As to Postmaster General Hitchcock’s
recommendation that a parcels post be estab
lished on some rural routes as a matter of
experiment, the President says:
“With respect to the parcels post. I respect
fully recommend its adoption on all rural de
livery routes, and that eleven pounds—the
international limit—be made the limit of car
riage in such post, and this with the view to
its general extension when the income of the
postoffiec will permit it and the postal savings
banks shall have been fullv established.”
If Mr. Taft had covered all of this ground
with the simple sentence, “I recommend the
adoption of the parcels post on all rural
delivery routes and that eleven pounds be
made the limit of carriage of such post.” he
would have recommended something that the
people demand.
As it is, his recommendation amounts to
nothing.
Who is to say when the income of the post
office will permit its genera] extension, and
when will the postal savings banks be so
fully establishel that the pacels post can first
be tried as an experiment?
Mr. Taft’s evasive wording of the recom
mendation for a parcels post will convey the
idea to the people that the President is recom
mending what they need and want, but a
second reading of the paragraph will show
that it means nothing.
The need for a parcels post was never more
clearly demonstrated than during the recent
strike of the express drivers in New York
City and the New Jersey cities on the op
posite side of the Hudson river.
