The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1913-07-02
PARCELS POST LOBBY.
New "Breed" of Lobbyists Show their
Heads Mt Washington.

and insidously that the great public
is as yet almost unaware of it's pres
ence, new trust is extending its ten
acles out over the country. 1t is the
mail order trust. Already it's strang-
ling grip is tightening about the mil
lion small town and country merch-
ants who are the backbone of nation
al prosperity.
The mail order trust has captilized
women and child labor. 1t has capi-
talized prison labor. 1t has capital
lied misfortune. 1t has capitalized
vice. 1t has turned all these things
into dollars-dollars which should
have found their way into the tills
of the country merchant, instead of
flowing into the trusts Wall street
board.
One mail order house recently in
creased it's capital stock from $780,
900 to $4O,OOO,OOO. A new 100000
600 merger of mail order houses has
been formed. Wall street financiers.
including the Morgan banking firm,
has had charge of both these finan-
cial operations. Still another mail
order house, with 63 acres Of floor
space, made neat profit of $4,000
600 last year
1t is evident that the greedy eyes
or the great mail order financiers
are turned upon the entire retail
business of the United States outside
of the great cities. 1t is also plain
that a gigantic trust is rapidly
forming. The small retail merchant
is facing ruin. That the grip OF
the octopus is already being felt
is shown by the population statis-
tics. Nearly 1000 small towns lost
population in the census of 1910
1t is declared that something must
be done by immediate legislation, or
the parcel post will not be the com
plete blessing it ought to be. 1t is
asserted the solution of the problem
will be in the form of heavy tax
on mail order business. This tax
would, it is contended tend to stop
the expansion of the mail business
and TO reduce its present formidable
size. The money thus collected
would be spent for road building or
other local improvements in the dis
tricts which contributed TO the mail
order houses.
The small retail merchant is the
prop OF distributed prosperity, and
the growth of the mail order trust
serves no common good Here is a
principle which works out: "If YOU
spend your money where you get it,
you will be able to get it where
you spend it."
Through systematic advertising
campaign, the mail order capitalists
have sought to poison the public mind
against the small merchant. The peo-
pie have been told that there are too
many merchants, and that their re-
tail methods are wasteful and costly.
But / would point out the other side
of the question.
The Chicago vice investigation
showed that $4,000 women employees
of mail order houses are existing on
starvation wages, many of them being
driven by poverty to lives of shame.
The mail order houses are the great
distributors of prison made gods.
They are the eXploiters of misfortune,
buying much of'their goods at bank
rupts' sales.
But who takes an interest in local
affairs and has a hand in the up
building of communities? Whose
goods are assessed for taxes to
pay for local improvement? Who,
when the crops have failed or the
strike is on, and there is no cash to
send away, extends the credit which
enables the community to live? The
local merchant and not the Wall
street owned mail order house.
As a congressman says:
I'VE want cheapness, a lower cost
of living: that is what we are all
working for. But we do not want it
at the expense of the women wage
Slaves of Chicago and of the million
little merchants of tbis countl,v