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Show mInaceto all Giant Mail Order Concerns Are Sapping Country of Its Wealth. SMALLER TOWNS CRUSHED By Assisting In the Centralization of Wealth, Patrons of These Institutions In-stitutions Contribute to Their Own Injury. (Copyright, 1906, by Alfred C. Clatk.) Dvery year millions upon millions ot dollars find tholr way from tho towns, Tillages and rural districts ot Uio country coun-try to tho coffers of tho mail ordor houses In tho cities, and go to tho unbuilding un-building of enormous Institutions In tho ceutcrs ot population. Naturally, the sources from which tho contributions contribu-tions are mndo Buffer accordingly. Figures over tell a bettor story than words. Hero nro figures which tell a story bo stupendous that Its full significance sig-nificance cannot bo grasped In a moment, mo-ment, but tho mere sight of which aro awe Inspiring: In tho year 1905 two mall ordor houses, located In Chicago, did a business busi-ness amounting In round numbers to $$0,000,000. In tho yoar 1904 these same concerns did n business of nbout $62,000,000, a gain of 118,000,000 or nearly 30 por cent, in a slnglo year bo-Ing bo-Ing thus exhibited. These figuros represent tho salo last yoar of ono dollar's worth ofmorchan-dlse ofmorchan-dlse for every man, woman and child la tho country by two cntaloguo bouses alone, and thoso operating from tho samo' central point. Dozens moro of varying slzo nnd Iniportnnco nro operating oper-ating all over the country from coast 9 ple as a wholo shall bo prosperous. Such general prosperity ns may oxist cannot bo retained If tho Institutions of tho already larger and wealthier communities nro to contlnuo lo be built up by contributions that should bo spent at homo from tho thousand! of smaller communities. Tho need of tho country, a desper-ato desper-ato need upon which tho wolfaro of tho Individual depends, 1b for the upbuilding nnd continued progress of tho smnllor communities, bo that the wealth of tho country may bo distributed distrib-uted over tho entire country, nnd not congested and controlled In large amounts In n'compnrntlvo fow contors ot population. Therefore, tho man who sends nway from his own community money which ho might havo spent at homo and permitted per-mitted n fair profit to tho homo merchant mer-chant to ho rotalncd thoro for the benoflt of tho community, Is Injuring his community, and thorohy tho prospects pros-pects for hla own futuro prosperity. In n largo number ot Instances ho Is doing moro than this. Unwittingly, or unthinkingly, perhaps, ho Is violating his own principles of right and Justice, for, nt tho oxpenso of IiIb own community, com-munity, ho Is ncodlossly contributing profits to tho capitalistic combinations which ho continuously cries out are menacing tho country- Tho mall ordor giants direct their energies particularly toward the peoplo peo-plo ot tho smaller towns nnd tho agricultural agri-cultural districts. In hundreds ot thousauds of tho homos of thoso the cntaloguo of tho mall order houso Is as regularly received aB tho homo papor. Tho man on tho farm last year Bent a very largo portion of eighty millions of dollars to two of theso Institutions, In ono community, ulono. In nil sincerity wo ask: Admitting, purely for tho sako of tho nrgument, that tho farmor or tho resident of tho small community can savo a fow dollars dol-lars on somo of his purchases, or even yv j ' IsbMbsI&W bTbWi CaWssw iWII Si if m I IJt1 wl V "wUL7fyits4iLsfSiim Jbbbw 2lSbVw1 sit sssi )siSBkBsssssssssf '"tSsbW . ,'" R , The "Man Behind the Plow" last year contributed a large portion of the Vast number ' millions which found their way Into tho coffers of the mall order houses. The smaller comm unities to which It belonged, and which were thus deprived of it, suffered accordingly. to coast and from bordor to bordor. I A fact not gonornlly known Is that hundreds of concerns throughout tho) country which now nro doing business through tho regular trado channels nro awaiting only a. parcols post law to unloose lltornttiw, already prepared lu many Instances, which would project pro-ject them Into tho mall ordor field, and ' this does not tnko Into account tho. hundreds nnd porhaps thousands of entirely now mall ordor concerns which Inevitably would spring Into existence ex-istence undor such frlondly ausplcoa, Tho two Chicago Institutions ro-forrcd ro-forrcd to, already occupying Immense buildings, found thomoolvos cramped for toom. Ono of lliom.',iendod not less than $1,000,000, und probably more, for n now homo. Tho other lately hns secured n now location And i'Iuo will oxpond at least $1,000,000 for nn Im-. menso now building. ' Anyone who will rolloct oven raHiiul ly on tho subject must become Im-1 prrssod that Iho li.llucnco of Urn mall j order business Is tow.irJ 'ho centralization central-ization of wealth, rnd Low mormons 'a part It Is plajltift In thu direction will be undorotood from a socond glance nt tho flguroo Mv.h havo been glvon above. It Is duu to htniHClf Hint every patron of tho mall order liouco chu'i'd Inqulro honestly of himself wlipl !.u final out-como out-como Itto ho If the mull order btul-noss btul-noss shall contlnuo to make tic great strides which hnvo mr"i-l Ho prof i rets dUUus iLo .ist half decade. It la usoless to ropoat Iho well worn argument of tho mall order concerns that they nro solilnc EKdf enough moro cheaply lhan (he norcbants in tho regular channels of lisd to leavo their customer root morj thnn ever to devote to Noin iin prison and InsUlutiUMS. Tt fsllsry r.f thu statomnt I-ut bom proved ovrr und over aiiin by Mct.i! nd minute comparison? com-parison? of goal, tu thlr quality ( and prices. To iWute It Biully and ladlipu'itly by itmplei snd mnmj direct method 11 Is r.crcsiair only to nsk the reliable busiucnv nm of any I of tho smaller communities to show j the evldonce from their books and an j counts ot the harm the mall order I habit I doing their communities. It Is a truth as old as the hills and as certain as the rising and sttlnc of the sun that no country or section of t copntry Ma fosper unlet bt peo- gtMSM' r that ho could do so on all of them, can 1 afford to contlnuo to Impoverish lll own community, upon which his own" prosperity, tho very vnluo of his lam leponds? 1' ho will nsk hlmsolf (his question nnd consldor It soborly nnd fairly In H of lis phasos, Including tho many which cannot bo touched upon within tho limits of n olnglo nrtlclo, wo think his answer must ho thnt ho cannot, The wonderful productivity of this country has heon Hiilllclont to ovor-como ovor-como tho various nifverso economic Influences In-fluences which hnvo existed during tho period of years in which tho mall order or-der business has accomplished Its greatest growth, Kvoryono has been "KOttlng nlong pretty well," Whllo tho Increasing How of golden millions from their sourco In tho hind of tho country coun-try to tho nlready great centers of money nnd population has hold back tho growth of tho smaller communities, communi-ties, it bus not yet occasioned n groat disaster. Thu toot will como with the first pinch of "hard times," a condition condi-tion which no country over has heon able to osrpo ot rceurrlng intervals, When this lime nrrlves thoso communities com-munities vll! bn?t ntund tho tost which Imvo best conseivetl and huobandod tholr rorourcca. JOHN 8. POTTS. |
