The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-03-25

ginning Of government, and which has
failed to keep step with other advances In
governmental organization. may be brief
ly shown by a presentation of the condi-
lions which prevail In some other coun-
tries which we ore accustomed to regard
as the reverse of enterprisins. Those
conditions which prevail today in the
United States are factors Of the highest
Importance TO our commercial develop
ment.
Commerce in its final analysis resolves
Itself into the delivery of packages. An
civilization develops. divides
itself more and moro into parcels and the
carrying Of packages must play a con-
Itantly increasing part.
For years it has been the hope that. be-
cause every merchant and manufactures
In the country was vitality interested in
the subject, congress would take the mat
ter in hand; but unqucstionably until the
great losses annually incurred by our
merchants come to be fully understood
by the public, congress Will do nothing.
One statement is sufficiently startling
to arrest attention.; namely, that the rate
charged by the United States postofhce
for merchandise Is 5000 per cent. greater
tina tina charged by Germany.
Under the United States postoffce:
first, the merchant must pay "a cents
ior four pounds Of -~erchandise known as
lourth class matter.
Second. He has had refused any pack
age which by chance was sent to the post
office and found to be of more than four
pounds in weight.
Third. He has had refused registration
Of packages without an extra price. Ihls
registrat ton, If carried out, would have
involved a visit to the postof1ce depart
ment and much aluab time lost.
Fourth. He has had delivery of parcels
10 the home refused by the postoffice de-
partment if consigned to any town in
which there is no free delivery system.
Fifth. He has had all insurance on the
package refused by the government.
Yet, because of tn. superior acumen OF
those who have leg.slated for the English
postoffce department, the same package
might have been posted In Edinburgh,
carried across the Atlantic, taken In
United States postal cars across the en-
time American continent, and delivered in
the remotest suburb of Seattle
For how much, think you?
Tor onc-fourth less than what 1t would
have cost to send it from Rochester &c
Buffalo.
But that is not all. Instead f being
limited to four pounds, at 16 cents 8
pound, as between Rochester and Buffalo
one could send eleven pounds from Edin'
burgh to Seattle for three-fourths Of thu
pTlCe llul "Oulu DS pau IlOii
10 Buffalo, and, In addition, could have
1t Insured at a nominal cost.
You ask how the people Of the United
States, who are SO quick to perceive ad
vantage, can permit this state of affair
to exist?
This query is answered by the .epl.
which John Wanamaker made to a some
what similar question which l put to hin
when he was postmaster general:
eft 10 trua' he said. that parcel
could be carried at about one-twelftl
their present cost by the postofice de
partment, but you do not seem to b
aware that there are four insuperable oh
stacles to the carrying of parcels by tn
United States postoffce department."
Then, without waiting for a show o
surprise, he continued:
The first Of these is the Adams Eek
press company; the second is the Amer
can Express company; the third, til
Wells-Furgo Express company, and tn
fourth, the Southern Express company"
There could be no further argument.
Does this seem like an exceptional case
On the contrary, Great Britain goes niue
further in her liberality. She carries
package from Edinburgh through Londo
to Egypt, through the SueZ canal to 1ndi;
from India to Hong Kong, from HOY
Kong to Shanghai, and there delivers
to the home of the receiver for II CEN
per pound, or three-fourths Of what tt
| United States charges from Rochester
Buffalo-a distance of fifty-one miles.
Is Great Britain exceptional in h
postal liberality?
5 On the contrary, Henniker Heaton,
! member Of parliament who has mac
postal reform his especial study, CLAIM
that Great Britain Is as far behind &c
many and Austria in her postal system,
the "benighted" United States is benin
Great Britain.
:, Certainly, while we give England al
Germany the privilege Of sending a pac
age from Berlin across the American CO
t.nent to Seattle for II cents a pound, al
at the same time charge the merchant
Rochester 16 cents a pound from Roche
ter to Buffalo. the word "benightet
V scarcely covers the case.
Perhaps 1t may be described more nea
ly as paralysis Of the government
nerves produced by conflicting private /
n terests.
d If a Rochester manufacturer sends
Is package Of shoes Weighing four poun
n q distance of ten miles out, he pay
cents, or 16 cents a pound. If the sho
a happened to weigh four and one-ha
pounds, his messenger would be col
a PEELED, as I nave stated, to carry the
"a back from the postoftce, refused. 3
h II, instead Of being in the United Stat
this manufacturer had lived in German
he could have sent a box Of shoes, weie
" ing up 20 twenty-five pounds, the sal
"A distance Of ten miles for 6 cents, or IL
~ than ~one-Quarter of a cent q pound.
!, "a Because we are foolish enough in Il
country to give representation to our p
vate interests In congress-, our merchal
and manufacturers pay a tariff for p;
% GELS by post 5000 per cent. greater than
70 Germany!
~ While we absolutely refuse to accept
III package greater than four pounds
weight, Germany has found 1t good bu
~ ness to extend the limit to ITO pou!
These 10 pounds Will be sent by the G
~ mar government from one end Of G
=, many to the other for 80 cents, or abb
- one-fourth of a cent a pound.
But even that is not all. When 1t
rives at It's destination the 1l0-cor
package Is delivered at the home.
And that is not all. For from 2 t.
al cents extra the government insures
m package and guarantees its safe delive
And. again, even this much is not
If, instead Of to Germany, a merchant
n a city CT north Germany wishes to shi
II package of ITO pounds to a city in
ny southernmost part Of Australia, he II
do ever thisf for 80 cents, about one-fou
Of a cent a pound-that Is, the mercha
AT of Rochester pay 5000 per cent more
on the United States government for Sc
"a, ing parcels from Rochester to Buff
an than do the Germans even to the extre
limits of a foreign country.
on OF course, one large package may
us shipped for less than many small pa
us q O .rA nunrG uho han I1aS mate