1010. 
317 
A TRIAL OF PARCELS POST. 
Limited to Local Rural Routes. 
[We take pleasure in printing the follow¬ 
ing letter from the Fourth Assistant Post¬ 
master General. Many Congressmen are 
trying to crawl behind the argument that 
a parcels post would destroy the local town 
and the local merchant's business. The ex¬ 
periment suggested by Mr. De Graw would 
give the town merchant the advantage if 
ho had enterprise enough to take advan¬ 
tage of it. Our advice is to hold your 
Congressman up to a trial of this plan.] 
There are now in operation through¬ 
out the country some 41,103 rural routes, 
covering about one million miles of 
roads which are traveled daily by rural 
carriers, and serving more than twenty 
million people. The average weight of 
mail carried by each rural carrier is ap¬ 
proximately 25 pounds, the load rarely- 
exceeding 50 pounds. As rural carriers 
are equipped with vehicles, they could, 
without imposing a hardship on them, 
carry an additional weight of mail mat¬ 
ter of probably 100 pounds. It is, there¬ 
fore, possible to offer low rates for a 
special local rural parcel post for the 
reason that, there being no railroad 
transportation or exchange from point 
to point, its operation would not involve 
additional expense, and the revenues de¬ 
rived therefrom would be practically 
clear gain. 
The proposed local rural parcel post, 
as contemplated in the several bills on 
the subject now pending in Congress, 
provides that the reduced rates shall ap¬ 
ply only on merchandise which is gener¬ 
ally included under the head of fourth- 
class matter, and some matter now em¬ 
braced within the third-class, at the 
rate of five cents for the first pound 
and two cents a pound for each addi¬ 
tional pound up to 11 pounds, or 25 
The rural 
cents for a package weighing the maxi¬ 
mum of 11 pounds. These rates to 
apply only on matter mailed at post of¬ 
fices having rural routes, for delivery to 
patrons on the routes of such offices, 
or to patrons of an intermediate post 
office route out of the office of mailing, 
or from the patrons of the routes out of 
the office, or from patrons of the inter¬ 
mediate post office on the route, to the 
local patrons of the office from which 
the routes start. The local residents and 
patrons only to be entitled to the low 
rates of postage. It will thus be seen 
that mail order houses could not take 
advantage of the -rates, they being purely 
local and applying on local matter only. 
It has been claimed that large mail 
order houses would establish agencies on 
the routes, to the great disadvantage of 
the country merchants, first assembling 
their orders and dispatching .them by 
freight cr express to suitable distribut¬ 
ing points. One of the bills pending in 
Congress absolutely excludes such 
agencies from participating in the low 
rates of postage, but even if such pro¬ 
vision is not made, any systematic at¬ 
tempt upon the part of the mail order 
house to distribute its wares in this 
manner would not only necessitate the 
payment of freight charges to the dis¬ 
tributing point, and postal charges from 
the distributing point to the buyers, but 
would necessitate the employment of 
thousands of local representatives, and 
the absence of any sort of agents is the 
principal feature of the arguments made 
by the mail order houses and larger 
merchants in accounting for the sup¬ 
posedly low prices of their goods. The 
only way the patrons could be reached 
by the non-resident merchants would 
NEW-YORKEB 
be under the present rate of postage on 
merchandise, which is at the rate of 16 
cents a pound, or 64 cents for a four- 
pound package, which is the limit of 
weight allowed, while the local merchant 
would have the advantage of a rate of 
five cents for the first pound and two 
cents a pound for each succeeding 
pound up to 11 pounds, or 11 cents for a 
four-pound package, with an advantage 
in the maximum weight allowed of 
seven pounds. It would, therefore, cost 
the non-resident merchant $1.51 more 
to send an 11-pound package than it 
would the local merchant. It is, there¬ 
fore, obvious that, except upon such 
commodities as the mail order and other 
larger mercantile establishments can 
now profitably sell and transmit through 
the mails at the -rate of 16 cents a pound, 
they could not compete with the local 
merchants in the delivery of th'eir goods, 
if the local rural parcel post were au¬ 
thorized; and instead of proving an in¬ 
jury to the local merchants it would 
prove greatly to their advantage in in¬ 
creasing trade. 
The establishment of such a service 
would doubtless prove a great boon to 
farmers, planters and others on rural 
routes, because, without loss of time and 
other inconvenience to themselves, they 
would be able to order household neces¬ 
sities or articles of merchandise needed 
in haste by telephone or postal card, and 
have them delivered by rural carrier at 
a low charge. Furthermore, the institu¬ 
tion of the system with the increased 
revenues which it would produce would 
serve to very materially reduce the cost 
of rural delivery to the government and 
bring t it nearer to a self-sustaining basis. 
P. V. DEGRAW, 
Fourth Assist. Postmaster-General. 
CROP NOTES. 
Our crop prospects for the ensuing year 
are good at present. All kinds of stock 
healthy; prices higher than usual. Some 
farms changed hands at $125 per acre. 
One 480-acre farm sold for that price. 
The principal advantage to the farmers 
who do not wish to sell is that their taxes 
will be greater and they will contribute 
more to the public. The tax for 1000 
was $1.26 on each $100 actual value. The 
assessment is one-third actual value, mak¬ 
ing the apparent rate of tax 3.73. 
I’ayson, Ill. d. e. r. 
We have had a very mild Winter here 
in Maine, just enough snow to make good 
sledding. We are hoping that we shall 
get parcels post some time. We people in 
the back country need it. This section of 
Maine is a good one ; good soil, good water 
and plenty of wood, telephones and rural 
delivery. We need better transportation 
facilities, which will come when the back 
country fills up with people, which it will 
before many years. Maine is coming fast 
and coming strong. j. w. b. 
Norridgewock, Me. 
It seems everybody must have his growl; 
if nothing else offers one growls about the 
taxes. But W. H. L. on page 202 cer¬ 
tainly has my sympathy. Why does not 
he pull stakes and come to Virginia? All 
our taxes, school, road and county, average 
about 50 cents per $100, actual valuation, 
here in Chesterfield County. We have 
centralized schools, good gravelled roads, 
and county officials free from graft. lie 
can get from 50 cents to a dollar for his 
old hens that have seen their best days; 
and above all he can plant his corn any 
time from the beginning of April to June 
without danger of frost at either end. 
Chester, Va. h. s. w. 
About Roofing. —As J. S. F. inquires 
about roofing. I hope he may not make the 
mistake I made in getting steel rooting. I 
bought some a little more than a year ago. 
painted it both sides with a special roofing 
paint, and painted it over since it is on. 
and still it persists in rusting, so that there 
are already a few places where the metal 
seems poorer than elsewhere, that it is 
rusted through, though it has done little 
more than a year's service. 
Ohio. C. WECKESSER. 
GRADE 
-J 
Not only will these fertilizers give crops a 
splendid start, but they are substantial and fur¬ 
nish abundant nourishment up to the moment 
of harvest. Rich in ammonia, rich in phos¬ 
phorous, rich in potash. Carefully compounded 
after special and complete formulas, based on 
years of actual field testing. Special fertilizers 
for special needs. 
“ Greater Faith in the Essex.” 
“ I have used your Essex Complete Manure for 
potatoes this season with satisfactory results. While 
I have sold and used other fertilizers, I have greater 
faith in the Essex.” (Signed) H. F. IIOLT, 
Bradford Centre, Me. 
Write for list of our Special Fertilizers and what they contain. 
ESSEX FERTILIZER CO. 
NORTH MARKET STREET.BOSTON, MASS. 
Local agents wanted where we are not now represented. 
/ 
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2750 Spring Grove Ave, 
Cincinnati, Ohio 
