Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 219, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1911 — RURAL ROUTES MAY GET PARCELS POST. [ARTICLE]

RURAL ROUTES MAY GET PARCELS POST.

Package Delivery by Carriers May be Given Trial—Twenty Million Will Get Benefit. A dispatch from Washington says that Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock twill in his coming annual report recommend to congress the establishment of a parcels post on rural free delivery mall routes. This is a far different proposition from the establishment of a general parcels post, but tbe action of Mr. Hitchcock is believed' here, with good reason, to mark the beginning of a general System of package delivery by the postal service.

Agitation for a general parcels post has been rampant many years, and 4t this time a committee of congress is giving the subject especial attention, and , the interstate commerce "commission is investigating the express companies, which would be most affected by parcels post Legislation. For several sessions the postoffice department has been ready to establish several experimental parcels post routes in order to give the system a thorough test before committing itself to assume the burden of a general service. The experiment congress has denied. The suggestion of the postmaster general comes as a natural sequence to his plans for rehabilitating the whole postal and placing it upon a paying basis. The department practically is /making its financial ends meet, and the plan proposed by Mr. Hitchcock to establish a parcels post on rural routes is expected to net a large income to the postal service at a comparatively small expense to the department itself. Under the proposed plan parcels would be received only from customers living in the city or town In which the postoffice is situated for delivery along a rural route served by carriers from that office. The carriers now possess practically all of the equipment necessary to handle this business, if congress allows it. It will be noted that Mr. Hitchcock’s plan does not contemplate an extension of the parcels post at the outset, so that persons living outside the city or town in which the postoffi.ee of origin is situated cannot send parcels by the post method otherwise than is permitted by law. The details of the proposed plan remain to be worked out. The rates of postage which would apply and the weight and size of packages which could be sent, have not been determined upon. In most foreign countries where the general ‘ parcels post system is in use, postage rates are applied on a zone basis —that is, a maximum charge is fixed for carrying a parcel of a certain weight a certain distance. Under the proposed plan the maximum haul of the rural carrier is supposed not to exceed tweiltyfour miles so that, in all probability it would not be necessary to arrange special rates beyond the schedule which would apply to all parcels.

Some idea of the extent of the system involved in Mr. Hitchcock’s gestion can be gleaned from the fact that there are now approximately 42,000 rural free delivery routes In the United. States, ranging from six to twenty-four miles in length. An estimate of the number of- persons served by these routes has been made by the department and the number fixed at about 20,000,000. This.is practically two-ninths of the population of the entire country, and all of this number ip agricultural population. Of course, congress is not bound to accept or to limit itself to Mr. Hitchcock’s suggestion. Congress has the power to establish a general parcels post system or any part of it any time it sees fit.