Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1913-01-18


The government says to your
county, If you want us to deliver
the mail in your community, you
must keep your roads and bridges up
The direct to consumer concern does
business over these same roads and
bridges. They get the benefit from
these good roads and bridges that
you have spent your money to re-
pair and build. But they do not help
maintain them. None of their rev.
enue from the community comes back
to the community. They receive the
benefit from the farmers institutes,
your agricultural colleges and short
courses, but they do not help main
tain them.
The average retail merchant real
ICES that the so-called mail order
houses, or direct-to-consumer con-
Germs, have several advantages over
him, and here is one that you can
not overcome in any other way, ex-
cept by having the power placed in
your hands to make these concerns
bear their share of the community
burden.
1t should be remembered that the
question as to whether or not a di-
rect to consumer concern can sell
goods cheaper than the retail mer-
chant, does not enter this question
at all.
The further question as to whether
or not the local town has an actual
money value to a given community
has no connection whatever. Let
us even go SO far as to say that If
the concern selling direct to the con-
sumer could sell for one-third of what
retail merchants must ask for goods
that even this contention would not
enter in.
Suppose we eliminate from the
face of the earth both the merchant
and the local town, even then We
have not changed the basis Of our
contneiton. The whole thing hinges
upon the one thought that these con.
Germs in no wise contribute, either
by direct taxation or by license, In
any way to the up-building and the
development of local communities
but, on the other hand, they take
advantage of what other people have
done and reap the benefit.
If they have found a way to sell
goods cheaper than someone else
they, of course, should have credit
for it but they should be made te
contribute to the cost of building VI
of the condition that makes it possi
BILE for them to reap the benefit from
the community.
They are entitled to given per
cent of profit on their business, bu
LuGy CUAlllUuIC 90 oIuSA WI
Germs are made to do to the cause
that makes them prosperous.
When a street car company, {
lighting company, a gas company ask
for a franchise in your town you dt
not say to them that because yol
have found that you can haul pas
sengers cheaper on street ca
than you can haul them on wheel
barrow that because of this we viii
let them come into your town with
out paying a cent of the burden. Nc
we do not do it this way. We sa.
to them, 1t makes no difference hoy
cheap you can do this work for us
if you want to come into ourtowl
and reap the benefit Of existing cor
ditions, you must pay US certain
percent of the profits that you make
This same principle holds good Il
the contention we are making.
Every thinking person knows tina
the condition we have outlined l
one that tends toward the central
zation than any other one cause
And we further know that every na
tion that has gone to pieces, that ha
been wrecked, has been wrecked be
cause of conditions in their bushes
ceners. They thave never bee
wrecked because retail merchants 1
the smaller towns and cities deve
op a better condition or because tn
farmer himself raised more corn, Q
stock than he formerly did.
The holding of farmers institutes
and the conducting of short course
and things along this line never ye
has caused the wreckage OF natioI
1t is the great business center
where, some how or other, corruptio
enters in that have caused the dowr
fall
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