FIXING OF THE COS! THE FACTORS IN PRICES OF COMMODITIES. PRODUCriGNANDDISTRIBUTION ■Equity In Division ef Profits to All Engaged in Producing, Manufac turing and Selling. Were the masses of people better informed as to principles underlying business transactions and commerce In general there would be less cause for complaint as to matters pertain ing to buying and selling of com modities. One of the faults, if it may be so termed, is the inclination of the people to complain about prices they must pay for goods required for do mestic and other uses. There can be no doubt but that in many districts retail merchants exact exorbitant prices, this to an extent is the fault of the people who are little acquainted with real values. There are three im portant things to be considered in the fixing of the selling price of all com modities. These factors are the cost of the raw materials, the expense of manufacturing and the expense of dis tribution. From commercial transac tions neither of these basic elements can be eliminated. The farmer who is the grower of corn, wheat and other •cereals that comprises food stuffs, re ceives compensation for his product in accordance with the laws of sup ply and demand, and the values that may regulate the monetary markets of the world. The producer of cotton In the southern states, must receive for his product compensation that is based upon the cost of labor, manu facture and what finished articles in the cotton line may bring iu the mar kets of the world. The producer of the raw materials must pay for his labor, and for his investment in farm lands and farm equipment. The man ufacturer who buys tlie raw products must take into consideration the ex pense of labor, the maintenance of his manufacturing plant, the interest upon the amount invested, and also various other items, and the sum of •these with what he ca" secure for his finished product, regulates the price that he pays for the raw material. In the distribution of goods the middle man plays an important part. He is the go-between the producer of the raw material the manufacturer, and the manufacturer and the consumer. ■He cannot well be eliminated from •commercial transactions. He per forms a service that neither the pro ducer ol the raw material or the man ufacturer can more economically per form. The middle men are the job- Ibers, the commission agents and the "•retailers; each performing his special service in the matter of distribution. The consumer is the end of the chain, ■the final buyer of commodities who ■ utilizes them for his own use and the nises of his family. There should be •a margin of profit in each of thf. different transactions that will allow editable compensation to each and every one interested in the production «of a finished article. All goods have .•a real value and this value is deter mined solely by the elements referred tto herein. The consumer must expect vto contribute his mite towards the support of all engaged in commerce. He is the beginning link, as well as the ending link of every transaction. The farmer who grows wheat, when She forces the grocer from whom lie buys his flour to sell the flour at a low rate, indirectly has an influence in lowering the market for the wheat (that he produces. When the consum er demands that goods be sold at a •price below the cost of production, he invites substitution of inferior goods, of the articles and en .courages a system that is unwhole .some. The people should understand that they never receive something for nothing, or receive anything of value for less than its value unless under some abnormal circumstance. Of late years there has a system grown up of offering great bargains in various ikinds of goods by catalogue Bent through the mails, and presenting at tractive and illusive advertising that goods are being sold at less than cost. The intelligent man or woman will carefully consider all the circum stances relative to such offers, and will be guided accordingly. It is evi ,dent that when special bargains are made there are conditions that justify such bargains; that goods are not of :standard grade, are stale, or deterior ated in some manner. Also there has a system of offering "free premiums" grown up that is unwholesome, and to an extent an imposition upon the peo ple as the system compels them to pay for articles that are not essential for them to have. The man who buys tugar does not care to be forced un der the guise of paying for sugar to pay for a paper of pins or a package of needles, even though those may be si "free premium." It is well to bear these points in mind, and a little atudy i»to business economics and principles will be highly advantage • ous to the one who desires to know about the proper value of goods he . must buy. Care of Shr.de Trees. While shade trees are very desirable along sidewalks and roads, unless they are kept well trimmed they be come much of a nuisance, preventing evaporation of rains and helping