Montpelier examiner., 1912-06-28
BUSINESS INJURED
Proposed Parcels Post Bill Pass.
es the House-People Should
Rouse Themselves.
KEEP 1T FROM BECOMING LAW
Effect on Every Country Resident
Would Be DeterIoratlne-What
This Means to Nation
and to You.

attempted step toward further absorb
tion Of trade and industry by a few
great commercial and Industrial cen
tiers at the expense of the town and
village.
Every countryman. whether a resi-
dent of the town or dweller on the
farm. should rally to fight the noxious
bill
The aim of every good, patriotic
citizen should be to encourage those
measures that go toward the estab
iishment Of local industries and the
Investment OF home capital, toward
the upbuilding OF education and civic
betterment. For the diverse reason
1t is the duty Of every honest citizen
to wage eternal conflict with pressing
evils that have tendency opposite
to the above municipal virtues.
The parcels post bill is an evil that
strikes at the very heart OF the small,
prosperous town, because 1t would
tend to take away from tho local mer-
chant the business on which he re-
lies to exist-take 1t away from him
and give it to the big mail order
house In the city. The taking away
of trade, or the transfer of 1t to other
channels. cannot fail to drive mer-
chants and employees elsewhere. The
city having taken the trade from the
country. would lure them to its con
gested confines. Capital follows trade.
Village churches, schools, banks and
libraries would be correspondingly af-
Tod H. lnI n
go out of business, the local liveryman
would suffer and the hotel keeper
would be compelled to rely chiefly on
the 10y riders" for patronage. Ii
these with their kindred business
men, finding they could not make a
living in the country town, as before
the passage of the proposed parcels
post bill, should go to the city, the
natural result would be decrease in
price OF country real estate. How
many millions of dollars, think you,
will be sacrificed II the mall order
houses. aided by the parcels post bill,
are allowed to cut down the patronage
of the country merchant? And II the
mail order houses grow in the next
five years as they have in the last
flve, do you care to estimate In your
own mind, facts and figures as to how
many vacant store rooms there will
be in your town, how many country
people will be forced into the filth and
turmoil of the cities? What will be-
come of the national influence for
good that emanates from the country
town with its church, its school, its
shop? Men from such communities
are the brains of the nation today. We
find them everywhere in the cities.
leading the progress of their times.
Edward B. Moon, secretary OF the
American League of Associations,
says:
In these centers germinate the
forces that make for real manhood and
womanhood-th forces that give us
strength and vigor as nation. These
little trade centers are training
grounds for young men and young
women"
Prof Woodrow Wilson says: The
cultivation Of the active faculties by
exercise, diffused through the whole
community, is itself one OF the most
valuable of national possessions"
The moiling city, then. recruits
from the able, healthy country. with
men educated and trained in the small
social and educational centers. Sup
pose power be given any special class
to tear down that social and educa
tional center. What is the result not
only upon the village itself. but upon
the city and the nation?
The retail merchant has been the
pioneer in building towns. His well
fare has been synonymous with
growth and prosperity. Unless the
merchant continues to be prosperous.
the town will go down. With the mer-
chants who suffers?
The answer is far-reaching. Those
who lose with the dealer in trade are
the clerks, the hotel keeper. the livery |
man, the commercial traveller. the |
wholesaler who sells the merchant |
goods, every house owner, every farm |
owner within trading radius, every |
mechanic, every laboring man, every |
doctor, every lawyer, every preacher |
and so on down the list-for no resi-
dent can live in a town under such
and not suffer either social
or financial loss. or both.
We need laws that will encourage |
and sustain the villages of this coun-
try instead of legislation that gives
special privileges to depicting greed.
Mail order houses, assisted by free
rural delivery. has already lessened
the number of country business men
by ten per cent. And in those COM
munities where the mail order houses
have experimental to ascertain just
how much business they could get. |
property values have either remained
stationary or deteriorated. The young
people of these communities have
gone to the city, they have given up
the healthy, happy career of the coun-
try towns for the discouraging. teem-
Ing, dissatisfying discord of the cities.
Go into the city and prowl about un-
til you find country boy leading city
activity and in his moments OF truth
telling he will admit to you that the
country life is sweetest and best and
rost satisfying.
The parcels post bill. If passed, will
give the mail order houses ideal deliv-
Try facilities at the expense OF every
taxpayer They will be enabled to
advertise yard of cloth delivered for
10 much a yard This they cannot do
1t the present time because OF the
difference in delivery distances. The
,ronoaed hill carries up to IL pounds