The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-11
Chicago Tribune.)


In Germany, where it costs only 10
cents to send a package through the
mails weighing eleven pounds. and
where the weight of the package may
reach a total ten times as great, boys
at school send their washing home and
have ii returned to them at the end of
the week.
In Switzerland a package weighing
no pounds is carried anywhere within
sExty-two miles for so cents, so that
the hardy mountaineerS can and do
send down their scanty produce TO
market towns and exchange IL for the
ordinary necessities of life found in
stores, which are returned to them
through the same benef1cent postoftice
system
Small domestic animals when PROPER
ly Grated are sent by post in Great
Britain and the big department stores
of London are today utilizing the post
office department for delivery of their
parcels.
These instances show the develop
ment of the parcels post system. 1t is
not hoped by the postoffice authorities
that in a country like the United
States, where there are vast undeVel-
oped areas and where population is
much less dense, even in the east, than
it is in Europe, there should be any
such development of the business of
carrying small freight
On the contrary, it is the general
opinion of the most enthusiastic advo-
cate of the parcels post that it would
be wise for the government to make
haste slowly in this direction. 1t
might easily happen 1t would become
completely clogged with parcels, so the
delivery of letters and newspapers
would be seriously interfered with. If
it should be found there was a tenden-
cy to send parcels extremely long dis
tanees it might become necessary to
adopt the zone system.
In spite of the manifest wisdom of
proceeding cautiously and looking over
the fence two or three times before
making jump, there seems to be no
special reason why the moderate re-
form advocated by the postmaster gen.
eral cannot be adopted by congress at
the coming session so that it may be
put into practical operation beginning
with the next fiscal year, July 1. 1908
Postmaster Campbell and other prac-
teal men in the service have suggest
ed to the department that in large
cities like Chicago the adoption of the
parcels post would involve an enormous
increase in postal machinery, provided
il is proposed to make deliveries at re-
sidences. Such deliveries are not an
essential part of the parcels post sys-
tenn. In many European countries
there is a special charge for residential
delivery. Otherwise parcels are left
at postoffices and must be called for
there.
1t is natural this country should
make particular study of the postal
condition in Great Britain, because we
have obtained from England a great
deal of the best there is in our postof-
flee system, beginning with the stamp
itself and ending with house-to- house
rural delivery. The British parcels
post system has been i'm operation for
nearly a quarter of a century. Gu
riously enough, 1t had its origin in the
demand of certain florists and growers
of spring flowers in Kerry and other
portions Of the United Kingdom and a
great distance from the London mar
ket. As soon as the concession was
made to them they asked for an in
crease in the size of the packing so
they might send full length orchid
spikes instead of mere blossoms.
Subsequently the system was ex-
tended SO that now fresh fish, meat,
cheese, fruit. vegetables, eggs and
other produce of the small farms are
forwarded to London and other mar
kets by parcels post, the mail service
undertaking to deliver this perishable
material without loss to the producer.
The maximum weight in Great Brit
in is eleven pounds, and the total for
that weight is % cents of our money.
That is an average of cents a pound.
as compared with the proposed rate of
IL cents a pound in this country. In
England an inland parcel may have a
maximum length of three feet six
inches. while the greatest length and
girth combined cannot exceed six feet