The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1914-12-17
TELLS HOW MAIL HOUSES
HURT FARM PROPERTY

How the community and individ-
ual farmer loses by trading with
mail order houses is told in the
following excellent article by o. T..
Bracket of Startup. wash
Now as merchant l propose to
call to public attention that the mail
order house is partly parasite on
the energy of other merchants and
partly a pensioner on the postal ser
vice of tile United Sites. Without
the aid of the unwilling retailer and
the bounty in the matter of trans
portation the mail order houses
might decline in spite of their other
efficient methods. Over in Seattle
the manufacturers put on an expo
sition of merchandise in the armory.
Now were these exhibits merely TO
please the eye and divert the mind
like picture show? Their object
was rather to impress upon the pub
lie the value and attractiveness of
the products exhibited and to extend
their sale and usefulness. Every
store is permanent exhibition of
merchandise for the inspection of the
public. The retailer has introduced
every new thing under the sun and
educated the people to a standard Of
living never before enjoyed in the
worlds history. The other half of
the world who are still swinging the
scythe are doing SO for lack of en-
terprising retailers to sell them
mower. Now after the work Is done
here comes the catalogue house to
profit by the labor of the dealer
and sell the same stuff or. more like
ly, an inferior substitute. from pic
ture Imagine a farmer buying the
first reaper or mower from a pic
ture On no, the farmer waits until
the enterprising retailer has demon
strated the value of the new mer-
chandise or until the neighbors have
sAsted the new machinery On.the. deal
er's guarantee. On paper, gingham
and calico look rs good as brOadcloth
and silk, but the housewife learns
the difference from the dealers.
Time and again we have ..ad people
come to our store for the sole pur-
pose of trying on our shoes to as
certain the size to use in a mail or
der.
Corsets, underwear and hosiery
are often taken home on approval
to get a line on sizes. qualities and
styles. The catalogue would not do
half the business it now gets II 1t
were not for exhibition and educat-
ional contributions of the country
merchant.
;af oil af tho mail order
house is the country postoffice, the
existence of which, in large ma
jority of cases is dependent upon tn
presence of a merchant who will act
as post master. The compensation
of a fourth class postmaster was fix
ed in 1873 when stamps We're sold
at three cents each and when times
were some different than now. The
has long known that the
country postoffices were not paying
their own way, but the advertising
feature in that the postoffice
brought all the people into the store
was relied upon TO furnish the bal
q nee of the compensation. Now the
mail order houses, with the hep o1
the farmers organizations who
thought they were going to market
all their produce by mail. have got
congress to saddle the work OF the
parcels post on the country post
office without additional pay. So
far the farmers have shipped nothing
out by mail, so the postmaster mas
got no money from cancellations
while on the other hand he Is met
with big load of parcels from the
catalogue house which must De
handled for nothing. 1t is safe 10
say that ninety per cent of all the
parcels are from mail orderhouses.
The qualities and prices of mer-
chandise in the various country
stores are not widely at varience.
Therefore if one store enjoys a more
liberal patronage than another II is
because of the good Will OF the peo-
ple. The village merchant Is In daily
contact with his customers and OF
necessity all of his acts, big or little
are scrutinized and weighed. TO
hold the good will OF the community
the merchant must Cd pay MS
clerks living wage; Cd he must
haudle the farmers produce or at
least help, him find a market; t3)
he is expected to extend credit IN
case of need; (4 he must support
the church, the schools and all pup
lie enterprises: and t5) he must
head the list for charity. All these
things cost money which IN some
measure must be produced from the
business. Here again the parasitc
mail order house gets we'll out OF
range of all these items OF cost, YET
profits by the standard of living IL
does not support
Statistics on the population OF
small cities and towns show them 10
be declining. The reason is because
the people surrounding these towns
have withdrawn their customary sup