The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1912-12-05

all hluuS anu NIdOot5, W AfPbN -
rect from the factory and no one rays
any taxes on these goods. They go
into the community, into your COM
munity, if you please, where you have
paid your money for the development
and rear the benefit Of the work you
have done.
We want the reader to notice, now,
that these concerns selling direct to
the by mail, in no way con-
tribute to the welfare, or the building
up, or developing of your community.
They do not pay one cent OF taxes,
thew pay no license, they contribute
nothing but are made rich because OF
the conditions which have been
brought about by the people of your
community.
1t is a principle Of economics, and,
in fact, in the lives of people general
ly, hat the person wFo receives the
benefit from any existing condition,
should be made to contribute to the
maintaining of this benefit. We say to
the gas company, the lighting COM
pany, the street car company, that We
have built q city or a town, and If
you want to come III and reap the
benefit Of this existing condition that
VIC have put our money and our life's
time into developing, you must contri-
butte from your income.
In man. cities and towns, we re-
quire these concerns to report month
ly, or s~emiannually, or annually, to
our city councils, as to what their in
come has been from our community,
and then We require them to pay a
certain per cent of this income INTO
our public treasury. This is just and
right, but we allow the concern sell
ing direct to the consumer by mail to
come into the same city, the same
town, the same community and reap
the benefits without being required to
pay back Il cent, not n single pen
ny, towards the maintaining of the
community.
The Journal does not hesitate at all
in making the statement that this is
unjust, unfair. ~uneconomic, and that
our interstate commerce laws should
be so amended that each state could
have the power, and through the state
each county could have the power to
require these concerns TO bear their
share of the burden.
The government says to your coun-
ty, if you want us TO deliver the mail
in your community, you must keep
your roads and bridges up. The di-
rect-to-consumer concern does bust
ness over the same roads and bridges.
They get the benefit from these good
roads and bridges that you have spent
your money to repair and build. But
they do not help 10 maintain them.
None of their revenue from the com
munity comes back to the community.
They receive the benefit from the
farmers institutes, your agricultural
colleges and short courses, but they
do not help maintain them.
The average retail merchant real
ICES that the so-called mail order
houses, or direct-to-consumer concerns
have several advantages over him,
and here is one that you cannot over
in any other way, except by hay
ing the power placed in your hands to
make these concerns bear their share
the community burden.
1t should be remembered that the
question as to whether or not a d.
rect-to-consumer concern can sell
goods cheaper than the retail mer-
chant, does not enter into this que
ton at all.
The further question as to whether
or not the local town has an actual
money value to a given community
has no connection whatever. Let us
go so far as to say that If the
selling direct to the consumer
could sell for one-third of what retail
merchants must ask for goods that
this contention would not enter
in.
Suppose We eliminate from the face
Of the earth both the merchant and
the local town, even then We have not
changed the basis OF our contention.
The whole thing hinges upon the one
thought that these concerns in no wise
contribute either by direct taxation or
by license, in any way to the up-build-
ing and the development of local CON-
munities, but, on the other hand, they
take advantage of what other people
have done and reap the benefit.
If they have found a way to sell
goods cheaper than someone else,
they, of course, should have credit for
it but they should he made to con.
tribute to the cost of the building ur
re a. noDltt;n. thnk x.oI,1z A.