Perth Amboy evening news., 1913-01-24
TRUCK GARDENING TO
Be A RESULT OF PARCEL POST
Representative Tells How
Farmers Profits Are
Made Greater.

A CONDITION that allows the
IA farmers of the country TO get
4 IA but $6,0o0,0 900 for what finally
sold to the consumers for about
sf3,00o,00 0 is directly attacked by the
new parcel post service. AS to the
manner In which farm profits nre In
creased and prices TO consumers re
duced by the service, Representative
David J. Lewis Of Maryland has given
an Interesting review. In part as fol
lows:
The mere articulation of the farm
and countryside with the town and
railways by the postal van will be of
very great social Importance. 1t win
lead to a new in~dustry-the suburban
gardener. He Will be able to send his
shipments to his patrons direct at cost
Of service, and the economic barrier
OF an individual transportation system
is removed. -Four ncres aud ~independ-
ence has been q dream Of the past 1t
Is apparent that it may become a fact
through the postal van. And what q
facti Shifting the u~nwholesome ten
dency of population to the nickelotleop
civilization Of the cities back to the
country. As the president has stated,
the high cost of living was bound up
In this postal legislation. Two dozen
eggs, q dressed fowl, three pounds of
butter, u like amount Of country sau-
sage, a country cured ham and a half
l,,rho - o,,,JNr .nI1 ra,nrtJu nt q, f,v,,,
near Washington at $2.S5, but when
they got TO the the cost was
S5.55. Give the small shipment Its
transportation rights and the means
have been provided by which the pru
dent and outstanding spirit Of the work
ers Of our country can give themselves
q measure of relief.
There Is considerable objection to
the parcel post In this country. 1t
| comes from men who make their OBJ
| jections with an ealnestness and spirit
that should cause one to halt and con-
slider. / mean the local merchants.
They ask why make the limit from
four to eleven pounds in weight? Is
not this limit obviously designed to be
just large enough to get his patron
away from him to the mail order house
and yet SO small as to exclude the local
merchant, since he commonly ships in
larger weightsT' This objection was
largely overcome with the substitution
OF the. n system for the fiat rate
proposition. The rates should not ere
ate unnatural markets by Ignoring dis.
lance. The fat rate idea represents a
misapplication of the principle of neg
ligible costs In rate making. 1t Is
rightly applied to letters, because the
element of transportation cost with
them is less than o%ne-fourth of the to-
tai cost. But where weight is involved
to any extent the transportation cost
Is not negligible, and eve in the small
| est countries, like Switzerland and Bel
GUM, the rates recognize distance.
Connects Farmers With Outside
World.
"Some 10000, 900 of u people, tbs
producers of vital necessaries, live in
the country, off the railway lines.
The express companies, of course, and
the railways, too, have no means of
reaching this country population. ANY
system at all adequate to directly IN
meet the producer and consumer, espe
cially with reference 10 vital necessa-
ries, will have to connect the farmer
with the railways and the towns.
Only the postal system possesses the
! agency for that purpose. 1t possesses
1t In the rural free delivery structure,
now almost complete and ready for
adaptation to the larger service. We
are spending over $4,000 900 on that
service, aud 1t Is waiting, one might
| say, with empty wagons to receive and
convey in retail quantities the neces-
saFies of life from the farmer In the
country to the hungry mouths that
need them In the city. The express
company, therefore, is excluded as the
remedy to connect producer and con-
sumner for two main reasOps-its rates
are prohibitive and Its Instrumental
ties do not reach the farm. The com
putati6n Of the outlay the postoffice
department will have to make for this
increased service can only take place
as the development Of the traffic pro
ceeds. The simpliaed and reliable mo-
tor truck is now in sight. No abrupt
change will take place, and the postal
department will gradually adapt the
rural delivery structure to meet the
reeds OF the traffic as they become
manifest.
THE postal system of the United
States is certainly the most efficient
agency of its Kind throughout the
world. / have divided the number Of
postal employees IN England. France
and Germany into the number of mail
pieces handled each year and then
made a like division for the United
States. The result shows that for the
year 1908 the efficiency of the average
employee In England was 31,117
pieces handled. In France 1924, In
Germany 25,901 and in the United
States 51,591, We certainly have the
most efficient postal agency to handle
the small shipments"
The new act naturally mnde neces-
nr,- bf,r o-rrOnr4a tfopg Por o1ufnunnt