The Cairo bulletin., 1913-06-21
GREEDY EYES OF
THE MAIL ORDER
TRUST UPON Us

BY Congressman Clyde II. Tavenner.
Washington, June $50 silently
and insidiously that the great public
Is as yet almost unaware of Its pres
ence. a rev trust is extending its
tentacles out over the country. II
Is the mail order trust. Already Its
strangling grip is tightening about
the million small town and country
merchants who are the backbone of
national prosperity.
The mail order trust has capital
lied women and child labor 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 mer-
chant, Instead of flowing into the
trusts Wall Street hoard.
One mail order house recently in
creased its capital stock from $780,
600 to $4,000, 900. A new sIO.-
100000 merger of mail order
houses has been formed. Wall
street financiers, including the Nor
gan banking firm, has had charge Of
both these financial operations.
Still another mail order house, with
6S acres of floor space, made a net
profit of sl7000,o00 last year.
1t is evident that the greedy eyes
of the great mail order financiers are
turned upon the entire retail busi-l
ness 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. statistics, Nearly 1000
small towns lost population in the
census of 1910.
II Is declared that something
must be done by immediate legisla-
ton, or the parcel post will not be
the complete blessing 1T 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, 1t is contended. tend
to- stop the expansion of the mail
order business. and to reduce its
formidable size. The money
thus collected would be spent for
road building or ether local I'm
in the districts which |
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 |
which works out: "If you
spend your money where you get 1t,
gou will be able to get 1t where you
spend It.
Through a systematic advertising
the mail order capitalists
have sought to poison the public
mind against the small merchant.
The people have been told that there
are too many merchants, and that |
heir retail methods are wasteful and
,ostly. But would point out the
,ther side of the question.
The Chicago vice investigation
showed that $4,000 women employees
IT mail order houses are existing onI
starvation wages, many of them be-
ng driven by poverty to lives of
'hame. The mail order houses are
he great distributors of prison
made goods. They are the exploiters
i misfortune, buying much of their
yoeds at bankrupts' sales.
/ But who takes an interest In
ocal affairs and has a hand in the
lpbnHdIng OF communities? Whose
gotds are assessed for the to xes to
lay Tor local improvements Who.
when the crops have failed or the
trike is one, and there is no cash
o send away, extends the credit
which enables the community to
ive9 The local merchant and not
he Wall Street owned mail order
louse.
We want cheanness. lower cost
f living: that Is what we are all
for. But we do not want
I ut the expense of the women wage
laves of Chicago and of tha miAionl
it'll, merchants of this country.