The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1912-07-08

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taxpayer. They will be enabled to
advertise yard of cloth delivered for
SO much yard. This they cannot do
at the present time because of the
difference in delivery distances. The
proposed bill carries up to IL pounds
anywhere for the same amount. just
as two cents will take letter any
where in the United States.
And it seems characteristic of hui
man nature that people desire to buy
from some other market, some bigger
market where they fancy they can find
bargains. The country resident likes
to wear suit or dress from Chi
cago tailoring establishment; Chi
cago woman very frequently goes to
New York for her costumes, while
many New York woman patronizes
Paris costumers. We are nation OF
bargain hunters and that is why we
SO frequently are stung with bad val
ues. We would fare much better In
the long run II we stuck to our home
merchants.
The home merchants goods show
for what they are. The advertised
out-of-town product is risky. Every
experienced man knows that mail or
der houses can secure large shipments
of goods under well-known brands
that in reality are manufactured to de-
ceive, goods that resemble but are not
like the real goods the people expect
to receive. This is one of the tricks
of the trade that can be put over on
the unsuspecting and gullible public
trading away from home.
The parcels post. If 1t becomes a
law. will enable INSCRIPTIONS houses
to 'get by with more adulterated
goods, for the mail order barons can
then advertise any well-known brand
of manufactured products by the can. =
bottle or case, delivered at your post
Office for so much. fiat The use Of the
well-known name will be a seeming
guarantee. when in reality it will be
nothing of the sort-nothing but bit
of cunning. well executed and carried
out to the letter. The public pays the
freight for its lack of allegiance to
home trade.
F. E. French, chairman of the board
of governors of the American League
of Associations. speaking before the
Southern Merchants association, said:
/ To-day the peoples problem is to
conserve our natural resources. and
keep the farmer on the farm. Will the
gradual impoverishing of the village
store keeper keep the farmer on the
farm. Will the decline Of the social
center, the decline of the schools and
the decline of the church facilities
keep the farmer on the farm? Will
long-distance shopping do more for
isolated communities than the sight of
real goods and the warm touch of liv-
ing people? Will the picture catalog
or the hearty salesman do more to
keep the vital currents between seller
and buyer? Would heavily laden
parcels post messenger. running be-
tween mail order agency and dis
tant farm, often through foot or two
of mud or snow compensate for the
disappearance of the mart and con-
gress Of our country's rural life-the
independent, thriving, hospitable
store?
1T is our duty to sustain that store.
and to do 1t now. That store is i'm
periled by pending legislation, wheth-
er by the institution of a local or a
general parcels post. If this new serv-
ice be established by the government
even with the best of motives, we
must admit that:
"The postal deficit will be increased.
1.-THE country's commercial system
revolutionized. IL
"The delivery Of legitimate mail de-
layed.
1.-THE population of rural commune
ties depleted and their progress re-
tarded.
"And that the government will pro-
mote class legislation, for in seeking
to favor the farmer, who needs no
such preferment, it will subsidize a
interest whose basic bust
ness principle is hostility to the best
trade distribution.
EVERY thinking Individual agrees
that rural free delivery has been of
great benefit, but the masses of the
people do not agree that a financially
Improbable service shall be put upon
its feet at the cost Of the man who
has been the mainstay of the farmer
In season and out of season-the
country storekeeper."
You jewellers of the country. think
twice on this bill. Your home mer.
chant has carried your account when
your crop failed, when your barns
burned, when one Of your dear ones
died. He has been your friend as well
as your creditor in times of mental
stress and financial depletion. win
the city mail order house, plethoric
and fat through the workings of the
parcels post bill. be your friend when
you have no money? Will it carry
you until you can make good and get
on your feet again?
You know It will not.
Go slow. then. before you vote to