MISCELLANEOUS SAVINGS
Finally, there are the hosts of miscellaneous items of operating expenses in which we must be led to expect saving by all other experience in consolidating similar agencies performing similar services. Some of these expenses might even be eliminated entirely under Government ownership and control. Such are the cost of superintendence and auditing, insurance, the cost of securing traffic commissions, advertising and law expenses, to say nothing of the profits paid stockholders in normal years.
The amount of these savings can only be roughly surmised; but in 1912, Mr. David J. Lewis estimated that they would amount to at least 40% of the total operating expenses. In this connection, it may be remarked in passing that Mr. Lewis's qualifications for throwing light upon the express service problem include not only theoretical knowledge gained by years of study of the problem, both here and abroad; but also practical knowledge of ways and means, as attested by general belief that the establishment of a parcel-post in the United States was due to his analyses more than to the efforts of any other one man; and also by the fact that when the Government in 1918 assumed responsibility for the management of the telephone and telegraph systems of the land, Mr. Lewis was made, and at the time of writing is, the general manager in charge of those systems while under Government control. Certainly, in view of the economies enumerated above as inherent in Government ownership and control of the express companies, on the face of it Mr. Lewis's statement seems extremely reasonable.