Contest To Be Bitter

Denver, Jan. 11. - An extraordinary eontest has started in this city with all the daily papers on one side and fourteen of the largest dry goods and öepartment stores on the other. No advertisement of any of these firms appeared in papera, and formal notice has been given that none will appear until the papers accede to the demands of the merchants. Last week the business managers of the dailies were informed that the department store combination had arbitrarily decided that advertising rates must be reduced about 20 per cent. The firms declined to enter in the discussion of the justice of the demand, simply stating that they had given their ultimatum. ÜZ Fifty Per Cent. of the Advertising. They control about 50 per cent. of the regular city advertising, and believed that the papers must submit to their dictation, notwithstanding that advertising raes in Denver are lower than in any other city of the same size in the country. The newspapers replied that concession to the autocratie order was not only impossible for business reasons but would destroy the independence of the press. If the department stores could fix rates arbitrarily at their pleasure, they could likevvise dictate all matters of policy, and the papers would become mere hand bilis, without influence or self-respect. The flrst result of the eontest is the passage of a resolution by the Trades assembly calling on the city council to impose a heavy license on department stores, and warning all members of labor unions against them. Good for Smaller Merchants. The smaller merchants are taking advantage of the opportunity to increase their advertising. In Denver, as in other cities, department stores have been pushing the smaller stores, and the latter are exceedingly glad of the chance to cut into the business of their larger rivals. The firms which are trying the novel and danzerous experiment of doing business without advertising are Schradsky Clothing eompany, Cordes & Feldhauser Carpe t company, the Monas Fair company, May Shoe and Clothing company, the "Western Clothing company, the Skinner Bros. and Wright company, Daniels & Fisher, the Colorado Dry Goods company, the Denver Dry Goods company, Bradley & Blakely, the Joslin Dry Goods company, í. H. Gulman, Apple's, A. T. Lewis & Son. Views of T. N. Huston. J. N. Huston, formerly treasurer of the United States under President Harrison, in an interview, aays that he believes the great department stores in all the cities of the country are secretly joining forces to concéntrate their power in the opinión that such a trust may be successfully organized to control the retail business of the country in every branch. He says: "The trust would not be a dream were it to be a national inatitution. It would control the price of everything indirectly - the interest rate on money, politics, and everything else."