Print
Category: Nuacht Aoir Nuacht Aoir
Published: 04 September 2023 04 September 2023

Nuacht Aoir

"Parcel Post For The 21st Century" Program

President Joe Biden To Announce New Labor Day Initiatives
Part Two

possum adopted by president herbert hoover may 6 1929 library of congress 50President Herbert Hoover and Mrs. Hoover adopted "Billy Possum" (pictured above relaxing). An opossum (not this one) was among the first living creatures (including children) mailed and delivered by the United States Post Office. (This photograph provided courtesy of the Library of Congress, May 6, 1929.)

As we continue our exclusive reporting on the plans of the Administration of President Joseph (Joe) Biden, Nuacht Aoir has learned – exclusively – that the President intends to announce the "Parcel Post For The 21st Century" Program on Labor Day.

This will be a re-introduction of the "Parcel Post" service name through the United States Postal Service (USPS). The service name was removed in 2013 – during the Administration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

"Effective January 27, 2013, as part of the Mailing and Shipping Services price change," a document from the USPS stated, "the following product and extra services names are changed: 'Standard Post' is the new name for Parcel Post as it moves to the competitive product list…"

The "Parcel Post For The 21st Century" Program to be announced by President Biden, though, has more in common with the initial Parcel Post offered by the U S Post Office in 1913 than the Parcel Post offered in 2013.

"Our new 'Parcel Post For The 21st Century' Program will allow people to mail living creatures under the age of 120 years of age and weighing no more than 500 pounds," the President is slated to announce on Labor Day. "This new Parcel Post service will harken back to the initial days of Parcel Post being introduced by the Federal government in 1913."

"Leaders then realized the need for new forms of delivery of products throughout the United States," noted this Presidential speech. "Americans recognized the Federal government as the one source of efficiency that could deliver to every home and every business in the nation."

The Presidential speech is slated to continue by stating that "The initial years of Parcel Post showed the ingenuity of Americans to utilize this new service to deliver living creatures of all types – including babies and children – to destinations far and wide. I believe the Federal government made a mistake in prematurely stopping the innovative ways Americans were using Parcel Post. Our new 'Parcel Post For The 21st Century' Program seeks to correct that error and offer the widest possible options in efficiency for Americans and new Americans."

That term "new Americans" was one that Nuacht Aoir had seen before, though in seemingly different contexts.

While the Presidential announcement did not acknowledge any links, Nuacht Aoir has found that new postal facilities are to be built in select locations along the border between the U S and Mexico. The blueprints for one of these new structures to be built in Hidalgo County are entitled "Welcome Center For New Americans."

The schematics for these facilities show buildings that range from 5,000,000 square feet to 11,200,000 square feet. One of the structures to be sited in Hidalgo County – there are plans for three new postal facilities in that county alone – is listed as having 7,432,654 square feet.

Each of the facilities is to have multiple forms of transport within or adjacent to their structures. Highway extensions from Interstate 10, new rail lines, and airstrips capable of handling large cargo jets are included in these plans.

Nuacht Aoir also found a no-bid contract had been awarded to a print shop to create posters in select languages announcing – according to the contract – "a new service for new Americans for a new day." The posters are to be sent to select countries for display in public areas and on public transit.

Nuacht Aoir wondered if there could be connections between the new Parcel Post service, the new postal facilities, and the no-bid poster contract.

Based on dogged research, Nuacht Aoir is now able to report to the people of southwestern New Mexico that President Biden intends to use the "Parcel Post For The 21st Century" Program as a cover program to transport migrants into facilities along the U S – Mexico border and then "deliver the new Americans" to select communities throughout the U S.

Nuacht Aoir has seen detailed demographic analyses that have been prepared for each current Congressional district in the U S as well as for new Congressional districts planned for Puerto Rico, the U S Virgin Islands, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

It should be noted that the plans seen by Nuacht Aoir for the new Congressional districts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic have the two independent countries divided into 5 new states – two for Haitian territory and three for the territory now included in the Dominican Republic.

In exclusive reporting – reporting you will not view elsewhere – Nuacht Aoir overheard a Presidential aide detailing how the new Parcel Post service will work.

(We are sorry for the language used by this Presidential aide and realize that many of our devoted readers will be offended, but Nuacht Aoir believes it's critical that the American people understand how the elites speak as they run this country.)

