THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER
Thursday, March 7th, 19^^-
'^30 )
r' ..
1 ^ .
The Carolina Union Farmer
Published every Thursday
BY THE UNION FARMER PUBLISHING COMPANY
Official Organ of The North Carolina Farmers’ Union
Subscription Price: $ 1 .OO a Year
All subscriptions are payable in advance, and the paper will
be discontinued when the time expires, unless renewed. The
date on the tag which bears the name of the subscriber indicates
the time to which the subscription has been paid.
J. Z. Green, Marshville, N. C., Editor.
C. E. Clark, Charlotte, N. C., Agricultural Dept.
Mrs. E. D. Nall, Sandford, N. C., Home Dept.
C. A. Eury, General Manager.
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
JOHN D. ROSS, 812 Hartford Building, Chicago
L. E. WHITE, Tribune Building, New York
Entered as second class matter, August 17, 1911, at the post
ofiBce at Gastonia, North Carolina, under the act ot
March 3, 1879.
Gastonia, North Carolina, March 7, 1912
EDITORIAL COMMENT
M
ILLIONS of tons of “hot air pressure”
have been wasted on the stump and in
I .
Congress in a sham fight over the
tariff, and after a hundred years that
complicated hobby is still ever present with
us, as a vehicle upon which the professional
politicians sail into coveted political offices,
and it remains the “unsolved problem.” What’s
the use to “solve” it when it comes in so handy
to confuse the minds of ignorant voters in each
election and obscure the real important eco
nomic questions that affect the direct interests
of those concerned? For instance, a parcels
post, somewhat like that which the Germany
postoffice system maintains, would be worth
more to the producing and consuming world as
an economic means of distribution than any
other reform possible at this time, but the pro
fessional politician never mentions it unless
forced to do by the vigorous and persistent
demands of his constituents. In a recent issue
of this paper we published a letter written to
The Rural New Yorker by H. C. Price, who is
visiting in Germany, in which he referred to
the benefits and economies made possible
through the parcels post in that county, where
packages up to eleven pounds can be sent
through the mails anywhere at twelve cents
per package. In this country the express
companies would charge you not less than a
dollar to transport a package of that size five
hundred miles.
♦ ♦ ♦
PULE in the eastern countries the par
cels post is used in buying, in his
second letter to The Rural New
Yorker Mr. Price-brings out the fact
that farmers use that system more in selling
his products to town and city folks than in
buying. He says:
“Next in importance is the shipment of eggs
and dressed poultry, especially of geese,
which come in immense numbers from Pom-
mern in east Germany. The goose is the
national feast fowl of Germany, just as the
turkey is of America. Through the parcels
post it is possible for the farmers 200 or 300
miles away from Berlin, Leipzig or Dresden
to ship eggs each week to customers who live
in these cities, and the advantage is mutual;
the man in the city deals directly with the pro-
W
ducer and is able to get fresh goods, and if
they are not fresh he can make complaint
direct to the one who is responsible instead of
to a dealer. Cheese, honey, fruit, vegetables
and flowers are also important products in the
parcels post shipment from the country.
Cream and milk may be sent, but it is not
found advisable to ship them to any extent by
this means. The general use of the parcels
post by farmers is shown by the statistics of
the post offices of rural districts, which show
the number of packages sent out by the offices
much greater than the number received and
the farmers of Germany seem to have used the
parcels post more freely for selling their pro
ducts than they have for buying what they
consume.
❖ 4*
T
HERE ARE many reasons why an ef
fective and economic parcels post sys
tem would be even more beneficial to
producers and consumers than it is in
the European country. Mr. Price sums up his
observation as follows:
All of the important European countries
have had a parcels post established so long that
it has become a part of the every day life of
the people, just as much as the delivery of
mail in the large cities has with us in America.
I do not refer to the delivery of rural mail, be
cause that is recent, and while no one would
think of giving it up, we have not yet gotten
over wondering how and why we ever did
without it. Here parcels post has been estab
lished so long that no one ever thinks of the
time when they did not have it; it is taken as
a matter of course, and when I say we have
no parcels post in the United States they can
not understand how it is possible that in a
rich country like the United States we are
lacking the convenience of the parcels post.
