In my last annual message I commended the Postmaster-General's
recommendation for an extension of the parcel post on the rural routes.
The establishment of a local parcel post on rural routes would be to
the mutual benefit of the farmer and the country storekeeper, and it is
desirable that the routes, serving more than 15,000,000 people, should
be utilized to the fullest practicable extent. An amendment was
proposed in the Senate at the last session, at the suggestion of the
Postmaster-General, providing that, for the purpose of ascertaining the
practicability of establishing a special local parcel post system on
the rural routes throughout the United States, the Postmaster-General
be authorized and directed to experiment and report to the Congress the
result of such experiment by establishing a special local parcel post
system on rural delivery routes in not to exceed four counties in the
United States for packages of fourth-class matter originating on a
rural route or at the distributing post office for delivery by rural
carriers. It would seem only proper that such an experiment should be
tried in order to demonstrate the practicability of the proposition,
especially as the Postmaster-General estimates that the revenue derived
from the operation of such a system on all the rural routes would
amount to many million dollars.