COST OF LIVING

A moment's reflection is sufficient to show that a Government postal express would make express facilities available to a far greater number of persons than are served at present by the express companies. For the Government postman and the Government post office cover the country as a whole—the express companies operate only along railroad, electric, steamboat and stage-lines. Moreover, of these four media, 83.7% of the mileage is by railroad and only 2.9% by electric line, 13% by steamboat line, and ⁴⁄₁₀ of 1% by stage-line.

All in all, the mileage covered by the express companies totals 307,400. On the other hand, the mileage covered by the postal system is 1,374,056. Of this amount, 1,112,556 represents the mileage of the rural routes alone, and the number of persons served by the rural routes in 1917 was more than 27,000,000. Of course, it is certain that not all of the persons along these more than one and a quarter million miles were deprived of the benefits of an express service, but it is equally certain that many of them were, and it is probable that the majority of them were.

But it is the extension of the express facilities to just that element of the population living off the railroads and on the rural post routes in which lie the greatest potential benefits that an express service can render to the nation. For, speaking by and large, most of this population is engaged in farming; and, conversely, possibly the majority of the producers of foodstuffs in the country live off the railroads and on the rural post routes. Now, it is stated on reliable authority that of each dollar expended by the consumer for food in New York City, for instance, the farmer gets only from thirty-five to fifty cents. In other words, at least 40% of the cost of food is represented by the cost of getting the products of the farm to the ultimate purchaser. The rôle thus played in the drama of the high cost of foodstuffs and the high cost of living generally is apparent. Equally apparent is the rôle which a simplification of or a reduction in the processes of getting food from the farm directly to the dinner table could play in lowering the cost of living.

But such a simplification and reduction are possible only to a Government postal express. At present the rural free delivery does make provision for sending farm products directly from the farmer to the consumer, but its efforts in this direction are still largely embryonic. For the machinery of the process must be constructed anew and the task of construction is one of those tasks which cannot be hurried. On the other hand, the express companies have built up through the years an extensive and efficient machinery for "farm to table" transactions, but their services in this direction are hampered by the fact that the companies are limited on the whole to the territory adjacent to the railroad lines. The fertilization of the vast farming territory tapped by the post office by the express company facilities should give birth not many months after its consummation to the one most potent factor at present available to lower the retail cost of foodstuffs to an appreciable extent.

Under such an arrangement, a separate bureau would be established in the postal system, covering both the parcel-post and the postal express. This bureau would collect names of farmers—both those voluntarily resorting to it and those reached in its own canvasses—who would send their products collect on delivery to consumers. Similarly, lists of consumers desiring thus to be served would be collected. It would be no difficult matter for individuals on the two lists to get into touch with one another, and to deal directly through either the parcel-post or the postal express. Where they could not by their own arrangements get into touch with one another, the bureau's task would be to get them into touch. And where a farmer and a consumer could not even thus be brought into direct contact, the bureau would act as the agent for each—maintaining warehouses, if necessary, to which farmers would send goods to be sold at a stated minimum price and to which consumers would resort for their purchases. Since these functions are already performed to a slight extent by the express companies, there should be little question of the legality of such procedure by the Government. If necessary, additional legislation might be sought; nor after the activities of the Government during the Great War would there be much likelihood of such legislation being declared unconstitutional.