The post-office savings bank and parcels post is the most important institution which has been created in the last fifty years for the welfare of the people. I consider the act which called the institution into existence as the most useful and fruitful of my long career.
It is because we realize these truths so keenly that we are so persistent in urging favorable consideration of a parcels post. Its only fault is its conservatism. What this country now needs, what Congress should give it, is a parcels post covering much of the business of public transportation.
In April last representatives of at least 10,000,000 American voters, including the great agricultural associations of the country, National Grange, the Farmers’ Union, the Farmers’ National Congress, Retail Dry Goods Association of New York, the Associated Retailers of St. Louis, the manufacturing perfumers of the United States, the American Florist Association, and others, appeared before the House Postal Committee, demanding a domestic express post as extended and as cheap as that provided by the Postmaster-General in our foreign postal service. The argument in behalf of this legislation, with its 4-pound weight limit, had then been before the committee for many months, but the bill was not up to the demands of these friends of the post-office. The report of the hearing showed that the public wanted an 11-pound service at least. Seldom, if ever, has any proposition received a stronger public support, and it seemed as if the House Committee on Post-Offices would be obliged to report at least some legislation back to the House for its consideration.
Their answer finally came on the 27th of May in the shape of H. R. 26348, introduced by Chairman John W. Weeks, which provides:
That all mail matter of the fourth class shall be subject to examination and to a postage charge at the rate of three-fourths of 1 cent an ounce or fraction thereof, to be prepaid by stamps affixed—stamps of the following denominations:
| Cents. | |
|---|---|
| 1 ounce | ¾ |
| 2 ounces | 1½ |
| 3 ounces | 2¼ |
| 4 ounces | 3 |
| 5 ounces | 3¾ |
| 6 ounces | 4½ |
| 7 ounces | 5¼ |
| 8 ounces | 6 |
On the 1st of June Mr. Weeks wrote to the secretary of the Postal Progress League as follows:
It does not seem to me likely that any other parcels-post legislation than possibly the bill which I introduced last week—this bill—providing for the reduction in rate on fourth-class matter, will be considered at this session of Congress.
This means that for at least two years more the American people are to be left subject to the extortions of the rich and powerful express companies, while we have in the post-office a well-equipped service of our own through which much of the people’s business now carried on by these companies could be done quicker and at infinitely less cost.
Mr. Speaker, if the powers arraigned against the post-office continue their efforts to limit its functions in behalf of private interests, they will soon find themselves confronted with a Congress pledged to extend the service of the post-office to a much larger degree of the public transmission business; and hence, I think it wise that my bill should now be brought before the House for immediate consideration.