Licking Valley courier., 1917-04-12
WAR ON THE MAIL ORDER PEST.

There is nothing so effective as persstency, is
there anything that sweeps away abuse effectively
publicity. Persistent publicity will bring about any result
in time if the aim be for the public good With this in
mind would modesty suggest persistent six months
campaign by publication by letter. by public meeting, by
private conversation and by every other the pow
e of the editor against the enemy of every small
town in the communicative mail order bandit He loots
your public he takes dollars out of the pockets of your
merchants he attacks the community spirit and even
makes it pay for its own destruction.
& Now, in beginning such campaign let us suggest
that it be real fight. Don't let it be any parlor game
Don't content yourself with assaults and then
STOP Let the gentleman understand what the power of
the country press means.
Suppose for instance, you begin with your women.
Women loyal They love their homes and they usual
H stand by the men who working and fighting for them
See that every within radius of your circulation is
told plainly and tuthfuy how she is nurng herself her
husband and her neghbor by patronzng the mail order
pest. And don't rest satisfied with merely telling her.
Convince her.
Advise your merchants to prove through their adver-
tsing that goods can be bought cheapy in the home
stores they by mail and that they be be-
fore they purchased Point out that some pays
those hundreds of thousand of dollars spent in mail order
advertising not cent of which reaches you any
in your community The customer pays it, of course Ex
plain that the dollar that sent out of town never
comes back and that the dollar is the token of labor
represents some mans work. 1t didn't out of the
air. And when it was made by the labor of the home folks
it should be kept among home folks. is to the home
folks that you must look when trouble comes.
You see, Mr.. Country Publisher, you are trying tc
build up your community. That your business. The
mail order bandit is trying to pull it down. That is his
business You logical enemies. 1t up to you to leaC
the fight for your town and your people and to keep fight
ing without cessation until the enemy is on the mat
When the people really believe mail order trading il
harmful to their home town they will stop it, and wher
they stop the funeral of the mail order gentleman will b
in order and flowers be sent Sometimes it is hard tt
drive home truth but persstency and publicity will d
it-American Press
The above is more truthful than poetic The mail or
der houses hurting the entire community and all bu
running the country merchant and the merchant doing bus
mess in the small towns But what can newspaper d.
in town like West Liberty where majority of the mer
chants do not belong to the advertising Glass; where tn
merchants have such settled aversion to advertising tina
they would rather the peoples money sent to Chicago
or New York for mail order goods than to patronze tn
columns of their home newspaper?
Can newspaper be expected to take up the fight a
gans the mail order houses for the benefit of merchant
who are not its patrons? Not on your life! No matte
how much the editor regrets to the growing endenc
of the people to buy their goods away from home he
not afford to waste his time and energy and give his
paper space for the benefit OF the nonapprecatve
chant. He as well as the merchant has living to max
and he would be fool to be eernay ambasting the mai
order business for the benefit of those who care never
damn whether he lives or dies.
Such fight ought to be made you say Admitted
But the who reap the benefit ought to do their part