The history and advantages of the rural delivery should be understood by our people. There is a feeling in many quarters that it is an extravagance and an unnecessary drain upon the postal revenues. The first rural route was established in the latter part of 1896, $14,840 being expended for rural delivery during that fiscal year. At that time the postal deficit was $11,411,779. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, the expenditures for rural delivery aggregated $26,671,699, while the postal deficit showed a decrease, as compared with 1897, of $4,800,000, the deficit amounting to $6,653,282. This would seem to show that while the expense incurred for maintaining rural delivery is great, yet the rural delivery has been instrumental in increasing the general postal receipts. However, its benefits to our people can not be measured in dollars and cents.
That a local parcel post would be of material advantage to the retail merchant in competition with mail-order houses is seen at once when it is pointed out that the latter, at the proposed general parcel post rate of 12 cents a pound, would be obliged to pay $1.32 for sending an 11-pound package to a rural route patron, a difference in favor of the local storekeeper of about 10 cents a pound, or $1.07 on an 11-pound package.
Letters and petitions for the extension of the parcel post are being received from all sections of the country. Many commercial bodies formerly opposed to any action of this kind are on record as being heartily in favor of it.
On the other hand, objections have been raised to the measures the Department is advocating. Although no sound argument has been advanced in opposition, the contentions which have been made are not without interest. I mention the more important of them, at the same time giving the replies which they have elicited:
It has been stated that the Department is not equipped to deliver 11-pound parcels received in the general mails. The present postal regulations provide that where a package is of undue size or weight a formal notice shall be sent the addressee requesting him to call for it. This practice, would continue were the weight limit increased to 11 pounds, in the case of offices having free delivery. Nor would it work a hardship, for under the present limit of 4 pounds the average weight of parcels sent through the mails is but one-third of a pound. Increasing the weight limit would not have nearly as great an effect on the average weight of parcels mailed as seems to be commonly supposed. Where packages were addressed to persons living on rural routes they would, of course, be delivered to the boxes of the patrons by rural carriers, who would not thereby be inconvenienced.
The claim that the special local rate recommended for the parcel post on rural routes would eventually be extended to include the entire postal service has been given considerable publicity. The impossibility of this becomes apparent when attention is directed to the cost of railroad transportation, which has no part in the former service. About $45,000,000 were paid last year for mail transportation and $6,000,000 for postal cars.
Others have said that large mail-order houses would, under the proposed law, utilize the special parcel post or rural routes through agents to the great disadvantage of the country merchant, first assembling their orders and despatching them by express or freight to suitable distributing points. The Department has recommended provisions which will prevent any such use of the routes. It should be remembered, too, that even in the absence of a specific prohibition of this nature, any systematic attempt upon the part of a mail-order house to thus distribute its wares would necessitate the employment of many thousands of local representatives. The catalogues of these concerns indicate in no uncertain way that they attribute their success, in large measure, to their low selling expense, and that the absence of any sort of agents is the principal feature of their argument in accounting for the supposedly low prices of their goods.
The cry of “class legislation” has been raised. There is, of course, no discrimination involved, for all who can be reached by rural carriers will be accommodated. It would be as reasonable to decry the laws which permit the delivery of mail to patrons living on rural routes, while persons differently situated are obliged to make a trip to a near-by post-office to obtain their letters.
Those who claim that an increase in the weight limit would work an injury to country merchants appear to have the impression that mail-order houses now deliver their goods extensively through the postal service, and that this practice would largely increase if the recommendations which have been made become law. Upon a moment’s reflection it will be perceived that the present rate of 16 cents a pound ($16 per hundred-weight), as well as the proposed rate of 12 cents a pound ($12 per hundred-weight), are alike prohibitive on practically all lines of merchandise. Mail-order houses make their shipments usually by freight or express and would continue to do so.
Antagonism to the proposed measures, when analyzed and found not to be the result of selfish motives, appears to be based upon inaccurate or insufficient information. In illustration, I desire to invite attention to a communication of the Richmond Commercial Club, of Richmond, Ind., which appeared in the Congressional Record of January 4, 1908. In this letter the statement was made that a certain mail-order house would save $40,000 a year on the mailing of catalogues alone. Catalogues are rated as third-class matter, whereas the Department’s recommendations with respect to parcel post relate to fourth-class matter only. Catalogues are now mailable at 1 cent for 2 ounces, or 8 cents a pound, 4 cents a pound less than the rate proposed for the general parcel post. The mail-order house referred to, therefore, would gain nothing under the proposed law in the mailing of its catalogues.