The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-07-05
Congressman Tavenner Declares
Mail Order Houses are Tighten
ing Grip on Small Towns.
$1O,OOO,OO0 MERGER PLANNED
Urges That Immediate Legislation
Should Place Heavy Tax on
Mail Order Business.
By Congressman Clyde H. Tavenner

and insidiously that the great pub
lie is as yet almost unaware of its
presence, a new trust is extending it's
tentacles out over the country. It
is the mail order trust. Already it's
strangling grip is tightening about
the million small town and country
merchants who are the backbone of
national prosperity. u.s.. o.
The mail order trust has capitalize
ed women and child labor. It has
capitalized prison labor. 1t has cap
italized misfortune. 1t has capital
lied vice.. 1t has turned all these
things into dollars--dollars which
should have found their way into the
tills of the country merchant, in
stead of flowing into the trusts Wall
Street hoard. a.'.
One mail order house recently in
creased it's capital stock from $780,
900 to $40,00O,OO0. A new $1O,-
100000 merger of mail order houses
has been formed. Wall Street finan-
ciers, including the Morgan banking
firm, has had charge Of both these
financial operations. Still another
mail order house, with So acres Of
floor space, made a net profit Of $17,-
100000 last year. r..
1t is evident that the greedy eyes
of the great mail order financiers are
turned upon the entire retail bust
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 octupus
v is -,being felt lis 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 immediate legislation,
or the parcel post will not be the
complete blessing it ought to be. 1t
is asserted the solution of the prob
lem will be in the form of a heavy
would, it is commended, tend to stop
the expansion of the mail 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 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
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 l 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
starvation wages, many Of them be-
ing driven by poverty to lives of
shame. The mail order houses are
the great distributors of prison-made
goods. They are the exploiters of
misfortune, buying much Of their
goods at bankrupts' 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 en-.
ables 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
working for. But we do not want II
at the expense Of the women wage
slaves of Chicago and of the million
little merchants of this country.