OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
Washington, D. C., March 4, 1908.
My Dear Senator: It affords me great pleasure, in compliance with your request, to place at your disposal the data which are available relative to the proposed extension of the parcel post.
It does not appear to be generally appreciated that a comprehensive system of parcels post is already in satisfactory operation in most foreign countries. Exhibit No. 1 gives detailed information on this subject. I show here the limit of weight which has been fixed in a number of instances:
| Pounds. | |
|---|---|
| Great Britain | 11 |
| Germany | 110 |
| France | 22 |
| Italy | 11 |
| Chile | 11 |
| New Zealand | 11 |
| Austria | 110 |
| Belgium | 132 |
| The Netherlands | 11 |
| Cuba | 11 |
The rates in the countries mentioned are much lower than those shown in Exhibit No. 2, which have been recommended for the general parcel post in the United States.
The present rate on the general parcel post is 16 cents a pound for people in our own country, the limit of weight being 4 pounds, while the rate from the United States to 29 foreign countries is 12 cents a pound and the limit of weight to 24 of these countries is 11 pounds. In other words, our own people must pay 4 cents a pound more for the privilege of dispatching packages to each other than when destined to residents of a foreign country. I have therefore urged a rate of 12 cents a pound for packages forwarded through the mails to post-offices in the United States and its possessions, subject to the same regulations as exist at the present time, with the exception of increasing the weight limit to 11 pounds. The service can be rendered at a cost well within the rates recommended.
According to the report of the record of weight of second-class mail matter, transmitted by the Post-Office Department to the House of Representatives under date of February 1, 1907, the average haul of all second-class matter was 540 miles.
Of the total receipts of the Post-Office Department 69 per cent are expended for labor and supplies, and 7 per cent for conveyance charges other than those paid the railroads for transporting the mail. A general rate for parcel post of 12 cents a pound would produce a revenue of $240 a ton. Even on the basis of a 540-mile average haul, I find the debit and credit sides of 1 ton of parcel post to be as follows:
| By postage | $240.00 | |
| To railroad transportation, 540 miles, at 5½ cents | $29.70 | |
| Other transportation charges | 16.80 | |
| Labor and supplies | 165.60 | |
| Total cost | 212.10 | |
| Profit | 27.90 |
A local parcel post confined to rural delivery routes is also advocated at the rates given in Exhibit No. 3. The Department favors the establishment of this special service because of its ability to render it with great advantage to the farmer, the country merchant, and other patrons of the routes, as the necessary machinery (over 38,000 routes now regularly covered by rural carriers) is in operation. There are some 15,000,000 people living on these routes, which shows the vast possibilities of the rural service. It has been estimated that if but three packages of the maximum weight were handled each trip on the rural routes now established the resulting revenue, even at the low rates given, would more than wipe out the postal deficit. The increased cancellations would automatically advance the salaries of postmasters of the fourth class, and the remaining revenue, which would be clear gain, would be of great assistance in making the rural service self-sustaining. The rural service will, in all probability, cost the government this year $34,000,000, an increase of $10,000,000 over last year.