Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-03-01

charge for parcels deliteriesT ] am
! firmly Of the opinion that eventually
the government will realize that the
rate charged In Germany-one-th1rd OF
a cent a pound-wtll be found sutn-
cient- But for the present / would
urge the passage OF law making 1
cent a pound the rate for all merchan-
| disc, books and eriodicals-putting all
| into one clasS-and accepting pack
ages up to 200 pounds weight
| A price OF 1 cent a pound would
| be sufficient. If the government oner-
ed a service at a cent pound Tor par
cells up to 200 pounds 1t would almost
undoubtedly take over the hundreos
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 it 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? If 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
fortune that would make Harriman's
| look small
! But the matter need not require dis
cussion. 1t 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
| a. 10 En
miles or 1000 miles. Who would claim
that 1 cent a pound would not be
ample?
The New York World ships its daily
papers to Buffalo at a cost of one-hah
a cent q 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 1t
over to the express companies, just as
it does Seyen-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
$50. 100000 is being expended annually
to provide wagons making country de-
Hveries. 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 80 cents a day, 1000
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 1 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 625 pounds carried each way,
which would mean $40 q day addition
al profit on each for the government.
The only condition comparable to the
absurdity of the government operating
a $50, 100000 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
lack of means for connecting the con-
sumner. directly with the producer and