The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1907-11-22
A PARCELS POST.


MANY congressman are al ed0N SAIL
TO be i'm favor of law providing for 90
parcels post on the experimental scale.
which could be ampliiled and eytenC-
ed if the arrangement proved t0 he 81
success.
The express compauies. which have
practically monopoly ON the remuner
alive business of carrying packages
will fight the proposed law 20 the last
ditch. They have man i'm the Senat
IN the person Of Senator Platt, Of New
York. who is president of the United
states Express Company The rail-
roads and the express companies ave
at times and places almost Identical
so the transportation interests may
line up with the express companies.
Naturally a hard battle will follow.
or course members Of Congress might
fear to 20 home and admit that they
had taken the side Of the big corpora
tiOns against a measure that was in-
tended to benefit the whole people.
But such members could find an eX-
cuse i'm the other class Of opponents Of
the parcels po-t-the retail stOrekeep-
er. and especially the country store
keeper. These merchants are emphat-
lcally against the catalogue houses,
which sell to even remote farmhouse
by means Of orders secured 10y caia-
lOgues and sent through the mails.
The small merchants take the position
that the parcels post would make
easier and cheaper the carrying of pack
ages and thus aid the mail order
houses in the big cities at the expense
Of the smaller neighborhO0i dealer.
To this the postmaster general and
other postal officials answer that the
parcels post would bc "a greater boon
TO the country stOrekeeper than 10 his
customers, because il would enable
him to get small quantities Ofsupplics
to meet emergences at much cheaper
rate for carriage than is charged by
the express companies. The country
merchant must keep great number
OF articles and can't keep large sup
plies Of each. The postal Official say
that a parcels post system which
would enable such a stOrekeeper 90 re-
new quickly his stock Of needles. thread
soap, candy and other things would bee
great advantage to him. Moreover the
postmaster general believes the bu-i-
ness Of the country merchant would
be increased by parcels post because
farmer could mail OF telephone an
order to his merchant and have the
articles brougt TO him by the next ru-
raj carrier.
But the postmaster general propose
TO give the country merchant am adj
vantage i'm rates lie will recommend
that l. cents a pound be charged for
carrying mail order parcels from any
city pOstOiiice 10 a person living along
rural delivery route, while for deliv-
cry from the distributing Office of the
rural route or if mailed by "a patron o..
a rural route for delivery on the same
| route or at the distributing Office OF
the route the charge will be only five
cents for the first pound and two cent
for each pound additional up to d.
pounds, or - cents for a package
weighing II pounds.
We are not advised as t) whether
these plans will meet the objections of
the smaller merchants. No doubt the
country will know when the parcels
post bills comes be ore Congress.
Postmaster General Never is also
considering the adNisaoility of recon-
meuding a local parcels post delivery
i'm cities that have free delivery. but
Congress would have 10 make an app
preparation for wagons and autOm0
bies before this service could he I'M
stalled. Under this plan package
weighing not more than II pounds
could be mailed from almost any part
Of the world to a person i'm Little Rock
and the package would be delivered
at the persons address by a wagon OF
an automobile from the pOst-Oilicc.
The limitation of the weight 10 II
pounds is not a serious objection D.
the shipment is divisible. FOrInsiance,
bicycle could be sent through the
mail il you put the frame and the
wheels in separate crates.
The postmaster general will recon-
mend a reduction in the merchandise
rate from rs to II cents pOuni and
an increase in the weight limit from
to II pounds, i'm order To make our
parcels post regulations harmonic
with those Of foreign countries.