"While the average American will see this service as a great convenience to send their children away to grandma so they can have some free time to get frisky," the Presidential aide stated. "Our Great Leader has figured out a way to bring in new Americans to transform the political landscape of our nation."

The Presidential aide continued by explaining that "the new Americans will be moved from the border to specific Congressional districts with the goal that Republican-leaning districts can be converted into Democratic-leaning districts. These movements will allow the U S Congress to approve the addition of new states in Puerto Rico, the U S Virgin Islands, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic."

"With the majority of Congressional districts leaning Democratic," the Presidential aide concluded "and the addition of the new states, the legacy of President Biden will be a generation rooted in Democratic values that will produce lasting control of our country."

President Biden is credited by the Presidential aide for coming up with the "Parcel Post For The 21st Century" Program. The aide indicated that the President developed the concept based on reading old news articles from the box found by Federal investigators when they searched the President's home for classified materials. The box – marked "Important Documents" – was located by Federal agents in the garage at the President's home in Delaware.

The Federal investigators deemed the news articles "not classified"; as such, the news articles were returned to the President.

Nuacht Aoir learned that President Biden was encouraged by the way that the U S Post Office delivered children and other living creatures during the initial time period when the Parcel Post service was offered to the American people.

The Presidential aide noted that the President is known for "Think Big – Not Small."

President Biden was intrigued by the possibility of blending together a jobs program for Federal unionized workers, generating more revenue for the Federal government, solving the immigration crisis in border communities and in larger cities like the City of New York, and building a legacy that would see the Democratic Party lead the U S throughout the 21st Century.

Thus, he created the "Parcel Post For The 21st Century" Program.

The President learned through the old news articles that prior to the implementation of the initial Parcel Post service through the U S Post Office, this Federal department (the U S Post Office was not an "independent" agency at the time) did not deliver heavy packages. Instead, private businesses handled the delivery of parcels.

According to "More Than Two Centuries of Service" brochure issued by the USPS, "On New Year's Day 1913, carriers began delivering packages weighing up to 11 pounds via a new service called Parcel Post. The weight limit increased to 20 pounds that same year and soon rose even higher. Previously, four pounds had been the limit. Rural delivery, Parcel Post, and the Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogs were the original "shopportunity." The effect on the national economy was electric. Three hundred million packages were mailed in the first six months of Parcel Post service. The first year, Sears filled five times as many orders as it did the year before."

The Selinsgrove Times reported on January 1, 1913, that "Queen bees, live insects, and dried reptiles will be admitted" through Parcel Post.

Beyond those specific items, no living creatures – officially – could be mailed using Parcel Post.

Yet some Americans saw Parcel Post as a way to mail a variety of other living beings. Including, believe it or not, children.

The USPS itself acknowledges that the U S Post Office did, in fact, deliver children.

"Do not try to ship your kids," noted a document from the USPS. "In the early days of Parcel Post, a few parents managed to mail their children to relatives. In 1913, an 8-month-old baby in Ohio was mailed by his parents to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away. The baby was safely delivered. Regulations were quickly established to prevent any additional mailing of children through the U S Mail."

The statement from the USPS, though, is not completely correct.

In particular, the definition of "quickly" may be different to governmental workers in Washington from what that word means to a working person in Deming.

It took years and two different top officials within the U S Post Office to officially issue orders that the Federal government would no longer allow children to be mailed.

Prior to those official orders, news articles detailed a number of situations where Americans mailed children through the Parcel Post of the U S Post Office. A few examples of these news articles follow.

On the front page of the Reno Evening Gazette dated January 25, 1913, the newspaper included a news article detailing the situation noted in the USPS document; the headline for this news article was "Baby Is Sent Through Mail As A Parcel Post Package."

This news article noted that "Vernon O Lyttle, mail carrier on rural route 5 out of this place [Batavia, Ohio], is the first man to accept and deliver under parcel post conditions a live baby. The baby, a boy weighing 10 3/4 pounds, just within the 11-pound limit, is the child of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beagle of Near Glen Este."

"The package was well wrapped and ready for 'mailing' when the carrier got it today," the news article continued. "Its measurements reached 71 inches, also just within the law, which makes 72 inches the limit. Mr. Lyttle delivered the 'parcel' safely to the address on the card attached, that of its grandmother, Mrs. Louis Beagle, who lives about a mile from its home. The postage was 15 cents and the 'parcel' was insured for $50."

The Galion Inquirer (of Ohio) reported on its front page on November 29, 1913, that a child "Arrives With Mail – Child From Germany Reaches Father's Home in Ohio."

