PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 21 



sending their goods by freight at much lower rates than the advocates 

 of a parcels post have suggested. 



And, by the by, has it ever occurred to the Marysville merchants that 

 they were giving these same mail-order houses the biggest kind of a boost 

 by getting the press all over the country to proclaim that goods could 

 be bought cheaper of those houses than of the local dealer ? Is not this 

 a free advertisement for those houses of the utmost value ? Is it not a 

 direct invitation to any wide-awake buyer to purchase of these houses? 



I am glad to be here to-day, not only to tell them that if this is really 

 their argument it is "bad business," but also that their whole oppo- 

 sition to the parcels post is, as they are now slowly discovering, also 

 bad business. 



In the first place, the parcels post has proved in other countries a 

 most powerful stimulus to trade. The retail merchants would in those 

 countries be the first to object to its impairment or abolition. 



In the second place, the lack of a parcels post has been, and is likely 

 to be, the cause of more orders going to mail-order houses than otherwise 

 would be the case. Postal rates and express rates on purchases being 

 largely prohibitive, buyers naturally turn to freight rates. To secure 

 these, a minimum freight of 100 pounds must be paid for. So if Jones 

 wants only 25 pounds of goods, he suggests to neighbors Smith, Brown, 

 and Robinson that they should pool issues and each send for 25 pounds, 

 dividing the freight charge among them. Jones lends them his mail- 

 order catalogue and each selects the goods he needs, and the local dealer 

 thus loses the sale of 100 pounds of goods instead of 25 pounds. Or, 

 Jones himself further scans the catalogue and sends for 75 pounds 

 more goods than he would otherwise have ordered had it been possible 

 to send for his 25 pounds by parcels post. This is no far-fetched, fan- 

 ciful instance ; it is what is now being done, and the best way to check 

 it is to institute an up-to-date parcels post. This is the true method of 

 giving the small local merchant a chance to compete with the big houses. 

 It widens his stock and practically multiplies his capital. As to local 

 buyers, there is no doubt they prefer buying things of local dealers 

 where those dealers understand their business. The average buyer hates 

 to write a letter, or even to fill in an order blank. He wants to see the 

 articles he is to pay for before he parts with his coin. He wants his 

 goods now, and not five or six weeks hence. I am glad, therefore, to 

 learn that those retail merchants who oppose parcels post have recon- 

 sidered the matter, and decline any longer to be dupes of the express 

 companies. 



Concerning the stale fabrication as to the demand for a parcels post 

 being raised by the Eastern mail-order houses, as President of the Cali- 

 fornia Postal Progress League I can vouch for the fact that not a dollar 

 has reached our treasurer from any one of those houses ; and not even a 



