The Springfield herald., 1912-02-16
FARMER FOOLED IN POLITICS
Allows Politician to Give Him Toy to
Play With and Detraet His
Attention.

To the Officers and Members Of the
Farmers Union:
The main reason the American far
mer is not now and has not for some
years been enjoying the benefits OF
general parcels post il his own laxi-
ness. Added to that. perhaps. IL his
practice Of letting the politician give
him toy to play with and detract his
attention. when he begins to seriously
demand general parcels post The
same rule applies to other needed beg-
! islation.
The hardest reforms or measures to
enact into law are those favored by
the overwhelming majority Of people.
but for which this same majority Will
not develop sufficient energy to get
out and make a fight There are no
reasonable men in America opposed to
general parcels post, except those
few who have. or think they have. a
selfish interest in defeating 1t or post
poning It. Yet We have the spectacle.
these years. of representatives of the
farmers striving in vain to obtain the
crystallixing into Legislation of q
measure self-evidently Just, and self
evidently popular.
The express companies have been
charged with maintaining rich and
powerful lobby against the parcels
post Other interests have been plas-
tered with the same Indictment. 1t
would not be surprising or unnatural
II either, or both, accusations were
well founded.
But all the express Hobbies and all
the other Hobbies in America couldn't
prevent the enactment of general
parcels post II the American farmer.
whose vote controls congress. brought
sufficient pressure to bear on his rep
resentative and senator to get results.
Under treaty agreements we now
have a general parcels post with con-
siderably more than half the civilized
nations Of the world. 1t Is possible to
mail an eleven-pound package from
San Francisco to London. to st. Pc
tersburg. Vienna. Paris. Berlin. Hong
Kong, to the negroes in Port-au-Pr1nce.
Hayti. for IL cents a pound.
But It costs 1e cents a pound to
mall the same package from your
county seat to the county seat adjoin-
ing. and even then you have to split
the bulk into three or four parcels.
The president has recommended a
parcels post on the rural free deliv-
cry routes. with an investigation as to
the advisability Of general parcels
post. That is progress. but 1t Is OF
the crab variety-very slow and tortu-
GUS.
Just suppose you sit down right
now. write your representative and
senator, and make your support Of
him in the next election contingent
upon his supporting general parcels
post bill. Talk about practical poll
tics" That's practical politics with a
vengeance. You Just insist upon
a straight answer. though. and then
you must follow up the answer with
letters prodding him until his vote
ia actually recorded for a general par
cells post. Be from Missouri. You
would everlastingly keep your eyes
peeled to keep yourself from being
skinned in horse trade. You'd think
it disgrace to admit you had palmed
of on you a spawned or wind-galled
nag. Yet you get skinned, time after
time, in important political measures
by the fellow you're paying to repre-
sent you and attend to your business.
Isn't 1t about the time you applied the
same vigilance to politics you do. or
ought to do, to horse trading and busi-
ness generality
CHARLES 8. BARRETT.
Washington d, c.