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328 METHODS i'b? SOCIAL REFORM.
degroo insufficiently estimabd. The Post O5ce authorities
fiud that evcry new receptacle for letters which they set up
increases correspondence by a certain amount; the trouble of
going a hundred yards to post his letter stops many a letterwriter.
So thero are endless numbers of parcels which we
should send and receive, if wc knew that for a small calculable
charge we could deposit them in a neighbouring shop, or hand
them over to ti cart passiug daily at a fixed hour, with a feeling
of certainty that such purcQls would bo dropped at the right
doors in any part of the ki~~gtlorn, almost with the celerity of
the I'ost Ofice. Tho parcel traffic which might ultixnrttely be
cretrted is sucL a3 OIM cm only faintly conceive at present.
Profound ttnd always bcneficial clln~~ges would be gradually
produced in our social sy&rn. The Parcel Post would
bu discovered to be truly R method of social reform. Lot
us try to form some ides of the advantages to] be expected
from it,.
In tllc first place, dealers and shopkeepers in every part of
tho kiugdom would obtain their Hupplies of goods from the
wholcsale houses chcnply and promptly. Ordered by letter,
goods might be returned within forty-eight hours; by telegraph
the order might be executed, if neccssary, in twenty-four
hours. Thus tho stock in llarld might be kept down to the
luwcut point, ILUJ thc largest profit might be earned upon the
lewt investment of capital, with the least inconvenience to the
consumer. Iu the second place, a vast'increase would take place
in tho goods distributed directly to consumers in all par& of
thc worst is fire per cent. of the gross revcnue, they coolly add to their
duty up011 all the small traffic of the country, which duty may be
variously estimatcd at from 100 to 300, 400, or 500 per cent. upon the
fair cost of conrcynrlcc. It is only the supineness of the public which
could allow SO gross an anomaly to exist. Much as we may admire the
general efficiency arld usefulness of the English milmay system, taking
it as a whole, it seems difficult to understand how sensible practical men
like the directors can expect to have every vestige of state taxation
upon tliotr remitted, while they me to retain almost unlimited power to
tax 148-the people--ut their discretion. If the railway duty is to be
remitted at all, it must necessarily be in the IIlBnner of a quid pro quo,
in part rompcnsatiou, for instance, for tho acquisition of the right of
parcel convepnce.