The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-07-19

decrease Need for Travelling Men.
The Iowa Travellers Protective AS
sociation met at Davenport during the
month of May and denounced the par
GELS post BILL
This is not a new organization but
one that has existed for a score of
years and is favorably known for its
wise counsels and sane cooperation.
The travelling man knows what the
proposed parcels post law means.
Many of his clan have toured this
country for years, starting in when
youth and enthusiasm knew no bounds
and continuing until the frosts have
come into their hair and the grips
they carry are worn and dilapidated.
And where, | ask you, are men better
calculated to know the country and
judge what will be good for country
business and country prosperity?
The Traveller Knows.
The travelling man is on the inside,
too, and knows what this merchant
and that merchant are doing. He Is
in everyday touch with the pulse OF
credit and knows who is crowded and
who is easy financially. Ask this fell
low who touches trade daily what eff
feet the parcels post bill will have on
the country merchant and he will tell
you Immediately that it will enable
the mail-order houses to make cheaper
deliveries, it will give them the chance
to advertise goods at so much pound
or yard delivered anywhere, and that
1t will ruin the country merchant be-
cause it will take business away from
him and give it to the maiI-order
concern in the city. The chances are
all with the mail-order house and
against the country merchant because
the mail-order house with large cap
ital and a, big business can buy in
carload lots, and in meeting the coun-
try merchants price, make a larger
profit. The commercial man knows
that the country merchant, as a rule,
makes little more than a living and
oftentimes has to worry along to do
this. In these days of mail-order
competition, it is difficult to do busi-
ness enough to more than pay his
expenses in store and home. When
the parcels post becomes a law, if it
ever does, the merchant will find him.
self forced from the country store,
and the store building will remain
vacant. ...
The travelling men know this, and
1t is a matter of self-protection as
well as a matter of principle, that
leads them to meet and characterize
the proposed bill as unfair and I'M
desirable.
Meeting This Criticism.
And, too, the travelling man meets
the criticism: That travelling sales
men and wholesale and retail mer-
chants are unnecessary and expensive
factors in trade distribution and that
if a proper system of delivery is fur
nished by the government it will not
be necessary to keep supplies in the
localities where used, but that these
may be drawn by consumers from dis
tant sources; that the present method
of trade distribution is faulty and ex-
pensive and contributes to the high
cost of living. They hear that the
way to correct this condition is for
the federal government to take hold
and carry such goods from wherever
they may happen to be, no matter
how remote, at a merely nominal
charge, carry them frequently at
loss, unmindfuI of the present heavy
deficit in the second class mail de-
partment.
Answering these premises, Hon.
Charles S. Hernly, president of the
ton, says:
'If the manufacturers of the coun-
try could have found a more econom-
zeal and better method of reaching
consumers than through the instru-
mentality of the wholesaler and re-
taller, they would have done so long
ago. Only in rare instances have such
efforts ever succeeded. Through the |
wholesaler, the manufacturer is en-
abled to use capital in production
which otherwise he would have to en- |
ploy in marketing his products. The |
wholesaler furnishes credits to the re-
taller, thus enabling the latter to fur |
nish credits to his customers. Any |
sudden retrenchment of the present |
system through fear or otherwise, by |
sndeavoring to place business upon a |
cash basis, would create widespread |
Distress
Conditions Abroad.
The travelling man is not only a
practically educated fellow but he |
knows considerable about conditions
abroad. He knows there are practic-
ally no knights of the grip needed in
foreign countries where landed pro-
prietors own the soil and for selfish
reasons keep the tillers of it ignorant
If the poor people do not get to the
cities they will not want many things
of which they are now ignorant, and
If the parcels post takes the place of
the country store, they will continue
to know less and be good working
elods on the farms.
1t is the policy of the landlord to