Selected Articles on the Parcels Post

by Unknown

The interstate rate in the parcels post among the six states of Australia is as follows: One pound, 8 pence (16 cents); 2 pounds, 1 shilling 2 pence; 3 pounds, 1 shilling 8 pence; and 6 pence additional for each additional pound up to and including 11 pounds, making the charge for an 11-pound parcel 5 shillings 8 pence ($1.36).

New Zealand is 1,200 miles from Australia and extends for 1,100 miles. It has a population of only 1,000,000. Yet the rate in the parcels posts between the States of Australia and New Zealand is just the same as it is among the States of Australia, and the weight limit is the same.

Now, if the people of Belgium and Germany should have a less postage rate and a higher weight limit in their domestic parcels post than we have because the population of Germany and Belgium is denser than our population, then we should have a much less postage rate and a much higher weight limit in our domestic parcels post than have the people of Australia, because our population is more than ten times as dense as the population of Australia. But, on the contrary, the average postage rate in not only the intrastate but also in the interstate parcels post of Australia is less than in our domestic parcels post, and the weight limit is 11 pounds, as compared with 4 pounds in our domestic parcels post. The rule laid down by the opponents of a modern parcels post for the United States must apply to Australia as well as to Belgium and Germany, and by this rule the rate in our domestic parcels post should certainly be less than 8 cents a pound and the weight limit should certainly be far above 11 pounds.

The postage rate in the domestic parcels post of New Zealand is 4 pence (8 cents) for the first pound and 2 pence (4 cents) for each additional pound. The population of New Zealand is less than one-half as dense as our population. The weight limit in the domestic parcels post of New Zealand is 11 pounds. If the argument of the opponents of a modern parcels post for the United States, founded on the density of population is correct, then the rate in our domestic parcels post, instead of being several times that of New Zealand, should be less, and the weight limit, instead of being only about one-third that of New Zealand, should be greater.

Our parcels post with foreign countries shows beyond argument that the postage rate in our domestic parcels post should be not more than one-third of what it is, at the utmost, and that the weight limit should be several times what it is. The domestic parcels posts of other countries and of Australia and New Zealand show also beyond argument that the postage rate in our domestic parcels post should be only a fraction of what it is and that the weight limit should be several times greater.

Whether or not the railways are owned by the government does not touch the argument founded on the parcel post of other countries. If government ownership of railways lessens the cost of the postal service, it may be an argument that our Post-Office Department pays our railways too high a rate for transporting mail matter, but it has nothing to do with the character of the mail service our government should give our people.

As a matter of fact, government ownership of railways has no apparent effect on the parcel post of foreign countries. Both those in which the railways are in large part owned by the government and those in which the government does not own any railway mileage have a parcel post much superior to ours.

Possibly our government should not conduct a parcel post at any considerable loss, although it should be borne in mind that the object of our Post-Office Department is to serve the people and not to make money. It might be successfully argued that fundamentally there is no greater reason why the Post-Office Department should be a source of revenue than that the War Department should be a source of revenue. The mails have become so very important in the transaction of business, in the communication of intelligence, and affect so many of the operations of our daily life, that each year it becomes apparent that the test of our Post-Office Department should be the excellence of the service it gives our people; and the relation of expenditures, so long as they are judiciously and economically made, to receipts is of less and less importance. But we would not advocate any parcel post that, when fully established and on a normal basis, would add much, if any, to the net cost of our Post-Office Department. However, it is apparent from a study of the profits of our express companies that our Post-Office Department could carry parcels in our domestic post at a much less rate than 16 cents a pound without increasing the net cost of the Post-Office Department. Further, a study of the profits of our express companies show clearly that we are being charged altogether too much by these express companies for the service they give us, and that their charges should be subjected to that most effective of all control—the competition of a modern parcel post. This study shows with equal plainness that the present weight limit on parcels in our domestic post, which compels us to send by express all parcels weighing more than 4 pounds, should be raised to a much higher figure, probably 25 or even 100 pounds. Recent investigations and revelations have shown that our express companies are really subjecting us to extortion.

The competition of a modern parcels post may not prove sufficient of itself to make the charges of the express companies what they should be, but it would certainly be most effective in accomplishing this result. We are subjected to overcharges by express companies as are the people of no other country on the face of the earth. In fact, the most important countries of Europe, as well as Australia, New Zealand, etc., are not subjected to any overcharges at all by express companies for the reason that in those countries and colonies there are no express companies of the nature of those existing in this country. On account of the overcharges of our express companies we have a very good reason, indeed, for a modern parcels post in this country; and this very good reason is in addition to those that so many other countries have found amply sufficient to warrant a modern parcels post.

And it should not be forgotten that the enormous profits of our express companies on the capital they actually have invested in the express business show conclusively that our government could give us a modern parcel post without increasing the net cost of the postal service after that parcel post had been established and its business had reached normal proportions.