age And yet, no matter how much the merchant may be dependent Of the
&@ronage of members of his community, he Is supposed to give and to aid
OF every work undertaken for the material betermcnt of his town, and he
does, being coerced into giving by the demands o. his customers, fearing that
THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION BUT THAT ALL OF OUR PEOPLE
ARE IN DUTY BOUND TO PArRoNIZE HOME MERCHANTS. TO
THEM YOU OWE ALLEGIANCE AND SUPPORT. ARE YOU GIVING IT
TO THEM2
If you are buying goods out of your home town-more particularly from
mail order houses and merchants in other cities, you are UNDERMINING
being. Every dime that you send " a mail order house makes that much
harder the success Of your home merchant and likewise retarls the growth Of
your town. The money you send TO mail order houses is taken entirely out of
local cIrcuadOn-is gone forever
Whereas if you spend it with a home merchant he in turn will spend it
sttsr or daughter as salary and thus It comes back into The family, doing n
Universal good.
That many OF or home people are ordering goods from mail order houses
is a wellknown fact One has hut to visit the deots and express office to find
therein day man packages addressed to Them and likewise bearing the name
merchants and that's Il fact These packages consist Of clothing dry goods
groceries, drugs toilet articles, furniture, hardware, carpenters tools, farm
implements and What not ALL or WHICH COULD DH PURCHASED
FROM OUR HOME MERCHANTS. QUALITY coEstDH"ED. FREIGHT
CHARGES ADDED AND TIME IN TRANSFORMATIONS JUST AS CHEAP
Ii AS FROM ANY MAIL ORDER I1t%t ~ . 'N'''i'FEf.