The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1912-10-10
HE PEOPLES FORUM.
Lewis and the Parcels Post.
the Editor of The Republican:


corning the Parcels Post bill as passed
during the closing DAYS of the last Con-
gress and our Democratic friends have
been trying to make political capital
out of it for the benefit of their candl-
date for Congress. 1t is not our pur-
pose in this article to discuss the merits
or dement's of that act but we wish
simply to give some facts in regard to
the true authorship. Then we will
leave our readers to determine whether
or not all of the credit heretofore as
stunned - NJ. Lewis rightly belongs to
him. Il should be remembered, how
ever, that Mr. Lewis private secretary
is newspaper man and that he would
not miss an opportunity to serve his
chief, and also make his own job more
secure, by getting all possible favorable
mention for the Congressman in friend
ly daily papers and thru them mention
in still more friendly country papers.
But here are the facts.
During the last term of Congress
some nineteen members of the Senate
and House introduced measures looking
to the establishment of some form of
Parcels Post. The authors of these
bills were: Senators Bourne, O'Gorman
and Gardner; Representatives Latferty,
Cooke, Moon, Sims, Lewis, Sulzer,
Mondell, Howard, Small, Littlepage,
Foster, Hardwick, Turnbull, Tribble
and Lafean, Out of this mass of pro-
posed legislation, Congress finally put
together bill that embraced many of
the points found in the several sub
mitted bills and it was not the work of
any one man. However it bore the
name of the Bourne bill because the
Senate committee on Post Offices and
Post Roads of which Senator Bourne is
chairman gave the law its final form.
Just what impression the bill introduced
by Mr.. Lewis had upon the final act
does not anpear from the facts in the
case.
The truth of the matter is that the
bill proposed by Mr.. Lewis is radically
different from the Bourne Bill as adopt
ed It's fitting. "a Bill providing for
the Condemnation and Purchase of the
Franchises and so forth of the Express
Companies of the United States and
the Establishment of Postal Express"
alone shows wide variance from the
bill adopted. Mr.. Lewis is supposed to
be Democrat and for the most part
has, in recent years, posed as an advo-
cate of that political faith, and yet to
read his bill as proposed reminds one
very focibly of the doctrines of Marx
and other Socialists. Senator Bourne,
speaking in the Senate Committees
report on the proposition involved in
the bill of Mr.. Lewis and of others,
says: Government ownership of ex-
press companies deem unwise and un-
necessary. 1t tends toward paternal-
ism and bureaucracy, In my opinion,
governmental ownership should only be
adopted as last resort where regula-
ton has been demonstrated to be a
failure" The Republican party has
often been accused in times past of
favoring paternalism but here we find
a Republican Senator compelled to re.
buke a Congressman who is supposed to
belong to a party that has always
boosted of its individualism as thing
unclean and unholy. Mr.. Lewis has
evidently forgotten the faith of his
party fathers as laid down in the
democracy of jackson and Jefferson.
The Parcel Post proposition has been
and is favored by both parties and it
has never been party issue. But the
bill as adopted this summer is a Repub-
lican measure and to Senator Bourne,
and not Mr. Lewis, should be given the
credit for giving to the bill its final
shape. We do not wish to be unfair to
Mr.. Lewis in this matter but we wish
merely to set before our readers the
real facts in this case. Then where
credit belongs let it be given. We think
however, that the voters of this county
should not permit Mr.. Lewis advocacy
of his bill which did not pass to divert
their attention from his record on the
tariff issues. The Parcels Post is not
political issue but the tariff always has
been and will remain so. Before voting
for a man who submitted a bill that did
not pass and now in the heat of cam
paign assumes credit for one that did
we should remember that he also voted
to put all of the farm products or the
free list and everything that must be
bought by the farmer on high tariff
basis. With this record before him
certainly every intelligent voter IN the
county will cast his ballot for Mr.. Waga-
man, a man who can be depended upon
to vote for the interest of his constitu-
ents. A GARRETT COUNTIAN.
Oakland, Oct, s, 1912.
A Resident of Deer Park Defends the
ritizans nf That ToWn