The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1912-08-02
BUSINESS INJURED
Proposed Parcels Post Bill Pass
es the House-PeopIe Should
Rouse Themselves.
KEEP 1T FROM BECOMING LAW
Effect on Every Country Resident
Would Be OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
This Means to Nation
and to You.

The proposed parcels post bill is an
attempted step toward further ABSORB
ton OF trade and industry by few
great commercial and Industrial cen
ters at the expense OF the town and
village.
Every countryman, whether resi-
dent OF the town or a dweller on the
bill.
The aim OF every good, patriotic
citizen should be to encourage those
measures that go toward the estab-
lishment OF local industries and the
investment OF home capital, toward
the upbuilding OF education and civic
betterment For the diverse reason
1t is the duty OF every honest citizen
to wage eternal conflict with pressing
evils that have a tendency opposite
to the above municipal virtues
The parcels post bill is an evil that
( strikes at the rery heart OF the small,
prosperous town, because 1t would
tend to take away from the local mer-
chant the business on which he re-
lies to exist-take 1t away from him
and give 1t to the big NATL order
house In the city. The taking away
of trade, or the transfer OF 1t to other
channels. cannot fail to drive mer-
| chants and employees elsewhere. The
CITY, having taken the trade from the
country, would lure them to its con-
gested confines. Capital follows trade.
Village churches, schools, banks and
Libraries would be correspondingly az
acted. The commercial traveller would
go out OF business, the local liveryman
would suffer and the hotel keeper
would be compelled to rely chiefly on
the 10y riders" for patronage. II
these with their kindred business
men, finding they could not make a
living in the country town, as before
the passage OF the proposed parcels
natural result would be decrease in
price of country real estate. How
many millions OF dollars, think you,
will be sacrificed II the mail order
houses, aided by the parcels post bill,
are allowed to cut down the patronage
Of the country merchant? And II the
mail order houses grow In the next
FIVE years as they have In the last
Ave, do you care to estimate In your
own mind, facts and figures as to how
many vacant store rooms there will
be in your town, how many country
people will be forced into the filth and
turmoil of the cities? What will be-
come of the national influence for
good that emanates from the country
town with its church, its school, its
shop? Men from such communities
are the brains OF the nation today. We
find them everywhere In the cities.
leading the progress Of their times.
Edward B. Moon, secretary OF the
American League OF Associations,
says:
I'm these centers terminate the
forces that make for real manhood and
womanhood-the forces that give us
strength and vigor as a nation. These
little trade centers are training
grounds for young men and young
women"
The moiling city, then. recruits
from the abba. healthy country. with
men educated and trained in the small
social and education centers. Sup
pose power be given any special class
to tear down that social and educa-
tional center What is the result not
only upon the village itself, but upon
The city and the nation?
The retail merchant has been the
pioneer in building towns. His we'll
fare has been synonymous with
growth and prosperity. Unless the
merchant continues to be prosperous.
the town will go down. With the mer-
chant. who suffers?
The answer is far-reaching. Those
who lose with the dealer in trade are
the clerks, the hotel keeper, the livery
man. the commercial traveller. the
wholesaler who sells the merchant
goods. every house owner. every farm
owner within a trading radius, every
mechanic, every laboring man, every
doctor, every lawyer, every preacher
and so on down the list-tor no resi-
dent can live in a town under such
conditions and not suffer either socia'
or financial loss. or both.
We need laws that will encourage
and sustain the villages OF this coun
try instead of Legislation that gives
special privileges to depicting greed.
Mail order houses, assisted by free
rural delivery. has already iessened
the number of country business men
by ten per cent. And in those COM
munities where the mail order houses
have experimental TO ascertain just
how much business they could get,
property values have either remained
stationary or deteriorated. The young