The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-01-03
SUBURBAN TRUCK
Be A RESULT
Representative Tells How
Farmers Profits Are
Made Greater.
CONDITION that allows the

SotQ to the consumers TOT ABOUT
$13,O00,00O is directly attacked by the
now parcel post service. AS to the
manner in which farm profits are in
creased and prices to consumers re-
dueed by the service, Representative
David J. Lewis Of Maryland has given
an interesting rovlsw, 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. It will
lead to a new industry-the suburban
gardener. lie 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 acres aud independ-
ence has been dream Of the past. 1t
Is apparent that 1t may become fact
through the postal van. And what
fact! Shifting the unwholesome ten
dsncy Of population to the nickelodeon
civilization of the cities back to the
country. As the president has stated,
in this postal legislation. Two dozen
eggs, a dressed fowl. three pounds Of
butter, a like amount of country sau-
sage, a country cured ham and a half
bushel of apples sold recently at farm
near Washington at $2.85, but when
they got to the consumer the cost was
$5.55. Give the small shipment its
t,-o, nj +Lo
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 earnestness and spirit
that should cause one to halt and con-
slider. l 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
merchant, since he commonly ships in
larger weightsT This objection was
largely overcome with the substitution
Of the zone system for the fiat rate
proposition. The rates should not ere
ate unnatural markets by ignoring dis
tance. The fiat rate idea represents a
misappllcation 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 one-fourth of the to-
tai cost. But where weight is involved
to any extent the transportation cost
is not negligible, and even in the small
est countries, like Switzerland and Bel
GUM, the rates recognize distance.
Connects Farmers With Outside
World.
"Some 100000 of our people, the
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 con-
meet the producer and consumer, espe-
cially with reference to 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
it in the rural free delivery structure,
now almost complete and ready for
adaptation to the larger service. We
are spending over $40,000,000 on that
service, and 1t Is waiting, one might
say, with empty wagons to receive and
convey in retail quantities the neces-
saries 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-
sumer for two main reasons-its rates
are prohibitive and its instrumental
ties do not reach the farm. The com
putation 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 simplifed 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
needs 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. I 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 3S,241, in
Germany 25,901 and in the United
States 1851. We certainly have the
most efficient postal agency to handle
the small shipments"
I'M.