The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1907-09-11

MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION
Meeting to Form One to Be Held Next
Tuesday.

uebudy.
Elisha Winter OF Boston, New Eng
land organizer OF the National associa
ton, under whose auspices the Retail
Merchants association of Vermont
was organized at Burlington April 30
and "a, Is I'm town. lie has made ar
rangements for calling a county con.
yention OF the retail merchants Of Ben
nington county to meet at the Putnam
House Tuesday afternoon, Sept 18th
at y. m. To complete the formation
Of Bennington branch OF the state
association.
The National association will hold
It's nth annual convention nj Boston
May H.. ~. 10. and IL, 1908, Vermont
retail merchants are now organized
with county chairman In every coun.
~ and "A town chairman In every lead
ing town. This can be- said by no
other state east of Pennsylvania. Most
Of the counties are averaging over 80
enrolled members each. The parcels
post. the catalogue house and the nat.
iOnal bankruptcy act are the live is.
sues OF the hour.
This Is a movement TO unite the far
mers aud county merchants In favor
OF building up Vermont The state as.
ISOLATION proposes 10 secure vigorous
enforcement OF the national food law
the jewelers. law and the pure paint
laws against the catalogue house. The
United States anti.lottery law Is 20 be
invoked against suit clubs.
The state license law prohibits un
licensed pcddling. trading stamps are
about extinct The association b. Op
posed to all get rich quick. getting
something Tor nothing schemes. Il
believes in honest methods al digtrib
uting honest goods Ninty i've. per
cent of the trade of Vermont remains
With the home merchant for that rca
Iun
Both labor unions and the farmers
upheld the competition OF the Cata
logue house Ia lowering prices. but ig
more the fact that the catalogue hOus,
lowers the standard OF quality more
than the standard OF price. lu th,
meantime the labor union objects to
the Japanese lowering the standard of
wages. aud the farmers are combining
To advance the price Of farm products
The merchant is entitled to the same
government protection that b. given
the labor union aud the farmer lie
does not object to that protection Tor
others. but. in simple justice demands
the same protection for himself lie
objects 90 the parliamentary associa
tiun OF "a parcels post Law that would
tax him Tor his own determination
while building up giant monopolics Ia
the blk cities. q parcels post Law "a
meet his approval should be- made sell
supporting No parcels post bill has
ever vet been introduced in congress
that would not create an enormous
deficit No express company could
meet such competition Why have
they not just right Ia oppose such
attempted parliamentary assassination
While they should be- made Ia reduce
their rxtortionatr charges their prop
erty should not boz cuufscated.
The merchants OF Rutland iu county
convention at Rutland August 2Nth
passed resolutions calling upon the
postmaster general 10 define the scope
1T his proposed parcels post They al
so demanded the exclusion from The
mails Of All fraudulent mail order cata
lugues A number ~ such catalogues
have already been thus excluded Bul
other catalogues are still being circu
lated in defiance OF our food Law and
lowclry law and in some states that
nave pure paint laws The merchants
of about every other civilized nation
on earth are protected from such
fraudulent competition A. couHp
uupnCD there are uo fraudulent Cata
lOKuv houses anywhere except Loo The
United Stat'f be- merchant of Yer
mont boz the state convention at bur
llngtUn April 23 aud q adopted rrsolu
tons urging farmers and merchants "a
get together and protect the pcupl" oi
Vermont from such fraudulent mcr
chandising
This government allows the mails "a
boz used fur the circulation of faudu
lent catalogues by mail order huusrl
aud nuW 10 b. proposed that the ht,
hundred thousand retail merchants ul
the United States shall be- taxed a.
support q parcels.p0st that viii trans
port this merchandise through a.,
mails. breaking down the small towns
dcpr,ciating the farms aud building
up mammoth muuupulicH in the larger
cities A parcclEpO system can b,
rmad. disappearing here a. u is iu
| Europe
The farmers aud merchants Of New
Hampshire have come a. an agreement
recommending that the parcels post
should be- EelfguppOrting. should at
first be- confined 90 the rural routes aud
should be- experimental with there be-
fore being applied to the country al
large This seems reasonable. fcaH
iblc and ought Ia be- satisfactory to ~,
people at large. including the caialogu,
houses who get most Of their business
from the farmers Elisha Winter
| Organizer.