The San Francisco call., 1908-08-12
Parcels Post Is Necessary

,...-- !.
Editor CALI This is the season for
Uncle Sans quadrennial stock taxi
ing. The national business of the
last four years is being reviewed,
the balance struck. and plans for
future betterments made. Among
these betterments some political parties
have included postofIice savings banks.
but, so far as 1 have seen. no party
has demanded an up to date pardels
post. Certainly, parcels post, in any
adequate sense, is tabooed by both re-
publicans and democrats in their ma
tional platforms
Why is this thus?
| The present situation is too utterly
ridiculous. Living here in the extreme
west, just as far as theJstar of empire
permits can send by mail IL pounds
| in a single package. to London, Eng.
for s1.32. But if I want to mail II
terey, two miles distant, I must divide
| it into three packages, because not
more than four pounds is permitted in
/ O4C PdlCCi, DIT QOi4eSIlC merchandise
rates, and then nay s1.76 postage. That
is, our postoffice charges me A cents
more to send II pounds for two miles
than it charges for sending the same
weight 5000 miles,
| Whose fault is thiso
/ Is 1T the negligence of the postmas-
ter general? Certainly, the blame does
not rest with this official, nor with
President Roosevelt. These gentlemen
1 I Il =
ventions with foreign countries as to
postal affairs. Hence. the s132 rate for
IL pound packages to distant lands.
But they cannot touch the domestic
rates. These are regulated by con-
gress.
Who regulates congress?
Popular fiction ascribes this function
to "the people, But, as Lowell found
so years ago, a mysterious agency in
the background is apt to
Arrange for the people
Their wants and desires.
This agency has sown broadcast fire.
/ quent statements that cheap sparcels
post would ruin the retail merchants
! wherever found. 1t has sedulously ad-
vertised the mail order houses by pub
fishing in the rural press statements
that these houses sell cheaper than
can local merchants; and that, were
4 pObldSt- IdleS IndQe reasonable. local
merchants would all go broke Put
BADLY, cheaper transportion would Kill
local trade. This, of course, puts to de-
rision the whole worlds experience
Moreover, in this special particular the
worlds experience is quite definite
Parcels post has been in actual opera.
tion in Europe and India for more thar
a quarter century. 1t has proved SO
great a boon to the European retailer
= l.. l.
/ its curtailment or abolition. 1t pro
vides rapid transportation at rates alb.
solutely equal to all; no discrimina-
tions; no rebatesl
] Already in this country many mai
j order houses, by means of special rates
4 deliver bargain counter goods to pur.
chasers free of all charge for transpor.
tation In spite of this thereshas never
been decade when Our country store:
4 were better stocked with goods o.
transacted more business than since
i 1898. Obviously then. in obstructins
. parcels post the retail merchant ha.
been used as a cats paw for the mvste
rious agency aforesaid. The monke,
in the case is branded express. tn,
chestnuts are such airy trifles as $50.
100000 surpluses.
i The postmaster general and~the peo
q pie want an up to date parcels post. Thi.
has been omitted from the nationa
platforms. Let it be adopted In al
county and state platforms
i The nation owes this reform to III,
man who wrestles with nature in tn,
backwoods for the bread of life which
! constitutes its wealth, and on which
depends its very existence. His name /.
1 legion, and he wants 1t badly and n.
wants it now,
i EDWARD BERWICK,
/ President Postal Progress League O.
California
| Pacific Grnve rra1st 10 1nne