Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1904-01-07

in the Twin Cities not. SO very
long ago offered a South Dakota
periodical twelve hundred dollars
for stipulated space for a single
year.
Now, what does that sum ex-
pended for newspaper advertising
Ia South Dakota mean to the To-
cal merchants? Any merchant
who buys large quantities of
goods could tell you with approx
innate accuracy. The average
merchant knows what goods cost.
He knows that the mail order
house in question would expect
| to receive, as a result of this ad-
vertising, not merely twelve him
dred dollars from the South Da-
kota people, but many times that
sum. The house must receive
not only the first cost of the goods
sold, but a net profit over and
above the cost of handling the
goods and the cost of the adver-
tising.
No small proportion Of the
goods received from the nail or
der houses goes inio the country,
precisely where the local weekly
papers circulate to large extent
aud precisely where the local
merchant should send his adver-
tising, if he wishes to reap the
benefits of which the mail order
houses are now depriviug him.
But this is not the worst of it
from the standpoint of the local
merchant. The parcels post bill
has been before congress for some
time. There is strong pressure
! for its passage. We warn the
merchants of Watertown and
other towns that unless they do
something to Offset the work of
the mail order houses they are
likely to suffer inroads upon their
patronage. The parcels post bill
| provides for a material reduction
of the rate of postage on mer-
chandise. The rate is now one
cent an ounce. Should it be re-
duced to, say, one cent a pound,
the rate would then be very close
to the freight schedule. For long
distances it would be below the
freight charges. Merchandise
could be sent from New York, for
instance, in small lots by mail to
Watertown, as an illustration,
cheaper than it could be forward
ed by freight. What a boon to
the mail order honsesl
And yet the merchant in the
small towns is doing nothing, in
a large proportion of instances, to
hold the patronage from the mail
order houses. He is not calling
attention to his goods. He is not
competing with the mail order
house in price at least, if he is
doing so nobody knows It. He is
mot quoting prices through news
paper advertising or otherwise,
except to those who happen to
call at his place OF business for
the purpose OF making a personal
investigation. He is not persis-
ltently and Systematically telling
the readers of his local paper
where they can buy goods of a
certain class, or of any class, nor
what they can purchase goods OF
any kind for. He is permitting
the mail order houses to have a
monopoly of that feature of bus
liness.
The prosperity of a town largely
depends upon the prosperity Of the
merchants. The prosperity Of the
merchant depends largely upon the
amount Of business he transacts
When the mail order house. shall
have driven him to the wall, or shall
have seriously reduced his net earn.
ings, he may awake to realization
Of his own lack Of foresight-but il
will then be too late. 1t will be toe
late too, for his friends and the
friends. Of the town 10 rush to his res.
cue-the mail order houses will have