The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-12-26


The home merchant is the man who pays
his taxes here. The home mechanic is the
man whose money, received for the toll he
renders, is spent with the home merchant.
The home contractor is the man who en-
ploys the home mechanic, who furnishes him
the money to be spent with the home mer-
chant.
And the home consumer, together with
the home merchant assisted by the home
mechanic who is employed by the home con-
tractor build the churches in which we wor-
ship, and the schools at which our children
are educated.
This is not scattered dissertation upon
the evils of sending to Sears & Roebuck or
Montgomery Ward & Company for the few
things which they may sell few pennies
cheaper than does the home dealer. But it
is an article which we trust will be read care
fully and, we might say, prayerfully by every
thinking man and woman interested in the
ultimate development of Ardmore, and who
care to see this city become the second city
in the state of Oklahoma who want to see it
a city like Muskogee, like Tulsa, like Okla
homa City.
With the passing of the glad Christmas
time we trust that the people who are deeply
interested in the welfare of the community will
not cease to be good fellows, but will start
in with renewed, determined effort to
make the coming year mark the greatest
commercial era in the history of Ardmore.
Ardmore has livewire Chamber of Com
merce backed up by membership of men
who as a rule, are ivewires, whose interests
are identified with Ardmore and who should
do all that mortal men and women can do
10 l. 4ha o1 OfS
Oklahoma.
But that Chamber of Commerce cannot
accomplish the impossible. 1t cannot build
up town divided against itself 1t cannot
make this a metropolis unless the men with
money to spend do their part toward encour-
aging other men to come here, to locate here,
to become integrals in the giant unit Of a
successful whole.
We have live Retailers Association, COM
posed of the business men who conduct e-
gitimate places of business within the cor
porate limits of Ardmore. These men expect
your trade and are entitled, each one, to a
properly pro rated share of it.
Also, we have some of the best contract
ors to be found in the southwest located in
Ardmore, spending their money in Ardmore,
hiring Ardmore men who are raising their
families in Ardmore and doing their share
toward making Ardmore the city which every
unselfish man wants to see it become.
We do not say that you should patronize
Ardmore merchants unless you find them
honest, honorable and upright.
We do not say that you should give your
proposed buildings into the hands of Ardmore
contractors unless you find them to be as
skilled, as honest and as reasonable as are
the contractors from other towns.
But, we do say that you should give them
fair chance, that you should give them
run for their money, that you should give
them an opportunity to submit figures upon
any piece of merchandise you wish to buy
upon any building you wish to erect. Then if
they are found to be unreasonable, if they
are found to be unworthy, if they are found
to be incapable and incompetent, then and
not until then will be the time to go into the
highways and byways and call the outside
dealers and the outside contractors to the
wedding feast.
This article is not knock. Far from it,
unless one cares to so construe an appeal to
the citizens of this community to do their
duty.
But, when we learn that one of the big
gest construction contracts which has been
awarded thus far this season. went to an out
of town contractor, to a man whose interests
are in no way identified with the interests
and the upbuilding of Ardmore, and that this
was done without calling upon any of the
Ardmore contractors for bids without afford
ing any of the home contractors a chance to
say how much they would consider the Job
worth, without submitting the plans and spec
ifications to single contractor whose money
goes toward the upbuilding and development
of Ardmore, toward the payment of taxes in
Ardmore, toward the maintenance of Ard
more schools and Ardmore churches when
we learn all this, when we have such state