TWO BIG QUESTIONS THE "MORAL OBLIGATION" AND "DOES IT PAY?" SHOULD EE CONSIDERED An Honest Answer to These Will Keep the Trade with tho Home Merchant Every Time. i (Copyrighted, 190G, by Alfred C. Clark.) When the thrifty person or his wife aits down for the first time —or any time—with the mail order catalogue and its temptations, there are two, and only two, points to be taken into consideration. One of these Is moral obligation, and the chances are that that will be • dismissed as sentimental nonsense. The other is—Will it pay? and to that the thrifty person will be in •tclined to interpret an answer from the prices quoted in black-faced figures in ithe catalogue. Neither of these questions should be lightly dismissed. Moral obliga tion is not sentimental nonsense, aud black-faced figures sometimes lie. The duty a man owes to his own community and his obligation to trade at home are so often reiterated in tho country press that, possibly like some ..of the preaching, it has a tendency iio harden the hearts of the sinners. What has your neighboring town I I "c > y 1 I The fire of publicity is the medium the mail-order houses are using to destroy this community. It is up to you, Mr. Merchant, to fight the devil with fire. By the aid of the local press you can hold him over the scorching flames, and put a stop to his devastating competition so far as this com munity is concerned. Will you not assist in the good fight? «?iven you, Mr. Farmer? A market for ryour produce. What has made 25 to •50 per cent, of the present value of your farm? The accessibility of a market. You know what your grand father did on that same farm? Drove his hogs and hauled his grain 30, 50, maybe 75 miles to the nearest market town, and received prices for them that would make you howl about the trusts. And he hauled back the fam ily supplies tor which he paid what tyou would consider monopolistic prices. Do you happen to know what the old farm was worth then? Well, it lacked a good deal of being $75 or SIOO an acre. Yes, the home town, with its handy market, has advanced the value of your property and made you worth several thousand dollars more than your grandfather was worth. The 'home town affords schooling for your children, and perhaps social and church privileges which your family would not otherwise enjoy. The rural mail routes and telephone systems, radiating from the home town, as spokes from a hub. bring to your home the greatest conveniences of modern times. Have you ever noticed that the first ■thing the settlers of a newly-opened reservation do is to send for a wagon Joad of mail order catalogues? Well, I haven't. They lay out a town site every six or eight miles, start two or three general stores, build a school house, a church, a blacksmith shop, a grain elevator, petition the depart ment for a post office, and start a newspaper. They know, from former • experience that, with these things close by, life will bo endurable, what • ever hardships may come. They know, . also, that without them they must live lives of isolation and endure an exist • ence that is contrary to all natural human instincts. On the other hand, it goes without saying, that the average country town ■ cannot exist without the support of its tributary territory. Then, if that town affords the advantages for the :rural citizen that have been enumerat ed, there exists what wo may call an (Interdependence and a moral obliga tion between the two. Are you, Mr. Thrifty Farmer, living up to that ob ligation when you do your trading with the mail order house? To this line of argument the farmer may answer that his greatest obllga 'yon, hf3jirst duty, is to his immediate 1 household, and that anions the dottea to his family and to the heirs of hi 3 estate is that of practicing judicious economy—buying where he can buy the cheapest and to the best advan tage. And this brings us to the sec ond point in the argument—the para mount question in this commercial age—"Will it pay?" By most people an affirmative an swer to that question is accepted as the call of duty. As a matter of fact, "Will it pay?" is a good test to apply to any project or proposition. There are commercial, as well as political, demagogues, and the man who is ap pealed toon the score of patriotism or profit, duty or dollars, can scarcely do better than to sit down by himself and submit that question—"Will it pay?"