Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-02-08
GIVE THE PEOPLE A PARCELS POST.

hundred or even pounds through the
mails a a reasonable charge.
system would be of and convenience to
the public would bring benefits equally great and certain to
the government
1t would stimulate by providing fair and adequate
system distribution for the products of the SOIL the factory and
the store.
BY means would reduce high and unnatural
on articles possible direct and cheap
muncatiOn between the producer and the consumer
Furthermore parcels post would tens of millions OF
dollars mail service that dead expense and it
said postal departments annual
blot deficit within less than five
For all reasons government should establish
parcels post examine them by first the profits to
postal department. that being clear the others
readily understood And every step bear in mind
this fac-tha the public compelled the express COM
panes pound for carrying parcels and that last
of these companies declared dividend three hundred
per
postal departments deficit of the gravest
problems Every year the department
millions of dollars behind What the causeY The
general answers First he the department
eight millions by transporting periodicals and
papers pound Next says the rural delivery
vice costs hrtytwO millions and returns comparatively
little nothing in revenues.
We do believe that the pound postage peri
odca newspapers has anything do with the deficit Can
ad postal department charges only OneOurth of cent pound
this mail and postal department closed the
fiscal of 1909 with surplus of than eight hundred thou
sand dollars The fact is that reduced its postage rate
from oneaf onefo because found that under the
former rate its profits Canada sparsey
populated than the United States and its territory equally
wide We therefore look elsewhere than the onecen
pound periodicals for explanation of countr
enormous postal deficit
The explanation found partly the rural delivery
service which Improbable but which could be made highly
profitable by parcels post to be found largely in the
ankng privilege extended members of and in the
unbusnesske with the railroads Con-
allowed to mail free of charge all OF material
ranging from campaign documents garden seed and type
writers The the railroads almost much for
carrying two hundreds pounds of mail thousand miles as two
passenger would for being carried the same
distance When these business axes corrected and the
rural delivery service put paying basis as 1t can be- the
postal deficit problem will have been solved.
We have dwe these incidental facts show that
postal of cent pound socaed secondca
matter not undu cheap With business management the
eminent could make money out OF this onec rate Germany
carries parcels for onethrd of pound from end of
empire the other all kinds of parcels weighing from
a hundred pounds
financial standpoint therefore United States could
proftab establish parcels post at charge to the public OF not
more than one cent pound compared with the express com
panes rate the general public parcels
post is entirely feasible proposition.
What then would specific advantages the postal de-
parment people? How would help reduce the
postal deficit by putting the rural mail service on paying eassf
How would stimulate the country trader How would it
duce high prices the necares of life and blessing to
every family in this naton7
First the rural delivery On this service the
spending than thirty million dollars annually
anly benign investment for of all the institutions making
for American progress there powerful than this
necessary that the rural free delivery should be dead
The postmaster general that the
these only pounds each
number of stamps sold does approximate the
OF the system But suppose each wagon or buggy carried ve nun
ed hundred pounds each rp then certainly the
That precisely what would happen if parcels estab
shed country merchants and residents could receive
of merchandise from the city easily and cheap and al
quickly they receive their daily mail who questions
result would be2 Where the rural mail delivery
pounds would then hundred
hundred At charge of pound delv
of five hundred pounds each would dollars in
the would
be considerable extra attached post
government already equipped with
thereto essential 1t already has than thousand
organized postoces with their and clerks heat and
other appliances To handle parcels well
If Canada clear eight hundred thousand dollars
year postage rate of only oneourh of pound then
surely United could successfully conduct parcels post
charge four times much The fact with its present
equipment could make enough from
wipe the postal deficit In justice the government
fore such a system should be established
We shall discuss briefly the parcels advantages
public and also the publcs right those advantages