The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-06-23

EXTENDING ITS
TENTACLES OUT.
GREEDY EYES OF GREAT MAIL
ORDER FINANcIERS ARE TURN
ED UPON THE ENTIRE RETAIL
BUSINESS OUTSIDE THE BIG
CITIES. ~. 49,
BY Congressman Clyde n. Tavenner.

| BY Congressman Clyde n. Tavenner.
Washington, June $50 silently
and insidiously that the great public
is as yet almost unaware of it's pres
ence, new trust is extending its
tentacles out over the country. It is
the mail order trust. Already its
strangling grip is Tightening about the
million small town and country mer-
chants, who are the backbone of ma
tionaI prosperity.
The mail order trust has capitalized
women and child labor. It has CAPT
talized prison labor. It has capital
lied misfortune. It has capitalized
vice. It 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 hoard.
One mail order house recently in
creased its capitol stock from 100000
to $40,000,000. A new $10,O00,O00 mer-
ger of mail order houses has been
formed. Wall street f1nanciers, includ-
ing the Morgan banking firm, has had
charge of both these financial opera
tons. Still another mail order house,
with 63 acres of floor space, made a
net profit of $17,0o0,000 last year.
A Gigantic Trust.
1t is evident that the greedy eyes
Of 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 theSoctopus is aIrSc dy
being felt is shown by the population
statistics. Nearly 1000 small towns
lost population in the census of 1910.
1t is declared that something must
fa 81 nr
the parcel post will not be the complete
blessing it ought to be. It is asserted
the solution of the problem will be in
the form of a heavy tax on mail order
business. This tax would, it is con-
tended, present formidable size. The
money thus collected would be spent
for road building or other local i'm
provements in the districts which con-
tributed to the mail order houses.
Retail Merchant Hurt.
The small retail merchant is the
prop of distributed prosperity, and the
growth of the mail order trust serves
no common good. Here is 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 a 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
USTCIdnlSs ana ILaL IH6lr retail
methods are wasteful and costly. But
I 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 star
walton wages many Of them being
driven by poverty to lives of shame.
The mail order houses are the great
distributors of prison-m made goods.
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 the 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?
Cheapness Is Wanted.
We want cheapness, a lower cost of
living; that is what we are all work
ing for. But we do not want it at
the expense of the women wage
slaves of Chicago and of the million
little merchants of this country.