make muddy streets. It is well for citizens of every town to look after the trim ming of shade trees, and the planting of shade trees where they are needed. SCHEMES TO DEFRAUD. Some of the Plans to Secure Money Without Adequate Compensation. Plans to secure money from the people without giving adequate re turns are numerous. Not alone are the residents of country districts made tbo victims of schemers, but city people as well are now and then humbugged by shrewd fakirs. Within the past year or two it was announced in the columns of magazines and the farm papers of a seedless apple being evolved. A few months later seedless apple trees were widely advertised from different parts of the country. One concern which started iu to op erate on an extensive plan organized seedless apple companies in different states of the western country. Within a few months hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken from the pock ets of the people for seedless apple trees. Tbese trees were just the ordinary kind, and poor stock at that. So bold were the operations of the seedless apple tree schemers that the secretary of agriculture found it nec essary to issue a bulletin warning the people of the fraud, and later the post office department issued fraud orders against those engaged in the nefarious business. There are nurseries located in nearly every state. It is a good plan for the residents of farming and fruit growing districts to carefully in vestigate concerns selling fruit trees and similar lines before they are given patronage. * • • A number of petty grafts have late ly been worked throughout the coun try. One of the common ones is the hiring of agents to sell soaps, per fumes and other commodities on the premium plan. The concerns which operate games of this class generally have their headquarters in some large city and through advertising secure the names of people desiring employ ment as canvassers and agents. To such they send letters holding out ex traordinary inducements. Those who agree to act as agents sign a contract which is an agreement to pay for such goods as may be sent to them on con signment. The sample outfits which are forwarded, or the small stock of goods, are billed in such a way as to allow the concern an exorbitant profit. It' ihe agent succeeds In selling the goods and remits promptly there is not likelihood of being any trouble, but generally the goods are so poor in quality that they remain dead stock in the hands of the canvasser, and he will flud that the agreement he has signed will hold him to pay for the goods. • • • One of the humbugs that is perpe trated upon the people of many com munities is the selling of stock in co operative mercantile companies. Dur ing the past three or four years the residents of many small towns and ag ricultural districts have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not mil lions, through the buying of stock in alleged cooperative establishments in large cities. One company with head quarters in Chicago, doing a mail order business, sold stock in excels of $1,000,000, and when the concern went into the hands of a receiver about a year ago there was not ten per cent, of assets to return to stockholders. Other alleged cooperative deals in volve what is termed a profit sharing plan. This plan does not require the purchase of stock, but the cooperative part is purely a scheme devised for the securing of trade. COSTLY LESSONS IN ECONOMY. It Is Not Always a Matter of Saving to Buy Cheap Goods. Almost every rural community has within its confines people who have paid well for experience and have learned costly lessons as to buying of goods. Not long ago in a western town a citizen desired to buy a kitchen range. A visit to the local hardware store was made and the prices asked by the dealer were not satisfactory to the prospective purchaser, who by the way had his attention attracted by the advertising in his farm paper of "a bargain" in a kitchen range. The range was advertised as equal to those costing "twice the money at the local store." The citizen sent a money order to the concern advertis ing the range, and in the course of a few weeks he was notified by t lie rail road agent that the range had ar rived. In removing It from the sta tion to the farm house, in some inex plainable way part of it was broken. The broken pieces! were taken to the local hardware store but could not be duplicated. A letter was written to the range company and in the course of a few weeks a duplicate of the broken ] art was received, but it was discovered that it would not fit the stove, it had to He returned and a few weeks hiter another piece was sor.t; then the stove was placed in use. Within six months the top had become so warped that it interfered seriously with the drafts. At the end of the year the stove was burned out and ready for the junk heap. The purchaser of the stove then deter mine;! that lie would secure another •o;n the home dealer. He paid the line dealer the price lie was a?;:ed which was obout one-third more than the poor range cost, and after a few years the range was found to be as good almost as when first bought. This is one illustration of how econ omy wrongfully practiced is ex pensive. It is not always wise to seek the bargain counters when good articles are wanted. Neither is it a wise idea to buy goods before you have an opportunity to carefully ex amine them and determine thftil value. