Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-02-10
THE PARCEL POST,
A Correspondent of the wall
street journal Shows HOW
1t will affect the Country
Towns.

1t will affect the Country
Towns.
The Wall Street journal gives special
prominence to the following interesting
statement of the effect of the parcel
post bill on the country towns:
"The growth of the mail-order business
has been almost marvellous. This
method of doing general merchandising
has grown up during the past twenty
years. In Chicago, New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, st. Louis, st
Paul, Kansas City, San Francisco and
dozens of other smaller places are large
concerns who do business exclusively by
advertising in the newspapers and masl-
zines and by the sending out Of cata-
logues and dealing directly with the
consumers These concerns draw trade
from every section of the United Stotes.
As o the magnitude of their operations
some idea can be gained by the fact
that there is in the city of Chicago four
concerns which average annually sales
amounting to from ten to fifteen million
dollars a year each.
This represents trade drawn from
among patrons of merchants in small
cities and country towns. The effects
of the withdrawal of trade from the
small towns is evident in every part of
the country. In the middle west there
are towns having population of from
one to five thousand with locations that
make them natural trading points for
! from IS to $50 square miles of territory.
/ From the territory that is rightfully the
/ field for the business Of these towns,
from one-fourth to one-half the trade
goes to foreign cities.
Gas result of this the towns are
deadened and are kept frCm advancing.
The money of the consumers, earned in
the respective communities is sent to
other places and the profits of from 10
per cent to 90 per cent which should be
retained by the people of the community
go towards enriching the larger cities.
Thus is the country gradually being
depleted Of the wealth which should be
retained to build up home industries, but
which goes towards concentrating the
capital in the large financial centers.
For the past few years the farmer has
been one of the greatest complainants
against the operations OF the trusts and
combinations, particularly those which
control the prices of his products.
While he has been prosperous, owing to
good crops and the demand for the
same he realizes that he has not received
the amount g mo~cv that his labor and
results entite him to.
yet he is to blame for the very condi-
tons of which he complains 1t is an
illustration of the old phrase penny
Wise and Pound Foolish" He imagines
that he can save few cents by sending
to the large cities for needed supplies,
but he fails to consider that the dollars
he sends away are taken from circula
ton in his community, never to return,
and that they fail TO become any factor
in the development of his home town.
''As result of this constant drain of
money from the different communities
the country towns are prevented from
progressing,
There is no opportunity for the estab-
lishment of new industries which would
increase the population of the towns and
create better home market for the
farmers products.
THE farmer does not realize that the
better the condition of his home town,
the greater its business interests, the
more valuable will be all farm property
in its immediate vicinity
Neither does * realize that he Money
sent from his community ceases to be-
come a factor in local taxation, and as
result of the eaIhinSs Of the people
going to foreign place, this taxation
becomes greater.
"Not alone is the farmer affected by the
sending away Of money from the com
munity, but the laborer and the work.
man in every field feels the effect of the
depletion of wealth in the community,
because in a dull town there is little to
EMPLOY labor and lowest possible wages
prevail
"The establishment of rural delivery
service gave fresh impetus to the mail
order system of doinO hnsiness and en-