The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-03

week. It was the issuance of an or der that the Department would be positively closed to all outside visitors at 4:30 o'clock each afternoon. After that hour no one-nOt even a Sena- tor Or member of Congress-will have excess to the Secretary or his assls- tants. Heretofore, although the body of clerks left the building at the hour indicated, many of those attached to the principal bureaus, and especially to the office of the Secretary and As sistant Secretaries, have been kept at work until late hours simply because their chiefs have been unable to catch up with the necessary work because of the run of callers during the day.
 By enforcing this new order the Secretary expects to dispense with this necessity, and to obtain some time when he may consult with his chiefs and dispose of his own volum- inous mail undiSturbed.
 barb-wire fence with which to keep out the Mexican cattle tick is the queer expedient for which the Bureau of Animal Industry is trying to secure congressional permission.
 The fence needn't be made of a mesh small enough to keep out the in- sects. But there must be a barrier to keep the tick infested Mexican cattle off of Uncle Sam's territory. Otherwise the American cattlegrower finds his herds full of the pest.
 The Bureau has asked Congress to grant an appropriation to do the fenc- ing clear along the international bor- der line wherever natural conditions do not constitute an impossible bar rler for the cattle.
 A parcels post at first, if not for all time, limited to packages Originat- ino in rural routes and destined for rural routes, was advocated before the House Committee on Postoffices and Post Roads by Representatives of the Merchants Association of New York.
 Marcus M. Marks, president of the Association favored limiting the par cels post to rural communities, be- cause he feared that extending it to cit ies would allow the large mail order houses to gain a monopoly on rural business and thus threaten the wei fare of the country store which he considered essential to the growth of the village. He said also that the government had better go slow and tempting the costly establishment of a parcels post in cities. In rural dis tricts he pointed out, the nucleus Of the ma chinery already existed in the rural free delivery.
 He considers a raise of $500 dollars d year SuIuClGuL dUlOuLL lO SOtCl the extra work to rural carriers. Be- yond this there was little additional cost to be expected in the way of horses and wagons and he said that thorough investigation had assured the members of the Merchants asso- citation that the venture would prove profitable to the Postoffice Depart ment. The views held by MT. Marks are all incorporated in the parcels post bill of Representative Bennett, Rep., N. 1Y.) @
 John M. stahl, president of the Farmers Congress said that it was unfair that a Japanese in this country could send package of 10 pounds to Japan for $1.2O when an American citizen to send that same package from Washington to Baltimore would have to pay s1.60, even when the package was broken up into the mail limit of three pound packages. He advocated either the zone system of charge or else an entire monopoly of the parcels carrying business by the government. The express company, he said, was almost exclusively an American institution as in nearly ev- cry other country in the world the government had a monopoly On this business.