Amarillo daily news. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 19??-current, 1913-06-26
MAIL ORDER TRUST IS
now DECLARED MENACE

Ey Congressman Nlyde H. IaVen-
lncr
/ WASHINGTON. ~ C.. June 25
10 silently aud insidiously that the
great public Is as yet almost unawerc
Of Us presence new trust Ia extend
/ Ing a. tenlacles Out over the coua-
Try This 10 the mail order trust
Already H. strangling grip ~ tight
oning about The million small towns
and country merchants who are the
back bone of the national prosperity.
The mail order trust has capitalil-
I'd women and child labor n has
capitalized prison l1bOr II his capi.
tailed misiorluno n has oapitalil.
ID vice % has turned all these
hings into dollar dollars which
should have found their way into The
tits Of the country merchant instead
Of flowing into the trusts Wan
Street hoard
One mail order house recently iu-
creased a. capital stock from 5000.
900 to 100000 600. 4 new $4,000
600 merger Of mail order houses has
been formed. Wah street fnanciort
Including the Morgan banking firm,
has had charge of both these finan-
cal operations sun another mail
order bQuse, with 81 acres of floor
space. made net profu of 1000
600 last year
u Is evident that the greedy eyes
Of the great mail order inanciors|
are turned upon the entire retail bus
mess OF the United States outside
of the great cities II is also plain
that q gigantic trust is rapidly form
INK. Tho small rctail merchant ISL
facing ruin That the grip of he
uctupus Is already being felt ig shown
by the population statistics. Nearly
900 small towns lost population in
the census Of 1910.
II is declared that something must
be- done b. immediate legislation. or
the parcel post will not be the com
pleto blessing II ought 10 be- n isl
asserted the solution of the problem
will be In the form Of heavy tax ON
mail order business This tax would
II Is cOntcnded. tend 60 stop the cA
pansiou of the mail order business.
and to reduce It's present formidable
size The money thus collected would !
be spent for road building or Other
local improvements In the districts
which contributed 10 the mail order
houses
The small retail merchant is the
prop OF distributed prosperity and
the growth OF the mail order house
serves no common good Here Is q
principle which works out ~ y0u
spef your money where yos get IT,
yc'I)~ill be Gple - get It where you
sytfdft."
Through tyI iematic adycrtisiqs
campaign. the mall order capitalists
have sought u poison the public
mind against The small merchant
The people have been told that
there are too many merchants. ana
that their retail methods are waste
luI and costly But 7 would point out
the other side of the question.
The Chicago vice Investigation on
sowod that 10000 women employees
of mail order houses are existing
on starvation wages, many of them
being driven hy poverty 10 lives OF
.hame The nail order houses are
The great distributors of poison made
GOODS They are the cNploitors OF
buying much of their
goods az bankrupt sales.
hut who takes an interest In local
affairs and has hand In the up
building of communities Whose
Goods are assessed for the taxes %
nay for local Improvement Whl,
when the crops have failed or the
strike Is on, aud there Is no cash to
send away extends the credit which
enables the community 10 live The
local merchant and not the Wall
Street owned mail order house.
We want Dhcapness, "a lower cost
NJ liyiug that is what Sc are am
for Hut we do not want
Il at tho expense OF the womon wage
slaves ol Chicago and OF the million
little merchants of this country.