THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
41 7 
1909. 
ARGUMENTS AGAINST PARCELS POST. 
What excuse, if any, do the Con¬ 
gressional Committee on Post Offices 
and Post Roads give for ignoring the 
demand of the American farmers for 
rural parcel post ? I have been a 
rural carrier for nearly five years, and 
a farmer all my life, and have studied 
the parcels post problem from all points 
that I can imagine. I find no rea¬ 
son why anyone should object to so 
big a help to so many people. The 
rural carriers are the only ones to fear 
any burden from it. and at their last 
annual convention they voted unani¬ 
mously in favor of the local parcels 
post. It seems to me incredible that 
the House committee should not have 
considered the question, but it seems 
more incredible that they should have 
considered it and turned it down. 
Embarrass, Wis. a. f. j. 
R. N.-Y.—The following arguments 
have been submitted to us by Con¬ 
gressmen : 
1. Say nothing. Most of them dodge 
by saying they “will give the subject 
careful consideration” when it comes 
up. They are evidently afraid to ex¬ 
press themselves, feeling sure that the 
express companies are strong enough 
to prevent action by Congress. 
2. The deficit in the postal revenues. 
Congressmen say that the post-office 
now runs millions behind its income, 
and that this is the result of rural free 
but everyone ought to know that a 
fair parcels post will make country peo¬ 
ple more contented, and give them mar¬ 
ket opportunities which city people now 
en j oy. 
4. Unconstitutional. This same Sen¬ 
ator Bailey puts this argument as fol¬ 
lows : 
But even if tlie interest of the local 
communities, as against the interest ot 
the distant cities, did not seem to me so 
important, I still could not support this 
parcels post bill because it involves the 
extension of a power which I do not be¬ 
lieve the government ought ever to have 
exercised. I mean by this to say that it 
requires the government to perform the 
service of a common carrier, and I do not 
believe that kind of a service to be within 
the true province of a free government. 
The Senator on the same principle, 
ought to argue against any form of 
package mail, or even against carrying 
letters or papers. These arguments 
have come to us, and they seem to 
cover the case against a parcels post. 
FLAX CULTURE IN IRELAND. 
There is an article on page 366 about 
flax and flax seed. I was brought up 
in the north of Ireland, close by where 
the best Belfast linen was manufac¬ 
tured from a flax we produced. The 
land we produced flax on was plowed 
one year previous, and that year we 
raised potatoes or oats on it. It was 
usually old sod land that had not been 
broken up in the memory of man, be-, 
fore. The year following we made. 
A MONMOUTH COUNTY, N. J., POTATO FIELD. Fio. 17(5. See Ruralisms, Page 426. 
delivery. The answer to this is easy. 
The rural delivery does not pay be¬ 
cause there are not enough letters in 
the mail. With a parcels post the pack¬ 
age mail would fill the mail wagons and 
the increased postage would more than 
wipe out the present deficit. This is 
so evident and has been explained so 
often that any Congressman who uses 
this argument is ignorant or a fraud. 
He might just as well hide himself be¬ 
hind a woven wire fence and imagine 
himself out of sight. 
3. The business of the local mer¬ 
chant would be hurt by a parcels post 
—so Congressmen say. The local mer¬ 
chant is often a politician and it is a 
good example of what politics have 
come to when one country merchant 
can have more influence with a Con¬ 
gressman than 50 individual voters! 
Senator Bailey of Texas goes so far 
as to put it this way: 
I have long boon convinced that the 
safety of this republic and the happiness 
of our people depend more upon the pros¬ 
perity of our local communities than upon 
the growth and wealth of our great cities. 
Indeed, I am persuaded that the pros¬ 
perity of local communities tends to pro¬ 
duce the very conditions that increase the 
happiness of t lie people and perpetuate the 
freedom of the republic, while the growth 
of our cities tends rather to cultivate those 
vices of luxury, extravagance and social¬ 
ism which have been the bane of all free 
governments. 
Probably no one could be found to 
^contradict this large mouthful of words, 
it ready for flax. We plowed it the 
last part of March four inches deep 
and six inches wide. We had our seed 
imported from Holland, and we sowed 
it broadcast, 10 pecks to the acre. This 
flax grew in about 13 weeks. If we 
were going to have it manufactured for 
“Belfast” linen, we put it after pulling 
out of the ground and binding it in 
bundles in a stagnant water pool which 
should be about five feet deep and a 
clay bottom. We kept it there any¬ 
where from nine to 13 days, according 
to the temperature these days; then we 
took it from there and spread it out 
on the meadows to dry. From there we 
gathered it up again and put it through 
a set of wooden rollers which broke 
the “bones” up in it and then we 
brought it to the flax mill, which 
cleaned it out and made it ready for 
spinning. If we were going to take 
its seed off for oil or to sow again we 
left it growing 15 or 16 weeks, until 
it was thoroughly ripe. That we could 
not use for linen, because the flax used 
for linen requires to be pulled green 
and as I have before explained, it re¬ 
quires all the oil that is in it. and by 
putting it in the water the Belfast linen 
gets all the oil that is in the seed. 
Kingston, Mass. j. q . 
A tenderfoot went out to Yuma, 
And there he encountered a puma— 
And later they found 
Just a spot ou the ground— 
And a puma in very good ITuma ! 
—Arizona Dispatch. 
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^ME RI CANR MATOR f! OiAPANY 
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