Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1921-10-27
Interesting Results Might Be OBJ
tanned by Making Certain
Requests.
LOCAL MERCHANTS HELPFUL
Do All the Things for the People OF
Their Community That the
Catalogue Concerns Will
Not Do.

OF nlne-tentns, or some such big pro-
port;on-the exact figures do not mat
ter-of the business of the world is
done on credit. If this was not true
there wouldn't be much business done
for no currency system could be de-
vised that would furnish enough money
to meet the needs of commerce If ev-
cry article sold had to be paid for in
actual cash. The amount of money in
circulation in the United States is only
SAT per capita and this would not 60
very far if everyone had to keep
enough cash on hand to pay for all
that he might buy.
The greatest of financiers need cred
it. They keep their resources employ
ed and at times are in need of ready
cash. The same thing is true at times
Of men of smaller means. The credit
system, as it is used sometimes, espe-
cially in the smaller communities, is
abused and works a serious hardship
upon the business men of the town.
Some merchants, to avoid the loss that
results from such abuse of the system
or possibly to enable them to sell
goods at lower price than their COM
petitors, operate strictly on cash ba-
sis, but the great majority of mer-
chants in every community give those
customers who are responsible and
honest the privilege of a charge ac-
count and the chances are that some
sort of a credit system, properly safe
guarded, will always continue to be a
feature of legitimate trade.
Ask Catalogue House for Credit.
You who have a reputation in your
community for being at least fairly re-
sponsible and upright know that when
you desire 1t or need 1t you can obtain
credit from at least some of the mer-
chants in your town. But some time
when you are in need Of some article
of merchandise and are a little short
of ready money, order what you want
from a mail order house in Chicago or
some other city and ask them to please
charge it till the first of the month.
The experiment will be interesting, at
least, and the answer that you receive
may cause you to give little thought
to the difference between trading with
the mail order house in some far-off
city and buying from the merchants in
your own home town.
Some mail order concerns are now
operating a so-called credit system, but
1t is not a credit system such as is
maintained by most retail merchants.
These mail order houses will sell GER
tain merchandise on the installment
plan, but they not only demand an
Initial cash payment, but require the
purchaser to sign a contract which
operates as mortgage not only on the
merchandise purchased, but upon any
other property that the customer may
possess. There is nothing in this
system that bears any similarity to the
open credit system that is used by
the majority of retail merchants.
There are some other requests you
might make Of the mail order man
when the occasion arises and the re-
spOnses might be equally interesting.
For instance, you, Mrs. Farmer, who
bought that box of groceries from the
catalogue house last month"; might
write the manager and ask him to buy
your butter and eggs. OF course, it
would be considerable more trouble to
pack them for shipment to the city
than it is to take them in to your To-
cal grocer who is always ready to
pay you the market price for them, but
then maybe the mail order man would
pay you enough more than the market
price to pay you for the extra trouble.
And then again, maybe he wouldn't.
And, then, there Is that moving
machine that you, Mr.. Farmer, have
been figuring on trading In for new
machine Suppose you write to the
mail order man from whom you bought
that wire fencing and ask him what
he will allow you for your old machine
on trade for new one. OF course,
the local hardware dealer In the town
where you find market for your farm
products will allow you a fair price
for your old machine, but what's the
order man surely will be glad to do
that much for you, will he not? Yes,
he will not.
List Is Endless.
There are good many things the
mail order man will not do for you.
The list would be too long to crowd
into one issue of newspaper. He
will not give you credit, however
much you may need 1t. He will not
buy the farmers produce. He will not
pay dollar of taxes to help support
your schools or build your roads. He
will not contribute cent to the sup
port Of your churches or your charita-
BILE institutions. He will not lend you
a helping hand in time of trouble.
The local merchants in community
will de everything for the people In
that community that the mail order
man will not do for them. This fact
should make it easy for the people OF
the community to decide which 1t Is