The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1910-03-30

a cent a pound will be found sufi-
Gent. But for the present l would
urge the passage of a law making I
cent a pound the rate for all merchan-
disc. books and Notwithstanding all
into one class--and accepting pack
ages up to 200 pounds weight.
A price of / cent a pound would
be sufficient. If the government offer
ed a service at a cent a pound for par
GELS up to 200 pounds it would almost
undoubtedly take over the hundreds
of millions Of parcels sent out by the
great dry goods stores, and as the av.
erage haul for these is less than five
miles 1t seems not improbable that the
average haul for the United States
would from this cause be reduced to
fifteen or twenty miles.
What would be the cost Of delivering
parcels with an average haul Of but
twenty miles? II one had the con-
tract at half a cent a pound, starting
with the use of government Offices and
officials. he could quickly pile up a
fortune that would make Harriman's
look small.
But the matter need not require dis
cussion. It could quickly be determin-
ed by six months experimental work
under the direction of disinterested
men Of intelligence and integrity. But
let us suppose that the average haul,
instead Of being only twenty miles or
fifty miles, should prove to be 500
miles or 1000 miles. Who would claim
| fh0f oonf q Mound would MI ~
ample?
The New York World ships it's daily
papers to Buffalo at a cost of one-half
a cent a pound by express. The gov
eminent rate is so high that the postal
service, equipped to do all this bust
ness without additional cost, gives it
over to the express companies, just as
1t does seven-tenths of the news COM
pany business and all of the book bust
ness of the country, the express COM
panies always bidding under the gov.
ernment's price, all this business
of millions of dollars lost to a plant
equipped to take care of it, with men
under pay to do the work, because
United States senators devise legisla-
ton to give it into the hands of the
express companies.
One thing does not require any ex-
perience. We know that more than
$685. 900 is being expended annually
to provide wagons making country de-
l~iveries. The postmaster general says
they now carry an average of but
twenty-five pounds. Each of these
could handle 500 pounds and with a
second horse, at so cents a day. 1900
pounds.
Big Increase In Deliveries.
The farmers along these country de
livery routes suffer the greatest in.
convenience and loss because they
cannot send into town their butter
and eggs and cannot receive back the
merchandise which they are constant
ly needing. If a parcel rate of ! cent
a pound were established these coun.
try delivery wagons would be loaded
to the limit. Immediately, instead of
twenty-five pounds delivered, there
would be 525 pounds carried each way.
which would mean $40 a day addition
al profit or each for the government.
The only condition comparable to the
absurdity of the government operating
a $32,O00,00O country delivery service
and then making a prohibitory sixteen
cent rate for parcels, SO that the wag-
ons should travel empty, would be for
some big department store to operate
a hundred wagons in New York solely
for the purpose of delivering kid
gloves. whether there are any sales of
kid gloves or not, while his deliveries
of other merchandise were being held
back to his own loss and the public's
discomfort.
But by far the most costly part of
all this betrayal Of the peoples inter-
ests is not the dividends Of the express
companies, but in the combinations in
restraint of trade made possible by the
laci; of means for connecting the con
sumner directly with the producer and
the vast loss to m by the cost
ly and cumbrous channels into which
it is forced
Why Articles Cost More.
The only cheap transportation today
is in bulk. This puts it out of the
power of the consumer to secure bis
food supplies in any way except
through combinations formed for the
purpose of squeezing the last cent from
those compelled to buy. The consumer
and the little storekeeper are com
pletely at the mercy of these combina'
tons. AS a consequence milk that on
the farm fifty miles from New York
sells for 49, cents per quart is given
out by the combination, with part Of
the cream removed. for 8 cents In New
York.
A cent a pound rate would breah
these combinations in a month. Every
: man would have it in his power to gel
into direct touch with the producer
who must now let his fruit and vegeta
t bles rot on the ground or accept thu