Vol. LXIX. No. 4049 
NEW YORK, JUNE 4, 1910. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
COUNTRY MERCHANT FOR PARCELS POST. 
Gives a Good Argument For It. 
As a country merchant of 41 years’ experience, I 
would like to say something regarding country mer¬ 
chants and parcels post. I have always held up 
both hands for all advancements in our community, 
such as our railroad, built in 1872, and our free mail 
delivery, now in operation three years, a great con¬ 
venience to our customers, and no hindrance to our 
trade. Our telephone lines throughout our rural 
sections are another great saver of time to our farm¬ 
ers. For 15 years I have worked for and written 
articles strongly favoring parcels post, and I am 
sure from talking with other merchants in our State 
that the greater part of them in both country and 
city are strongly in favor of this convenience. We 
hail the day when we can have it, as then we shall 
be on a more equal footing with catalogue houses. 
Catalogue houses are not to be so much dreaded by 
country merchants, as many of our customers who 
have been sending to them are finding out that some 
of them deal mostly in seconds or inferior grades of 
goods. For instance, 
just across the street 
from my store is a 
manufacturing company. 
They make tie snaps and 
saddlery hardware, and 
sell to all parts of the 
world. One day I met 
one of my cousins, a 
farmer in this communi¬ 
ty, delivering catalogues 
to the farmers in his sec¬ 
tion. These catalogues 
were from a well-known 
catalogue house. This 
cousin said: “This is 
against your business, 
but a benefit to me, as I 
can send to them and 
get goods for less than I 
can get them from the 
merchants in your vil¬ 
lage.” And he mention¬ 
ed that he could buy the 
harness snaps from this 
catalogue house for 
much less than he could 
get them at from the 
factory just across from my store. This seemed so 
strange to me that I stepped over to this factory and 
stated the case to a friend who had been in the fac¬ 
tory for 20 years. He showed me a bin into which 
all checked, cracked or inferior snaps were thrown, 
and said: “When this becomes full we finish them 
the best we can and box them for catalogue houses. 
In this way, we do not have near enough to supply 
them, so we make for them an inferior grade to 
supply their demands for a snap that they can cata¬ 
logue at a price below the country or city merchant 
who handles only standard stock.” A manufacturer 
in Cleveland, Ohio, who makes carriage bolts, monkey 
wrenches, etc., told me that all their seconds in 
wrenches went to catalogue houses. This all opened 
my eyes, and I have looked this matter up a little, 
and hear that a New York organ factory made 500 
organs of a poorer grade than they ever made before 
for a catalogue house. A rug mill in Pennsylvania 
that was making four grades in rugs, made 500 of a 
still poorer grade than their regular cheap grade 
for a catalogue house. They made them same size, 
patterns and colors, so that the catalogue house’s 
customers might be led to think them just as good 
as their home merchant was offering in the very same 
figures and colors, when actually the home merchant 
was offering a much better grade made by the same 
mill. This I know to be absolutely true, because one 
of my customers sent for two that happened to be 
just the same colors, figure and size of some I had 
in stock and she told me of it. I got her to take 
one home with her and see the difference in the 
heft. It was a surprise to her; now she is my steady 
customer. She actually paid $2.50 each for the rugs, 
and all l asked for my better grade was $1.75. 
Another customer sent for five pairs of lace cur¬ 
tains, and sent more money than enough to pay for 
them. She inquired the price of the four-foot white 
curtain poles, but did not order any; they sent five. 
In the meantime, she had secured her poles and had 
them up ready for her curtains on arrival, and so 
did not need these poles sent. She sent her little 
girl to our store with the poles from the catalogue 
house. The little girl told me there were some poles 
her mamma did not want. I thought they were from 
our store, as they were like our poles, so I paid her 
50 cents. In a few days her mother came in and 
said the poles were 75 cents. I told her that they 
were 50 cents. She said: “Well, I paid 75 cents.” 
I said: “Some of my clerks must have made a 
mistake.” On inquiry, I found that none of them 
had sold her any poles, and I said to her: “You did 
not get those poles here.” Then she told me the 
circumstances. I got the poles and told her to give 
me the 50 cents and to return the poles to Chicago 
and get her 75 cents. Do not think our customers 
are all like this; most of them are farmers, and we 
think them the most honest, upright people in the 
world, and they ought to be, because, on account 
of their occupation, they are nearer to God than 
any other people. 
Parcels post would be a great public benefit to any 
community, and we would have had it long ago if 
some of our Congressmen who represent our express 
companies were only more patriotic and less selfish. 
In some of their speeches and published articles they 
say the country merchant is opposed to parcels post. 
If these Congressmen were honest, they would say: 
“We ourselves are not true to our trust; we are not 
patriots, and do not honestly represent the public 
generally; only a part of the country storekeepers 
are opposed to parcels post, and we Congressmen 
who are financially interested in express companies 
are trying to make the people believe it is some one 
else who is opposed to parcels post. Actually it is 
us, together with other representatives that we can 
control in a way that the public must not know about, 
or they would not send us to Washington again.” 
Many of our Representatives undoubtedly are honest; 
while others, for the public welfare, probably ought 
to be in prison. It is to our shame to know that an 
Italian or other foreigner is specially favored by being 
able to send a pound package to Italy for 12 to 14 
cents, when we are obliged to pay 16 cents to send 
a pound package to any point in our country. It is 
also to our shame to know that a merchant in Lon¬ 
don, England, can send a package started from Lon¬ 
don by parcels post and accepted by express com¬ 
panies on our shores and forwarded to Chicago for 
less than a merchant in New York City can send 
the same package to Chicago. In the face of all 
this, many New York City merchants are letting the 
trade that should come to them slip away to the 
inland towns, because they do not secure cheaper and 
better and more rapid transit out and from New 
York City. Even the “Dry Goods Economist,” pub¬ 
lished in New York City, 
supposedly for the bene¬ 
fit of the country mer¬ 
chant, tried for a long 
time to make us believe 
that we did not need 
and did not want parcels 
post. They may be at 
it yet for all I know, as 
I would not tolerate 
their nonsense any long¬ 
er and quit them a num¬ 
ber of years ago. If we 
can have parcels post 
our rates will be mod¬ 
erate, and not outrage¬ 
ous as now; we can be 
on an equal basis with 
large dealers as we are 
now on postal rates. A 
wise Congressman might 
try to make you think 
that I am wrong in these 
last two assertions, but 
I think he can see with¬ 
out difficulty just what 
I mean in this matter, 
and that it is right, too, 
A. C. PETERSON. 
DAMAGE BY FIRE TO FRUIT TREES. 
There have been several reports recently of injury 
by fires to fruit trees, and usually caused by railroads. 
To reply to some of the questions as to the real 
value of trees, the true extent of the damages and the 
financial reparation for injuries, there might be con¬ 
siderable difference of opinion among the most capable 
and conscientious judges. For instance, shade trees 
that bear no fruit might be considered of little value 
because they could not yield financial returns, yet 
they have a cash value and their owners are entitled 
to reparation for injuries to them. They are a 
genuine cash asset in the valuation of any homestead. 
Let anyone who is deciding the value of such trees 
imagine they were his own and consider what would 
be the loss to his property in case of injury or de¬ 
struction. 
As to fruit trees, they are valuable according to 
what they really are. If they are peach or other 
short-lived trees, they are not worth nearly so much 
as apple or pear trees, for the latter will outlive the 
peach trees three times or more. And the age and 
THE AUTO I ST AS A COUNTRY BRIDGE BUILDER. Fig. 255. 
from every point of view. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
