The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1912-07-22
KNIGHTS Of ROAD.
travelling Men Meet and De-
nounce Parcels Post Bill.
WOULD BE SERIOUSLY HURT
Why Commercial Statesmen Should
Oppose Proposed Legislation Tend.
Ing to lnJurs Country Towns and
Decrease Need for Travelling Men,

Oppose Proposed Legislation Tend
Ing TO injure Country Towns and
Decrease Need for Travelling Men.
The Iowa Travellers Protective AS
ISOLATION met at Davenport during the
month OF May and denounced the par
cells post bill.
This is not q new organization but
one that has existed for 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, l 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 fei-
low who touches trade daily what ef'
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, 1t will give them the chance
to advertise goods at so much pound
or yard delivered anywhere, and that
Il will ruin the country merchant be
cause Il will take business away from
him and give Il to the maiI-order
concern In the city. The chances are
all with the mail-order house ana
against the country merchant because
the mail-order house with large cap
ital and big business can buy IN
carload lots, and In meeting the coun-
try merchants price, make larger
profit. The commercial man knows
that the country merchant, as rule,
makes little more than living ana
oftentimes has to worry along to do
this. In these days Of mail-order
competition. 1t Is difficult to do bust
ness enough to more than pay his
expenses in store and home. When
the parcels post becomes a law. If 1t
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
It is a matter Of self-protection as
we'll as a natter OF principle. that
the proposed bill as unfair and un-
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
II 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 merely nominal
charge, carry them frequently at q
loss, unmindful of the present heavy
deficit in the second class mail de
partment
Answering these premises, Hon
Charles s. Hernly, president OF the
New Castle (Ind.) Industrial associa
ton. says:
IF the manufacturers Of the coun
try could have found q more econom
lcal 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 sucf
efforts ever succeeded. Through the
wholesaler. the manufacturer IL 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
| 631I6T, Luub SuoOAu& INC iostCi " luI
nish credits to his customers. ANY
sudden retrenchment of the present
system through fear or otherwise. BY
endeavoring to place business upon {
cash basis. would create widespread
aistress."
The travelling man believes. ana cor
-ectly, that parcels post would in1urt
the nation by the destruction of an i'm
portant and necessary force Of prog
.ess that makes for originality of mins
and individuality Of character. enc
again that It will be injured by the We
generating influence OF crowdini
and congested population in the BIZ
,ities where men lose their ndivid
Plant Secret.
An old and experienced fioris