The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-06-28
NO LIMIT IF PATRON COLLECTS
Says Present Weight Limit is Ridicu-
ously Low to Be of Great Service
to the Country.
BURLEsON POWER TO CHANGE
Claims Changes Would Put Express
Companies Out of Business
Turn Traffic to Post0hice.
(By CLYDE H. TaVenner.)

(By Clyde H. Tavenner.)
Washington, June 28.-Parcel post
is a success The experiment since
the first of the year has demonstrated
it. And now the time has come to
extend the service 80 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 the
postmaster geenral Burleson.
Lewis suggests the following
changes to be made at once:
Raise the 11-pound parcel weight
limit to 100 lbs. Set no weight limit
at all when the patron collects and
delivers merchandise.
Make each zone 100 miles wide,
including the local zone.
Collect an initial charge of three
cents and a rate of half a 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 bus
mess and turn their entire traffic
over to the postott1ee there is no
doubt Ehe rates proposed by Lewis
are far below express rates, and the
increase of the weight limit to 100
pounds, with no limit when shippers
deliver their own packages, would
leave the express octupus no field for
operation.
Moreover, because of the high
transportation rates paid by the ex-
press companies to the railroads, they
could not possibly reduce their
charges to compete with the parcel
post. Yet Lewis shows that his pro-
posed rates, low as they are, are suf-
ficient to pay big profit to the gov
eminent, wiping out the postof1lce de-
felt and making possible l-cent pos
tage, 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 getting any further author
ity from congress because of a provis-
ion in the parcel post law, a provision
writtin in the law by Mr. Lewis him
self, and one of the most remarkable
provisions ever written in any law in
any country.
This provision gives the postmas-
ter general 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 admin
istrators of the law to work out from
The raes of all other classes of mail
are fixed rigidly by law.
The weight limit of II pounds is
ridiculously low to be of great serv-
ice to the country, says Mr.. Lewis.
Most food is produced on the farm in
retail FORMS, that is, eggs by the
dozen, chickens by the head, butter
by the pound, and so on. The buying
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 consumer.
. All these processes, in the ag-
gregrate, become q terrible bur-
den on the Country. Farm pro-
ducts which brought to the far
mer $6,000.OOO.O00 last year
cost the consumer &$13,00O,000.-
900. The parcel post with weight
limit removed so that worth while
market baskets may be shipped, will
make the consumer largely a first
buyer with immense benefit to him
self aud to the farmer with whom he
deals. .
With a complete postal express sys-
tenn in operation, Mr.. Lewis has q vis-
ion of a new industry-the suburban
gardener, the man whose patch of
ground is too small to warrant main
tanning q delivery service, but Who,
through parcel post, can sell his gar
den product to the consumer in his
town or city