The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-07-27
IN PRAISE OF CATALOGS.

mercantile information, a compendium OF Grass
facts and figures but also as work of art, piece
of literary workmanship. Consider it, too as
valuable work of reference for the student OF eco
nomic history if it be not indeed, equally valuable
to the student of sociology a mirror OF the ma
tons changing standards of taste. And by no
means fail to consider it in its role OF educator OF
the Masses the connecting link, and often the only
link with the great world that lies somewhere at
the other end Of the star route carriers journey
| do not know of any library that makes point
of keeping in its book stacks complete file OF mail
order catalogs, but do not know OF any library
whose collection would not be enriched and rounded
out if it had the general catalogs for the last live
years. say of the half dozen biggest establishments
doing a national business exclusively by mail.
These would include the three great general
stores'' that among them sell annually somewhat
more than 5000 000, 900 worth of merchandise, the
two largest dealers in clothing for men and women,
respectively and the biggest house that sells every
sort Of building material and hardware to Gus
toners it never Sees
OF course the small town library would run up
against the opposition of its local merchants If 1t
undertook to aid its patrons to purchase their goods
away from home The small town shopkeeper still
regards the mail order house as his deadly enemy,
notwithstanding the fact that he still gets all the
profitable credit trade it can be demonstrated too,
that the decided improvement in country store
methods, which has benefited the merchant no less
than his customers has been largely due to the com
petition of the mail order houses.
AS Picture Book.
Here is big book, thousand pages and more.
1t is full of pictures These pictures are precise
illustrations, exact in every detail, Of the things
that are told about in the text. Bathtubs and por-
there's canned goods and carpets boots and buggies
and bedsteads-all something more than mere com
modities of commerce These are the elements Of
civilization the material aids to finer living, to get
which for their children men and women gladly
toll without ceasing and nations wage war upon
their neighbors. They are the things one reads
about in stories of the rich and great, translated
into terms that bring them within the Of
common people The catalogs' stories are simple,
concrete, brief, but they fire the imagination
the less for not being couched in metaphor and
garnished with rhapsody What stories the files of
the mail order houses might-tell of stimulated am
bition, satisfied lengings, gratified pride!
One may live hundred miles from the railroad,
yet for the price of hundred bushels of wheat fit
out his farm with electric lights. For another hun
dred bushels he put in a steam heating plant;
for yet another hundred complete outfit of plumb
ing, bathtub and all. What more could he get from
a Manhattan landlord? Two barrels of apples buys
the wife pair Of shoes modsh any on Fifth
avenue; carload of potatoes furnishes the family
with every refinement of luxury Who shall deny
place in the ranks of literature to works that
conjure up in the minds of the unlettered visions
like these?
Real Economics.
As reference book for economists what
equal the mail order catalogs of given series of
years Governmcntsk keep tally the prices of the
staples-wheat, corn, cotton, potatoes; the files of
the commercial newspapers provide record of the
fluctuations in copper, butter, hay and lumber. But
what do these changing prices mean until they are
translated into terms of the goods for which their
producers exchange themf 1t is no great matter
whether wheat is 81 or So bushel; the important
matter is how many bushels of wheat the farmer
has to pay for suit of Clothes yard of carpet,
dress for his wife, harness for the work team.
And nowhere else is there such an exact index Of
the actual cost of everything people want to spend
money for
Not less accurately do they reflect the changing