The Winslow mail., 1926-04-09
Interesting Results Might
Be Obtained by Making
Certain Requests
LOCAL MERCHANTS HELPFUL
Do All The Things For The People
OF Their Community That The
Catalogue Concerns Will
Not Do

WU1l Is uOuS Oh VI Co1Ls Ii IulS
was not true there wouldn't be
much business done for no curren-
CIV system could be devised that
would furnish enough money to
meet the needs of commerce if ev-
cry article article sold had to be
paid for in actual cash. The amount
of money in circulation in the Uni
ted States is only SAT per capita
and this would not go very far if
everyone had to keep enough cash
on hand to pay for all that he might
buy
The greatest of financiers need
credit. They keep their resources
employed and at times are in need
of ready cash. The same thing is
true at time of men of smaller
means. The credit system, as it is
used sometimes, especially 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 sys-
tenn or possibly to enable them to
sell goods at a lower price than
their competitors, operate strictly
on cash basis, but the great ma
jority of merchants in every COM
munity give those customers who
are responsible and honest the
privilege of a charge account 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 responsible and upright know
that when you desire it or need it
you can obtain credit from at least
some of the merchants in your
town. But some time when you
are in need of some article of mer-
chandise 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 an
swer 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 it is not a credit sys-
tenn such as is maintained by most
retail merchants. These mail order
houses will sell certain merchan-
disc on the installment plan, but
they not only demand an initial
cash payment, but require the pur-
chaser to sign contract which
operates as a 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 responses might be equally in
teresting. For instance, you, Mrs.
Farmer, who bought that box of
groceries from the catalogue house
last month, might write the man
ager and ask him to buy your but
ter 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
local grocer, who is always ready
to pay you the market price for
them, but then maybe the mail or
der 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 a
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 ola uldCu1u6 Ou d ITdu6 lOI
a new one. Of course, the local
hardware dealer in the town where
you find q market for your farm
products will allow you a fair price
for your old machine, but what's
the use of asking him to do it. The
mail order man surely will be glad
to do that much for you, will he
not? Yes, he will not
List Is Endless
There are a good many things the
mail order man will not do for
you. The list would be too long to
crowd into one issue of news
paper. He will not give you credit
however much you may need it.
He will not buy the farmers pro-
duce. He will not pay a dollar of
taxes to help support your schools
or build your roads. He will not
contribute a cent to the support of
your churches or your charitable
institutions. He will not lend you
a helping hand in time of trouble.
The local merchants in a COM
munity will do 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 commun-
ity to decide which it is to their