Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-08-03

game. llley have COIlcOcCeQ a
modern Don QuiXote and armed
him with a mail order catalogue
and mounted him on a departs
ment store nightmare, to
frighten the merchants in the
small towns of the different
states. A trade journal is now
parading this phantom before
the village merchants of Iowa.
The parcels post bill is the
dragon to be slain and the viii
lage merchant is called upon to
enlist in the army of the bogy
man. This awful, iniquitous
parcels post bill, if passed by
congress, will compel the ex-
press companies to carry eX-
press at about one-tenth of
what they now charge. Think
of it Compelling the poor
abused express companies to
carry express for what it is
worth. Isn't that awful? The
bogy man says that if the
merchants don't defeat this
parcels post bill the people will
all be buying goods from the
big department stores in the
cities and getting them for
what they are worth. Wouldn't
that be awful! The phantom
doesn't tell the merchant that
no department store sells at
wholesale prices and that the
parcels post bill will enable him
to buy small orders, get them
in the shortest time possible
and save nine-tenths of the cost
of carriage, thus enabling him
to undersell the catalogue
house and still get a legitimate
profit. The express company's
Don Quixote, who is to lead the
non-urban merchants and by
their influence force the village
editor to join the dragon kill
ing army, is by no means as
honorable a gentleman as the
famous knight of La Mancha.
We will give you, in his own
words, his plan of campaign
and how he is going to kill the
dragon. We copy from a cir
cular letter of July q, 1905.
He says: eve have divided the
state into four districts and
hired a man on salary in each
district to travel at our expense
and prepare a petition to con-
gress, opposed to the parcels
post bill. They will call on
every merchent in their re-
spective districts so far as pos
sible. They will visit you and
ask your name to the petition.
In addition to this we have pre-
pared a series of articles for
publication in the papers of the
state, producing arguments
why peoL 9 should trade at
home in preference to catalogue
houses. The articles are
couched in such language that
no one would detect them be-
ing written by an interested
person. In fact, not one per-
son out of 500 could tell but
what they were written by
some one in the county in which
they are published. When our
plan is completed these letters
will be furnished by us to a
paper in every town in the
state for publication. They
will extend over a period Of one
or years. When the trav-
cling man is in different towns
of the state, after having OBJ
tanned the signature of the
merchants he will go to the
publishers of the papers and
arrange with them for the pub
lication of these articles. If
you have a paper printed in
your town he will arrange with
them as soon as he has obtained
the signatures Of the merch-
ants of your town. In this way
no publisher can refuse us their
aid" Isn't the Trade Journal
man accommodating, doing all
this for nothing, paying four
men a salary and subsidizing
the entire non-urban press Of
the state for a year or longer,
all to obstruct the passage Of a
law that in no way affects the
Journal any more than it does
any other paper in the state y
How he must love the village
merchant Notice how he has
sized up these same merchants,
asking them boldly to help him
deceive the public. He says
'these articles are couched I'M
such language that no one
UO11ld dntoct their hoinu yvy;+