"Much excitement was in store for the employees of the local postoffice [in New Lexington, Ohio] when, upon the arrival of the mail, with it was an 8-year-old girl, very small for her age," the news article reported. "The following message was pinned on her dress from the immigration office in New York: 'This child – Julia Kohan – is going to father, John Kohan, Box 117, RFD No. 4 [Rural Free Delivery Route Number 4], New Lexington, Ohio.'"

"After a meal, supplied by Postmaster Donnely, the child was taken in care of a rural delivery carrier to the home of her father, who lives six miles south of here," the news article concluded. "The trip of 7,000 miles from Germany was made by her unaccompanied."

On February 13, 1914, The Washington Times reported that "Parcel Post Rules Now Prefer Bees to Babies": "Queen bees are the only living things that can be handled by parcel post, according to a decision by Second Assistant Postmaster General Stewart, who was asked if a baby could be transported through the mails."

"G W Merrill, postmaster of Stratford, Okla [for 'Oklahoma'], notified the department that J B Denton wanted to send a two-year-old baby from Twin Falls, Idaho, to his postoffice, said that there were no regulations in the parcel post system covering the case," the news article detailed. "Reference to the regulations showed Postmaster Merrill to be correct, and the department ruled that all human beings and live animals, except queen bees, are barred from the parcel post."

The February 1914 edition of the South Dakota Educator noted that "Human beings are not supposed to be sent by mail in this country, but in special cases the rules are sometimes suspended."

One of those situations occurred in the following year in Jackson, Kentucky.

The Courier-Journal (of Louisville, Kentucky) included a news article dated
September 1, 1915, regarding an activity the day before: "Parcel Post Baby Makes Trip Upon L & E Railroad [Lexington & Eastern Railroad] – Clerk Accepts Child Despite Doubt As To Legality Of Act."

"'Anything can happen in Jackson,' said a traveling man to-day as he watched a great crowd follow the mail wagon from the L & E depot as mail carrier James Haddix carried a parcel post baby to the Jackson post-office," the newspaper stated. "The child was seated on a pack of mail sacks between the mail carrier's knees and was busily eating away at some candy it carried in a bag. In the other hand it carried a big red apple and it smiled when the curious folks waved their hands and called to her."

The news article continued by noting that "The child wore a pink dress to which was sewed a shipping tag, covered on one side with thirty-three cents in stamps and on the other side had the following words: 'To Mrs. Celina Smith, care Jim Haddix, Jackson, Ky [for 'Kentucky'] from R K Madden, Caney, Ky.'"

"The child was put on the O & K [Ohio & Kentucky Railway] train at Caney, Morgan County, and arrived at Jackson at 11 o'clock," The Courier-Journal continued. "On her dress the mail clerk had pinned the following letter: 'To Postmaster Hadden, August 31, 1915, Postmaster Jackson, Ky, Dear Sir – Baby received 8:15, Caney, Ky, by postmaster in person. I doubt the legality of the sending, but it was put on train and I must deliver and report. Respectfully, J T Sebastian, R P [Railroad Postal] Clerk.'"

The news article concluded by stating that "The girl weighed thirty pounds, was three years old, and her name was Maud Smith."

A series of news articles from 1920 detailed how Americans continued to attempt to mail children via Parcel Post.

The Piqua Daily Call (of Ohio) included a news article on its front page on June 12, 1920, entitled "Mail Children By Parcel Post." The news article indicated that it originated from Washington on that same date.

"An official decision on the question of whether children are mailable as parcel post matter is sought by Merritt O. Chance postmaster here in a communication to the postoffice department," reported The Piqua Daily Call. "The matter was referred to John C. Koons first assistant postmaster general for action. Twice within the last 24 hours the postoffice in Washington has had applicants who wished to send children through the mails as parcel post matter."

On the next day, June 13, 1920, the Decatur Herald (of Illinois) printed a news article entitled "No Madam You Can't Mail Your Children." This news article also indicated that it originated in Washington the day before.

"Children may not be transported as parcel post, First Assistant Postmaster General Koons ruled today [June 12], in passing on two applications received at the local postoffice for transportation of children through the mails," reported the Decatur Herald. "Mr. Koons said children clearly did not come within the classification of harmless live animals which do not require food or water while in transit."

The Butte Miner (of Montana) included a news article dated June 14, 1920, that "One of the applications received by the local postmaster [in Washington] came from a nine-year-old girl who entered the main postoffice and asked that she be sent to Kentucky."

