700 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



(SjOXXtSpi^iUiitMtt. 



THE DEPARTMENT STORE. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



In the July number of the Monthly, under 

 the head of A New Social Problem, you dis- 

 cuss the department store. T was interested 

 in your application of the fundamental laws 

 of evolution to its development. From an 

 evolutionist whose views do not fully accord 

 with your own will you permit a query or two ? 



I live in a city in which the first business 

 started was a department store. It was 

 owned and conducted by a wealthy man who 

 was eager for more wealth. Now, how did 

 it happen that his ability to purchase large 

 quantities of goods, the saving of rents, etc., 

 failed to prevent a differentiation and segre- 

 gation into the little specialist? Has not 

 this been the general course of all communi- 

 ties in this country ? First, settlement was 

 made at some point, and the man with a 

 general assortment of commodities put in his 

 appearance. If population became perma- 

 nent and sufficiently large, differentiation 

 and segregation took place, and the whole 

 became integrated along the street or streets 

 best adapted to business. 



Now, what has caused a reversal of the 

 process ? The economies mentioned in your 

 article manifestly are inadequate to explain 

 the matter, since all of them have been in 

 operation from the beginning. Take, for 

 instance, the ability to make large purchases 

 for cash. Is it not a well known fact that 

 the discount to-day in such transactions is 

 less than at any former time? The discount 

 has but two factors interest and commer- 

 cial risk. Rates of interest are less than at 

 any former time, while commercial reports 

 are more readily obtainable and more trust- 

 worthy than ever before. 



Evidently some new factor must be con- 

 sidered, as the forces with which you deal 



have been in operation for all time. Nor 

 can this new element consist of knowledge 

 of advanced business methods, since it can 

 be shown that we to-day are familiar with no 

 business process not known from the dawn 

 of civilization. This new force, in my opin- 

 ion, is not far to seek. Is it not true that a 

 high rate of taxation wherever applied has 

 had the effect to concentrate the business in 

 the article so taxed ? We need but recall 

 the match, the tobacco and the whisky in- 

 terests. Now, have we not a new element in 

 the high property tax rates of modern mu- 

 nicipalities ? They certainly are new, as 

 their equal was never before imposed. 



Space will not permit tracing the oper- 

 ations of this new force. But when we ob- 

 serve a direct relation between a high prop- 

 erty tax rate and business concentiation, we 

 are impressed with its potency. I will in- 

 stance Chicago. Here we find the highest 

 tax rate of all the principal cities of Amer- 

 ica ; here the department store has attained 

 its greatest development. 



From my standpoint, when viewed in 

 connection with the community as a whole, 

 the department store is a dissolution to which 

 the laws of evolution apply precisely as they 

 do to a cancer. It has for its cause the ability 

 of the owner to escape the progressively in- 

 creasing burden of state. This is effected 

 by making the business so large and compli- 

 cated as to be beyond the comprehension of 

 the average assessor. The small dealer has 

 no such refuge. The public patronize his 

 rivals in order to obtain untaxed goods. 

 " Only this and nothing more." 



The cure is obvious. Remove all tax 

 from personal property (at least), thus giving 

 the small dealer a free field and fair play. 

 This is all " wise legislation " can or should 

 do for him. S. L. Beeler. 



Hamilton, Ohio, July 20, 1897. 



%aitox's "gnJiU. 



A WOMA]^ ON WOMAN SUFFBAGE. 



IF the right of women to vote in 

 political elections depended on 

 a demonstration of their ability to 

 think clearly and conduct an argu- 

 ment in an orderly manner, the book 

 which Mrs. Helen Kendrick John- 



son has published under the title of 

 Woman and the Republic (Apple- 

 tons) would settle the question. It 

 happens, however, that Mrs. John- 

 son is not a woman-suffragist, but 

 that, on the contrary, a wide histor- 

 ical study of the subject has led her 



