Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1909-12-25
ToILER SAYS COMPETITION
is wASTEFUL SYSTEM
-
Editor The Press.

Editor The Press.
Dear Sir: Last week we considered
how competition, the present system, af-
fects the profits of business men. This
week let us consider the effect of the
present system on those who want to
buy cheaply Let us go to Philadelphia.
where the system is more developed and
twenty times the number of people live
in smaller circle than in Pleasantville
In the morning the milkman stops in a
street and serves q customer or two; he
is hardly out of the street when another
milkman stops in the same street and
serves two or three customers. and 50
on during good part of the day.
We sometimes see Wanamaker, Lit
and Gimbe delivery wagons in the same
street inside of half an hour, each de-
livering to a customer. We also see a
coal dealer at 73d street, delivering coal
to customer at seth street, and the
dealer at 56th street hauling coal to a
customer at 73d street.
In Pleasantville we sometimes see
half dozen different grocer. teams on the
same street in the course of day. each
more grocery stores, each having capital
invested in buildings, each having heat
and light to pay for, many "killing"
time waiting for customers. The people
who buy must pay enough for goods,
under this expensive system, to cover
all the cost and leave a profit besides.
You will notice these small captains OF
industry at work in most grocery stores
which they own. In one you find
manager who does the captaining al
though he may own no stock.
Let lis see how our Uncle Sam, who
has monopoly of the postal business.
does things. In the morning the letter
carrier starts out to serve a customer or
two in each street Oh. no, he serves all
the customers in his district who need
serving Do you think we could send
letters for two cents each if we had a
dozen different letter carriers stopping
in each street to serve a customer or two
in the course of day?
In Pleasantville we have one post Office
to serve the whole community. Yet we
have more than dozen grocery stores.
Don't you think We could make our doll
ars 60 much further if we collectively
owned and operated one good store where
we could cut out the wastes of competi
ton? viii not the trusts some day
make this saving as they've done in other
lines and keep the savings themselves
Where the trust goes in business the
smaller fry goes out
The captain Of one of the greatest in
dustries in the United States tThe
STANDARD Oil Coz said in court. that he
had taken no part in the management of
the company in eleven years. Yet we
read that he has a greater income than
any other man in America. 1t looks as
though the real captains. the managers
are hired men who are paid salaries or
wages and the socalled captains of in
drstry get their income because Of own i
ership of oil and other industries. If the
whole people were tine owners of said
industries, can it be possible that they
could find no one with ability to really
captain and manage them for uae IN
stead of profit for a few?
The Postmaster Generalship and as
sistants thereto are positions much
sought for under public ownership of the
postal system.
TOILER.
Pleasantville, Dec. y.