For, by the time that the dissolution of the American Railway Express Company (see below) will come up for final decision, new equipment and the materials for new equipment will still be scarce, very scarce, and very costly in the United States. It would be unfairly prejudicial to an infant Government postal express service if it were hampered by scarcity or high cost of equipment. Indeed, in the long run, in an industrial situation which for many months after peace will be unsettled as a result of the war, it might even be more economical to purchase the express companies outright. And if once the express service is released to its former owners, the difficulty of prying it loose again will involve far greater loss than the loss in adopting even the least justifiable method of consolidating it in the Postal Service.
THE PRESENT STATUS OF EXPRESS COMPANIES
As the United States more and more radically altered its industrial processes to correlate them with the needs impressed upon the national life by the Great War, the express companies more and more plainly gave evidence of membership in that group of public utilities which could not unaided weather the storm. Not so soon as in the case of the railways, but not any considerable length of time afterwards, Government intervention became the sine qua non of a continuation of the express business of the United States on an efficient plane. On May 28, 1918, the United States Railroad Administration made public an arrangement with the express companies by which the express service of the country has since been conducted up to the time of writing. Of that arrangement, the salient features follow:
1. A new express company, known as the American Railway Express Company, was organized by the Adams, American, Southern and Wells-Fargo Express Companies.
2. The new company is capitalized only to the extent of the actual property and cash represented in its formation and activities—namely, $30,000,000, and capital stock has been issued for that amount and further stock will be sold at par.
3. With the American Railway Express Company the Railroad Administration made a contract for conducting the express business on all carriers included in the Railroad Administration.
4. Under that contract, the Railroad Administration receives 51¼% of the operating revenues.
5. The 49¾% remaining to the express companies must cover the operating expenses, taxes, profits and a dividend of 5% on the stock of the American Railway Express Company.