| Registered | 1916 |
| Paid registrations: | |
| Domestic letters and parcels | 29,091,506 |
| Foreign letters and parcels | 5,179,325 |
| ————— | |
| Total paid registrations | 34,270,831 |
| Free registrations—official | 4,965,738 |
| ————— | |
| Total paid and free | 39,236,569 |
| Amount collected for registry fees | $3,427,083.10 |
| Insured | |
| Fourth-class (domestic parcel post): | |
| Total pieces insured (3-, 5-, 10-, and 25-cent fees) | 24,936,082 |
| Total fees | $1,067,192.29 |
| Collect on Delivery | |
| Fourth-class (domestic parcel post) pieces | 6,300,546 |
| Fees | $630,054.60 |
Readjustment of Rate for Second-Class Mail
One of the vexatious problems with which the Department has to deal is that relating to second-class mail matter which costs the Government several times over what is received therefrom in the way of revenue. In March, of 1911, Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing the appointment of a commission to investigate the subject and make a report thereon. The president selected Mr. Justice Hughes, of the Supreme Court, President Lowell, of Harvard University, and Mr. Harry A. Wheeler, of Chicago. This commission found that the cost to the Government of handling and transporting this mail was about 6 cents a pound for which the Government received but 1 cent a pound. The Department recommended an increase to 2 cents a pound which was approved by the commission. February 22, 1912, the report was submitted to Congress by the President, who urged favorable consideration, but so far no action has been taken. Suggestions as to desirable changes in relation to second-class mail matter have been made to Congress by Postmaster General Burleson, in which several ideas as to a more equitable arrangement were proposed, by which the Government would get a compensation more nearly in accord with the expense of this service, but without result, and the whole subject remains undisposed of with the prevailing rate still in force. This class of mail increased 93,184,891 pounds over that of the year 1915, notwithstanding the higher cost of paper and material. The readjustment of rates is held to be necessary in view of the disproportion of revenue to the cost of handling and transportation.
Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith in his annual report to Congress in 1900, referring to the cost of carrying second-class mail matter as hindering the progress of rural delivery extension, said:
“In my last annual report it was shown that if a class of publications which now, under an evasion of the purpose of the law, pay the second-class rate of postage, were really made to pay the third-class rate, as they ought to do, it would bring an additional revenue to the Government of $12,343,612. This amount is lost through an abuse that can be and ought to be rectified. It is a public contribution without any public advantage for the sole benefit of a few private interests.... If it is a question between favoring a very limited number of publishers and favoring twenty-one millions of people who live on the farms of the United States, there ought to be no hesitation in serving the many rather than the few. The abuse should be uprooted as a public duty, the national delivery service should be undertaken as a public policy, and when through the overthrow of the wrong the right can be established without the slightest additional burden, the appeal becomes irresistible.”
Peculiar Customs of European Rural Delivery
Some years ago at the request of Postmaster General Gary, the Secretary of State addressed a letter to each of our ambassadors and ministers in Europe, asking for information touching the extent and character of rural delivery in the countries to which they were accredited. In the answers received it was shown, for example, that in Great Britain there was substantially a house-to-house rural delivery, only the most inaccessible domiciles being left unvisited. The English rural postman, traveling chiefly on foot, walks from 15 to 18 miles a day, for an average pay of 18 shillings, or $4.50 a week. A paternal government provides him with a uniform, gives him $5 a year to buy shoes, furnishes him medical attendance when sick, and permits him to retire on a small pension after ten years of faithful service.
In France rural carriers, who also travel on foot, are paid a mileage of 7¼ centimes a kilometer, or not quite 2½ cents a mile, for the distance they cover. The average length of a route is from 10 to 15 miles, and they are required to cover it every day in the year, Sunday included. They receive an allowance for clothing, and may retire on a pension at the end of fifteen years. The service extends into every commune, and practically all France is covered by rural free delivery.