“How did this happen? By the natural evolution of events. Nothing else. The wholesale houses of Germany simply stepped into the field themselves and issued catalogues as fine as any the mail order houses could produce. And these they placed with the country merchants in every town and village in the empire. The result was that each merchant had several dozen catalogues upon his counters for the benefit of his customers. He was authorized to say to all who came: ‘Here I am. You all know me. You know whether I am responsible. If you give me your order and the goods do not prove to be exactly as represented, you need not take them and I will refund your money. If you want goods of the same grade as those sold by the mail order houses, I can sell them to you, and at the same price. And I also have better goods which will cost you more. But I can give you exactly what you want, and as cheaply as any one.’
“In the meantime the country merchants have been able to greatly reduce the stocks carried in their stores. This reduced the amount of capital tied up in their business. And yet, by means of the catalogues, their customers were able to select from as large an assortment as they could in the largest stores, in Berlin.
“And this latter fact is amply recognized by the people of Germany. They step into a store in the most remote village of the country, and make their selections and place their orders, securely confident that they have seen all they could have seen if they had made the journey to one of the large cities. And they are all satisfied. They regard their mercantile system as the very best on earth, and I think it is. I had occasion, while visiting at a house out in the country one hundred miles from Berlin to need a dress suit, and I didn’t have one on that side of the Atlantic. I rode to the nearest village one morning, stepped into a little store, was measured by the storekeeper, and by mail that afternoon received a very fair ready-made evening suit. I was both pleased and surprised but the circumstance was a matter of course to the people I was visiting.”
These are some of the advantages of the parcels post. Now, about the disadvantages. These would, in this country fall exclusively upon the express companies. These unaccommodating friends, who have been with us so long, and who deliver nothing at your door unless you chance to live in a large city, would doubtless suffer the fate of the German mail order houses if the government of the United States were to inaugurate a parcels post upon the same scale as that in Germany. They would have to go, for who would pay the higher price to have a parcel sent by the nondelivering express company when the mails would be both cheaper and would deliver the parcel at your door in city or country?
As for the country merchant, of course, he would demand the German system, and equally, of course, he would get it. Otherwise, he also might have to walk the plank and the wholesalers of the United States would never permit that. They could not afford to.
NEGATIVE DISCUSSION
Perils of Parcels Post Extension. pp. 13-31.
George H. Maxwell.