1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



71. 



them, for things that are desirable, simply 

 because you have never worn them, is 

 biiuiid to become the keystone of the 

 structure. 



All women who wish to be well dressed 

 must get in line or they will have to go 

 away back and ait down. 



IS OUR P. O. DEPARTMENT AIDING 



GERMANY AT THE EXPENSE 



OF OUR EXPORTERS. 



When importunity and pressure of facts 

 became so strong that those in authority 

 could no longer refuse to accede to the 

 popular demand for the introduction of a 

 foreign Parcel Post service with some first 

 class European government, it was decided 

 that a treaty should be made with Ger- 

 many, the first and only European govern- 

 ment to secure such a treaty from the 

 United States. 



At the lime this treaty was consum- 

 mated it was claimed by some selfish peo- 

 ple whose financial interests were not in 

 tune with the innovation, that it would 

 not be successful, the effect would be 

 to flood this country with German manu- 

 factures, and that the balance of trade, by 

 this method of transportation, would be in 

 favor of Germany. 



For some time past, champions of the 

 extension of Parcels Post have given the 

 subject careful study. They have watched 

 the results of the German Parcels Post 

 treaty with a keen eye, only to be con- 

 fronted with an apparent confirmation of 

 this theory. Yet how could this be possi- 

 ble in the face of the government report 

 for the past year, which showed that the 

 balance of trade was largely in favor of the 

 United States? When it came to the im- 

 portations by Parcels Post from Germany 

 the reverse seemed to be the case, at least 

 so far as the casual observer could discern 

 from the reported statistics. 



Why it was possible that such a showing 

 should have been made can perhaps best 

 be explained by the private transportation 



companies, who suffer such a financial loss 

 by reason of the Parcels-Post treaty. It 

 is to be presumed, however, that they will 

 not do so, for it is a fact that it is for 

 their mutual interest that the present er- 

 roneous impression prevail, in order to se- 

 cure an adverse official report against the 

 further extension of Parcels Post. 



How many individuals in the United 

 States understand the present Postal 

 Union, so to speak, between the leading 

 European commercial countries in so far 

 as their parcel post arrangements are con- 

 cerned? It is safe to say that not one out 

 of every fifty thousand of the business 

 men of the country has ever given the 

 subject a thought, beyond a passing glance 

 at the figures that may have bf en presented 

 to them by interested parties through the 

 press, and which tend to show that the 

 United States is the loser by the present 

 arrangement. 



At the present time the Parcels Post 

 importations iuto the United States cred- 

 ited as coming from Germany are, as a 

 matter of fact, sent into this country from 

 every manufacturing center in Europe, all 

 being first sent to Germany, from England, 

 France, Austria, Switzerland, and Belr 

 gium. They are put into the German 

 mail, thus entering the United States as 

 coming from Germany, when the truth of 

 the matter is that they are the result of 

 the combined export trade by means of 

 Parcels Post, of all Europe, to this 

 country. 



Are our postal officials absolutely blind 

 to the situation? Are they wholly un- 

 acquainted with the true condition of af- 

 fairs? It is far easier to believe that they 

 are only too glad to have the public retain 

 this erroneous impression in order that 

 they may, the more easily, defeat the fur- 

 ther extension of Parcels Post when this 

 question is again prominently before the 

 American public. When the people do 

 realize that our commerce with foreign na^ 

 tions will greatly increase as a result of 



