Homesteading 



In most of the smaller towns there is very 

 little competition, and yet, though their popu- 

 lation may not exceed fifty to a hundred, the 

 amount of business done may be enormous, as 

 they may be the supply points for a district fifty 

 or more miles on each side of the line of railroad. 

 Then it must be remembered that the inhabi- 

 tants of such a district are for the most part 

 neither wage-earners nor people living genteelly 

 on their means, but hard-working folk who want 

 all sorts of commodities for their farms and home- 

 steads, whether the crops on these fail or not. 



Under the conditions that prevail, it would 

 appear to be almost impossible for the ordinary 

 small storekeeper to make any great difference 

 between his cash and credit customers. The 

 storekeeper has, of course, to face long-outstand- 

 ing credit and bad and doubtful debts, and were 

 he able to work a genuine cash system in favour 

 of those who are getting on a bit and able to 

 pay, the difference in prices would probably be 

 so startling as to prove a terrible shock to his 

 poor credit customers. In a rough sort of way 

 there may seem some justice in the bachelor 

 who successfully harvests a hundred acres of 

 good wheat having to pay towards helping the 

 man who has a family dependent on him round 

 a bad corner, but human nature being what it 



184 