Notwithstanding the many advantages that
America has over the European countries, one
cannot help seeing some of the advantages of
having the public utilities, such as the rail
roads, the telegraph, the telephone and the
street railways operated by the government, as
they generally are in Germany, rather than by
private interests. The private interest oper
ates a utility as illustrated in our express com
panies, so as to give the largest return possible
on the capital invested. The government
operates a utility for the sole purpose of giv
ing the best and cheapest service possible, as
illustrated in the parcels post here. Any
profits from the business, which, if owned by
private interests, would be declared as divi
dends and drawn out, are, if operated by the
government, put back into the service for its
improvement, or the rates charged the private
individual are reduced till they barely cover
the cost of operation and maintenance. Our
express rates would have been very different
if the express companies had been operated on
this basis for the last generation.
The. advantage of the parcels post as it is
found here may be summed up as follows:
1. It gives a cheap and convenient method
of sending small packages any distance.
2. It affords a method for farmers market
ing butter, eggs, poultry, fruits, vegetables
and flowers direct to consumers.
3. It affords the city man an opportunity of
getting fresh produce direct from the producer
without the intervention of the middleman.
4. It affords the merchant a method of sell
ing and delivering goods direct to the farmer.
5. It tends to establish uniform prices for
produce, since the cost of sending produce in
packages of ii pounds or less is uniform when
the distance is over 10 miles.
6. It affords a means of transportation that
is mutually beneficial to producer and con
sumer.
S
TRENUOUS efforts were made by the
Nashville jobbers and other opponents
of the parcels post to line up the loe^^
merchants in convention- at Nashvihe
recently to protest against the passage of ^
parcels post law, and letters were sent out with
propositions to pay railroad expenses of the
merchants. After publishing one of these kt
ters, the Weekly Jeffersonian, of Thomson,
Ga., makes the following remarks:
“The above is an impudent attempt to Ih^^
up the merchants behind the cormorant ex
press companies. The investigations whic^
have been made by the Interstate Conimerc^
Commission have developed facts which nr
startling, even to those who have suffere
from express company extortion.
“Their own lawyers had to admit that th^)^
COLLECT CHARGES AT BOTH ENDS, CONSTANTLY,
and that they never refund the money,
a fight on them is threatened.
“These express companies originally
very little money into their business; but, dui'^
ing the last 30 years, they have robbed t^
American people of $576,000,000.
“They, and the railroads, are in cohoot, nnj
they divide the booty! The men who own
express companies, own the railroads—
“Of course, J. P. Morgan is the King-bc^^
In fact, the infamy of the system that no'
oppresses our people, to the point of
tion, can be summed in one word; and tn
word is, Morgan.
“The idea of our merchants being used ns
cats-paws, to rake out chestnuts for railroa
express companies, and Morgan!
“One of the merchants who was tempt^
with a free ticket to Nashville, enclosed
the circular letter. He patriotically wrote 1
that he did not intend to be used as a g
this express company plunder of the fartne
“We must see to it that every man we
to Congress, this Fall, is pledged to the
Post:’
4* 4* 4*
XPRESS companies fix their charge®
arbitrarily. Their 'charges are
based on freight charges or anythin®
else. They simply charge what they
feel like charging, and frequently the charg^^
are so high that it amounts to confiscation
you want a thorough-bred shote or yearln^®
from a distant stock breeder you must P?^
half the value of the pig or calf to get the
press company to transport it to you. By
tended correspondence the writer got in
1*
mnnication with a Virginia stock grower
other day who made a fair price on a
Guernsey calf. After investigating the
press company’s rate we found that the
robber express company intended to hold
up for a little over twenty dollars for hanb^®
that calf a distance of four or five hundf^^
miles. The “tariff” looked little comp^’'^
with such robbery as that. By the way, '
your candidate for Congress, or United ^ ^ ,
^ ' 1 1
Senate, makes his long tariff speech, don
impatient or interrupt him. He has g
through a great strain to prepare that sp^^
on the tariff (a subject which he himself
know very little about) and it wouldn^^^^
treating him fairly to interrupt him in ds
livery. But don’t forget to take hii^
privately and ask him how he stands oi'
express monopoly—whether he is in
or against its extortion. Or better still,
him a letter occasionally about parcels P^^,,
just to let him know that you are one