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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTE FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta, Ga.
Going to the Heart
Of a National Problem.
The unanimous agreement of the Senate commit^
tee on agriculture to report favorably Senator Hoke
Smith’s agricultural extension bill foreshadows the
early enactment of one of the most important meas
ures Congress has ever considered. Problems of
the soil are, after all, the basic problems of the na
tion. The farm is the source of prosperity, the heart
from which throbs the life blood of industry and
commerce. Its interests are vital to all people and
all pursuits, for it is the bearer of their daily bread.
Surely, then, no legislation could be of wider conse
quence to the American public than that designed
to make the farms of the country more productive,
more adequate to the tremendous human and eco
nomic needs they are called upon to supply.
The pending hill purposes to attain this end
through definitq, workable methods. It provides a
national system whereby the stores of scientific
knowledge accumulated through colleges, experi
ment stations and the federal department of agri
culture may he harried directly to the farmers in
every county of the land by the personal service of
a skilled farm demonstrator. Each county in Geor-
' gia, for instance, would be given an agricultural
specialist whose business it would he to study local
needs and opportunities and to aid the farmers in
working out their peculiar problems. The value of
such a system applied to ever:' agricultural county
in ‘the nation is beyond reckoning. It has been con
servatively said that in a few years this plan- would
doubtless double the production of our farms, change
the present cityward drift into a jopular movement
back to,the soil, reduce the cost of living and put
new vigor into every field of American enterprise...
The hill provides in the outset for a fixed federal
appropriation of ten thousand dollars a year uncon
ditionally -to every State. It provides further for
contingent appropriations, beginning with three
hundred thousand dollars a year, to be allotted
among the States on a basis of rural population. This
latter fund is to be increased annually by the sum
of three hundred thousand dollars until a maximum
of three millions is reached. In order to receive its
. pro rata of this' fund, a State must provide for the
same purpose an equal amount from its own re
sources., The money will he expended in each State
through the State college of agriculture, the require
ment being that at least seventy-five per cent of
the money must be used for actual field demonstra
tions; the remainder may be used for farm household
economics and other educational work looking to the
general enrichment of rural life.
These, in brief outline, are the terms of the meas
ure which .the Senate committee has recommended.
It contains other admirable features and embodies
the best thought of students of agriculture in this
country and the ripest experience of other nations
that have progressed in this great field of endeavor.
The prime virtue of the hill is its practicality.
The Government has heretofore emphasized agricul
tural research and experiment) the value of which
is not to be gainsaid. But it has neglected the par
ticularly important task of putting into definite use
the knowledge thus gained. If half the truths which
have been demonstrated or half the methods which
have been discovered for soil improvements were ac
tually applied, American agriculture would soon be
revolutionized. The pith of the problem is to trans
late this wonderful store of science into work-a-day
art, to make it count for specific, tangible results on
the average farm. ,
Our agricultural colleges are doing magnificent
work but there are thousands of farmers they can
not reach with their present limited mean's; or
rather, there are thousands of farmers who cannot
reach the colleges. It has been well said in this
connection;
“There is a widespread and insistent demand
for something to help the present farmer—the -
man behind the plow. He has paid the larger
share of the tens of millions that have been ex
pended during the last fifty years in gathering
agricultural knowledge. This work was under
taken for him primarily and for the benefit of
everybody through him. He has the right to ex
pect that the results shall be delivered to him
in a way and in a form that he can utilize. He
cannot go to the college for them. Jhey must
be taken to him.” ^
That is the aim of the bill no wbefore Congress.
It proposes to vitalize the wealth of agricultural
knowledge which has been amassed and which is con
tinually increasing but which has not yet been made
current among the rank and file of American farmers.
A system of practical demonstration carried on in
every agricultural community is the one sure way to
reach and benefit the men who are producing the
nation’s food and on whose success the welfare of all
interests depends.
Senator Smith’s bill goes to the heart of a matter
that involves many economic and social problems.
Its enactment will mean a vast deal to the good of the
entire country and especially to the agricultural
South. The fact that it has been approved by the
Senate committee is a bright omten of its passage,
for it has ample assurance of support in the House.
A Ten-Million Bushel Gain.
In the Corn Crop of Georgia
Everyone who witnessed the corn show recently
held in Atlanta under the auspices of the Chamber
of Commerce will agree with President Soule, of the
State College of Agriculture, that the work of the
boys’ corn clubs will be pressefl forward more suc
cessfully next year than ever before. The number
and quality of the exhibits, together with the enthu
siasm of the young farmers themselves, gave ample
proof that this good movement bears within itself
the elements of vigorous and ceaseless growth. “We
can count on the fervor and patriotism of the boys,”
says Dr. Soule, “and I believe that at the closb of
another year we shall find their corn clubs still more
deeply enshrined in the hearts of Georgia people.”
This last remark is a significant onb. In towns
and cities as well as in rural districts, the people as
a whole are realizing more and more keenly the
practical value of the corn club enterprise. Mer
chants are seeing that it adds to their trade, railroads
that it increases their traffic, bankers that it widens
and quickens all channels of prosperity, and the
general public that it is steadily developing the
resources of the commonwealth.
Georgia’s corn crop for 1913 is said to exceed that
of the year before fey ten million bushels, the equiva
lent, as Dr. Soule points out, of as many dollars.
It is the biggest corn crop in the State’s history. It
means not only more money to be spent, but also
more money to be kept at home, more independence
for the farm and, therefore, a richer measure of
prosperity for all interests.
Naturally, the people of Georgia regard with the
heartiest favor a movement that brings such results;
and it is chiefly the boys’ corn clubs that are <o be
credited. They have been generously encouraged
during the past year, but they should, and doubtless
will, receive more liberal support in the year ahead.
It should be remembered that the directing force
behind the clubs is the State Collage of Agriculture,
ably assisted by the federal department of/agricul
ture and by public spirited agencies and individuals.
The College of Agriculture merits in this, as in all
other branches of its work, the State’s unstinted aid.
The Tariff at Work.
Twelve thousand quarters of Argentine beef
recently aiVived in the United States. Meat dealers
are quoted by the New York Times as saying that
the only effect of these consignments, so far as prices
wqre concerned, “was to prevent, the increase which
would have taken plaete had not the present shortage
of western steers been partially met by imports.”
There we have a particular instance, and a
typical one, of the part the new tariff is playing in
our economic affairs. It has not revolutionized the
cost of food or of other necessaries, but it is exerting
a distinct and wholesome influence in checking
arbitrary advances', it is ripening the way for the
free operation of normal trade laws, laws of supply
and demand, and is giving the consumer the benefit
of a broader source Of supply together with natural
competition. We may not expect an appreciable
reduction in the price of beef until more cattle are
raised at home, but, we may be sure that prices
would now be much higher than they are were it not
for the fairer tariff that encourages beef imports.
The new law has thus already demonstrated its
steadying and helpful purpose.
The Baltimore Sun reproduces from Commerce
and Finance, a journal designed “to promote sound
economic thought, intelligent commercialism and
financial discrimination,” the following comment on
the revised wool duties:
“In the textile world the tariff appears to
have had no adverse influence on wool, about
which most of the fight was made in various
sessions of Congress. Indeed, the American
Wqol and Cotton Reporter says that orders for
woolens are coming forward so freely that mills
will be unable to make bookings except for late
delivery.”
Beside such testimony from an informed and
authoritative source, how petty and really asinine
are the babblings of those few political malcontents
who would make it appear that the new tariff is
going to disturb business or hamper development!
. Wasteful Marketing.
Senator Gore recently said that from twenty-five
to seventy-five million dollars is wasted annually in
the marketing of cotton. Another authority reckons
that forty-five million dollars a year is wasted
through careless methods in handling and marketing
eggs. Inquiry would doubtless show this is- relatively
true of nearly all the necessaries of life. Here, then,
is one fruitful source of the high cost of living.
“All through the long gamut of buying, selling,
marketing and delivery methods,” remarks the New
York Press, "runs the same story. Wasteful processes,
useless/links in the chain and senseless friction. To
cut iout these and to get business done on the lowest
operating cost is the very concrete problem which
now is to be visualized as the one to be solved.”
There are commodities which have reached an ex
cessive price chiefly because of shortage in produc
tion. But there are scores and hundreds of others
the cost of which could be greatly reduced simply by
intelligent methods of distribution.
In the case of the forty-five million dollars lost
through the inefficient methods of shipping and mar
keting eggs, for instance, the consumer must pay
money which the producer does not get, money which
represents mere waste. Of ull agricultural products,
this is measurably true. When farmers are afforded
adequate means for ascertaining market conditions
the country over and learn economic methods of
shipping, the cost of many products will naturally
fall for the consumer while at ’the same time the
producer’s profit will not be lowered.
Editorials in Brief
To Uncle Joe Cannon’s complaint that President
Wilson is far more of a czar than he ever was the
Philadelphia Record makes reply that the people
wanted Dr. Wilson, whereas only a few congressmen
wanted Uncle Joe.
— )
John D.’s condition is a little worse than we had
figured. His income is really 30,000,000 a year, not
$50,000,000.
When Colonel Roosevelt returns he ’--ill see how
wonderfully the country has progressed under the
Wilson administration.
Secretary Bryan says it is possible for a man to
earn a million. Yes, and spend it too, if the high
price of eggs continues.
CATCH-PHRASES
BY DE. FRANK CRANE
(Copyright. 1913, by Frank Crane.)
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but principally
by catch phrases,” ,said Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is troublesome to think. The catch-phrase is
ready-made thought. Most people much prefer it to
their own.
This, of course, does not refer to you and me, but
to those other* fellows whose views are so trying.
Multitudes live and die in sweet faith in a darling
catch-phrase that is not true at all, or, what is worse,
is half true.
Most proverbs are but canned intellectual bromide.
There are times, especially in life’s crises when the
opposite of the old proverb, whatever it be that the
wiseacres throw at you, is truer! than the proverb it
self.
Here are a J ew whiskered old flat ones I have met
within the last few days. Some' of .them were handea
me by ladies; some 1 saw wandering down newspaper
columns, some lay safely asleep in books. «
“You can get nothing done without organization.”
The fact is that while for a certain kind of efficiency
organization, the institution, is a good thing, there
, are certain other desirable results which organized ef
fort absolutely prevents. For instance, there is a
deal to be said on the other side, when it comes to tne
permanent value of the educational, the charitable, and
ecclesiastical institution.
“The Weaker Bex.” A very dangerously truthful
delusion. The man who gets the obsession that he is
stronger than a woman usually conies to grief.
“To abate these crimes /we need severer punish
ments.” The idea that “the punishment should fit the
crime,’’ and that thereby crime, will be estopped, be
longs to the half-brute stage of civilisation. Did you
eVer reflect that the root-difference between the New
Testament and the old consists in the abandonment of
the punishment error? “An eye for an eye” was re
placed by “turn the other cheek.”
“Pure democracy consists in letting the people vote
for every official and every measure.” Quite the con
trary. To overwhelm the citizen with responsibility
for a mass of administrative detail is to throw, auto
matically, the government into the hands of the graft
ers. In an effective democracy the citizens vote for
as few men and tilings as possible.
“We should all try to do good to others, to hetp
and to uplift them.” I think it was Thoreau who saia
that if he saw one coming with the intent to do him
good he would take to his heels. The truth is that the
most altruistic thing a man can do is to do justice
himself, and to establish just conditions upon the
earth. The merchant, or manufacturer who supplies
work for a hundred heads of families is greater in the
Kingdom of Heaven than the rich man who gives char
ity to a thousand.
“Senators are all owned by Big' Business; newspa
pers are all controlled from the business office;‘.preach
ers are all afraid of the pew renters; and all women
arc frail. There is no chance for an absolutely honest
man. Graft, forwardness, deception and pull gain all
the prizes.” Tne man who believes these things, the
sooner he is nicely tucked under the sod the better
for him and for us all. Senators, editors, priests and
women are mostly human, about as you and I. Most
people would rather be decent and straight than not,
simply because it is much more comfortable.
“To err is human.” It is not to err that is pecuA
liar to human beings. Beasts err also. That which is
distinctly human is to realize that one has erred and
to be sorry for iti
So it gofes. Don’t do your thinking in prepared
pills. Don’t eat intellectual canned goods exclusively.
VouStr?
TlMELTY
'JTjOME topics
Conaao BY.ms.xrtLm.-TU*
. THE POSTAL SERVICE
IV.— PARCEL. POST ABROAD.
BY FREDERIC J. HA SKIN.
GRACIOUS PRAISE FROM’ OLD VIRGINIA.
Editor Atlanta Journal:
It gives me pleasure to be able to say that, judg
ing by the two/ numbers yet received, I am well
pleased with The Journal. It Is, far more than I
had expected to find, a paper for the upbuilding of
southern homes and industries. It appears also to
be a staunch defender of right education and pure
morality.
In this last remark, I refer, more especially, to
the article in the issue of November 25, entitled*
“Secularized Education.” That is one of the mam
moth evils of the day—education minus the moral
principle. I hope you will keep the subject promi
nently before the people. The whole system of
our modem education is as flimsy a« a web of woven
mist. In my boyhood days (I am an old Confederate
soldier) we were taught to read, and to think after
t-ie model set by Mrs. Barbauld's Popular Lessons, ana
Lindley Murrav’s English Reader. All who have ever
seen these books, will remember how persistently
they inculcated virtue and religion. In many respects,
Murray’s series of educational books, including his
English Grammar, has never been surpassed. The
reform for a better education must begin in the com
mon schools, and at home.
And your evening stories, and country home
topics, and articles on political economy, are all most
excellent features that give to your paper a value
far above the price you charge for it.
But when to these are added the able department
on agricultural education, Mr. Bjy>wn*s excellent
poultry column, Our Household, the Sunday school
lesson, and your crisp and conservative editorials, I
think there are few papers of its class, north or
south, that excel The Atlanta Journal.
It is the tone of your paper, its honest, chaste,
hopeful and helpful moral spirit, that I wish particu
larly to commend. What could be better Yor family
reading, than the religious sentiment of Miss
Thomas’ letter in the paper for November 28, so
cheerful, so inspiring, so helpful, and with all so
much in accord with that Christian humility and
faith that should inspire all hearts? The closing
quotation from Keble might well be made the guide
of the lives of all of us.
We of the south have many things to be thankful
x fqr. One of them is, that we have a newspaper
press that is unsurpassed for fidelity to principle, to
pure morals, and to the memories of our past.
Though the southern cross went down on the battle
field, the cause for which we fought is surely coming
to us, in the new and better life that The Journal
seems striving to bring about. Abundant success
to it.
B. W. JONES,
•wry County, Virginia.
A SIiICIC, GREASY JOB.
All the school children who study geography can
look on the map of South America and find two di
visions of land called Uraguay and Paraguay. For a
long term of years these two countries had only an
American consul to protect the business interests of
our American government.
But the United States or congress decided to send
a minister down there and appropriated $10,000 to pay
him to wear some gold lace and eat at banquets when
foreigners were entertained. The consul still re
mained to attend the business. It seems another man
wanted to get $10,000 per year and attend the “eats”
and wear some gold lace, etc. The minister to the
two countries with the $10,000 had nothing else to do
but to pay an occasional visit to the capitals of the
two countries and then take a vacation, but this other
politician wanted $10,000 as before stated, and actual
ly the division was made, and the facts all cam^ out
in congress, and you can find the debate and the vote
in the Congressional Record bearing date of December
3, 1913, this week past, and that outrage was perpe
trated on the tax payers of this country by congress
men who were elected because the country was so
tired of Republican extravagance, etc. It made me
blush for our people. Paraguay is a miserable little
strip, with less population than New Orleans, and the
pay to the new minister and consul will be more than
a third of the value of all the business transacted
with this country. Our congressman rose in his seat
to say it was-outrageous, for he knew people in his
country who had been there and said “the appropriation
of the minister’s salary was for mere show without
any benefits whatever.”
Another rose to say: “We only imported $34,000
worth of goods from Paraguay.”
It also developed that there had been a civil war
lasting twenty years, internecine feuds, where more
than half th,e population was killed off by one another.
They are worse than Mexicans, just a bad lot that
are no good to themselves or to others. Great Britain
has only a consul there at a small figure, but our
wasteful, indifferent congressmen actually passed up
that appropriation in the face of these ghastly facts.
I notice that Mr. Adamson refused to vote for the sal
ary grab. I would like to thank him for doing it.
Paraguay is also a bankrupt country, for Brazil
owns all the bonds and can take it over any day when it
chooses to take a worthless debt on such a bargain
counter.
• * •
A LITTLE CHAT CONCERNING TAXATION.
Now that tax equalizers, three to a county, have
been ordered by the legislature bf Georgia, it does not
require a telescopfi or a microscope or an X-Ray to
inform the people that we are up against a hard prop-
) osition. It is not the law that is so hard, but the
assessors will be the trouble. As long as people are
hutnan it is going to be troublesome to allow one man
or three men to decide on the value of any man’s prop
erty, and I look for friction and a great deal beside
friction in this matter. J
I live in a town that has assessors, and 1 have no
objection to these various assessors, as men of busi
ness, etc., and a citizens, but I see and know where the
collar rubs. Take one example: I know of two widow
women. One has a fair town lot with good cabin on
it in the most popular section of the town. She gets
$5 per month rent on it, find it is assessed at $400.
The other widow has a lot and cabin that has been
empty for two years in a poor section of the town
and where lots are very cheap, and they put $400 on it.
A man in town has a lot on a street (near another
widow) that rents readily for $15 per month. She has
a lot in a stone's throw that has same rental, and it is
assessed at $1,700. The value of renting property is
its rental value. The two houses have same number
of rooms, and bring the same rent, but the one pays
the City a bonus or the other party has a “friend at
court.” These'two examples will serve to explain toy
meaning when 1 say it will be the assessors and not
the law that is going to make trouble. Take a large
county like the one I live in, and every farm and
every home is to be examined, and all the furniture
and fixtures must go under review, and by their as
sessing judgment the taxes are to be collected, and I
need not try to explain the difficulty, for it will
quickly explain itself. This tax equalization law pro
ceeds upon thfi idea that every property owner is either
a rascal and to be spied upon and caught in the toils
or that he is too ignorant to value his own holdings.
The main idea is continually elaborated that his prop
erty rightfully belongs to the state and the state has
felt obliged to adopt the spy, system. Like the in
come tax, the man who has bought anything and has a
deed to it can be hounded by spies and his business af
fairs investigated, and if anybody owes him money it
can be kept back until these paid assessors go into
the examination and make a case against him. The
plan may work after a fashion, but it is reasonably sure
that the average property holder is going to kick if
nothing more is said or done in the matter except a
kick.
To be entirely candid, the country is actually
swarming with officials who are to be kept up in
good stylo by the tax money that is wrung out .of the
people. Every year new officials are added to the list.
More taxes must be levied to keep up the new ones.
In Bartow county we are not building a jail or a
court house, yet we are forced to bring forward $16.50
per thousand to pay state and county taxes, and it is
rumored that it will be $18 per thousand before the
year is out. Add this to town taxes and we are forced
now to p?iy nearly 3 per cent to support the people
who lay these tax burdens on us during Jthe jgear 1913,
and to pay the demands of the slate” oT Georgia’s
bonded debt. I know exactly what this excessive taxa
tion is doing for us in my part of the country. No
body is going to buy land or real estate in town who
can rent a shelter and avoid these confiscatory taxes.
They do not hesitate to tell you that it is well to
hold still until these demands are lessened. Just as
the money of the great cities is locked up until con
gress can settle its currency troubles.
When you add insurance and repairs to this enor-
mbus taxation nobody wants to own property that can
thus be confiscated - for tax money.
Hunting Season Accidents
In Sunshine Yet Casting No Shadow
Every one knows that when a person stands In the
full sunshine his body casts a shadow which will be
either short or long, according as the sun is high up
in the heavens or near the horizon at sunrise or sunset.
A little thought will bring it home to the reader that
obviously, if the sun is exactly vertical over a per
son's head, there can be no shadow. But the problem
is to determine when and where this shall be the state
of things. As regards the “where,” that must evi
dently, be at some place on the earth in the tropics,
and the “when" must be the hour of midday. To get
these two things to concur by prearrangement is a
matter of no small difficulty. But as a matter of fact
they did concur on a day in February, 1913—namely,
the 13th, when a scientific friend of mine, Mr. w. B.
Gibbs, was in mid-ocean in latitude 16 degrees south,
the sun’s declination being also about 15 degrees south.
This photo, reproduced in the December Strand, repre
sents Mr. Gibbs and another man standing bolt upright
on the deck facing one another, and clearly shows the
absence of any sign of a lateral shadow—in other
words, it proves that the ship was In such a latitude
that the sun was vertically overhead, and that the
time was noon, when the sun was at Its highest alti
tude as between east and west.
A compilation of hunting accidents in the United
States for the present season shows a list of 135 killed
and 125 injured. It is to be noted that Kentucky is
not in the list of states though there have been a num
ber of hunting accidents in this state since the season
opened and a few fatalities.
Those states where big game hunting prevails al
ways lead in the number of accidents. As usual, Wis
consin and Michigan are at the top of the list. New
York and Maine follow with much smaller lists, it
would be worth while for some of the states which
have deer and other large game within their borders
to follow the system that is observed in some of the
Canadian provinces where hunters are required to
wear white suits, or white coats and caps. In a cos
tume of this kind the seeker after game is less likely
to be mistaken for a. deer, a bear or other animal, and
fired upon by a brother hunter.
There are many forms of hunting accidents and as
many of the hunters are mere boys whose caution is
not so well developed as that of the seasoned woods
man the average of fatalities is well maintained from
year to year. A few of the states either prohibit boys
under sixteen from nunting or require them to furnish
the written consent of their parents or guardians be
fore they can secure license to hunt. In Oregon chil
dren under fourteen are not permitted to hunt except
on the premises of their parents, relatives or guar
dians.
The general trend of state laws is toward greater
restriction of huntiru;. This is partly for the protec
tion of hunters, but Wiorc largely for the protection of
game. As both objsAs are desirable it may be looked
upon as a certainty Oat the legislation of the future
will be more and mo* restrictive.—Courier-Journal.
The United States was somewhat of a laggard
among the more progressive nations in the establish
ment of a parcel post service, in spite of the fact that
without exception the system worked well wherever it
was tried out under reasonably good auspices. Eng
land established its parcel post system In 1883. It
* makes direct contracts with the railroads to handle
parcels for the service much after the fashion of the
express company contracts in the United States. Since
1904 the law has provided that the contracts with the
railroads may be terminated by either party upon a
twelve months’ notice, but neither side has yet seen,
fit to serve such notice.
The English railroads, under these contracts, are
bound to carry any parcel tendered by the postmaster
general or his agents, and they are allowed 65 percent
of the postage on the parcels carried as their com
pensation for carrying them. Each "rail-borne” pack
age is listed at the end of the journey, and the dmo*-
office department makes regular-remittances to tne
London Railroad Clearing , House committee of the
amounts due the railroads. \.
• * •
There is a flat rate in the English parcel post sys
tem instead of a series of zone rates as applies in this
country. The one pound rate is 6 cents, and the
eleven pound rate, the maximum weight allowed, is 22
cents a pound. With the flat rate it has been found
in England that the parcel post cannot compete with
-private enterprises, or with the railroads themselves,
in the handling of short distance business. It, there
fore, happens that in England the parcel post is bur
dened with all of the unremunerative long-haul pack
ages, while it fails to get the remunerative short-haul
business. The government has established motor van
parcel post service out of many of the bigger cities,
finding it cheaper to\haul the parcels by public high
way than to pay the railroads 55 per cent of the post
age. One of the longest of these motor van runs is
between London and Birmingham, and another is be
tween Bristol and London, each of these routes being
over 100 miles.
• • •
The parcel post system is regarded as popular in
fcngland, and yet withal it is by no means as much
made use of as in the United States. Where, during the
first year of the system in our own country we are
handling parcels at the rate of over 600,000,000 annual
ly, in England, or, more properly speaking, in the.
whole United Kingdom, only 118,000,000 parcels were
handled in 1910, twenty-seven years after its organisa
tion. The English railroads carry all but 1^ per cent
of the parcels handled by the postal service.
• • •
In Germany the zone system exists substantially
as we have It in the United States. The weight limit
is fixed at 100 pounds. For any package up to eleven
pounds the rate is 6 cents for the first forty-six miles,
and 12 cents for any destination outside of the forty-
six mile zone. For packages weighing more than eleven
pounds there is an extra charge for each additional 2.2
pounds. In the first zone of forty-six miles this
amounts to a fraction over a cent, for the second zone
of forty-six miles it is double the first zone rate, and
for the third zone of 139 miles it is double the second
zone rate. The zones lengthen as their number in
creases, while the rate increases 1 1-6 cents with each
additional zone the parcel travels. All packages trav
eling more than 691 miles take a uniform rate of 12
cents for the first eleven pounds and 12 cents for
each additional 2.2 pounds. This provision seems a
little inconsistent, since under Jt a person might send
an eleven pound package for 12 cents, where It would
cost 24 cents to send a twelve pound package.
• • •
1 Under the German system, parcels may be regis
tered for 5 cents extra, and those weighing up to
eleven pounds may be sent postage collect for a fee of
2 1-2 cents. Insurance la given for the safe delivery
of packages for a fee of 12 cents for every $71.40 of
valued declared. Bulky goods shipped by parcel post
take a rate one and a half times the regular rate. Pack
ages are regarded as bulky when any dimension ex
ceeds five feet, or where the weight is out of propor
tion to the space required. There are numerous pro
visions In the German system about the delivery of I
packages to addressees, such as the provision that
packages weighing more than eleven pounds must be
called for at the receiving office by the addressee.
• * 9
The Germans are more concerned about safe and
uniform dispatch of the parcels handled in the mail
than in quick delivery, so they provide a fee of 23
cents for such packages as seek to go through on the
fastest trains and which need to be delivered by special
messengers. As tlib government owns and operates
the railroads, no agreement with them is necessary.
«• • •
In France the railroads look after the parcel post
business for the government. They agree, for ,a fee of
10 cents each to handle all parcel post packages up to
6.6 pounds in weight, between any tT^o points in the
republic. For parcels of from 6.6 pounds up to 11
pounds the rate is 13 1-2 cents. This remuneration in
cludes all transportation charges. If a person sending
a package by parcel post wishes it delivered directly
to the sender he may have this extra service by the
payment of an extra fee of 5 cents, provided the ad
dressee lives at a place where there is a railroad sta
tion or an agent. Where the railroads have no direct
communication between two points they guarantee to
transport the parcels by highway. Where yie postof
fice turns over parcels to the railroads for transporta
tion to their destination, the railroads must pay the
govenment a fee of about 1 cent. Also, where the rail
road delivers a package to the addressee through the
postoffice, the postmaster exacts a fee of a cent from
the railroad for the service.
• • •
Another class of packages carried by the railroads
as the representatives of the government are those
weighing from eleven to twenty-two pounds. For de
livery at the railroad station of the addressee the
charge is about 24 cents; for delivery at the domicile
of the addressee it is about 29 cents. For every pack
age of this class mailed at a postoffice the railroad
must allow the postoffice 5 cents for bringing the
package to the station.
• • e
In Austria there is a packet post with a limit of
eleven pounds, and a freight post with a limit of 110
pounds, although these limits are not generally ob
served, the rule being to accept anything that may be
handled witli the postoffice /acuities. The zone sys
tem in effect in Austria is much the same as that in
the United States. The rate for each 2.2 pounds re
membering that :.n Austrian hellar is worth about 1-5
of a cent—is 6 hellars for the first zone, 12 hellars for
the second, 24 hellars for the third, and so on. The
first zone is the area within forty-six miles of the
sending postoffice, the second zone, 230 miles, the third
461 miles, and the fourth 691 miles. There are extra
fees for insurance, cumbersome packages, return card
receipts, and for two degrees of urgency.
...
Chile has a parcel post service that handles 6.6
pounds for 17 cents, and packages up to eleven pounds
for 22 cents. In China the limit Is twenty-two pounds
and the rate varies from 15 cents for a one pound pack
age to $1 for a twenty-two pound package. Addressees'
receipts are furnished the sender for 5 cents extra
Special delivery may be had for a fee of 10 cents. In
Denmark the rate increases according to the number
of pounds, beginning for 6 cents for a five pound
package and rising to 8 cents for an eleven pound
package.
There is an international parcel post which em
braces nearly all the civilized countries of the earth.
The weight limit is eleven pounds, except where two
countries agree to admit a higher weight for parcels
passing between them. The country where a package
originates is responsibly to each of the countries
through which it passes for 10 cents for the handling
of it. Each steamship line carrying such a package
is entitiled to 5 cents for a 500 mile haul, 10 cents for
a 2.500 mile haul, and 20 cents for a 55,000 mile haul..
Where the package does not weigh more than 2.2, pounds
the charge cannot exceed 20 cents, no matter what the
distance.