East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-02-12
POSTAL REFORMS NEEDED.

ioNl AL
The unanswerable demand for gov
ernment ownership of the express
companies. and the need of system
of parcels post in the United States,
is strikingly illustrated by the follow
ing ringing editorial on the subject
from the Memphis News-Scimitar:
There should be a waking up in
the postoffice department of the
United States government, says the
Scimitar.
The spirit of progress which is man
ifesting itself everywhere has not as
yet reached that branch of govern
ment. 1t needs an infusion of energy
and new ideas.
We are told by a contemporary
who has made a careful investigation
of conditions, that more than $4,000
postmen, with their horses and wag-
ons, are now at work picking up and
distributing on their daily visits to
the 125 families on the average 20
mile rural routes about two pounds
of mail matter per wagon, and bring
ing in to the government from this
service about 40 cents a day. Their
total loads, mail collected and deliv-
cred, average hardly 90 pounds.
Costing about 50 day, the net loss
from the business is about s1.6O per
day per wagon-$5O. 600 a day and
$15.OOOOOO a year.
These $4,000 comparatively empty
wagons being driven over the country
by $4,000 comparatively idle men
must strike any business man as poor
business. Meanwhile, the farmer
must hitch up his own team and drive
to town, just as before, for his tea,
coffee, sugar, express packages and
other supplies.
Naturally many of the early rural
carriers in many parts of the coun-
try began at once the regular traffic
of the old post-coach, adding to their
mail service the transportation of pas
sengers baggage, merchandise, pro-
duce, anything that was offered, up
to the capacity of their vehicles, and
charging a reasonable price for the
service. But the government stopped
this. Evidently good business is OBJ
jectionable to the postoffice depart
ment, even when it comes naturally
and unlimited.
An average of two scent packages
a week for each family on the rural
routes would wipe out the annual
postal deficit and leave a yearly sur
plus of s5,OOO,OOO.
The empty and expensive rural
wagon is not the worst 1t but typifes
on a small scale the methods of the
entire postal system.
We are the only nation in the
world without a parcels post system.
The United States pays the railways
a big price for carrying the mails, and
the express companies are handling
at big profit the cheapest form of
mail matter to the great loss Of the
government and the people.
For instance, there is the report Of
our consul at Guadaloupe, who esti
mates that this country is losing s2,-
OO0, 900 a year i'm small mail orders
from the West Indies through the re-
fusal Of our government to enter the
international parcels union.
The real cause of the postal deficit
lies in the plain fact that the postal
service has never taken up the lines
Of carrying business in which there is
profit. Private greed clings 10 the
paying end, while leaving the unprof-
table end for the government to
carry.
The four big express companies
maintain a powerful lobby in wash
ington for the special purpose Of see
ing to it that the postal department
does not take from them any part o:
the carrying business that pays profit.
The United States postoffice de-
partment IS a half-century behind the