[645] "Though all the rates must be so fixed as to pay all the expenses both of construction and working, separate rates cannot be fixed according to cost of individual service or even according to the average cost of services to traffic in the same group. For in the first place the cost of the service cannot be ascertained. And secondly, if it could be ascertained, it would be of no use as a standard. To charge the average cost would be to drive away a large portion of the traffic and so increase almost proportionately the average cost of the remainder. This increase would then drive away a fresh portion, and so once more increase proportionately the cost to that still remaining. And so on."—W. M. Acworth, "The Theory of Railway Rates," Economic Journal, London, 1897, p. 324.
[646] "The process is in practice worked out as follows. First comes classification. The whole of the commodities known to commerce are entered on a list divided into classes, eight in number here, six in France, and about ten in number in the United States. To each class belongs a normal scale of rates, ranging, let us say, from ¾d. per mile in the lowest to 4d. per mile in the highest. The classification undoubtedly takes account of greater or less cost of carriage to the companies, arising out of the differences of packing, liability to theft or damage, proportion of space occupied to weight, etc. But it is safe to say that its main principle is, the more valuable the commodity, the higher the rate it can afford to pay."—Ibid., p. 325.
[647] "Historically this theory has been recognized and approved by English legislation from the time when Adam Smith applauded the equity of statutory turnpike tolls at the rate of one shilling for a light carriage and eightpence for a heavy dray, through the whole long series of Canal Acts and Railway Acts, down to the elaborately careful revision of the railway companies' charging powers in the series of Provisional Order Confirmation Acts dated 1891 and 1892. The opinion of modern economists all over the world as to the justice of the underlying principle may be conveniently summarized in a sentence borrowed from the first annual report of the American Interstate Commerce Commission: 'With this method of arranging tariffs little fault is found, and perhaps none at all by persons who consider the subject from the standpoint of public interest.'"—Ibid., p. 317.
[648] "One great element of the reform introduced by you in the postage was, that there should be one uniform rate throughout?—Yes, it was proposed with a view to simplification, but the principle has been carried to an extent that I did not contemplate, and did not recommend."—Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill, Report of Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps, 1851, Question No. 1945.
[649] In the same way that the soap-makers of Port Sunlight secured a large sale by the simple expedient of refraining from varying the price of their tablets of soap with the variations in the cost of raw materials, making the adjustment in the weight of the tablets instead of in the price; and for the same reason that many people prefer restaurants widely known and with numerous branches, not always because the charges are less, but because it is well known what the charges and what the service obtained will be.
[650] In the United Kingdom less than 50 per cent. exceed 2 pounds in weight, and not more than 1 per cent. exceed 10 pounds. The proportion for short-distance parcels is much less, and the proportion for foreign parcels is very much greater, over 15 per cent. being above 10 pounds in weight.
[651] Even in the London postal area, which is of considerable extent, the local traffic is quite small, amounting to some four or five million parcels only per annum in a total traffic of some 130 millions.
[652] I.e. the actual cost incurred by a Government in providing packet services, not the amounts paid to intermediate countries as "transit rates" under the International Convention.
| Total area | of Europe | 3,800,000 | square miles. |
| " " | United States (with Alaska) | 3,600,000 | " |
| " " | Canada | 3,700,000 | " |