Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1917 — MAIL ORDER EVIL; MAGAZINE MOVES TO REMEDY IT [ARTICLE]

MAIL ORDER EVIL; MAGAZINE MOVES TO REMEDY IT

Former Prof esse r of University of Wisconsin Outlines Extraordinary Growth of Industry Which Must Be Curbed.

The fight between the retail selling of goods by local merchants and retail selling centralized in the hands of a few powerful corporations is an old one. But until now there has been no practical co-operation between the magazines and the million or more retail merchants 8f the country. The recent decision of the Delineator, the Designer and the Woman’s Magazine to exclude all mail order advertising from their columns is Important In that it brings to the thousands of scattered communities now conducting the fight a unifying force of nation wide scope and influence. If it can achieve recognition and co-operation at the hands of retail merchants it is perfectly evident they in turn will profit, substantially under the- new national leadership. Paul H. Nystrom, former professor of political economy in- the universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota, speaking of the growth of the mail order industry, which has grown to be a menace to local merchants, says: “One chief cause of the recent rapid progress of the mail order business is the tremendous Increase in circulation of popular periodical literature loaded with advertising, particularly the national women’s magazines. Both reading matter and advertising have shown the way to greater variety in consumption.” The magazines which have changed their policy so as to exclude all mail order advertising have a circulation of over 1,500,000 a month among the better class of families In the United States. This in .Itself removes the menace of mail order competition from the reading matter of about one out of every five merchandise buying families in each community. Undoubtedly this will be a powerful if not the determining factor In the success of many a “buy at home” movement in territory that is now debatable.