Our Postal Express. pp. 1-6.
William Sulzer.
Mr. Speaker: I am in favor of a parcels post. I believe the people of the country generally favor it, and I feel confident its establishment will be of inestimable benefit and advantage to all concerned. The post-office is one of the oldest of governmental institutions, an agency established by the earliest civilization to enable them to inform themselves as to the plans and movements of their friends and foes; and from the dawn of history the only limit upon this service has been the capacity of the existing transport machinery.
The cursus publicus of imperial Rome—the post-office of the Roman Cæsars—covered their entire business of transportation and transmission, and with its splendid post-roads, swift post-horses, and ox post-wagons the Roman post-office was a mechanism far wider in its scope than that of our modern post-office; and except for the use of mechanical power, the old Roman post was far more efficient in its service of the Roman rulers than is our modern post-office in the service of the American citizen.
The evil of the Roman post-office and of the royal postal services that succeeded it was their common restriction to the enrichment of the ruling powers. They were the prototypes of our modern private railway and express companies, which have for their chief end the enrichment of their managers rather than the promotion of the public welfare. In this country the citizen owns the post-office and wants to use it as his transportation company. Its end is to keep him informed as to what his representatives are doing at the centers of public business, to make known to them his wishes, and to provide means by which he may communicate with his fellow-citizens for their mutual benefit, and to supply his wants and dispose of his wares at the least possible cost, in the shortest possible time, and with the greatest possible security.
The postal system of rates, regardless of distance, regardless of the character of the matter transported, and regardless of the volume of the patron’s business, eminently fits it for this great service. That it will sooner or later be greatly extended over the entire field of public transportation, is absolutely certain; and the people will duly appreciate the aid of those who assist in its extension and development. As far back as 1837, Rowland Hill, of England, promulgated to the world the law that once a public transport service is in operation, the cost of its use is regardless the distance traversed upon the moving machinery by any unit of traffic within its capacity, and upon this law he established the English penny-letter post of 1839.
Instead of a taxing machine, a contrivance for making money, the post-office should be an agency for good, reaching out its multitudinous hands with help and comfort into all the homes in our widespread land.
Without the post-office where would be that national unity, with its guaranty of equal rights to all, which is the glory of the sisterhood of states?
The postal savings system and parcels post was inaugurated in England largely through the efforts of the great Commoner, William E. Gladstone. Near the close of his life he made the following statement about it:
The post-office savings bank and parcels post is the most important institution which has been created in the last fifty years for the welfare of the people. I consider the act which called the institution into existence as the most useful and fruitful of my long career.
It is because we realize these truths so keenly that we are so persistent in urging favorable consideration of a parcels post. Its only fault is its conservatism. What this country now needs, what Congress should give it, is a parcels post covering much of the business of public transportation.
In April last representatives of at least 10,000,000 American voters, including the great agricultural associations of the country, National Grange, the Farmers’ Union, the Farmers’ National Congress, Retail Dry Goods Association of New York, the Associated Retailers of St. Louis, the manufacturing perfumers of the United States, the American Florist Association, and others, appeared before the House Postal Committee, demanding a domestic express post as extended and as cheap as that provided by the Postmaster-General in our foreign postal service. The argument in behalf of this legislation, with its 4-pound weight limit, had then been before the committee for many months, but the bill was not up to the demands of these friends of the post-office. The report of the hearing showed that the public wanted an 11-pound service at least. Seldom, if ever, has any proposition received a stronger public support, and it seemed as if the House Committee on Post-Offices would be obliged to report at least some legislation back to the House for its consideration.
Their answer finally came on the 27th of May in the shape of H. R. 26348, introduced by Chairman John W. Weeks, which provides:
That all mail matter of the fourth class shall be subject to examination and to a postage charge at the rate of three-fourths of 1 cent an ounce or fraction thereof, to be prepaid by stamps affixed—stamps of the following denominations:
| Cents. | |
|---|---|
| 1 ounce | ¾ |
| 2 ounces | 1½ |
| 3 ounces | 2¼ |
| 4 ounces | 3 |
| 5 ounces | 3¾ |
| 6 ounces | 4½ |
| 7 ounces | 5¼ |
| 8 ounces | 6 |
On the 1st of June Mr. Weeks wrote to the secretary of the Postal Progress League as follows:
It does not seem to me likely that any other parcels-post legislation than possibly the bill which I introduced last week—this bill—providing for the reduction in rate on fourth-class matter, will be considered at this session of Congress.
This means that for at least two years more the American people are to be left subject to the extortions of the rich and powerful express companies, while we have in the post-office a well-equipped service of our own through which much of the people’s business now carried on by these companies could be done quicker and at infinitely less cost.
Mr. Speaker, if the powers arraigned against the post-office continue their efforts to limit its functions in behalf of private interests, they will soon find themselves confronted with a Congress pledged to extend the service of the post-office to a much larger degree of the public transmission business; and hence, I think it wise that my bill should now be brought before the House for immediate consideration.