—to his own best judgment. Provided always, that he goes to the very bottom of it. What are the relative advantages of buying at the local store and ordering from a catalogue house? Advantages, understand, that figure in the ques tion, "Will it pay?" Don't get away from that question. It certainly is very comfortable to sit down by your own fireside and select a dress pattern or a sulky plow from a printed des cription and a picture of the article; much more comfortable, in fact, than hitching up and driving to town on a raw day. A consideration more important, perhaps, is that the printed price in the catalogue seems, in some cases at least, to bo lower than the price quoted at the local store, isn't that conclusive? Let's see. The catalogue describes the goods and quotes a price; maybe it gives a picture of the article also, but you don't see the goods. The local merchant shows you the goods; you may examine them critically; he may allow you to test them or to call in an expert to advise you. Is it fair to conclude that the catalogue article is the cheaper just because the price is lower? An element that must enter into the comparison of goods and prices is, that in any attempt to fool the cus tomer, the local merchant is decided ly at a disadvantage. He must show the goods, not merely describe them. His business depends wholly upon the limited trading area of his town and his ability to inspire confidence within that circle, lie cannot afford to make a practice of misrepresenting his goods. The mail order house is not so tied down to the maxim that "Honesty is the best policy." It has no neighbors, no fellow citizens, no mutual interests with ils patrons. Its trade area is wide and always shifting. Naturally these conditions do not demand extra ordinary vigilance in supplying hon est-made goods. And where Vigilance is not a needed employe in the busi ness he is generally taken off the pay roll, which makes a saving in expense, as well as in the cost of the goods. If lower prices are quoted by the cata logue house, may not this account for it? "Will it pay?" Is it a matter of economy to buy inferior and damaged goods when the same money, or even a little more, will pay for goods of the best quality? Which course does a man's first duty to his own household dictate? But to get at the bottom of that question, we must consider the far reaching general effect of mail order trading. If single catalogue houses are to be capitalized at $10,000,000, they must be reckoned with along with Standard Oil, the beef trust and railroad mergers. If they are allowed to suck the blod from our country towns, your grandchildren will find conditions much the same as those of your grandfather's time. Their mar kets will be 30, 50 or 75 miles away. The towns and villages will be de serted, and the "hubs" will be too dis tant to send the radiating spokes of rural mail, telephone lines and othev modern conveniences far into the country. CHARLES BUADSHAW. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1907. INSPECTORS In PcstaS Service Locate Plant for Printing LOTTERY TICKETS. Two Arrests are Made and a Num ber of Plates are Seized at New Cumberland, W. Va. Pittsburg, Pa. —PostofHce Inspect ors Williams, Lucas and Craig head have unearthed, It is said, the printing establishment where lottery tickets have been turned out by the wholesale for distribution throughout J New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Following the arrest of Samuel Conkle at Chester, W. Va., recently for using the mails to defraud, the in spectors concentrated their efforts in West Virginia in an endeavor to lo cate the printing establishment. Wed nesday night, it is said, they were re warded by discovering the place at New Cumberland, W. Va. The inspectors learned at the ex press office at New Cumberland that ! a certain printing house had shipped, |it is alleged, numerous packages to Conkle, and when the son of the man owning the printing house was called onto make an affidavit that none of the printing had been done there, he refused to do so. However, the young man is said to have given information | which led to finding a number of cuts I and two plates for printing tinted I paper. Among the cuts was one of the i Ultra Itio Grande Lottery Co., of con | cern of which the inspectors had i heard nothing before. The cut. was for circulars advertising a drawing of | $50,000 by the company, in addition to the arrest of Conkle, two other | men have been taken into custody 1 here. According to the t'nited States authorities numerous other arrests j will be made in connection with the 1 case. I McCEELLAN IN BRONZE. Stajue of the First Commander of tha Army of the Potomac Is Un veiled at Washington. Washington, I). C.