The Huntsville Forester, January 9, 1919:

“The first thing to remember for a vital national patriotism is consistent loyalty to the home community.

“Not only the merchant but every single individual in a community should energetically proclaim the ‘Buy-at-Home’ slogan.

“Every dollar spent at Home is a dollar gained for the District.

“You cannot drain your home community of currency without killing it commercially and making it a worse place to live.

“It is the amount of business transacted in your locality that regulates the value of your property.

“The district that is most strongly entrenched with community loyalty is the district that will profit most when there are prosperous times.

“Always remember that the farmer and the working man and the office man are just as dependent upon the businessman as the businessman is upon them. It is a strictly mutual game, and should be fairly played.

“Individual products are few while individual needs are many. Keep the interchange of products and money circulating at home and the joint and individual benefits will build for all, better than any can know.

“Everyone, to be loyal to self and family, must be self-supporting; make your community self-supporting by being loyal to it.

“Loyalty and liberality never harmed a town or community, but lack of those has killed many a promising place.

“Tell your home dealers that you believe in them and their importance to your community, and that you’re a member of the buy-at-home campaign and the community loyalty league.

“Let your commercial religion be home loyalty – don’t make a false god of the big city department store’s catalogue.

“Home firms are reliable firms, and stand always ready to correct an error. You have no redress when ‘stung’ by the foreign dealer.

“Keep the community fires burning with the fuel of local loyalty. Keep your cash at home and it will continue to work for you. Send it away to the big city and it will work for the big city to your disadvantage.”

That was 1919. This is 2019. Over the century, Eaton’s and Simpson’s mail order catalogues fell to their updated iteration: big corporations’ on-line retailing. Women gained legal equality and purchasing clout. Money is not sent away to “the big city” so much as faceless, mostly foreign-owned, corporations that drain millions via on-line transfers. Products are more numerous, most imports from low-wage countries.

However, those principles as articulated by Huntsville’s community newspaper a century ago remain intact. More than ever, mutual support and local loyalty are keys to “a live community.” Reading and responding to advertisers in our District newspapers is more than finding needed goods and services. Muskoka businesses use the internet, too, and can source far more items from their numerous suppliers at better prices than isolated on-line shoppers can, even with bargain-hunter apps. Locals, not “foreign dealers,” service goods and satisfy customers. And the magic of locals supporting locals is that it’s the heartbeat of prosperity in your very own neighbourhood. That’s the best bargain of all.