[74] 23 Stat. L. 387. For further details of the special privileges granted periodicals, see Report of the Commission on Second Class Mail Matter (1912), p. 57 ff.
[75] 37 Stat. L. 557. “That hereafter fourth class mail matter shall embrace all other matter, not now embraced by law, in either the first, second, or third class, not exceeding eleven pounds in weight, or greater in size than seventy-two inches in girth and length combined, nor in form or kind likely to injure the person of any postal employee or damage the mail equipment or other mail matter, and not of a character perishable within a period reasonably required for transportation and delivery” (Sec. 8). These limits have been, and will be, raised from time to time.
[76] But see Bodley, “The Post Office Department as a Common Carrier and Bank,” 18 American Law Review, 218 (1884).
[77] See Williams, passim.
[78] Reports of the Postmaster General, 1841–1845.
[79] “It might be easily shown, for instance, that the power over the mails is limited to the transmission of intelligence, and that Congress cannot, consistently with the nature and object of the power, extend it to the ordinary objects of transportation, without a manifest violation of the Constitution, and the assumption of a principle which would give the government control over the general transportation of the country, both by land and water.” Speech of John C. Calhoun. 12 Debates of Congress, 1142. See also 18 American Law Review, 218.
[80] 13 Stat. L. 76.
[81] Report of the Postmaster General, 1864, p. 24.
[82] 28 Stat. L. 30.
[83] See Reports of the Postmaster General, 1908–1911.