Milestones: Postal Service

• “Anything in the nature of a parcels post is fiercely opposed by the express companies and by other allies of the railroad interests, and to a large extent by local merchants, who have an undue fear of mail order houses. Librarians and other friends of a parcels post should be as active in favor of it as these opponents are against it, and whenever the subject is up in Congress the chairman of the Post Office Committee should hear from librarians all over the country.” *

• Parcel post, express, prepaid, insured all widely used for ILL by 1920s

• Benefits: cheap, reliable transmit with little support overhead for libraries

• * Lib J. 35(3):101-2, March 1910