Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1918-05-02
Keep One Moving and See What
It Will Do for Your Com
munity.
PAYS MULTITUDE OF DEBTS
When Il Is Sent Out Of Town, How
ever, to Pay for What Can Be
Bought at Home 1t Is Gone
Forever.
(Copyright.)


1t is rather wonderful thing, when
you stop to think about it what one
lone dollar will do, If it is kept at
work. This has been illustrated in a
striking manner on several occasions
by means Of very simple experiment.
If you want to see just how important
role a silver dollar or dollar bill
plays In the life Of community here
is the way to do it. Just attach tag
to the dollar and turn it loose with
the request that every person who
receives the dollar make note on the
tag as to how he received 1t. The re-
suit will be an eye-opener.
Here is the way it works: Smith,
the lumber dealer, who first possesses
the dollar, buys some groceries from
Brown and pays for them with the dol
lar. About that time Jones, the plum
Der, who had done some work for
Brown, sends his collector around and
Brown pays the bill with this dollar.
Jones owes Green, the printer, small
advertising BILL so he sends this dollar
with possibly some others, to Green
to pay his bill. Green had just put
the dollar in his cash drawer when
in comes Black, the milkman, to whom
Green owes q dollar for milk delivered
at his house. Green takes the dollar
out of his cash drawer and pays
Black. For some time Black has owed
White, the carpenter, for some work
done on his dairy house, so now he
takes the dollar that Green has paid
him and pays up what he owes White.
White still owes for some lumber that
he bought from Smith, the lumber
dealer, so he takes the dollar and
squares up his account with Smith
Smith now has his dollar back. Brown
has been able to pay his plumbing
bill, Jones has squared up with the
printer and so on, all around the
circle.
What Might Have Happened.
Now suppose that Smith, instead Of
buying his groceries from Brown, had
purchased them from mail order
house in far distant city and sent his
dollar to pay for them. Brown would
not have had that dollar to pay Jones,
the plumber; Jones could not have
paid his printing bill; the printer would
have had to stand off the milk man;
White the carpenter, would not have
got the money for the work he had
done for the milkman and Smith would
not have got the money which White
owed him for lumber
This is all so simple that it requires
no student Of economics or professor
Of mathematics to figure it out. Any
one can see that when Smith sends
that dollar to Chicago or some other
city where the mail order houses -four
ish, that dollar Is gone so far as Smith
and Jones and Green and the rest of
the people in Smiths town are con-
cerned. That dollar will never come
back to pay any bills in Smiths town.
And the thing that stands out most
striking, but is most often overlooked,
is that Smith, the man who first spends
the dollar, is hurt just as much when,
he sends that dollar out Of town as is
the home grocer from whom he might
have bought his groceries.
Now just multiply this one dollar by
hundred or a thousand or ten thou
sand. One dollar may not seem to
make much difference in the average
town, but thousand dollars or even
hundred dollars does make differ"
ence. Just as one dollar will pay q
dozen or hundred small bills, hum
dred or a thousand dollars will pay a
dozen or a hundred big bills. When
Brown, the grocery man, owes thou"
sand dollars and can't pay 1t, he ts
headed for the bankruptcy courts.
When Jones, the plumber, can't collect
the money which is due him from
Brown or maybe dozen Browns, he Is
headed in the same direction as Brown.
And 80 it goes all around the circle
until it hits Smith or dozen Smiths
who have sent their money out OF town
to add to the fortunes of the mall order
men.
Buyer One Who Is Hurt.
Thus, it will be seen that this buy
at-home proposition is really selfish
one with the man who buys the goods.
He is not hurting the home merchant
when he sends his money out Of town,
any more than he is hurting himself.
Every sensible man knows that his
livelihood depends upon whether bust
ness in his town is good or not. IF
business is not good, he cannot make a
good living for himself and his family,
no matter how hard he may work, and
business cannot be good if the bust
ness men in the town are not making
money. This is plain business propo~
sition for every man and woman in the
community. BY spending their money
at home they are helping the home
merchant only incidentally. They are
buttering their own bread. When they
send their money to the mail order