The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-05-21
Cash WITH ORDER
Mail Order Houses Use Millions
Of Dollars Of Peoples
Money Without Pay
/ ing interest.
~ o. A. CHARLES.

tCopyright by o. A. Charles. 1901
One of the items Of instruction In
mail order catalogues - the one on
which they lay the most stress--the
one they set up in large, bold-face
type, reads:
I'VE especially request that you
send the full amount Of cash with
your ORDER"
Yes, you are to treat the mail order
house as honest while they treat you
as dishonest You are to trust them
with your cash while they tell you to
Send Full Amount of Cash With Or.
der"
My dear reader, II you we're 10 go
to your home merchant for some arti-
Gle ana the merchant would say.
"Give me your money first" what
would you think of him? What would
you do! It isn't hard to guess. You
would tell him in pretty strong lam
guage that you could get along with
out his goods. You would leave his
store and the chances are never go
back.
Yet this is Just what the mail order
house says, "oive US the money first"
or, to be more polite about Il. I'VE
especially request that you send the
full amount OF cash with your order"
Looking at the "cash with order"
from another standpoint: Supposing
the mail order houses actually sue
ceeded in doing what they boast of
doing--drive the home merchant out
of business. Supposing then that you
become closely pushed for cash, as
most Of us do at times. Then sup.
posing you need some merchandise,
then what? II you had your home
merchant handy you could go to him;
he would trust you.
What would the. catalogue house
say? They will be very polite about
It and with all graciousness point to
their catalogues. where you will find,
prominently displayer. these words
I'VE Especially Request That You
Send Full Amount Of Cash With
Order"
Now we do not believe 1t good pol
Icy to buy goods on credit, we do be-
lieve It is better at all times 10 pay
cash for what you buy, but what we
do object to is. sending our money
away from home. to a concern we
know nothing of, for goods we have
not seen. and waiting for these goods
till It suits the convenience of some
mail order house (who may need the
money more than we do) to send us
the kind of goods they feel like, when
they feel like Sending them.
When the two-cent-a-mile railroad
fare bills were before the legislatures
of the several states, one of the bes,
arguments In fvor of these bills was
something as follows:
The railroads were selling mileage
books OF 1000 miles each for $50. II
this book was used within year from
date OF purchase and the cover was
turned in the purchaser would get Q
rebate of $40, or his travelling would
cost him just two cents a mile.
Now here is the point used by those
favoring the bills: The railroads, BY
charging $50 for the mileage book
were having the use of millions o.
dollars of the travelling public's none,
on which they paid no interest. Nov
let me show you the similarity be
tween the railroad mileage grab ant
the mail order house "cash with or
der" scheme.
A great portion of merchandise cat
alogued by mail order houses is no
carried In stock by them. but is or
dered shipped direct to the purchase
'pom one Of the several factories from
y yhich they buy. Then you send you
order to the mail order house. who II
turn sends II to the factory. Nov
don't you see that they have the us'
of your money from one to six o
eight weeks without paying you an.
interest?
Let this condition prevail with thei
many customers and you see the mai
order houses are doing business ol
the. money of their customers, ia