The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-14
Forum. Of The People
Exulaluiur the Povtal Pay anCrvnse
Inc Ea;tor rf me kre-Herald.

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 Your editorial on Postal Pay Increases in your issue of May 13 has been noted wTtA interest, and your position that the govern ment should not seek to evAde the respe1ka- bility of paying its employees 8 reasonable compensstiop is well taken. There has been great amount of editorial comment e the question Of adjusting the saAaKfes eE postal ssoFhAfs Nsbi the, Iiterafy DiEezk- Sn recent issue finds fhs pfacraeafss hl1r+r per cent of the edisarinis fmxor aa Enereasrg Az < sea- efai rule. fhe castses of 1H2 aehainE news- 5sstFs e fne cetn,fs ere zeeA iafefnes a aaesticns ek political and eesaenat fEasret tanee. and tt is safe ts assert shat whsFe FAA majerisy nf them AzTee oa : saetflcn 2 aR sound one and msftAy q fhk sncst xes'pHS attention of our lawmakers.
 One statement in your editorial deserv es inst a little comment You state that -af there is real financier in congress or m the postal service, now is the time for him to demonstrate his merit by outlining sound plan for nroviding this money. or by showing how one of the plans suggested Is proper and feasible" This statement has reference to the method of financing the proposed in creases Representative Clyde Kelly cf Tenn sylrania has introduced a bill in cOngress that he claims will raise sufficient reTenae te cover the increases sought. by nominal nm crease in parcels post rates. He has shown that the pafcels-post business has grown un- til 1t now amounts to seventy per cent cf the entire volume of the mails while its rereaues amount to only thirty five per cent Of the total receipts of the post office department The department has been forced to pay cut more money every year to the railroads tor hauling this class of mail, yer TAe Fabes of postage have actually been decreased hy tn- cluding other classes of uail and raising the weight limit and abelishing the first none At the present time the parcels-pcst rates sre ridiculously cheap as compared with express rates. A pound package can be sent 1SO miles by parcels post for five cents while the same package would cost thirty seven cents if sent by express, there IS a similar discrepancy in rates for parcels under twenty pounds for the first four zones up to 600 miles, Representative Kelly claims that the rates that he proposes on foRrth-class matter would still leave this class of mail very much cheaper than express. What is wrong with the proposition offered by MT. Kelly as a solution of this problems
 Of course, as expected, the mail-oraer cor porations are seeking 10 defeat any attempt to raise parcels-post rates They have tried to poison the minds of the farmers hy tell- ing them that this would be a direct bl8w at the farmer, but when the farmer is tcla that less than ten per cent of the psrcels post IS IaEm prOoucls, h hs p0Ss1D4e Da4s v will see through the effort of these corpora tions who are trying to hoodwink him The department officials claim that special lA- terests are trying to destroy the parcels post system. and a counter move WIS made to raise the rates on all classes of mail, ineiRa- ing newspapers. whose rates are now thirty five per cent. higher than in pre-wsr times Perhaps this was an attempt to penalise the editors for being so bold ss to champion a just cause. So this is the dilemma that con scientious congressman are now facing
 The proposition that now faces congress and the people is whether we are to De die- tated to by affluent mail-erder corporations and special interests. or win we follow just and sensible policy and give our faithful seTv- ants, the postal employees. fair living wage. and at the same time increase parcels post rates to the point where the matter win at least be seif-sustaining.
 E. 4. LANCASTER
 Birmingham, Ala, May 13, 1924.