Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-20
PARCELS POST

| A THIS time OF the year the ma
! ~ tionai lack of a parcels post ser
II vice is shown to be an insistent
and urgent problem, which demands
solution in order that the public may
not be Inconvenience and business
may not be interfered with. Much time
and trouble could be saved and much
loss prevented by the adoption of that
sane and obvious method OF taking care
of the Christmas business. which is
called the parcels post system. In 9TH
err countries it has been found to work
like a charm. But other countries have
no favored express companies. They
have no Tom Platts.
They have no obstructive senate
working thoroughly in harmony with
the railroads and the express companies
and thoroughly out of harmony with
the people.
In these Plattless and orphaned
lands Christmas parcels are weighed
and stamped at home or in the office.
Then they are mailed. They always
reach their destination safely. They
always arrive promptly. The system
in operation is like perfected clook-
work The citizen stamps his parcels
and ceases to worry about them. The
government win take care Of them and
will deliver them in good order and in
good time. But we cannot do that in
the United States, because the express
companies have senator to look after
their interests at Washington. His
name Is Thomas Q, Platt-sometimes
shortened to Tumplatt- He Is old and
shriveled and honey, but he has more
power for mischief making than an
army OF plump young citizens with al
truistic and American dispositions. He
was sent to the senate for no other
purpose than to take care Of the ex-
press companies and allied interests,
and this has been pointed out time and
time again.
ALI Americans who are not lex
pressed" realize the country is not get
ting a square deal in the matter OF
parcels transmission and delivery,
which, around and about the Merrie
Yuls Tide, is tho matter uppermost in
the public mind. A whole nation In
convenienced because Of the Tumplatt
gang! Think of I'll No postmaster
general who has held that important
position within recent years has failed
to leave office without strongly advis-
ing the country to adopt the parcels
post system. for the purpose of simpli-
flying the Christmas complication and
contributing to the national peace Of
mind and comfort all the year round.
The express business is modernly
commercialized relic of the old days
when it was not safe to transmit goods
from one part Of the country to an
other without putting them under the
vigilant care of special carriers. The
express service at that time was In
dependent, and was not a formidably
developed parasite OF the railroads.
Today, operating in connivancs with
the railroads in direct competition with
a nationalized public utility, it causes
confusion, binders business and results
in actual loss and damage to the com
merce 1t Is fatuously supposed to help,
AS an auxiliary OF the postoffice service
Il Is a sham. 1t is disturber and
hinderer. Its rates are specialized on
a profit making basis. It's facilities are
poor. Its service Is not to be depended
on. It's deliveries are uncertain. AS
compared with the parcels post system
of the United Kingdom, 1t is as crude
as a stage coach. Economically, it is
a business anomaly, an irregularity
which should not enter into the general
plan at all. With express rates and
what is facetiously called express ser
vice" eliminated from the carrying and
delivering arrangements of the nation,
business would be stimulated healthily
to such a remarkable degree that there
would be q great revival of industry
and a period Of genuine prosperity.
Many men In public life are we'll aware
of this fact, but their efforts to reform
an Anticipated, hampering and com
merce cramping system are met at ev-
cry turn by the Vaccinations Of the
express companies, their senator and
their lobbyists, who, like the Biblical
serpent, are more subtitle than any other
beasts of the field.
If the people could elect their own
senators by their own direct votes, the
peoples senators would soon solve the
express and other problems with which
the trusts senators dare not NEEDLE.
Thank heaven, the vagaries, obstruc-
tions and neutrality-suspicious. of the
United States senate is by no means a
criterion of the general intelligence of