Post-office, Our Mutual Express Company. pp. 1-3.
William S. Bennet.
Mr. Chairman: In connection with this subject I take pleasure in submitting the following views of the Postal Progress League:
The Post-Office, Our Mutual Express Company
From the foundation of our national government, the people of the United States, through their representatives in Congress, have always determined the scope of their postal service, the pay of their mail carriers, their own postal rates; and from the first they seem to have provided for the postal transport of merchandise in very small sealed parcels at very high rates—by the act of 1792, 24 cents an ounce for distances up to 30 miles, higher rates for greater distances. In 1810 they fixed the postal weight limit at 3 pounds, and it so remained for many years. In 1863 the postal rates were made uniform regardless of distance, and since 1863 Congress has definitely provided for the transport of merchandise in unsealed parcels, but still with a weight limit so low and rates so high as to be practically prohibitive.
In the old era of household industries when the peddler, with his pack on his back, or driving his own team, was the chief agency of commercial intercourse, these postal limitations worked little harm, but their continuance in our day, when every industry needs a continent for its development, is no longer endurable. The common welfare demands the widest possible extension, the most efficient and economic administration of our great mutual express company.
In its report of January 28, 1907, the Postal Commission of the Fifty-ninth Congress declared that: “Upon the postal service, more than upon anything else, does the general economic as well as the social and political development of the country depend.” And yet the United States merchandise post of to-day is limited to 4-pound parcels at rates: Sealed parcels 2 cents an ounce, 32 cents a pound, with no insurance against loss or damage unless registered; and unsealed parcels, with no insurance under any conditions, at rates:
Third-Class Matter
Some specific kinds of merchandise; printed books; Christmas cards printed on paper; advertisements on ordinary paper; seeds, bulbs, etc., for planting, 1 cent for 2 ounces, 8 cents per pound.
Fourth-Class Matter
General merchandise; blank books; Christmas cards of any other substance than paper; advertisements on blotting paper; seeds, bulbs for food, etc., 1 cent per ounce, 16 cents per pound.
In 1874 third-class matter covered all merchandise at one-half the present general merchandise rate.
The Postal Report of 1904, pages 593-595, shows the effect of these limitations on the free rural service. In its daily 24-mile course, visiting over 100 families, the average rural post-wagon handles less than 26 pounds of mail per day, collected and delivered; it collects less than 1 pound. The average rural family posts hardly one merchandise parcel a year. Its total merchandise traffic dispatched and received is less than 10 parcels a year. The postal revenue from its entire merchandise traffic is less than 50 cents a year. The total cancellations of the average carrier in 1904 amounted to only $10.64 a month; to less than $132 a year. With the same limitations in 1909, his postal income must remain practically the same. Meanwhile the 4,000,000 families on the rural routes go to and from their post towns and their homes, carrying their supplies and their produce at a needless expense—estimated at only 50 cents a week per family—of over $100,000,000 a year.
And the postal weighings of 1907 disclose a similar state of things in the general-merchandise traffic of the post-office. Of the general postal business, the merchandise traffic represents:
| Per cent. | |
|---|---|
| In number of parcels | 1.12 |
| In weight | 4.79 |
| In revenue | 4.44 |
The weight of the average merchandise postal parcel is 5.45 ounces; its average haul is 687 miles. The merchandise tax, 1 cent per ounce or fraction thereof, amounts in practice to 17.23 cents per pound. The average family posts less than 9 parcels a year—less than 3 pounds—and pays for the service about 50 cents a year.
The local merchandise mailed in October, 1907, at 17 representative post-offices of Alabama weighed only 65 pounds, at 16 representative post-offices of Arkansas only 14 pounds, at 18 representative post-offices of Iowa only 116 pounds, at 16 representative post-offices of New Hampshire only 27 pounds, at 16 representative post-offices of North Carolina only 30 pounds, at 14 representative post-offices of Oregon only 1 pound, at 14 representative post-offices of Montana only 1 pound, at 14 representative post-offices of Nevada only 4 pounds, at 12 representative post-offices of South Dakota only 15 pounds, and at 14 representative post-offices of Wyoming only 1 pound.
The weight of the parcels posted in October, 1907, by the 4,000,000 people of New York City in their local traffic amounted to only 55,918 pounds, less than 1¼ ounces per family, and in their total traffic to only 469,111 pounds, about 8 ounces per family.
