The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-03-29

No one disputes this-but there are
two more sides to the question. Here
is one:
Every rural delivery carrier is now
authorized to carry merchandise par
cells weighing over four pounds from
your farm to town or from town to
your farmland you or the town man,
pay the carrier whatever you agree is
right The proposed postage charge
would average much higher than what
you would pay under the present sys-
TEN of local delivery. Now there is
no maximum weight limit, for the car
rier can take anything for you that he
is able to carry, but it is proposed to
limit the weight to eleven pounds only.
This would greatly curtail the delivery
privileges now open to every farmer
who desires to use them and make de-
livery cost him more than under the
present method.
Here is another side of the question
the side seen by your good friends,
the home merchants:
Bib city merchant sof all kinds
would be quick to seize the rural par
cells post as delivery outlet, through
the use of local agents, to whom par
cells would be shipped in large quanti-
ties by express or freight for deposit
in the local postofice and delivery by
rural carriers. There is absolutely no
way in which this could be prevented.
The opportunity thus afforded these
mailorder houses for the development
of a gigantic trust is a most serious
menace to the farmers welfare. Every
necessary Of life could in time be mon
opolized through this government pos
tai subsidy, taxed against all the peo-
pie and applied for the sole benefit of
the mail-order trust Already Wall
street sees the trend of events and
big business" has become interested
in fostering and financing the parcels
post agitation Its appetite has been
stimulated by the results of the past
few years, which have enabled one
mail order house to pay an annual
dividend of Z per cent on its many
millions of capital, and recently to de-
clare a special dividend of SO 1-3 per
cent. What farmer can ever hope to
equal that record?
The big mail-order merchants pay no
taxes Of any kind-direct or Indirect
in your community. They do not help
maintain your schools, churches, Ii
braries, hospitals and other public in
stitutions. They do not help you build
and maintain good roads. They do not
give you credit and they give you
neither sympathy nor help when mis-
forune comes These big-city mer-
chants have absolutely no interest in
you, excepting 10 get hold of as many
of your dollars as they can and give
as little return as possible.
Furthermore, the big-city merchant
does not help in any way to maintain
and build up the home market for your
products that enables you to get spot
cash or its equivalent for everything
you have to sell Your location near
the farmer trade from the country
town to the big city will ruin the coun.
try town.
II the country tow mis- ruined, the
farmers home market will be destroy
ed or at least very seriously impaired.
Property values in the country towns
would certainly depreciate as store
after store was forced out of business
and greater burdens of taxation would
be placed upon the farmers oyerbur-
dened shoulders. Lack of funds raised
| by taxation would curtail the schools
of the country towns. Churches now
so largely supported by the home nler-
chants could no longer be kept supplied
with ministers, unless the farmer mem
bers heavily increased their contribu.
tions. Public spirit would be destroy
ed, public institutions would suffer and
public improvements become a thing
of the past.
The plain fact is that the interests
of the farmer and the home merchant
are mutual. They are partners in the
business of production and distribution
in the upbuilding and maintenance
of the best possible home market. And
the best home market is one that buys
such town increases the value of
your farm and makes that farm easy to
sell at full value whenever you de
sire.
You appreciate the fact that the
farmer trade keeps up the country
towns and that any system-such as
the parcels post-which will divert
everything the farmer has to sell al
top market prices and sells him every
thing he needs at fair competitive
prices.
Therefore, Mr.. Farmer, stand by your
home merchants now as you would ex'
pect them to stand by you. In doing