—With appro priate civic and military ceremonies | and in the presence of a distinguished | audience, the heroic equestrian statue I in bronze of Maj. Gen. George I!. Me j Clellan, erected under the auspices ol j the Army of the Potomac, was un | veiled here Thursday. President Roosevelt made the principal speech and with Gen. Frederick I). Grant on j his right and Gov. Stokes, of New Jer sey, on his left, witnessed an impos | ing military parade of regulars and | militia. Mrs. McClellan, the general's ! widow, Mayor McClellan, of New | York, son of the general, and Dr j George McClellan, of New Jersey, a j nephew, who pulled the string releas j ing the flags in which the statue was enveloped, occupied seats on th« | president's stand. Brig. Gen. Henry C. Dwight, presi j dent of the Society of the Army of the j Potomac, presided. Gen. Horatio C. %'Cing, secretary ol the Society of the Army of the Po tomac, read a history of the statue which is by Frederick MacMonnies the American sculptor residing in Paris. The statue commands an im posing position at the intersection ol Connecticut avenue and Columbia road in the northwestern section ol the city. The equestrian group is cast in standard bronze and is 14 feet in height. IS VEXED BY OHIO METHODS. District Attorney Jerome Has a Griev ance Against the Buckeye State. New York. —Counsel for the de fendant arranged with the district attorney's office Thursday for the ap pearance next Monday of Charles S. j Fairchild, former secretary of the | treasury, who in December last was j indicted on six counts charging forg , ery in the third degree. The case I grew out of what came to be known as the "Prussian bond transaction" of the New York Life Insurance Co. District Attorney Jerome on Thurs day continued his investigation intn the recent election for directors of the New York Life Co. and which has re sulted in the arrest of G. R. Scrugham. Last; night Mr. Jerome gave out a statement in which he declares that he is perfectly satisfied with the work of his assistants which resulted in the arrest of Scrugham, and that he as sumes all responsibility for what has been done. Concerning the form of Scrugham's arrest, the district attor ney states that because of earlier ex perience with the state of Ohio in the case of William H. Hahn, he will never again take any chances on the return of a fugitive from justice front that state so long as there is evidence to hold him in this county. Senate Refuses to Remove Kelsey. Albany, N. Y. —The state senate Thusday night after a heated de bate refused to remove Otto Kelsey. superintendent of insurance, from of flee, as recommended by Gov. Flughe». The vote stood 24 for removal to 27 against. Mrs. De Massy Is Convicted. New York. "llaroness" Anisia Louise De Massy, the pattern do signer, tried for ihe killing of Gustav Simon, a shirtwaist manufacturer, was last night convicted of man slaughter in the first degree. 'AMONG THE GANG' QUARRY OWNERS WERE ASKED TO DIVIDE OVERCHARGES FOR MATERIAL USED IN BUILDING PENNSYLVA- I NIA'S CAPITOL—THE GRAFT INQUIRY. Harrisburg, Pa. —The most, inter -1 esting witness Wednesday be- Harrisburg, Pa., May 2. —The most Interesting witness Wednesday be ] fore the commission which is invest!- j gating charges of extravagance in tlie ; furnishing of the Pennsylvania state i capitol, John H. Sanderson, contract a widow, of Williamsport, Pa., who was called to tell about a deal that Joseph M. Huston, architect of the capital, John H. Sanderson, contract or for the furnishings, and others had ; attempted to make with her for ser i pentine marble from a quarry left her jby her husband. The marble was to , have been used in the capitol. "They offered to allow me," said 1 Mrs. Anthony "fifty per cent, of the proceeds from a new company they desired to organize, but I was given to understand that 40 per cent, of ! that amount must be divided among j their friends. That would have left : me only 10 per cent, for the marble, \so 1 decided it would be better to : give it away and declined to negotiate ' with them further. The other 50 per | cent., they told me, would b6 used for operating expenses at the quarry." Jacob Shenk testified that the same parties had called on him to negoti ate a deal for the marble in his quarry. Shenk declared that they de sired him to charge the state sls a cubic foot for the marble, instead of from $5 to 8, the price he thought would bring him a fair profit. It had been expained to him, he declared, that the difference was to be divided "among the gang." USED DYNAMITE. Man on Trial for Wrecking a Church Makes a Confession in Court. Wilkesbarre, Pa. —There was a sensation in the criminal court late Wednesday when Stephen Sav age confessed on the witness stand that he was one of the men who wrecked the Welsh Congregational church at Edwardsville, near here, two years ago, by dynamite. Savage and Joseph Chunowsky were arrested some time ago, charged with the crime. According to Sav age's confession he and Chunowsky met in a saloon in Edwardsville where they were told by two men that if they destroyed the church they would receive $125, which money, it was alleged, was to be paid by certain saloonkeepers who had been refused liquor licenses by the court. In order to get the money Savage claimed that he and Chunowsky went to the church with several sticks ot dynamite and placed them under the front part of the building. Savage said he was too drunk to get over a fence nearby, but that Chunowsky did so and lighted the fuse. In his testimony Chunowsky denied most emphatically the statement made by Savage. He claimed that be knew nothing about the explosion un til some time after it had occurred. A MINE DISASTER. Seven People Are Dead as the Result of an Explosion at Scarboro, W. Va. Charleston, W. Va.