Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1913-07-04
The Parcel Post.
BY CONGRESSMAN CLYDE H. TAvENNER.

Parcel post is a success. The expert
ment since the first of the year has de-
monstrated it. And now the time has come
to extend the service so that it will do the
general express business of the country,
declares David ]. Lewis, the parcel post
expert of the House, in a remarkable brief
addressed to Postmaster Burleson.
Lewis suggests the following changes to
be made at once:
Raise the 11-pound- parcel-weight limit
to 100 pounds. Set no weight limit at all
when the patron collects and delivers mer-
chandise.
Have each zone 100 miles wide. includ-
ing the local zone.
Collect an initial charge of 8 cents and
rate of half cent "a pound for each zone.
Admit any class of merchandise to the
mails.
That these changes would at once put
the express companies out of business and
turn their entire traffic over to the Post
Office there is no doubt. The rates pro-
posed by Lewis are far below express rates.
and the increase of the weight limit to 100
pounds, with no limit when shippers de-
liver their own packages, would leave the
express octopus no field for operation.
However, because of the high transpor-
tatiOn rates paid by the express companies
to the railroads, they could not possibly
reduce their charges to compete with the
parcel post. Yet Lewis shows that his
proposed rates. low as they are, are suffi-
cient to pay big profit to the Government.
wiping out the pOstoffice deficit and max
ing possible 1-cent postage, cheaper rates
on other classes of mail, and other reforms
demanded by the people.
1t is possible for the Postmaster General
to make the proposed changes without get
ting any further authority from Congress
because of provision in the parcel post
law, provision written in the law by Mr..
Lewis himself, and one of the most re-
markable provisions ever written in any
law in any country.
This provision gives the Postmaster Gen
eral power to make any changes he sees
fit to make in the parcel post rates, zones
or conditions of Availability. In other words,
the rates prescribed in the law were to be
but the starting point for the administra-
tors of the law to work out from. The
rates of all other classes of mail are fixed
rigidly by law.
The weight limit of II pounds is ridicu-
lously low to be of great service to the
country, says Mr.. Lewis. Most food is pro-
duced on the farm in retail form" that is,
eggs by the dozen, chickens by the head,
butter by the pound, and so on. The buy
ing agent converts them into wholesale
form-eggs by the case. butter by the tub,
and chickens by the barrel-and sells them
to the wholesaler, who, in turn, sells them
in wholesale form to the retailer, who again
converts them into retail form for the con-
sumner.
All these processes, in the Aggregate,
become terrible burden on the country.
Farm products which brought to the farm
ers $4,000. 000.000 last year. cost the con-
sumner $13, 000,000,0OO. The parcel post,
with weight limit removed so that worth
while market baskets can be shipped. will
make the consumer largely first buyer
with immense benefit to himself and to the
farmer with whom he deals.
With complete postal express system
in operation, Mr.. Lewis has vision of a
new industry-the suburban gardner. the
man whose patch of ground is too small to
warrant maintaining a delivery service,
but who. through parcel post, can sell his
garden produce to consumer in his town or
city.