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1907. A HOLY WAR Is Being Preached in Mo rocco by Moslems. MOORS ATTACKED French Consulate at Casa Bfanca and the Custom house was Looted —Many Buildings Burned. Paris, France.—Special dispatches received here from Tangier represent the situation as being more alarming 011 the coast and in the interior. Caid Sale, the administrator of customs at Rabat, is said to be openly preaching a holy wn who bound and gagged Agent. Wilfred Francis, stole about ?200 and escaped. Williams Is the Nominee. Jackson, Miss. —The democratic state executive committee on Thursday declared John Sharp Will iams the nominee for United States senator, he having 648 majority ovor Vardaman. | THREATEN TO STRIKE. TRAINMEN ON EVERY WESTERN ROAD WILL DEMAND HIGHER WAGES. 1 Strike on the Colorado & Southern Road Results in the Shutdown of Number of Mines. Denver. Col.—lt is not expected that Martin A. Knapp, chairman of i the inter-state commerce commission, and Charles P. Neill, commissioner of labor, will come to Denver in connec tion with the strike situation on the 1 Colorado & Southern railway. So far I no progress towards settlement has been made and the outlook is that the strike may spread. Grievance committees of employes of the Denver & Rio Grande and ! other roads are in the city and will I demand an additional two cents an | hour for yardmen. Every railroad in ; the west is threatened with a strike. Sixteen of the larger mines near ; Trinidad, depending directly on the i Colorado & Southern for the handling j of their product, closed indefinitely 011 I Wednesday as a result of the switch | men's strike. The shutdown will throw some 3,000 men out of employ ment. I To prevent the closing of their ! mines, which would entail a loss of ; thousands of dollars, and to relieve a ' threatened coal famine at Central City, ten of Central City's most promi nent citizens turned "brakies" and manned a train of fuel destined for that district. They took charge of the freight at Golden, where it had been laid out since the calling of the strikn of trainmen on the Colorado & South ern last week. G. W. DELAMATER SUICIDES. Man Once Prominent in Republican Politics in Pennsylvania Ends His Career. Pittsburg, Pa. George Wallace Delamater, once candidate for govern or of Pennsylvania and who served j as state senator from Crawford coun ! ty from 18S7 to 1890, committed sui cide Wednesday by shooting in his office In this city. Occupants of a neighboring office in the Diamond Na tional Bank building found him dead ! with a 38-calibre bullet hole in his ' right temple. Grief over the death of his father, 1 George B. Delamater, at Meadville, j Pa., on May 6, and the sudden death 1 of his son, James Delamater, in June ! at Connellsville, Pa., is believed to be j the cause of his suicide. Members j of the family say that Delamater had become morbid with grief of late. Delamater was connected with the Prudential Life Insurance Co. in this city and leaves a comfortable fortune to his family, being heavily insured. His family always had taken active part in public affairs and his father had represented the Crawford-Erie ; district in the state senate. George took an interest in politics early in life. He practiced law only three years. Then he engaged in business, banking principally, the firm being Delamater & Co. In 187ti he became mayor of Meadville, and in 1880 he was a republican presidential elector for Pennsylvania. In 188t> he was elected to the state senate. In 1890 he was nominated for governor, but was defeated. After his unsuccessful candidacy his bank in Meadville failed. This was caused by losses resulting from his expenditures in the gubernatorial campaign. Other losses were sustain ed through a railroad enterprise. WERE HIT BY A fLYER. Four People in a Carriage Are Killed at a Crossing at Allenhurst, N. J. Allenhurslj, N. J.—Four persons, employes of the Norwood house, were Instantly killed last night when their carriage was run down by a Pennsylvania passenger flyer, known as the Bankers' Special, at the Cor lies avenue crossing here. They were Thomas Edwards, a driver, and Lo retta Grace, Jennie McDonald and Hannah Murphy, waitresses. The Corlies crossing is just south of the local station of the New York & Long Branch railroad, and the station platform was crowded with summer visitors, who witnessed the • accident. Edwards had stopped his team at the crossing, where an excursion train drawn up at the station blocked th