—Three men were killed, four were severely burned and four others are entombed and probably dead as a result of a mine disaster at the Whipple mines at Scarboro, in the Leap Creek dis trict, Wednesday afternoon. Many of those who escape 1 were slightly and some seriously injured, but all will recover. Isaac Pelter, the mine boss, was left in the mine. He was closing up the air courses in an effort to force fresh air to those re maining in the mine. He expected to follow his men out, but up to a late hour nothing further had been heard cf him. The Whipple mine is located with in two miles of the Stuart mine, which exploded on January 29, killing 80 men. Both mines are owned by the White Oak Fuel Co. The mine is one of the best equipped in this field. The cage and shaft was damaged, but was in operation at 9 o'clock last night.. The cause of the explosion is not known, but probably was the re sult of firing a heavy shot at the faco of the works. A Frightful Record. Washington, D. C. —The accident bulletin issued Wednesday by the in ter-state commerce commission for the thre.e months ending December 31, 190G, shows that during that quar ter the total number of casualties to railroad passengers and to railroad employes while on duty was 20,944, an increase of 1,094 over those reported during the preceding three months. The number of passengers and em ployes killed in train accidents was 474, an increase of 207 over the num ber in the last quarter. The number of passengers killed in train accidents in this quarter, 180, is the largest on record except for the quarter ending September 30, 1904. Fifty People Injured in a Fire Panic. Chicago, ill. —More than 100 per sons were penned in a burning building Wednesday at 255 Wabash avenue and narrowly escaped with their lives. Fully half of these, per sons were injured in the panic to es cape, but none is expected to die. Pittsburg Machinists Strike. Pittsburg, Pa. —The strike of the machinists went into effect Wednes day and over 1,000 men quit. work. A'.l the shops in the Pittsburg district ex cept the Westinghouse Machine Co. are affected. FessßßSßseseesssßa: )m & Lloyd. I I WE have the best stocked general store in the county jj and if yon are looking for re liable goods at reasonable S prices, we are ready to serve yon with the best to be found. p Our reputation for trust- if Hi' worthy goods and fair dealing § v is too well known to sell any if g but high grade goods. 1 P Our stock of Queensware and II Chinaware is selected with Mj great care and we have soma p of the most handsome dishes H j} ever shown in this section, j| B both in imported and domestic jffl makes. We invite you to visit | us and look our goods over. j| J l j Balcom & Lloyd, j LOOK ELSEWHERE BUT DON'T FORGET JJ || THESE PRICES AND FACTS AT g|| LaBAITS II § ;; ii I m 5S M || We carry in stock ' _ 1 *4 the largest line of Car- - ' kg Mpets, Linoleums and q£ _ 1 fTiTiTiTtriTlH • h j Mattings of all kinds \?Y 112 J JJ ever brought to this 112? town. Also a big line - V s BbSSSBsH IS of samples. H A very large line ot - FOR THE ESp " Lace Curtains that can- ?f >* Xr"e I pie My - CONTMABLE LODGING »\ II MArt Squares and of fine books in a choice library Rugs of all sizes and select the Ideal pattern of Globe- M M kind, from the cheap- Wernicke "Elastic" Bookcase. Iff est to the best. Furnished with bevel French |^j || plate or leaded glass doors. Dining Chairs, I ' on «""-c o» I |g Rockers and GEO. J. LaBAR, ** HkM High ChairS. Sole Ageut for Cameron County. A large and elegant I— line of Tufted and Drop-head Couches. Beauties and at bargain prices. II si *4 |3O Bedroom Suits, COE |4O Sideboard, quar- <tOfi fejt solid oak at tered tak 4>JU Sm Jj|§ (28 Bedroom Suits, Ol |32Sideboard, quar- COT i? (| solid oak at 4)Z! tered oak Jf* f'2s Bed room Suits, OH f22 Sideboard, quar- fflC M solid oak at I tered 0ak,... II M A large line of Dressers from I Chiffoniers of all kinds and N M $8 up. 1 a 1 prices. M|# ____________________________________________ J. | fed The finest line of Sewing Machines on the market, fcg JJ the "DOMESTIC" and "HLLRILGH.' All drop- gj E2 heads and warranted. Jj A fine line of Dishes, common grade and China, in j £2 sets and by the piece. M I* As I keep a full line of evervthing that goes to M make up a good Furniture store, it is useless to euum- |f N erate them all. »< Please call and see for yourself that lam telling kg you the truth, and if you don't buy, there is no harm h* £2 done, as it is no trouble to show yoods. || M Ej GEO. J .LaBAR. |j UKrDEF?LTAIiI3NrO. M «ak*k*fc4fc 3
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers