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r 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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 75c Six months 4 40c Three months 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postotfice. "Liberal com mission ▲ allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan. B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough, W. W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper» shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention you old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices fo this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. 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.