(e) Incalculable waste of transportation effort, so far as made, in movement of necessaries of life from the farms to points of consumption, a serious factor in our high cost of living.
Of course, the need for fast service will depend upon the greatness of the distance, when demand is immediate, as much as upon the valuable or perishable character of the shipment. In our country, with an average haul for freight of 251 miles, from three to ten times as long as in Europe, the demand for speed to overcome the obstacle of the time lost in distance, the time-element necessity for an express service is correspondingly increased; and so the disadvantages of inadequate or ineconomical express service are vital. The railway organization of America and its system of practices does not seem adapted to meet this great need; while its refusal, upon adequate grounds, to accept a smaller payment than the rate for its minimum shipment of 100 pounds precludes it from this service even if speed were not prerequisite. The minimum charge of 25 cents (average 27 cents) imposes an equally substantial and serious restriction upon the express service as now conducted; so that when it is considered that the farmers or nonurban, about half of our population, are virtually excluded from the service of this great agency, and the express rates by their prohibitive costliness substantially minimize the service for the urban population, it is apparent that instead of possessing an express service commensurate with its needs, the United States has both unexampled necessity for, and unexampled deficiency in, its dispatch or express agencies. Add to this situation the tremendous waste and corresponding costliness of the unorganized country-to-town transportation of our necessaries, and such almost equally wasteful and quite equally costly express service as we have, and have we not put a finger on one of the big leaks which swallow so much of the unprecedented productiveness of our country?
Prohibitive Express Charges
We should expect express charges to be higher per ton here than abroad, as much higher as our freight-per-ton charges. But no necessary economic cause is known which justifies a substantially higher proportion or ratio of the express to the freight charges here as compared with other countries. The average express charge per ton here is shown to be $31.20, while the average freight charge is $1.90 per ton, giving a ratio of the express charge to the freight charge of 16 (16.42) to 1. This express charge includes the cost of such collect and delivery service as is rendered, covering, it is thought, about 90 per cent of the traffic. In the table now inserted this element of the expense of the express companies for collecting and delivering, amounting to 11.50 per cent, is excluded, because many of the European countries and other data do not include this factor of cost. The table embraces 10 countries, while the specific data upon which the ratios are based are set forth in Appendix B. All countries have been included where the express data is clearly distinguishable from general freight statistics.
Ratios of average express charges to average freight charges in 11 countries.
| Countries | Average express charge per ton. | Average freight charge per ton. | Ratios of average express and freight charges. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | $6.51 | $1.95 | 3.2-1 |
| Austria | 3.77 | .74 | 5.0-1 |
| Belgium | [A]4.92 | .53 | [A]9.3-1 |
| Denmark | 5.49 | .87 | 6.3-1 |
| France | 6.88 | .95 | 7.2-1 |
| Germany | 3.80 | .76 | 5.0-1 |
| Hungary | 3.68 | .93 | 3.9-1 |
| Netherlands | 2.43 | .67 | 3.6-1 |
| Norway | 1.90 | .49 | 3.8-1 |
| Prussia | 4.32 | .86 | 5.0-1 |
| Average for 10 countries | 5.23-1 | ||
| United States | 27.61 | 1.90 | 14.53-1 |
[A] Belgium delivers parcels.
From this table it appears that while Argentina charges three times, Austria five times, Belgium nine times, Denmark six times, France seven times, Germany (including Prussia) five times, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Norway, about four times as much for carrying a ton of express as of freight, the express companies of the United States charge nearly fifteen times as much.
No further statement need be made to show that the charges of American express companies are prohibitively excessive, and such as to disqualify this service as a national economic agency. The instances given represent merchandise carried by passenger trains in all instances, and while higher charges for both the express and freight tonnage in America are justified by the longer haul, there is no necessary economic reason for a higher ratio of express charges to freight charges. The presence of the “express company” is the only circumstance distinguishing express transportation here from that of the instances cited. In those the “express company” has no part; the work is done exclusively by the railways. As we shall see later, the deficiencies of the express companies are constitutional, not gratuitous merely, and are such as can not be remedied through corporate agencies.