The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-01-27
PARCEL POST DELIVERY.


mentarians in Parliament.
PARCEL POST DELIVERY.
The matter of rural parcel post de.
livery is now attracting much atten-
ton from the post Office department
and from members of Congress. 1t is
a matter Of great interest to the peo-
pie of the country. particularly the
farming community. There seems to
be no good reason why some action
should not be taken to extend the
usefulness of the rural delivery mail
service so as to make the carriers on
their routes serve the convenience
and comfort of the people. How this
may be accomplished is now the sub
ject of much thought. Various plans
have been proposed and some have
been recommended to Congress. All
officials interested are agreed that the
rural delivery carrier may be made
more useful than he is and that the
people living in the rural districts
may get a great deal more for the
twenty million dollars that is being
spent for their benefit than they are
now receiving. The proposition re-
ceiving the most attention relates to
the delivery of merchandise.
1t is the purpose of the post office
department and Congress to devise
some means by which the farming
population will be enabled to pur-
chase supplies and have them deliv-
cred at their doorsteps. At the pres
ent time the United States govern
ment delivers information but not
merchandise. The present postage on
merchandise, sixteen cents per pound,
makes it prohibitive. It is more than
the merchant or the farmer can afford
to pay for the delivery of goods 1t is
very much larger than is charged in
European countries where they have a
rural parcel post delivery. When the
rural delivery was first established in
this country the carriers were allowed
to carry passengers, parcels and bag
gage and to do errands for the farm
ers' families along their route. They
pensation for their service and thus
increased their revenue. Carriers used
to do shopping, send kilograms and do
many other errands. In 1904 Con-
gress prohibited all this. The reason
given was that the carriers were de-
layed in the performance of their du-
ties and that this express business
was a temptation for them to make
money for themselves and to neglect
their other duties. Merchants in the
small towns also made complaints to
their Congressman. These complaints
were actuated by jealousy. If the car
rier did his shopping with the other
fellow the merchant who did not get
the business made a complaint. So
the whole business was stopped.
Something ought to be done, how
ever, to enable carriers to deliver
merchandise in small quantities at a
very much lower rate of postage than
Is now charged. If such law were
enacted it would doubtless produce a
large revenue for the post office de-
partment and would also do a great
service to the large farming COM
munity reached by the rural delivery.
Germany has system of delivering
parcels through the mails. There five
pounds and under is carried for three
cents. Five pounds and up to ten, six
cents. and SO on up until sixty cents is
charged for one hundred pounds. Our
postal regulations are very defective
in reference to this important matter.
Today store keeper in any village
in the United States can send par
eel of merchandise to any place in
Africa or India for less than one-half
the postage he would be required to
pay if he sent the same thing to a
farmer living in the next township
1t would seem that there ought not
to be any great opposition made to the
establishment of a parcel post deliv-
cry. No more carriers would be need
ed than at present. The vehicles now
used would be sufficient and the rev.
enue produced would be multiplied
many times.
The chief opponents to the parcel
post delivery are the merchants in
the small towns. They fear that with
a parcel post delivery the farmers
would order their supplies from the
large stores in the large cities. To
do away with this opposition a COM
promise has been suggested to the eff
feet that the law should provide low
rate Of postage for parcels delivered
and posted in the distributing post
office. In this way parcel post de-
livery would be established from each
post Office but not allowed from one
post Office to another. This would
prevent the farmers from ordering
supplies at any other place than the
place where the distributing office for