The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1912-08-09
CONGRESSMAN LEWIS TALK
ED TO FARMERS.

olNln OlSlIlCt, Hduc lIlIc &c duUTcSSeS AT
farmers picnics IN Frederick and Wash
ngton counties on Saturday last, and in
these discourses he expressed the fear
that the parcels post legislation was the
'houn' dawg' of Congressman from the
way it is being kicked arouud"
| Mr.. Lewis spoke at Boonsboro Fox
I vile and Jefferson. He was met at Boons-
! boro by delegation from the Wilson,
/ Marshall and Lewis Club, who invited
him to attend club rally in Hagerstown
/ shortly. He accepted the invitation.
! While in Frederick Mr.. Lewis was the
guest of Colonel Baughman.
/ The Congressman made practically the
! same speeches at each picnic. He said,
in part:
For more than generation the PEG.
pie of the United States has been asking
| Congress for the enactment of legislation
! that would give them the advantages en-
ioyed by the people of other civilized
countries, of an adequate general parcels
post. But in 40 years of agitation no sub
Jet ever had SO little real attention as
parcels post has been accorded. The
subject has never been seriously dis.
Cussed in Congress, no books have been
written by thoughtful students consider
ing its basic problems and it has been, in
truth, the 'houn dawg' of legislation,
whom everybody who would could kick
and none would interfere.
"What results do we expect in the en-.
aCtment of legislation for parcels post?
What is the function OF parcels post? 1t
is to provide effective transportation for
the small shipment. The small shipment
is the article produced in retail form TO
which only delivery
need be added to make 1t available for
retail buyer or consumer.
The farmers who sell our vital neceS-
sarles get each year about S., 900, ooo, 600
for their products, the consumers paw for
the same products about s. 900, 900. 600.
| Eggs increase between the farm and the
kitchen 90 per cent in value, melons 50
per cent, turkeys o5.4 per cent, apples
$50 per cent This means that it costs
$1,000. ooo.o each year to get the pro-
Outs OF the farm to the consumer, and
this added cost is largely caused by the
inefficient and insufficient transportation
system. The high cost of living. if this
waste is elm mated will thus really be
reached and remedied
Nearly all farm products in use on our
tables are produced in retail FORM But
because no direct conduit of Transporter
ton from producer 10 consumer is avail
able these retail forms are now converted
into wholesale forms bv aggregation
through collectors and handed over to the
wholesale trade, whence they 90 TO the
retailers and finally are reduced to their
original retail form and delivered to the
consumer, frequently plus an undesirable
degree of ripeness acquired by the way
when we think of transportation we
turn naturally to our railroads. But the
railroads do not artiCulate with the farms
and cannot provide transportation direct
from farm to consumer; and they are en-
gagged in the wholesale not retail traffic.
Their minimum shipment is 100 pounds;
their lowest charge is IS cents; they do
not provide collect and-delivery service.
Few consumers buy in 100 pound lots or
even visit a freight depot and certainly
not of farm products. And the railways
do not establish these minimumS because
of tyrrauy, but because their system COM
pels it. Their accounting methods in
clude 20 separate items of transportation
at ention which apply to every shipment,
whether pound or a traInload. Obvi-
ous'y this practice penalties the smaller
packages, by the cost OF handling. out of
business. Yet in the post1l service IS of
these acts of transportation attention are
replaced by the postage stamp and all
their cost eliminated. If this were not so
the letter would cost not cents but 10
cents to mail.
The express company is our Fictitious,
unnatural parcels post. 1t ought to give
us adequate service. 1t utterly fails to do
SO. 1t does not reach the farm; it has the
same costly accounting system that
blocks the railways from handling small
shipments, and it charges prohbilively
for what service it gives. The average
express charge here is S3I. 20 a ton, when
in Europe the average charge for similar
service IS $4.37; and compared with
freight charges, the ratio in Europe is
5.23 to I, while here it is ID s. to I. The
postal service is the only system which
has practices permitting the shipment to
be carried at a price that will permit farm
products to move by it in small quanti-
ties; it is the only system that extends to
the rural districts, and it is the only svs
tenn that possesses motive to give the
people both efficiency and economy,
with the benefits Of the savings.
1T is only the mind that hates all forms
of public endeavor which will deny the
postal system OF our country the verdict
of well done, good and faithful servant
1t IS the only organization sufficiently ex-
tensive in its scope and sufficiently eco
nomical in its operations to adequately
treat the small shipment.
Unfortunately, we have to meet with
attempts at legislation that can be de.
scribed only as puerile. disappearing
as parcels post. these measures can only
if adopted, result in disappointment and
disgust, and IN putting back this import
ant reform generation in effective legis-
| lation.
There are number of these propos-
ais. | will mention specifically the Bourne
bill. No shipment from the farm is adj
mitted to the mails under the Bourne
measure, which provides only for the ar
| ticles now carried under the third and
fourth classes. The maximum weight
privilege is set at II pounds, thus spec-
! fically restricting the merchant, while al
| lowing his customer, if his fancy inclines,
to make his single purchases of manufac-
! tured goods in some distant city. There
is no c. o. d. prlvilege-a necessity to
| the development of any trade. Lost pack
ages can not be insured And perhaps.
next the denial of the entree to farm pro-
| ducts. the worst of all is the fact that the
| Bourne measure would compel the gov
eminent to pay the railroads over 49,
! 600 900 for services as TO which the rail-
roads now receive but s., 900, 900 from the
| express companies.
81 =.