Though that decision was issued in mid-1920, The Eau Claire Leader included a news article in its edition dated December 23, 1921, detailing an attempt to mail a child from Chicago. The news article, entitled "Refuse Request to Mail Boy in Parcel Post," explained how "An application to send a boy from Chicago to Troy, O [for 'Ohio'] by parcel post was denied on Wednesday [December 21] by Postmaster A C Lueder to Mrs. Albert Wilhelm, the wife of a farmer near Troy. The request was made in a letter stating that her son was visiting relatives in Chicago and that she wished to send him home by mail."

Beyond children, Americans also used the new Parcel Post service as a way to mail a variety of living animals.

News articles from the time indicated that Americans did not always adhere to the regulations; a few examples follow.

On January 4, 1913, The Evening World printed a news article that "The first package delivered in Flushing [a neighborhood in the City of New York] contained a 'possum sent from Cos Cob, Connecticut, by Ernest Thompson Seton, naturalist, to Daniel Carter Beard, artist and author, who lives at Bowe Avenue and Amity Street, Flushing."

In addition, the newspaper stated that "A lobster found in a parcel yesterday [January 3] was taken back to the sender to-day."

The Lima Daily News reported on January 5, 1913, that "Mail Carriers Are The Goats Of New Service" regarding the new Parcel Post service from the U S Post Office.

"Practical jokers and experimenter[s] in all parts of the country, however, have been making the past three days since the establishment of the system days of anguish to postal employees," noted this news article. "A big jack rabbit alive and wagging his ears was delivered by the Chicago post office to a commission merchant in that city. In the case, the rule barring the transportation of live animals was not adhered to."

On January 7, 1913, the Buffalo Courier included a news article detailing how a local resident attempted to mail a pig through Parcel Post.

"The squeal of a small pig yesterday [January 6] frustrated the attempt of a young woman to send through the parcel post a box containing a live animal," according to this news article. "The package, which was addressed to another woman in Buffalo, was being weighed at the parcel post window at the postoffice when the clerk heard the squeal."

"'What's in the box?' asked the clerk with a twinkle in his eye," the news article continued. "'Why – it – it's a – a something I want to mail,' replied the young woman, somewhat taken by surprise. ''Yes, but what is in the package? Is it something perishable?' came the question [from the postal clerk]."

The news article went on by noting that "Again, the animal in the wooden box squealed. The clerk smiled and the woman blushed. 'It's a little pig,' replied the woman. Her face turned red, and she asked if it would be all right to have the parcel postman deliver it to her friend who, she said, lived next door to her on West Ferry Street."

"Uncle Sam's careful guardian explained it was against the law to accept for delivery through the parcel post a live animal," the news article concluded. "He handed the box through the window to the woman and she walked away blushing."

The expansion of the U S Post Office into the market for deliveries of heavier parcels was not welcomed by all. A number of businesses saw their market positions shrink as Americans switched from private carriers to the Federal government.

On January 9, 1913, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle included a news article entitled "Parcel Post and Employment." In this news article, the newspaper reported that "It is conceivable that the parcel post has resulted, or may result, in some men employed by the express companies losing their jobs, but it is highly probable that the increased employment offered by the postal authorities will more than compensate for that hardship."

The news article continued by stating that "It has been said in a New York paper that one express company with headquarters in New York has already discharged seventy-five employees, but the same article said that the postoffice and its branches there were doing an enormous business…Men discharged by express companies might well make an effort to enter the service of Uncle Sam."

The 2023 Labor Day speech viewed by Nuacht Aoir includes wording similar to what President Biden said in his 2022 Labor Day Proclamation, but with one major change.

In the speech to be given this year, the President changed the wording of "America's workers" used in 2022 to "the current Americans and the new Americans" to be used in 2023; he also changed "build" used in 2022 to "built and will build" to be used in 2023.

The conclusion of the 2023 Labor Day speech to be given by President Biden is written to state that "This Labor Day, let us honor those trailblazers who have fought for the rights of working people. Let us stand in solidarity with all workers and strengthen their ability to organize and bargain with employers. Let us give thanks to all of the current Americans and the new Americans who built and will build this Nation and pave our future."

For further information, please click here. 

Contact Richard McDonough at nuachtaoir@protonmail.com .

If your email does not go through, please contact editor@grantcountybeat.com .

© 2023 Richard McDonough