Evening star., 1911-08-30
TRY PARCELS POST
Postmaster General to Expert
ment With System.
ON RURAL ROUTES FIRST
Hitchcock Investigates Working of
Service Abroad.
GRADUAL EXTENSION PLANNED
Aim Is to Determine Practicability
and Preclude Generalization
of Business.
ON RURAL ROUTES FIRST
GRADUAL EXTENSION PLANNED

through the mails and delivered the same
as packets of fourth-class matter nova
days, is going to be one of the features
covered by Postmaster General Hitch
cock in his forthcoming annual report.
But the Postmaster General is not go
ing to advocate the widespread taking
over into the postal service of the eN-
press business of the country. He does
not propose by single provision of law
to take into the mails all the parcels up
to given weight which the public
might be inclined to send through the
mails hear or far.
His plan, according to his statements in
an interview todayy contemplates the
gradual introduction of the parcels post
system, the slow but sure preparation of
the postal service and it's employees to
handle the business within circumscribed
limits, and then its gradual extension
until the whole country is covered and
it will be as easy to send a parcel by
mail to California for delivery as to
send 1t to a local merchant or from one
resident on a rural delivery route to
another farther along the line.
The Postmaster General says he has
given careful consideration to the whole
subject. He has looked into it's diff
culties as we'll as into it's advantages
He has studied it from the standpoint or
present conditions and it's limited opera
tion under existing laws and regulations
He has made himself familiar with the
operation of that class of service abroad
as well as at home. and he has finally
evolved a plan for the postal service Of
this country which he believes to be rea-
sonable, practicable and satisfactory.
Trial First on Rural Routes.
This plan contemplates trial of the
parcels post system first on rural de-
livery routes. The matter to be handled
must originate on the route and be ad-
dressed for delivery to a person living
along the line of that route. 1t will not
permit parcels to be mailed in far-of
cities and places for delivery on that
route, nor the mailing of parcels on the
route for delivery in such places. The
more routes and then extended to others,
but 1t will always, for the time being. at
least, comprehend purely local service.
After the preliminary trial of the
system on the rural delivery routes
shows what blanks are necessary to
it's operation and how the parcels may
most advantageously be handled on
the routes the system will be gradu-
ally extended to cities and towns. but
will still provide only local service
in those cities and towns. This will
doubtless mean an extension of the
postal establishment to handle the new
business and will tend further to per-
feet the system and prepare postmas-
ters and their employees still more for
the handling of the greater business
that Viii follow the interchange of
parcels post with other cities and
communities. Thus gradually, step by
step. the Postmaster General proposes
to feel his way with this new adjunct
country can be taken into the system
and the service made practicable.
Any other plan, the Postmaster Gen
eral says, he is convinced would be
suicidal to the postal service 1t would
mean the swamping of the letter mail,
SO important to the business and
social world in it's regularity and GER
tainty 1t would unsettle business and
cause untold loss and hardship to have
the country's splendid mail service
burdened with this great express busi-
ness without due preparation and en-
largement to meet the greatly in
creased demands upon it.
Public Is Most Exacting.
1t stands to reason, he says, that this
new business must needs be handled diff
ferent to that of the present mail busi-
ness, and it is only by gradual experiment
and extension that SO vast an undertake
ing could be accomplished with any de-
gree of satisfaction either to the depart
ment or to the people at large.
Besides, experience has shown that the
people are much more eXacting in their
dealings with governmental service than
with private or public corporations. This
is manifest every day. he says, in the
money order and registry services, and
even in the ordinary mail service.
If general parcels post system were
saddled on to the postal service in it's
present condition, the Postmaster General
thinks, the people would hail with 10y the
additional advantages given them, but
would never stop to think how the in
creased business could BE handled nor to
make allowances in case even of occasion
al failure. He is convinced the only sensi-
BILE way of bringing about a general par
GELS post system in conjunction with the
mail service is to gradually prepare for it,
to experiment with it step by step and to
extend it only when it seems wise and
expedient to do so.