Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-06
Motor Truck Replaces
Middleman in Food
By Fred RE J. Haskin

| JHfHlIlpS III IHTE fPW, WHICH ia a IITt Gf
| the city Of Washington, In this tran
saction Miss Love acted as the agent Of
the new Motor Transport Corps Of che
Post Office Department, and also as the
representatives OF the Maryland Springs
community organization. The money
WINS paid over by J. g. McGrash, repre-
scnting the Park View community center
| who aIso saw that everyone got his turkey.
! The strong points Of this turkey deal
are TINT the Park View people paid only
forty-two cents pound for their turkey,
| when Washington retailers were getting
from so To 90 cents pound, and that the
| turkey farmers of Maryland Springs re-
ceived Il cents per pound more for their
| turkeys than would have been paid them
by the commission men.
| REpLAcgD MIppLEmAT.
In other words, this motor transport
service of the Post Office Department
| took tho place Of all the mIddiemen. nd
even the government made profit on the
transaction, There is now opposition in
| Congress to an appropriation for the
extension Of this new service Congress
| man NJ. CLYDE Kelly, who is the con-
| gressional sponsor OF the scheme, IN de-
Tending the appropriation, showed that the
| government is making money out OF 1T,
and that the few routes already establish
ed have done gross business of more
than two millions on an ititial approprla-
tion OF only $500. 600
The system, In its essence, is parcel
post trading made easy. Ever since
| parcel-post was established there have
been great efforts made to encourage
trading between country and city peo-
| pie direct by that medium The thing
hna .s,ovIyaI Tf To hxtsr
| dozen eggs by parcel-post you have
| TO pay a dollar for container, three
cents postage on the letter 10 the farmer
| and about seven cents postage on the
eggs. You will probably get nice fresh
eggs and pay more for them than you
pay at the corner store, or at least as
much aud have your troubles besides.
This new service eliminates all Of these
difficulties at stroke by organizing both
the farmers and the consumers about the
school houses in each city and country
neighborhood. The community secretary,
who is also n postal official and paid in
part by the government, writes all the
letters, and orders things in large quanti-
ties. The organization provides the
containers The individual consumer is
relieved Of all the trouble and most Of
tho expense. He not only gets fresh eggs,
but gets them, as the Park View people are
now doing, about 20 per cent cheaper
than he could buy them at the corner
store.
TRUCK SERVICE EFFICIENT.
Whatever the arguments against il
may be and there Will doubtless be
some strong ones-the truck service is
spreading OF great rate on its merits.
II is q reform that speaks language all
can understand. "Fresher eggs cheaper"
is magic shibboleth in any American
city about this time OF the year, and
six cents a pound more for your turkeys"
is the kind of eloGuence that viii l1ake
q farmer pause and listen.
Three months ago there were two of
these parcel-post truck routes working
on an experimental basis. Now there are
50. They extend North as far as Port
land, Maine, West as far as Chicago,
South into Georgia and. Alabama. OF
course, this enormous territory Is by no
means covered. There are just q few
routes radiating from each Of the principal
cities, and only few thousand people
are benefited in all. But the system Is
growing daily, and its growth seems
assured by the welcome it gets from the
people, and also by the fact that it is
self-supporting.
l.. D " ard OF the Bureau OF Education,
who IS IN originator of the idea, IS travel
ling about the country establishing new
routes. He reports that the women
are for it. \ number of the
agents are women Anna May love oI
turkey fame IS one OF them. Another
energetic woman agent is Mrs
Anna T. Mckay, OF Surrattsyille, Md.
who liked Miss Love. Is the school teacher |
at the school house about which one Of /,
the rural communities IS organized. When +
the agents of the government called II
the Surrattsyille school house they found
Mrs Mckay splitting q refractory oak /
log with a fine overland SWING and evident |
enjoyment She took 70 the truck service i
idea at once, and invited all hands To
dinner for further discussion Comph-
mented on her southern hospitality she
and had come south last winter looking
or warmth. Mrs. Mckay makes an
ideal community secretary.
OBTAIN L. S. BUILDING.
The Mt. joy community association,
which IS the organization Of . rural com
ntnity adjoining The battlefield Of Gettys-
)urg, Pa. has set an interesting precedent
~ petidoning the Secretary OF War to
1lle tnGTn one OF the buildings u amp /
solt, 80 adjacent cantonment, which has
many empty buildings 10 spare The
vt Joy people propose to move one ot
hose hight frame buildings bodily to the
.ieinity OF their principal school house.
where they car use 1t rs storage plant
or the things they send - the cities Via
hc auto trucks This seems to be a
,ood way Of using the buildings and
building materials at cantnments MI over
he country, and The promoters oi the
ruck service hope that the Mt. JOY idea
vill be widely followed
The Bureau OF Education believes that
his auto trucl. service is going TO be a
means of improving education IN the
ountry 1t is generally known that a
arge percentage of rural schools in this
ountry are inadequate affairs with under
'aid teachers, crude buildings, sessions
( only few months and no practical
ocational courses such rs every school
hould have One of the chief reasons
Or this condition is that the children
annot walk far 10 school. 50 there must |