The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-08
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Woshin ston, D. c.
PARCEL POST BY MOTOR TRUCK


Washington, D. c., April 5.-Parcel
post service by motor truck, direct
from the farms to the, cities. is the lat
est scheme of the government ior
meeting the present food emergency
Already several motor-truck routes
have been put into operation in the
eastern section of the country, and the
postoffice department Will eHteno
them as rapidly as funds are MADE
! available.
| Last fall in spite of all that was
/ said and done concerning 1000 con.
servation. thousands of tons of garden
| truck rotted in the fields because the
congested condition of the railroads
prevented it's transportation to the
nearest markets. This year conol.
tons are much worse. The shipment
! of perishable produce is becoming in
creasingly difficult, owing to delays IN
| transportation. The railroads must at
| tend to the needs of the army first
and to those of the civilian population
afterwards
| But even if unlimited freight space
were available. many fertile farming
| districts, capable of supplying large
| quantities of food. would still be han
dicapped by the distance to railroads.
You have only to look at a map to
discover how inadequate are American
| transportation facilities, said the
other day Fourth Assistant United
States Postmaster General J. 1.
Blakslee.
Mr. Blakslee has a roll of several
large maps on the wall of his office
here in Washington which he calls his
horrible examples He pointed to
one of these showing the southern
section of the United States Why
! does the soAthern farmer prefer. to
grow cotton?" he asked, and iTnme-
diately answered his own question.
Because his ira importation facilities
are so inadequate that cotton is the
only thing he can ship with safety"
Then he proceeded to point out
hundreds of small towns in the south,
! located twenty and thirty miles from
the nearest railroad station. Many of
them lay in fertile valleys between the
| mountains splendid agricultural
country-but naturally the farmers
are not going to plant crops that are
apt to perish in the long drive from
the farm to the railroad station. For
even the parcel post is carried by the
| old-fashioned stage coach in these re-
mote sections.
This lack of quick transportation is
by no means limited to the south.
Pennsylvania is supposed to have the
| best system of railroads of any state
in the Union, and yet many farmers
in Pennsylvania are handicapped by
| the same situation. Only the other
! day the postoffice department received
! a letter from a Pennsylvania farmer,
i several miles from a railroad, declar-
ing that he could supply city markets
with $4,000 eggs year If he had di-
rect transportation facilities.
Another farmer in the state of Vir-
gina asserted that bushels of pota-
! toes went to waste on his farm this
year while people in the cities were
paying dollar peek for them. He
| could not afford to pay the transpor-
tation charges from his farm to the
railroad station, thirty miles off, he
! said, in addition to the freight
| charges.
To farmers such as these the motor
truck service of the postoffice depart
ment opens the way to the city mar
| ket- At the same time it opens up a
new source of supply to the consumer.
The service is still in the experimental
stage. of course; comparatively few
routes have been established. Nu-
merous questions are still to be settled.
such as the expense of maintaining
such route. the upkeep of the roads,
| the size of the loads to be carried and
| the length of the routes, but. accord
ing to Mr.. Blakslee. il the truck sys-
tenn is once put into operation all
these questions will answer them
selves The same objects. he asserts
were raised before the inauguration of
the parcel post.
| An instance of what the postal mo-
| tor-truck has already done for a COM
munity is shown in the case of the
small town of Kennel Square, Pa. A
few years ago. Kennel Square was a
tiny vitlege, with tiny postoffice and
postmaster with a salary of about
$1,000. The receipts of the postofffce
itself were never above $4,000 a year.
And this, in spite of the fact that
Kennel Square lay in the midst of a
iertie asr1cultural country. particu-
larry adapted to raising mushrooms.
| Mushrooms, however, are a highly
perishable product. and Kennel Square
was Off the main line of the railroad
and hence handicapped in getting
them to the great mushroom market
New York. 1T was as If the town
had gold mine but no tools with
which to get the gold
! Then the postoffice department
started a motor truck route between
oxford and Philadelphia, which
passed Kennel Square. Direct com
municat1on between Philadelphia and
New York was afforded and the ia
ers started cultivating mushrooms ON
a large scale for the city markets.
Iooay' the postmaster in Kennel
/ square is busy man with several as
sistants, and the receipts of his office
i are approximately $4,000 wear
Whlch is enough to pay not only all
the expenses of the office but of the
timated that 1000 pounds Of rnusfI-
rooms go forward by this postal truck
service to New York One man has
fifty-four mushroom houses
I There are two trucks a day One
leaves Oxford at $50 in the evening
and gets to Philadelphia at $3.50 the
next morning. The other leaves OK
ford at $40 in the morning, ard gets
| to Baltimore the same day
A good example of the need for par
| eel post truck service is afforded by
the situation of a peach-grower TWEEN,
! ty-five miles from Washington D. c.
! This orchardist will have 100 600
| twenty-five pound baskets of peaches
to ship between July 80 and October
! 10. If the peaches are not shipped
! when ripe they will rot An excellent
market is afforded by the capital CITY
! close at hand And Wa ShiroztI., 1919