The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-02-11
The Mail Order Business And
The High School Students

| Dakota, be it farming, merchandise
ing or manufacturing. The mail or
der business retards the growth of
our population and the development
| OF many of our natural resources, IL
stands in the way of North Dakota
ever becoming a manufacturing
state and it robs our children OF
many educational and vocational ad-
vantages. North Dakota cannot and
will not develop properly, so long
as capital is scarce within it's
borders.
The first step for the debaters
then, is to ascertain the truthful
ness, or at least Gthe reasonableness
| Of these claims and prepare their
arguments. The claims of the mail
order houses are partly true, they do
sell goods at lower prices that the
local dealers do, but on close exam
ination we find that the workman
ship and materials in most mail or
der goods are not equal to those sold
in our local stores Lower prices do
not necessarily mean greater values.
Most Of us have found that quality
Is good investment and that
cheap" goods are nearly always the
most expensive. The claim of hay
ing a great variety to select from
The mail order houses handle many
different lines and cater to all parts
Of the country and many articles
listed in their catalogs are useless
in some parts of the United States.
Orange tree sprays do not inter-
est the North Dakota farmer any
more than sheepslCin lined coats or
felt boots interest the Texas farmer
When we want to buy a set Of har-
ness, we do not care how many palm
beach suits or silk stockings the
dealer has on the shelf Several
Fargo dry goods stores have as large
an assortment OF dry goods as is
shown in the big mail order catalogs,
and implements.
Claim OF New Goods.
The claim OF having only new and
I'D to date goods may be true. it is
diflcult to say how old a stock of
merchandise is. As for being up to
date, when we compare the big
cataioEs with a standard fashion
magazine we find many styles in
each that are not in the other. The |
practice of refunding the purchas- |
ers' money IL goods are not satisfac- |
tory, is so general among all mer- |
chants that it cannot be considered |
q mail order feature.
AS for our claims, Irving S. |
PAUL, in his commercial survey of |
North Dakota, says: IF the people |
Of North Dakota will spend their !
money at home they will, without |
doubt, double their population in |
Ave years" Doubling the population |
would surely increase land values i
and induce capital to come into the
state and thus increase our credit,
reduce interest rates, and taxes,
develop our natural resources and
as it would greatly increase the
volume Of shipping it would lower
our freight rates and the general
cost OF doing business.
The big mail order houses are To-
Gated at Chicago, Ill. Will North
Dakota ever have city like Chica-
20? Not so long as the business is
sent there. Business men locate
where business is to be had. and so
long as Chicago gets q large share
of North Dakota's business, she will
get a. large number Of the business
men who should be in North Da-
kota building up great cities and
market places in our state.
Manufacturers prefer to locate
near the best markets but so long
as Chicago gets credit for more than
one third OF North Dakota's busi-
ness. manufacturers will surely pre-
fer Illinois to North Dakota.
The question resolves itself into
one Of individual gain, which Isl
largely imaginary. on one side ana
collective loss, which is very real,
on the other.