Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-12-17
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER

by motor truck, radiating from vari-
Gus cities, the local parcels post rate
has been extended to fruits and vege-
tables mailed from one station on the
route to another station on the same
route, this to include delivery from
such station.
An interesting development of the
parcels post system is rapid growth
in the parcels insurance service In
the fiscal year 1919 the number of
parcels insured reached a total of
69,997,8 1889, which is nearly 20,OOO,OOO
more than in the previous year. In
1914, the first full year in which in
surance of parcels post was tried, the
total number insured was only $780,
OOO
The growth in this business in 1919
is attributed by the department heads
to the extension of the weight limit
OF parcels. The bigger the shipment
the more desirable the insurance.
LANE WANTS GARDEN HOMES
Secretary of the Interior Lane, in
that section of his annual report just
made to congress dealing with land
development, deplores the fact that the
cities continue to sap the strength of
the people. He suggests that the ma
tional capital itself be made the scene
or an American experiment in restor-
ing the people to the land-something
after the fashion, apparently, of the
English garden city of Letchworth.
Here in Washington" he says, "a
city of some 100000 people, doubtless
destined to grow until it may reach
100000 at 20 years hence. Already
the housing problem is acute. 1t would
be pitiful thing if the provision of
more housing facilities meant merely
more congestion and higher rents
with an decreasing degree of
landed proprietorship and of true in
dlvidual independence. Such condi-
lions, it seems to me, undermine the
American hearthstone and carry
deep menace to the future of our in
situations. There must be a better
way, and the time has come when we
must make an earnest effort to find it,
within a 10-mile circle drawn
around the capitol dome are thousands
OF acres of good agricultural land, of
which the merest fraction has been
reduced to Intensive cultivation. Much
of it is wastefully used and much is
not used at all. Conditions of soil
climate and water supply are good and
represent fair average for the Unit
ed States
Somewhere and somehow, it seems
to me, new system must be devised
to dispense the people of great cities
on the vacant lands surrounding them.
to give the masses a real hold upon
the soil, and to replace the apartment
house with the home in a garden. Such
a system should enable the ambitious
and thrifty family not only to save
the entire cost of rent but possibly
half the cost of food, while at the
same time enhancing it's standard of
living socially and spiritually, as we'll
as economically"
FEAR OF PACKERS GROWS
Victor Murdoch is now chairman Of
the federal trade commission and his
friend, w. B. Colver, former chairman
and leader in the fight to make the
Chicago packers obey the law, will
have ready support in his endeavors
to make the small business men of the
country understand the menace of
this huge trust. When Colver is I'M
able to fill a speaking engagement
before some national association of lit
tie business men on the subject of
their relation to the packers expan-
sion, he can be sure that the smiling,
red-headed Murdoch, thirty-third de-
gree Bull Mooser, will step forward
and hand the victims the detailed fig
ures on what the packers did to their
line OF business last year.
The Colver-Murdock war of attri
ton on the packers, who are the great
american example of the unfair COM
petition which the federal trade COM
mission is supposed to put down and
out. is beginning to get results. The
wholesale grocers were the first to
get the idea. Now the dealers in all
sorts OF articles made or sold by the
chicago combine are alarmed. They
send here for the facts. Colver and
MURDOCH furnish them, aplenty.
This merry contest is the back
ground of Senator Jim Watson's Bit
ter attacks upon the commission.
which are to be developed in a special
senate investigation next week.
II we were to close our doors to-
day, says a recent statement of the
Federal Farm Loan bank, I'VE could.
from the business on our books. paw
all salaries. expenses and dividends
tor 20 years to come"
BY all the learned" argument nre.
scented by opponents Of public enter
prise, this bank, instead of being self
sustaining, should be so deep down in
the hole of financial bankruptcy that
the combined wisdom of congress and
the administration could not pull it
out
Senator Mcclellan of Tennessee be-
lieves that America needs a Siberia
for those who would suggest changes
in the institution, and he thinks some
part of the Philippines would be Just
about right for the purpose. He has
introduced bill embodying his bright
idea.