The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-09-14
PARCELS POST.


Backed by the administration and bucked by the
big express companies, Postmaster General Meyer
will urge the establishment of a limited parcels
post before the next congress. Nobody knows what
the result will be- Failure probably; but if so it
will result only in more agitation and more educa-
ton Failure followed the work of other postmasters
general Postmaster Bissell wanted a parcels post
and before him Wanamaker and Villas sought to
inaugurate the system. Maybe it was suggested
and urged by others before these.
The parcels post is in reality system of send
ing express packages by mail at a special rate of
postage. Other countries have adopted it with re-
suits satisfactory that the United States seems
just little behind the times. According to state
ment comparing English parcels post rates and
American express rates, which seems authoritative
the transportation charges on a three-pound pack
age from New York and London to Buenos Ayres
are respectively $3.50 and 81 cents difference of
S5.73 in favor of the British rate. Maybe this
little matter of 1913 saving in transportation
charges on three pounds of goods accounts for the
fact that Brtons maritime trade is the largest In
the world and Americas about the smallest And
it is probable American bottoms would be more
numerous if transportation rates were more nearly
equal. The need of ship subsidy to encouraged
American ship builders might vanish, Also if the
57-cent rate superseded the $3.50 rate
In domestic business the comparison is unite as
discOuraging, the difference between Germany's
parcels post rates and Americas express rates be-
ing more than 5000 per cent. That 5000 per cent
helps to pay dividends ON watered stock but it
doesn't help out the people when they want to ship
Christmas packages anything else.
The economical distribution from the producer
to the consumer has received very little thought
from the business interests of the country exceDt
to get hold of the products in the transition and
extort profit, passing the goods through a half
dozen middle men, wholesalers, iobbers and retail
ers, before the consumer is privileged to buy them
For instance, wool raised in Utah is shipped to the
New England states made into CLOTH handled sew
eral times as cloth, sold finally to a clothes maker
handled several times between the maker and the
Salt Lake merchant, so that when it finally lands
a mans back at $35 or so suit he is nos
sessed of six or eight pounds of wool with about
$40 worth of work on it and about $40 profit to
some score of middlemen.
1t is not believed that the parcels post will elm
mate all this unnecessary profit taking but it will
be possible for big dealers and small retail mer-
chants to order small lolN of goods and have them
laid down IN their stores at reasonable RACES 1t
is to be expected that opposition of the express
companies will be organized and powerful TheH
will enlist in their aid many small storekeepers who
tear the menace of mail order houses should trans
portatlon charges be materially reduced Doubt
less there are some grounds for this fear but the
small dealer whose buying judgment is such as to
anticipate the wants of his trade has nothing to
fear from any mail order house. Buying by mail
Is not so attractive to consumers as going into the
store and seeing the goods before them.
Besides, the small merchant under parcels post
system would lose very little compared to the gain
which everybody would win Two hundred andv
fifty million dollars year is the estimated saving
which would accrue to the people, the consumers
of goods, should the parcels post be inaugurated
in the United States. That is about SO for each
inhabitant of the country Of course there are
millions of people who do not send or receive an
express package in year, and these consider it.
none of their business what the charges of transJ
portation are. But these charges are added pro
rata to the selling price of every article sold in
retail store, and the consumers pay the bill
Postmaster General Meyer is not insistent OIL
having large packages go by mail Ten pounds as
weight limit would suit him, and he would accept
five pounds if congress will allow only that much
What he wants is a beginning. When the start
is made the people will keep it going if they find
it an economical institution, and it will die natu
raj death from lack of patronage if it is not