Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1909 — MAIL ORDER HOUSES SUBJECT OF SPEECH [ARTICLE]

MAIL ORDER HOUSES SUBJECT OF SPEECH

Retailers Advised to Oppose Bill For Parcels Post. Springfield, 111., Feb. 19. —Parcels post legislation was opposed and mail order houses scored by President T. J. Matthews of the Illinois Retail Hardware association in his annual address before the organization’s convention. He declared that mail order houses are the most dangerous competitors retail merchants have to contend with and that many of them are now sending out catalogues in which they represent themselves as jobbers. “Their most dangerous move so far," he said, “is their active, effective and persistent championship of the parcels post question. Should they succeed to their efforts to induce congress to pass a parcels post bill they will have in their hands the most effective weapon that could possibly be wielded against the country retailer.”