The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1915-04-01
Big Mail Order Houses Benefit by
Parcel Post.

Making the Parcel Post Ridicul-
GUS would be a suitable popular title
for an SO page report submitted to con
gress by Senator Bristow of Kansas
in which he explains in considerable
detail how Postmaster General Burle-
son, largely by exceeding his authority,
has reduced the efficiency of the parcel
post, and upset and made udicrous
the schedule of rates, and made the
parcel post an adjunct of the mail or
der houses of the country, rather than
4 boon to the farmer and to the city
/ nan hoping to reduce the cost of liv-
| ing by this means of transportation.
The increased burden that Postmaster
| General Burleson, by his orders, has
lheaped upon the star route and rural
carriers also is taken up in consider
able detail
Senator Bristow was made chair
man of a Joint senate and house com
mittee to investigate the parcel post,
land the report recently made is Sc
we're arraignment of the administra-
ton of the parcel post service under
the direction of Mr.. Burleson. Some
mittee are startling. For instance, out
of S77S5 post offices that submitted
reports on the parcel post, only 697
reported outgoing parcel post business
in excess of their incoming business,
How It Works.
over SO per cent Of the offices re-
ceived more parcel post matter than
they sent Furthermore it was found
that 46.514,699 of 77539521 parcels
handled in a given six weeks through
out the United tSates, were sent from
New York City and Chicago. the
homes of the big mail order houses.
While New York dispatched, in that
period, 26,696,4S9 parcels, it received
only 1S95,453 parcels and in Chicago
the percentage was about the same
1.-THE tremendous amount of merchan-
disc sent out by the mail order houses
Of those cities Is of course, the ex-
planation of this condition." says the
Bristow report. 1.-THE amount, more 7
over, of the parcel post business which /
originated in these two offices is
greatly in excess of that shown by the
'eport of the postmasters," continues
he report, because large houses in
hese cities ship by freight their cata-
ogues and great quantities Of their
to many distributing CEN
ers, where the packages are distrib-
Ited through the mail by the smaller
offices" This double shipment is
made, it is explained in order that the
nail order houses may take advantage
If the lower rates in the first two
zones.
Loss to Government.
From the best information the
committee has been able to obtain, it
$ convinced that the practice Of send
ng by freight for distribution in the
short zones by mail, and the greatly
educed rates which these mail order
have obtained by the chang
ng of the classification Of their cata-
ogues from third class to fourth class,
nave resulted in a loss to the govern
nent of many millions per annum.
The committee has conclusive evidence
han one firm alone has saved postage
ggregating approximately $1,OO0,OOO
'er annum by this change"
Reference here is made to the order
f March Is, 1914. Prior to that or
err the rate on books was ! cent for I
ach ounces. The postmaster gen. ]
raj, on the date named, stipulated |
hat parcels of books weighing more
han ounces should take the estab- {
shed parcel post rates, Thus under
nat order an ounce package Of
ooks is carried from New York to /
an Francisco for cents, while a 9 I
unce package is Carried for cents. G
Points Out Changes. '
Bearing these figures in mind, the a