Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1912-11-21
BUY At HOME.

The Republican has a Crouch. In fact
it has been nursing it for some time,
aud wants to get rid of It before Thanks
giving day.
Every once in a while some one says,
as we suppose they say to every local
paper in the country: WHY don't you
give it to the nail order houses? They
are taking all the money ont of the
country. Why, our postmasters and
express agents say the amount they
send away to catalogue houses is simply
enormous"
Ali right! Let's give it to the mail
order houses. and q concrete example
let us take the one backed by the Ma
tional Government.
1t may be news to come. but it is
fact, that for one mail order house the
Government performs the following
service absolutely free:
Advertises, solicits, delivers the goods,
collects the money, takes care of the
fee fo- return of the money, pays the
transportation charges on the goods
from factory to consumer.
Is there 8 store in the town that could
meet this competition? Hardly! Aud
yet some of our storekeepers encourage
the Government in continuing to fur
nish this service free to gigantic mo-
nopoly.
We refer, of course, to the printed
envelopes furnished by an Ohio con-
tractor, to whom the Government fur
nishes all the before mentioned service
free.
Something over a year ago, when
Congress was about to abolish this
monopoly petitions were circulated in
every city, town and hamlet to allow
the monopoly to continue. How many
of the merchants, opposed to the mail
order business. signed it? Honest, now,
didn't you, Mr. Merchant?
Why should not the Government go
farther? If woman wants silk dress
pattern, why should not the postmaster
take her order. send to some other city
for it, deliver it, collect the money. and
remit 20 the maker in the distant city?
Or. why. if you want box of oranges,
should he not send your order to Florida
or California, as you prefer, and have
the Government pay the express charges
to your home town?
That is the competition that is put up
to the publishers, and yet they are ex-
pected to give their time, and space in
their papers, to boom their home towns
and encourage buying at home.
Take this town. There are few who
realize that the printing industry fur
nishes employment to more men than
any other industry in the town, and the
publishers are constantly at work for
the upbuilding of both our town and
county, and yet some of the biggest
orders for printing are going away from
the town.
AS to the advertising done by our To-
cal merchants-but that is another story
and more will be said about it later.
Now, Mr.. Merchant and Mr.. Man, in
terested in the upbuilding of our little
city, before you again approach the
newspapers and ask them to ''hit the
mail order houses" ask yourself if you
are doing what you should in the way
of doing your own buying at home. If
you are doing your share to support the
papers you ask to contribute so gener-
ously to the upbuilding of your home
town; and if you cannot answer in the
affirmative, then shake yourself to-
gether and begin now.
Just imagine town and surrounding
community of our population, without a
paper, and ask yourself if the ones you
have are not worthy of better support
than they have been given.
Tue CIocT pCcIUT