The post-office is the most important department of our national government. Its system of rates—regardless of distance, regardless of the character or volume of the matter transported, rates determined by the representatives of the rate payers in Congress assembled on the basis of the cost of the service rendered—its system of uniform rates places our whole country on a plane of the most perfect commercial equality. Up to its limits there can be no possible discriminations either as to persons, places or things. Up to its limits, the humblest citizen on the most out-of-the-way rural route is guaranteed the transport of his supplies and his produce at the same rates as the biggest corporation in our greatest metropolis. These rates moreover, may be steadily reduced with the improvement of our transport machinery and its administration. And yet by our own limitation of this mighty service we deny ourselves its use almost altogether in local traffic, and in through traffic confine it to parcels of less than 6 ounces.
Meantime we pay private express companies what “the traffic will bear” for the transport of our large parcels, and in our local traffic cheerfully carry our small parcels in our pockets or hand bags or dispatch them by private messengers or private vehicles. Such petty work is beneath the notice of our great private express companies. In many small places they have no offices. Even in our great cities they have no regular daily courses, save in a few business districts. If the ordinary city resident would dispatch a parcel by express, he must go after an express wagon on foot or by telephone. The post-man—our public expressman—comes to our doors one, two, three, four times a day, or oftener. We have but to substitute a machine post for our overburdened foot post and, with a perfected system of collection and delivery of insured parcels at reasonable rates, we shall have a postal express at hand, ready and competent to do our bidding on our own terms and conditions.
The possibilities of such a service were illustrated some years ago, when James L. Cowles, of the Postal Progress League, dispatched an 11-pound suit case from New York City to New Haven, Conn. Prepaid as a sealed parcel, with a special-delivery stamp affixed, the suit case was mailed at a branch post-office on Fifth avenue about 5 o’clock in the afternoon; it was delivered at its address in New Haven before 10 o’clock the same evening. On another occasion Mr. Cowles telegraphed from Philadelphia about noon for a parcel of stationery to be sent him from his office, 361 Broadway, New York City. The Philadelphia postman delivered the parcel at Mr. Cowles’ hotel before 8 o’clock the same evening.
In his testimony before the congressional committee on railway mail pay, in 1898, Mr. H. S. Julier, of the American Express Company, testified that the weight of the average express parcel is 25 pounds; its average charge is 50 cents; its average haul in the eastern states is 100 to 125 miles; in the central states a little more; in the western states from 175 to 200 miles. In local traffic the ordinary express charge on the smallest merchandise parcel is 15 cents; in general traffic, 25 cents. The private express service is chiefly confined to traffic between cities. To be successful, a business requiring express service must be located in a large city, where the different express companies have their headquarters; otherwise their parcels will often be subjected to two or three express charges before they reach their destination. The private express company, with its rates based on the value of the service rendered and determined according to volume of business, is deadly to the small place and the small dealer.
Under the growing differentiation of industry there is a steadily growing demand for a door-to-door express service of parcels ordered by telephone, telegram, or by mail. The business can not be done by private express companies to the public satisfaction. Their machinery does not reach the rural districts. An extended postal service is the only public choice.
As long ago as December 6, 1898, the Merchants’ Association of New York issued the following statement to the merchants, manufacturers, and shippers of the State of New York:
A very large part of every dollar paid by you for express charges is exorbitant and exacted to pay a monstrous profit to an unrestrained monopoly.
Many of you are compelled by present conditions of competition to use the express service on a large part of your shipments, and to pay express charges which are from 300 to over 20,000 per cent of corresponding freight charges. The express charges on many classes of goods average from 5 to 15 per cent of the value of the merchandise transported.
These are the charges that you pay. But many of your strongest competitors are favored by discriminating rates and pay much less.
The express companies are now uncontrolled by law and you have no recourse against exorbitant charges; you must ship by express and must pay whatever the express companies see fit to charge.
On the 10th of February, 1909, the Merchants’ Association of New York again returned to their attack upon the express companies. Note their charges:
Exorbitant Rates
Rates so high in the case of the Adams Express Company as to enable them to pay dividends of over 80 per cent a year on the amount actually invested in their business. In 1907 they made a dividend of $24,000,000.
Excessive charges for collection and delivery varying, on 100-pound parcels, from 27 cents to $7.79 for similar services.
Unreasonable restrictions of free delivery service.
Unreasonable regulation as to size of parcels.
Unreasonable regulation as to packing.
Delays in delivery.
Failure to notify shippers of nondelivery.
Delays in settlements of claims.
Delays in returns of undelivered goods.
Marking parcels 1 to 5 pounds over actual weight, and compelling consignees to pay for the fictitious increase.