As samples of the sort of “friendly feeling” manifest in Congress toward a parcels post and of the profound wisdom carried by some of its alleged friends, I desire to make a quotation or two.
When the measure was first up (1908), Representative Lever of South Carolina introduced the four counties “experimental test” amendment in the House. Following is his opening:
Every farmer here present knows of his own experience how much time is taken in extra trips to town and city.
Now, that is real fetching. Especially before so vast a gathering of farmers as heard it!
But a Missouri “farmer” present wanted to be shown. So he fired a question at Mr. Lever. The farmer from Missouri wears the name of Caulfield. He likewise wears an abiding distrust of the parcels post. Following is his question:
Is it not a fact that the great mail order houses of the country are the ones who are really in favor of the parcels post?
There is real intellectual magneto and lamp equipment for you. Note, too, the shrewdness of this Missouri “farmer” in wording his question—the mail order houses may not be the only ones who favor the parcels post, but they are about the only ones who “really favor” it!
Well, there are over 40,000,000 residents of the country—villages and towns in this country—among them, too, are twenty millions of real farmers. These are pretty firmly of opinion that they “are really in favor of the parcels post.” There are, also, not less than 30,000,000 more residents of incorporated cities, small and large, who at least think they favor a parcels post service which will permit “mother” to send a pair of pants to her boy ten miles away as cheaply as the laird of Skibo Castle, Scotland, can send two pairs of kilts to a son of his friend’s Aunt Billy who lives in Los Angeles, California.
Of course, the people may only think they think and are sitting up nights with the windows open and their ears spread to hear their representatives tell ’em they are wrong. If so, Mr. Caulfield and Mr. Lever will probably hear from them. It takes the people some time to recognize or properly to appreciate how wise some of their representatives are—what a vast amount of charges-prepaid wisdom they have. But the people finally catch on and then—well, then there will not be so many “farmers” of the Mr. Lever variety in Congress.
But I want to give Mr. Lever another show. He’s entitled to it “under the rules.” He should have several of them—not to show his profound knowledge of the value and dangers of an efficient, cheap parcels post, but to show that a man need not spend a cent in Congress to advertise the fact that he is a “practical politician.” All he needs do is make a few hired or ignorant remarks on some subject about which the people of the country have been thinking.