Vol. LXIX. No. 4064 NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 17, 1910. weekly, $1.00 per year. 
PARCELS POST IN POLITICS. 
A Plain Statement of the Case. 
In a recent issue of The R. N.-Y. attention was 
called to the necessity of bringing the question of par¬ 
cels post into political 
primaries in order that 
legislators w h o m a k c 
laws, and politicians who 
too often make and con¬ 
trol legislators, may re¬ 
alize that it cannot be 
ignored. It is bound to 
be a political issue and to 
be thoroughly discussed 
pro and con. It will have 
a part in the making or 
the undoing of would-be 
Senators and members of 
the House of Represen¬ 
tatives. Among the rea¬ 
sons for this opinion may 
be mentioned the follow¬ 
ing: 
First. Parcels post is 
a factor in the revolution 
(so far peaceful) rami¬ 
fying into social, econom¬ 
ical and financial spheres, 
which is agitating the 
country. The records of 
history sustain the wis¬ 
dom of Goldsmith who 
wrote 
Ill fares the laud, to has¬ 
tening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates 
aiul men decay. 
.In this country wealth 
has accumulated with 
marvellous rapidity. But 
the course of its acquisi¬ 
tion has been largely 
among and t h r o u g h 
vested interests, and not 
in due proportion among 
the people at large. The 
revelations of corporate 
greed and disregard of 
public and private rights, 
of graft and corruption 
in political centres, of 
official bribery and civic 
u n r i g h t eousness, have 
awakened right thinking 
people to the imminency 
of the danger expressed 
in the second part of the 
poet’s declaration — the 
decay of men. 
A fundamental princi¬ 
ple of our government is 
that legislation and ad¬ 
ministration should be 
for “the greatest good to 
the greatest number.” The 
establishment of a par¬ 
cels post would be ex¬ 
actly in accord with this 
principle. It is well kno.wn among practical men of 
affairs that largely, if not almost wholly, the opposition 
shown to and obstacles placed in the way of such estab¬ 
lishment are attributable to the express companies and 
allied interests. John Wanamaker, when' Postmaster 
General, is quoted as saying that there are four rea¬ 
sons why a parcel post is not put in operation. He 
enumerated them seriatim and from first to fourth 
each was the name of an express company. The prin¬ 
ciple referred to above seems to be perverted in its 
BEST FOUR GRADE COWS AT NEW YORK STATE FAIR, 1909. Fig. 379. 
SECOND-BEST FOUR GRADE COWS AT NEW YORK STATE FAIR, 1909. Fig. 380 
statement, so far as parcels post is concerned, into 
“The greatest good to a privileged few.” Right here 
it might be well to refer to the argument that a par¬ 
cels post would inure to the benefit of the mail order 
houses to such an extent as to drive country merchants 
out of business. It is a stalking horse, the “lion in the 
way” about which politicians prate, while concealing 
the real causes for non-action. But let the farmer 
talk with the various men with whom he deals. He 
will find perhaps a few narrow enough to believe in 
the proposition, and they 
are usually of the class 
which opposed rural free 
delivery on the ground 
that if people “were not. 
obliged to come to town 
for their mail” their 
trade would be lost. Such 
fears have prove ground¬ 
less. But the majority 
of business men will look 
at the matter differently. 
There are difficulties in 
buying of mail order 
houses. Among them are 
(a) drafts or money or¬ 
ders must be purchased 
or money or stamps sent 
at buyer’s risk; (b) if 
the article received is 
not satisfactory disap¬ 
pointment and delay re¬ 
sult, to say nothing of 
the expense of returning 
it and oftentimes diffi¬ 
culty in securing a re¬ 
fund. On the other hand, 
a large majority of the 
customers of any store 
prefer to see an article 
before purchasing it. If 
it should be sent by a 
nearby dealer (per par¬ 
cels post, if you please,) 
it could be returned or 
exchanged without ex¬ 
pense on the next visit 
to town. Without going 
further into details at 
present, it is safe to say 
that a parcels post would 
prove advantageous both 
to merchant and cus¬ 
tomer. Even admitting, 
for the sake of argument, 
that a parcels post might 
curtail the profits of 
some country merchants, 
does it follow that the 
large rural population 
adjacent to any town 
should be inconvenienced 
and damaged in the in¬ 
terest of a few shop¬ 
keepers ? 
Another phase of the 
question is the abuse of 
the franking privilege— 
by Members of Congress 
especially. They enjoy 
the benefits of a parcels 
post, in many cases to a 
ridiculous and scandal¬ 
ous extent, in sending 
personal effects by mail, while denying it to constituents. 
Second. Parcels post is a factor in the country 
life problem (or as Colonel Roosevelt phrased it in a 
recent speech “the problem of the betterment of rural 
life”) which we are trying to work out. Attention is 
