Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-05-13
THEY DON'T CARE.
Otturnwa Dealers Say Post Check
Would Not Affect Them.
SMALL MAIL ORDER BUSINESS HERE
Money Orders and Drafts Are Used to
Transfer the Money and Little or No
Trouble Is Encountered-What C..
w. Post Says.

w. Post Says.
Whatever the advantages of the post
check currency, which some of the
large mail order houses are endeavor-
ing to establish, might have for that
class OF dealers, it would work little
oeneht for the merchants of Ottumwa,
since 1T has developed from interviews
with number of local merchants that
the great bulk OF mail order business
done IN Ottumwa is paid for by mon
ey orders, either postoffice or eX-
press, and thus none of the inconven-
fence that it is claimed is met by those
VINO advocate so strongly the inaugu-
ration of the post check system, is en-
countered here.
Several local merchants when asked
their opinion regarding the new post
check currency" expressed themselves
as being unwilling to give an opinion
on the matter, until the experiment
had been tried. The general opinion
is that while the new system would no
doubt be a great convenience to the
public, it would not be of any great
Importance to the local merchant, as
nlne-tenths of the mail order business
done in Ottumwa is paid for by drafts
or money orders, and the local mer-
chants do not report the trouble that
is experienced by the large city depart
ment stores and mail order houses, in
having stamps inclosed in payment
of goods ordered
The Plan.
The plan of the proposed postcheck
currency is to reissue all treasury
notes of SIS, So and 81 denominations
in form which will be legal tender,
but which, if the holder desires, can
be converted into a money order for
the amount of the note merely by writ
ing the name of the party to whom the
money is to be sent on the lines pre-
scribed for that purpose, and attach.
ling a 2-cent stamp, when the note
ceases to be legal tender, and becomes
a money order payable only to the per-
son whose name is written thereon af-
ter proper Identification. Notes for
ten, twenty-five and fifty cents are also
to be issued requiring one-cent stamp
attached.
Some Objections.
An objection, however, to this new
currency system, is that the sender of
money would have no receipt for the
money sent and if the order was lost.
he would have no way of recovering
his money, while the express compa
MES and the postoffice department give
a receipt for the monv forwarded and
| if the order is lost the money is re.
funded to the party sending the order.
| Another objection that has been
raised, is that aligreat many articles,
especially in the dry goods houses, sell
at odd figures, which would render it
impossible to remit the money with
the post check plan, as the only frac-
tional bills to be issued will be of fifty,
and twenty-five and ten cent denomin-
atoms.
In reference to this plan, G. W.Post,
one of the originators of the system in
his recent statement before the depart
mental committee on post check
bills, said in part:
"a number of years ago, while ex-
ecutive Of a manufacturing enterprise
my attention was directed to the loss
of business caused by the difficulty
| customers experienced in sending
small sums of money to us. Our man.
ufactured articles were sold by mer-
chants throughout the the country and
| in our advertisement the public was
invited to purchase of merchants, or,
| if not thus obtainable, to order direct
| ly of the factory. In many thousand
cases the intending purchaser found
the merchant with his supply of the
article exhausted, or, if the purchaser
lived in the suburbs of city. or in the
| nj a NV
similar place remote from stores, he
could not readily purchase and there
fore sought to secure the goods by
mail. Our mail contained quantities
of postage stamps, frequently mutilat-
ed or stuck to the letters, loose silver
:. paper money and small checks. 1t was
a serious matter to turn the great
| quantities of postage stamps into
accustomed to enclose ten dollars or
| twenty dollars in stamps Gall we
thought the payee would stand), when
making remittance to pay our own
bills; but the bulk of these stamps
was sold to brokers or merchants, at
a discount of from three to six per
cent. In many cases soaking was re-
CURED to free the stamps from the
ieeeSi Pe1pel. IHeu lolloWeu IeSuu-
ming.
This experience of one firm is null
tiplied by thousands. The loss on
stamps, the loss of money in the mail,
and the heavy discount on small
checks, do not constitute the chief OBJ
Ijections to the present conditions.
This extraordinary barrier to the
transaction of business is the first con-
i sideration OF letters that contain
small remittances about nineteen out
of twenty contain stamps, silver, loose
money or small checks, and the TWEEN
ltieth contains money order. We
are, therefore, compelled to realize
that something forces the public to
adopt these unsafe and unsatisfactory
forms of remittance, and that only the
very persistent ones remit at all. The
great majority of people who might
do business if remittances could be
made easily, prefer to go without rath-
er than subject themselves to the trou-
ble and loss of time incident to Sc
curing money order. Newspaper and
book publishers particularly feel this
hardship on business. Their letters