The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-08-18

able answers, Keeps labor Is the
face Of comparatively low wages A
city that does not meet these tests,
as Nome does not, loses It's labor even
in the face Of high wages
Business reinforcements is another
advantage Of association. Decent mill
managers could not fight child labor
in Alabama alone. Tax inequities in
Illinois threatened scores Of manufac-
tories and could not BE- corrected by
those manufacturers alone. Political
jobbing in Akron could not be super
seeded by manufacturers working
alone No appeal Is normally so
powerful in such premises as that of
the whole community in behalf of the
common welfare.
For the wholesaler, there are very
definite gains also; as, for example,
completeness of market. More cities
strangle themselves for the lack of
rounded wholesale trade than for any
other large factor. The value Of pro-
ducts handled at wholesale ought to
exceed the value of all manufactured
products. Where the range of pro-
ducts handled is not sufficient, the
buyer goes on to the town next larger.
The making Of complete whole
sale trade is job in cooperation,
which includes both the wholesaler
and the local retailer.
Again, the wholesaler also profits
from labor content. He is almost as
dependent upon the flow Of labor and
the stability of it as the manufactur-
er, and he is similarly incapable of
obtaining 1t working alone.
He profits largely, too, through the
focus of the customers general in
lterests upon the town. If he and his
family come to the opera concert,
a festival, school commencement,
read the town papers, and meet rel
atives at the train there, they are
developing sense of instructive de-
pendence upon the town that profits
the wholesaler more than any other.
Beyond this, there are particular
gains that the town can procure that
are beyond the wholesaler alone. Wit
ness the Shreveport rate case. When
the Chamber of Commerce, speaking
for the whole city, had broken through
the barriers set up against the whole
saler in Shreveport by the Texas pre-
|, ferential freight tariffs the field of
wholesale distribution widened over
night for the Shreveport wholesaler
The gains for the retailer are chief
ly in increased purchasing fund. The
better stores Of the town grow as the
town grows. Only the exceptional
: stores can grow materially faster
than the town; and they grc'y still
faster, if the town grows with them
The secret is the enlargement of the
retail purchasing fund spent over the
J town counters.
Most towns realize fraction only
of the fund now available. Any great
/, advance must be the fruit of coopera-
, tive effort.
The first requisite is ordinarily the
development of better personal rel
| ations between the rural buyer and
: the town. This depends upon such
agencies as the farm bureau and the
; chamber of commerce. By working
, together these agencies improve the
roads by which the buyer can come
/ and create special occasions to move
him to come, Minneapolis neglected
the roads from the south and south
{ east. st. Paul developed those roads
, st. Paul got the trade.
Schools and colleges are first APP
peal. Father and Mother will 'look
through the stires' with daughter
Incidentally, the student purchasing
fund is in itself factor of great inn
portance to the retailer. Chicago, ST
: Louis, Cincinnati and Minneapolis
count their gain in retail purchases
by the million because those cities are
centers of musical education and in
terest
Next come special and occasional
interests, such as concerts, Chautau-
qua weeks, festivals, pageants, inter-
school athletic contests, and the like.
All of this is furthered by joint
advertising campaigns and is some
times helped by joint deliveries. The
Neosho plan is an excellent illustra-
ton of the armor the retailer can
put on against mail-order competition
by participating in town building.
There are other common oportuni-
ties for merchants. Only large stores,
for example, can undertake schools
of craftsmanship alone. The retailer
needs support against the fake auc-
ton and Sample sale. An awaken