Clinch Valley News

MAIL ORDER COSTS.
The Coalfield Progress says that Norton sent out of town last year for purchases from mail order houses through the mail order department of the Norton post office, the neat little sum of $78,422.59. Expenses of delivery on 9,899 orders amounted to says the Progress, $3,860.61. These figures do not tell the whole story. The number and amounts of checks sent with orders is not known, and not included, of course, in the above figures. Allowing conservatively one-third additional orders paid for by checks, the entire amount paid mail order houses by the good people of Norton last year, will go beyond $100,000.00. The amount sent from Tazewell to the mail order houses is not known, but count, considering difference in size and population of the two towns, one-third the Norton amount, and Tazewell's contribution to the mail order houses is considerable-not far short of $30,000. Including the orders from the county post offices, the amount of money sent out of the county last year, and every year, is astonishing. And all this money sent away from home for things that could be bought here, if the people would only patronize home merchants.