The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-07-10
A Menace to the Nation.

- - . .
So silently and insidiously that the
great public is as yet almost una
ware of it's presence, new trust is
extending it's tenacles out over the
country. 1t is the mail order trust.
Already its strangling grip is tight
ening about the million small towns
and country merchants who are the
backbone of national prosperity.
The mail order trust has capital
lied woman and child labor. 1t has
capitalized prison labor. 1t has cap
italized misfortune. 1t has capial-
lied vice. 1t has turned all these
things into dollars-dollars which
should have found their way into the
yills of the country merchant, instead
of flowing into the trusts Wall
street hoard.
One MAJ order house recently in
creased its capital stock from $780,
O00 to S4O,O00,000. A $4,000
OO0 merger of mail order houses has
been formed. The Wall street fl
nanciers, including the Morgan bank
ing firm, has had charge of both
these financial operations. Still an
other mail order house, with 63 acres
of floor space, made net profit or
SIT, 100000 last year.
It is evident that the greedy eyes
of the great mail order tinanciers are
turned upon the entire retail bust
ness of the United States, outside of
the great cities. 1t is also plain that
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. 1t is declared that
something must be done by immed-
late legislation, or the parcel post
will not be the complete blessing it
ought to be- 1t is asserted the solu-
ton of the problem will be in the
form of a heavy tax on mail order
business. This tax would, it is con-
tended, tend to stop the expansion
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 To-
cal improvements in the districts
which contributed to the mail order
houses.
The small retail merchant is the
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 a systematic advertising
campaign, 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
their retail methods are wasteful and
costly. But let us point out the 9TH
er side of the question. .u.
The Chicago vice investigation
showed that 5O,O0v women employees
of mail order houses are existing on
starving wages, many of them being
driven by poverty to lives of shame.
The mail order houses are great dis
tributers of prison-made goods. They
are the exploiters of misfortune,
buying in much of their goods at
bankrupts' sales. But who takes an
interest in local affairs and has a
hand in the upbuilding of commun-
tiles? Whose goods are assessed for
the taxes to pay for local improve
ment? 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. We want cheapness, lower
cost of living; that is what we are
all looking for. But we do not want
it at the expense of the woman wage
slave of Chicago and of the million
little merchants of this country.