The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-03-17
PARCELS POST.
Tho Postal Service should he Put UpoA
Paying Basis and Confined TO Its
Legitimate Husinoas.

q
Legitimate business.
a Representative Hull, of Iowa, is !
, favor of domestic parcels post on on
|. condition. Speaking of the pendin
= measure intended to introduce this O.
; ieged reform in our postal service, =
q says: 81 favor 1t If it can be made sell
Q sustaining, but do not care to LOAF
o down the mails with parcels If the gov
!. eminent must defray the expense o
a carrying them" The Chicago Chroni
Gle says shat is right" and that Mr.
l Hull is also right in his general propo
sition that "there is no reason why thu
postal service should not be put upon
. paying basis" The Chronicle adds;
THE proper course is to put the en-
tire service-that is, every separate
branch of it-on a paying basis. II
congress will do that parcel post serv'
ice can be rendered at satisfactory
rates, the capacity of express companies
can be checked, the free delivery sys-
tenn extended and letter rates can be
reduced. But no gratuitous class
service must be the foundation OF gen.
uine postal reform"
Whatever of "gratuitous class serv'
Ice" there is in our postal system should
be eliminated. There are tons OF
printed matter carried in the mails
every day at loss to the government
which has no claim to favorable con-
sideration. Publications which are
printed only for advertising purposes,
and have no regular subscription list,
are distributed by millions of copies at
postal rates far below the cost of the
service. Were this abuse reformed and
the franking privilege confined to rea-
sonable limits, there would be no deficit
OF postal revenues. But the publishers
OF fake weeklies and monthlies appear
to be SO strongly backed in congress
that there is little hope of loosening
their grip, and as to the ranking bust
ness, it bids fair, if not checked, to
cover the free printing and free distri
button of anything and everything that
can possibly be utilized in political
campaign.
But how does it happen that the Chi
cago Chronicle, a paper that processes
to be an exponent of Jeffersonian and |
Jacksonian Democracy, comes out in
advocacy of the extreme paternalism
embodied in the parcels post bills
There is quite enough of that in the
law as it stands. For many years the
government has been doing an express
business scarcely justified by sound
principles, and by no means in harmony
with the old-time Democratic creed.
But now it is proposed to copy the
methods OF the paternal governments
of Europe, and make our postal cars
freight cars and our postal clerks ex-
press messengers. The Chronicle init,
mates that this radical departure from
The original intent of the postal service,
his enormous injection of paternalism
INTO department necessarily, to some
'xtent, paternal, is necessitated bv the
of express companies. Is it
he business of our democratic govern
nent to regulate prices by entering into :
cut-throat competition with men en- f
aged in all sorts of occupations? No ,
nan or set of men, no firm, corpora ;
ion or association can compete with c
he United States if congress under e
axes to perform the work in which he
they are engaged, for congress can
mploy the taxing power, and thereby
lake up for losses incurred. And :,
here is the logical end of such compe-
ton? Why not meet the complaints y
high freight charges by going into ~
lie general freight business? Whv. -
hen complaint is made of exorbitant 81
assenger rates, should not the govern II
ent go into general passenger bust "
ass?
The mails carry packages from Wash Ia
gton to Sitka at the same rate CHARGED III
r carrying them from Washington to
lexandria. Extension of the limit as re-
weight OF mailable packages would
ing all freights into mail cars. How IL
nR will it take to reach that degree
paternalism if we undertake to re. ca
ove complaint by competition? And, 81
wing done that, why should the
uelching power of the government to
1t there? Having annihilated the &c
'nsportation industry, why not 90 yo
TO the producing industries? Is there CT
y logical line of demarkation be-
cen governmental control of distri-
ton and the same relation between
vernment and production? tel
Whatever the people can do for them. de
yes reasonably well, the government or
'uld not do for them. The postal ou
vice, the transportation of letters. 4ei
wspapers and magazines, is bust. W,
IS that cannot be well performed in du,
parts OF the country by private en-. .
prise. But this is not true of the n
importation business. And unless .,,,
desire to enter into and push on in a .
rise that will logically lead right on of
'ommunistic paternalism, we should "
adopt the parcels post system of AMI
tinental Europe. However well it at
y comport with conditions in Ger. Fr.
ny, where the government owns the
roads and makes bungle of their
1agement, 1t is not in harmony with
plan of government.-Was woI
I. fra
A satisfact,on bar