The Elk Mountain pilot., 1902-03-04

Thousand Names-Many Circulars
Sent With Two Cent Stamps-Mil-
lions Mailed for Political Parties.
Occasionally do you get a circular
letter, brazenly open, with only one
cent stamp on it, or sealed in neat,
plain envelope, bearing two-cent
stamp?
If you don't, there are 100000 farm
ers in the United States who do, and
perhaps as many men in a score of
line of business who do. For one or
the great Developments of the last
twenty years is the circular mailing
business, through which one house
send out 100000 circular letters i'll n
week for one wholesale firm. reaching
dealers in certain line of business III
every city and town in forty-fve states.
Each of these letters will be addressed
to the dealer in person, signed in ink
by the letter writer for the wholesale
firm, and sealed in an envelope with n
two-cent stamp on it. Yet only Re
signature will have come from We
house sending it out, and this fact will
make the cost of such wholesale letter
writing seventy-five per cent less than
any method possible to such firm.
Such wholesale letter writing and
such a percentage of saving on the
cost of 1t indicate the status of the
circular letter addressing concern in
the business world, and that the busi-
ness is increasing steadily every year
Is an indication of its future.
Twenty years ago it began in Chi
caGo. The typewriter just then was
displaclng pen and ink, and blottinS
pads and penmanship We're coming to
be classed with labor. Somebody dis
covered that n circular letter could be
printed in imitation of typewriter
print, that the date and name of ad-
dressee could be written into 1t from
a typewriter. and signature append
I'd in most convincingly personal way
That was the beginning. To-day there
is n circular addressing firm in Clark
street, near Randolph, which can send
out 100000 such letters in ten days,
putting 200 employees to work on the
job If necessary. and assuring the
merchant for whom the work is done
that every letter sent out Will reach n
man who has n creditable rating in
Dun's or Bradstreet's. If some mail
order house wishes to reach farmers.
the firm has list of 100000 in the
United States. of which 10000 are in
the state of Iowa. If some wholesale
firm in almost any line of goods wishes
to reach responsible dealers in cities
and towns under 100000 population,
this circular distributing house can put
the wholesale dealer in touch with tens
of thousands of them in week.
The general store in the small city
or town Is by all odds the most writ
ten-at business in the country. Its ny
box in the country postofiice alwaysOs
ed full of mail from the circular
,x.rit
campaigns are aided by these agencies.
Last spring in Chicago both parties to
the municipal contest We're served by
this Clark street agency and 2,OO0,oOO
circular letters were rushed out for
them in ten days.
In this circular writing business Chi
cago has a disposition TO leave off the
personal address to the letter and to
use the one-cent postage stamp. New
York, on the other hand. finds busi-
ness methods in using plain white en-
velopes. sealing them, and putting on
n two-cent stamp.
There Is n certain letter that / can
always spot as coming from New
York agency" said well known ply
sician the other day. Here's one of
them" and tearing open the plain, neat
envelope he disclosed only printed mat
ter. dealing with the national question
of the sugar tax.
MANY an envelope carried by one
cent stamp is tossed away without be-
ing opened" said a circular writing
agent. "Still there is such n sharp diff
ference In the cost of the two kinds
of mail matter that one-cent stamps
are most generally used. The neces-
sity of the addressed letter and the
two-cent stamp, of course, depends
largely on the thing advertised and the
class of persons to whom it is au-
dressed"