"The post office appropriation bill, as it passed the House recently, provided for a rural parcels post with rates of 5 cents per pound, and 1 cent for each additional pound up to eleven pounds. These rates, however, are confined to parcels emanating in the town from which the route runs, or along such route, with the right of interchange of packages from route to route. As few books exceed a pound in weight this would mean a charge of 5 cents. The post office appropriation bill is now before the Senate. What action it will take remains to be seen. The House bill contained a provision for the appointment of a commission to investigate the whole subject of a general parcels post, the commission to make its report to Congress by the opening of the next regular session in December."
Parcels Post vs. Library Post
Our League president forwards the following letter from a Washington correspondent who is evidently perfectly familiar with the subject:
"I am in receipt of your letter of May 17th, asking me whether there is any hope of getting a library post, and in reply will say that if you mean a special act providing for a library post, separate and distinct from other postal service, I do not think that there is any hope of getting it in the near future.
"I do think, however, that the parcels post bill which Senator Bourne has proposed, if passed at this Congress, will very rapidly develop into a law which will be entirely satisfactory for library purposes. The average library book weighs slightly over a pound, but will come easily within two pounds. Under Senator Bourne's bill the rate on rural routes would be 5 cents for the first pound and 1 cent additional for each additional pound; within the fifty mile zone, 6 cents for the first pound and 2 cents for each additional pound; within the two hundred mile zone, 7 cents for the first pound and 3 cents for each additional pound. These rates were decided upon with a certain margin of profit to the government so that there would be no possibility of the government sustaining loss. It was believed that it would be disastrous to the parcels post movement to have any loss at the beginning. Such a loss would serve as an excuse for the abandoning of a parcels post. I am very certain that if this bill should be passed one year's experience would demonstrate that the rural rate could be reduced to 4 and 1 cent, making 5 cents for a two pound package; the 50 mile zone could be abolished and the rate for the 200 mile zone fixed at 5 cents for the first pound and 1 cent for each additional pound. The 200 mile zone, at that rate, ought to give you as good a library post service as you can expect to have within a number of years. I do not think that you can expect to get a law enacted which will provide for the carrying of library books at less than cost. It is no argument to say that the government is now carrying newspapers at less than cost. It made a mistake in establishing such a rate, but having made it, it cannot easily increase the rate.
"You ask whether there is anything the library people can do to forward this matter. My opinion is that the one thing you could do would be to help get sentiment back of a general parcels post so that a bill on a zone basis with rates varying according to distance, will be passed by this Congress. When we once get a law of that kind, its development will be very rapid. The trouble will be to get the first law on the statute books."
Senator Bourne's Bill
The bill introduced by Senator Bourne seems to be all that we can hope for at present. A summary of it follows:
Postal rates on parcels vary with distance, thus protecting local merchants and competing with express companies.
Third and fourth classes of matter are combined.
A special rate of one cent an ounce up to four ounces is provided for circulars and small packages of goods.
Rates are as follows: