Part 3

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.

With the adoption of new conveniences of life by urban residents, and the ever-increasing attractions of the city, especially potent in their influence upon the younger generation, the importance of affording farmers and ruralites generally every legitimate advantage becomes more and more apparent. The free rural delivery has improved materially and intellectually the life of great numbers of these people. Is it too much to ask that the Department shall make a further use of this important system; a use which, while adding appreciably to the postal revenues, will directly and vitally benefit every man, woman, and child within reach of a rural route? The countryman would have the necessities of life delivered at his gate at an average cost of 2 cents a pound, thereby facilitating and increasing consumption. This would mean augmentation of the trade of thousands of country merchants. The commercial traveler should appreciate the advantages of this system; it would increase his orders because the country merchant buys from the jobber or the wholesaler. Every component part of our commercial system would feel the effects of an increased prosperity.

It would inevitably tend toward the improvement of the roads. Better roads and improved postal facilities in the rural districts would result in increased values of farm lands. The rural service as now organized has accomplished something in this direction; its enlargement will add to the good attained.

Believe me, faithfully yours,

G. v. L. Meyer.

Hon. Henry E. Burnham, _United States Senate, Washington_.

Exhibit 1.

Parcel Post Rates in the Domestic Service of the Countries Named.

Great Britain.--Postage rates for the first pound, 3 pence (6 cents), and for each additional pound, 1 penny (2 cents); maximum weight, 11 pounds; greatest length, 3 feet 6 inches; greatest length and girth combined, 6 feet.

New Zealand and the States Composing the Commonwealth for Australia.--Limits of weight and size, same as in Great Britain. Postage rates, 6 pence (12 cents) for the first pound, and 3 pence (6 cents) for each additional pound.

Germany.--Greatest weight, 50 kilograms (about 110 pounds); no limit of size. Postage rates: For all parcels conveyed not more than 10 geographic miles, 25 pfennig (6 cents), and 50 pfennig (13 cents) for greater distance; if a parcel weighs more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds av.), it is charged for each additional kilogram (2 pounds) carried 10 miles, 5 pfennig (1 cent); 20 miles, 10 pfennig (3 cents); 50 miles, 20 pfennig (5 cents); 100 miles, 30 pfennig (8 cents); 150 miles, 40 pfennig (10 cents); and more than 150 miles, 50 pfennig (13 cents). Unwieldy parcels are charged in addition 50 per cent of the above rates.

Austria.--Greatest weight, 50 kilograms (110 pounds); except that parcels containing gold or silver coin may weigh up to 65 kilograms (143 pounds). Postage rates: Parcels up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in weight are charged 30 heller (6 cents) for the first 10 miles, and 60 heller (12 cents) for greater distances. A parcel weighing more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds) is charged for each kilogram (2 pounds) in addition to the above rates, for the first 10 miles, 6 heller (1 cent); 20 miles, 12 heller (2 cents); 50 miles, 24 heller (5 cents); 100 miles, 36 heller (7 cents); 150 miles, 48 heller (10 cents), and more than 150 miles, 60 heller (12 cents).

France.--Greatest weight 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds); no limit of size. Postage rates: Up to 3 kilograms (7 pounds), 60 centimes (12 cents) delivered at the railway station, and 85 centimes (17 cents) delivered at a residence; from 3 to 5 kilograms (7 to 11 pounds), 80 centimes (16 cents) at a station, and 1 franc 5 centimes (21 cents) at residence; from 5 to 10 kilograms (11 to 22 pounds), 1 franc 25 centimes (25 cents) at a station, and 1 franc 50 centimes (30 cents) at a residence.

Belgium.--Greatest weight 60 kilograms (about 132 pounds); no limit of size, but unwieldy parcels are charged 50 per cent in addition to the following rates for any distance: Parcels up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds), 50 centimes (10 cents)--or if by express trains, 80 centimes (16 cents); up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds), 60 centimes (12 cents)--or if by express trains, 1 franc (20 cents); for each additional 10 kilograms (22 pounds), 10 centimes (2 cents)--or if sent by express trains, 50 centimes (10 cents) additional. Fee for delivering at residences, 30 centimes (6 cents).

Italy.--Greatest weight, 5 kilograms (11 pounds). For ordinary parcels, greatest size in any direction, 60 centimeters (2 feet), except rolls which may measure 1 meter (40 inches--3 feet 4 inches) in length by 20 centimeters (8 inches) in thickness. Postage rates for a parcel not exceeding 3 kilograms (7 pounds), 60 centimes (12 cents); and 1 franc (20 cents) for a parcel exceeding that weight. A parcel which exceeds 60 centimeters (2 feet) in any direction, but does not exceed 1½ meters (5 feet), is admitted to the mails as an “unwieldy” parcel and is charged, in addition to the above rates, 30 centimes (6 cents) if it does not weigh more than 3 kilograms (7 pounds), and 50 centimes (10 cents) if it exceeds that weight.

The Netherlands.--Greatest weight, 5 kilograms (11 pounds); greatest size, 25 cubic decimeters (1,525 cubic inches), or 1 meter (3 feet 4 inches) in any direction. Postage rates: 15 (6) cents (Dutch) up to 1 kilogram (2 pounds); 20 (8) cents from 1 to 3 kilograms (2 to 7 pounds); 25 cents (10) from 3 to 5 kilograms (7 to 11 pounds).

Chile.--Greatest weight, 5 kilograms (11 pounds); must not measure more than 60 centimeters (2 feet) in any direction. Postage rates: 30 centavos (10 cents) if a parcel does not weigh more than 3 kilograms (7 pounds); 50 centavos (17 cents) if it weighs more.

Cuba.--Greatest weight, 11 pounds; greatest size, 3 feet 6 inches in length by 2 feet 6 inches in width. Postage rates: 10 centavos (10 cents) a pound up to 5 pounds; and 6 centavos (6 cents) for each additional pound.

Exhibit 2.

Rates recommended by the Postmaster-General in his annual report (year ended June 30, 1907) for packages forwarded through the mails to post-offices in the United States and its possessions, subject to the regulations which exist at the present time, with the exception of increasing the weight limit to 11 pounds.

Cents.

One ounce 1 Over 1 ounce and not exceeding 3 ounces 2 Over 3 ounces and not exceeding 4 ounces 3 Over 4 ounces and not exceeding 5 ounces 4 Over 5 ounces and not exceeding 6 ounces 5 Over 6 ounces and not exceeding 8 ounces 6 Over 8 ounces and not exceeding 12 ounces 9 Over 12 ounces and not exceeding 16 ounces 12

Exhibit 3.

Rates recommended by the Postmaster-General in his annual report (fiscal year ended June 30, 1907) for packages covered by the special local parcel post on rural delivery routes.

Cents. For the first pound 5 For each additional pound, up to 11 pounds 2 For fractional parts of a pound: Two ounces or less 1 Over 2 ounces and up to 4 ounces 2 Over 4 and up to 8 ounces 3 Over 8 and up to 12 ounces 4 Over 12 ounces and up to 1 pound 5

Our Postal Express.

James L. Cowles.

The United States post-office has always been an express service, although Congress long confined the business to sealed parcels of very small weights--not over 3 pounds--and at very high rates graduated according to distance, with no insurance whatever against loss or damage in the mails. In 1874, however, the business was extended over all kinds of merchandise in unsealed parcels at a common rate of one cent each two ounces, regardless at once of distance and of the volume of a patron’s business. This placed the humblest citizen in the most out of the way postal district of the country on a par with the biggest corporation in our greatest metropolis as to the cost of the transportation of his produce and of his supplies in parcels up to four pounds, and, though still with no insurance against loss or damage, the new postal express immediately became a dangerous competitor to the private express company with its distance rates based on what the subject will bear and always discriminating in favor of the big town against the little town, the big corporation against the ordinary citizen.

The private express interests got quickly to work, therefore, and Congress soon checked up the growing postal express business by increasing the postal rate one hundred per cent--from eight to sixteen cents a pound. Later Congress bowed to the powerful book and seed interests of the country and reduced the rate on their merchandise to the old rate of 1874, and now, for many years, the post-office and the public have been subjected to two sets of rates on matter indistinguishable both in character and as to the cost of their transportation.

The evil of this absurd postal classification, continued these twenty years by Congress, becomes decidedly evident when our domestic service is compared with the foreign parcels post services established by President Taft and Postmaster-General Hitchcock, with their common 11 pound weight limit at 12 cents a pound, on all merchandise posted from the United States to foreign countries and from those countries to the United States:

From Austria: 4½ pounds .35 11 pounds .86

From Italy: 7 pounds .39 11 pounds .79

From Norway: 2½ pounds .16 11 pounds .96

From Germany: 4½ pounds .33 11 pounds .81

From Belgium: 4½ pounds .35 11 pounds 1.10

U. S. Foreign Rates: 2¼ pounds .36 7 pounds .84 11 pounds 1.32

U. S. Domestic Service: 2¼ pounds .36 4½ pounds (2 parcels) .72 7 pounds (2 parcels) 1.12 11 pounds (3 parcels) 1.76

Under the English post-American express arrangement English postal parcels now come to New York three pounds for sixty cents; seven pounds for 84c; eleven pounds for $1.08, and these parcels are forwarded by the American express company throughout the country at a common rate of twenty-four cents a parcel, eight cents a pound on a three-pound parcel; about three and a half cents a pound on a seven-pound parcel, and less than two and a half cents a pound on an eleven-pound parcel. Meantime the express company taxes domestic merchandise of the same weights from 25 cents to $3.20, according to the distance traversed, while Congress taxes the public for a similar domestic postal service, three pounds, forty-eight cents; seven pounds, 2 parcels, $1.12; eleven pounds, 3 parcels, $1.76.

Data Relative to Proposed Extension of Parcel Post. pp. 8-14.

From The Boston Herald.

Ernest G. Walker.

Postmaster-General Wanamaker first actively urged the establishment of a parcels post on a large scale. He summed up the situation epigrammatically in his 100 reasons for it and only 4 reasons against it--those 4 being the express companies. Others after him, especially the late Postmaster-General Bissell, made like recommendations. But Mr. Meyer now has an advantage in his campaign which none of his predecessors had in the rural delivery routes. Every one of the many thousands of routes would be a little parcels service in itself, aside from being a line of communication, by which small packages could be conveyed from all parts of the country or to any part of the country. Mr. Meyer is building much upon that fact. The local service at cheaper rates will also protect the local store-keepers, to which the big department stores and mail-order establishments are bogeys.

Ever since he announced his intention of urging a better parcels post service for the United States, the Postmaster-General has been the recipient of many letters. These come from various classes of people. Most of them commend his plan, but the retail associations, such as the associations of hardware men and grocers, come out in bold opposition. It is such people as these that the Postmaster-General hopes to convert when they are brought to understand the details of what he wants to do. Some of these critics, besides claiming that the legislation would favor the catalogue houses, argue that the government should not go into a general freight business and that if the express companies are charging exorbitant rates, the Interstate Commerce Commission, which now has authority over them, should step in and require that the rates be lowered.

The operations of parcels post in other countries make a very interesting transportation chapter. They are conducted on a gigantic scale and, apart from what J. Henniker Heaton, long an English member of Parliament from Canterbury, and a great advocate of postal reforms, calls “grandmotherly regulations,” have worked with practically world-wide success. Shopping by mail is made easy, whether one in the country would trade with the local draper or the big metropolitan merchant.

Great Britain’s conservative enactments will likely be a model for any extension of the parcels post service by Congress. The service is almost twenty-five years old over there. It has become one of the most important and highly appreciated postal features. Its growth has been continuous and phenomenal. The scope has frequently been broadened. There was an early clamor for an agricultural parcels post. The owners of small farms in remote localities wanted it. The growers of spring flowers in Kerry said it would enable them to compete with the south of France and the Scilly Isles. Eventually the agricultural parcels post was authorized and also spacious dimensions for packages. Flower growers can now send full length orchid spikes and long-stemmed roses by post, where formerly only simple blooms were admissable.

_Send Fish, Eggs and Fruit_

The produce of the culturists goes forward to London and other big English cities in tremendous volume. Fresh fish, dispatched from seaport towns to the large hotels, are delivered with celerity. Meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, and freshly laid eggs in mail packages under the 11-pound limit form a very considerable factor in the commerce of the Kingdom.

The general rates are low. A 1-pound parcel takes a three-penny stamp. That is 6 cents in our money. For 2 pounds an 8-cent stamp is required; for three pounds, a 10-cent stamp; for 5 pounds, 12 cents; for 7 pounds, 14 cents; 8 pounds, 16 cents; 9 pounds, 18 cents; 10 pounds, 20 cents, and 11 pounds, 22 cents. Four-pound parcels cost as much as five pounds, and 6 pounds cost as much as 7 pounds. For inland parcels 3 feet 6 inches is the maximum length; 6 feet the maximum measurement for length and girth. These have been adopted as standard dimensions in the services of numerous other countries. Parcels should not be posted at a letter box, but presented at the counter of a postoffice. The government virtually guarantees the sender against loss up to $10. Payment of a registry fee of 4 cents, in addition to the regular postage, insures the parcel for $25; a 25-cent registry stamp carries an insurance of $1,000. There have been demands, not yet conceded, for the cash on delivery system that several European countries have adopted.

The big retail stores of London avail themselves extensively of the parcels service for delivery of goods. The rates, ranging from 6 to 22 cents, are not prohibitive. In many cases the government service is cheaper and quicker. Laundries return washing by parcels post. In Germany, where the rates are even cheaper, lads away at school send their soiled linen home by mail to be washed and it is returned to them by the same conveyance.

Sidney Buxton, the postmaster-general of Great Britain, in his last report, statistically demonstrates the continuous growth, and consequently the popularity, of the parcels post in the United Kingdom. The number of parcels delivered in the country districts of England and Wales in 1896-97 was 41,512,000, and increased annually by from 3 to 6 per cent, till in 1905-6 the number was 66,277,000. In the London district for the same ten-year period the increase was from 11,229,000 parcels to 18,167,000. A similar increase was shown for Scotland from 6,802,000 to 10,725,000 parcels, and for Ireland, where the increase was from 4,172,000 in 1896-97 to 6,513,000 in 1905-6.

The gross amount of revenue the government collected increased from £1,445,126 for 63,715,000 parcels in the United Kingdom for the first year of the decade to £2,138,673 for 101,682,000 parcels in the last year of the decade. The post-office’s share of these collections increased from £763,307 to £1,142,224. The average postage per parcel decreased during the period from about 11 cents to 10 cents. The postmaster-general undertakes to deliver both letters and parcels at every house in the Kingdom. They are delivered by the same postman, except in the large towns, where there is a special staff for parcel work.

_Call Swiss Service Best_

Because of competition from private agencies, that have charges graduated on a basis of distance, there is a tendency for an unduly high proportion of long distance parcels and parcels for delivery in rural districts, which are the least remunerative. The post-office has met this competition by establishing, for comparatively short distances, a large number of horse and motor parcel van services, as road conveyance for these distances makes possible an economy as compared with conveyance by railway at the charge of 55 per cent of the receipts.

The Swiss is cited much as one of the most efficient and satisfactory in Europe. The mountain villages and resorts of that industrious little country receive a large portion of their supplies by post, as a maximum weight of 110 pounds is carried within a radius of 62 miles. The conditions there are somewhat the same as with the dwellers in the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains, to whom it has been declared that a parcels post would be a great boon because there is no prospect that either the railroads or the express companies will ever approach their hamlets and villages.

This Swiss law includes an agricultural parcels post and likewise a passenger post, agitation for both of which has generally followed the establishment of parcels post in most countries. The passenger post of Switzerland is something like the mail coaches in the United States before the coming of railroads, except that the coaches are owned by the state and the fees are prescribed by the same authority. A very large business is done in sending parcels through the mails. A treasury official, who was traveling in Switzerland during the past summer, saw at one railroad station several enormous baskets filled with hams and provisions. They were samples of mail parcels under the 110-pound limit.

_Cash on Delivery Plan_

The general rates are more liberal than in any other country. A parcel weighing 1 pound is carried anywhere within the boundaries of the Federation for 3 cents, a 5-pound parcel for 5 cents, a 11-pound parcel for 8 cents, a 22-pound parcel for 17 cents, a 33-pound parcel for 23 cents, and a 44-pound parcel for 33 cents. Parcels weighing as much as 110 pounds are carried within a radius of 62 miles for 60 cents, which enables many of the peasants to market much of their light produce by mail. The rates are so adjustable that housewives can secure anything by post from a paper of pins to a bag of flour. The V. P., or value payable, system is a part of the Swiss postal arrangements, so that purchaser can pay for his goods on delivery, and there is but one financial transaction connected with the purchase as far as he is concerned. A provision for delivery makes the service all the more attractive.

Belgium’s parcels post has even a higher weight limit than Switzerland, for it accepts articles of 62 kilograms, or about 132 pounds, in one package, and puts no limit upon the size, except that unwieldy packages are subject to an extra charge of 50 per cent. But up to 5 kilograms, which is the conventional 11-pound limit of a majority of the parcels post countries, the charge is 50 centimes, or 10 cents; for 10 kilograms 12 cents, and two cents extra for every additional 10 kilograms (22 pounds). A higher charge is made in Belgium, as in several other European countries, if the parcel is to be carried on an express train. It amounts to six cents for five kilograms. The fee for delivering at residence is six cents additional.

Germany and Austria maintain the 50-kilogram limit. The first named country enforces the 50 per cent extra charge for unwieldy articles. It also has what is called the zone system. For conveyance 10 geographic miles the charge is six cents (25 pfennigs), and 13 cents (50 pfennigs) for greater distances. If the parcel weighs more than 11 pounds there is a charge of one cent (five pfennigs) for each additional kilogram carried 10 miles, 10 pfennigs for 20 miles, 20 pfennigs for 50 miles, 30 pfennigs for 100 miles, 40 pfennigs for 150 miles, and 50 pfennigs, approximately 13 cents, for more than 150 miles. The same rate of charges applies in Austria.

_A Table of Charges_

The French parcels post law requires presentation at the railroad station. Some other European countries, like Great Britain, require it to be delivered at the postoffice. The French maximum weight is 10 kilograms (22 pounds) without any restriction as to size. The postage rates are 12 cents up to 3 kilograms; 16 cents up to 5 kilograms, and 30 cents up to 10 kilograms. These rates are for delivery at a railroad station. An extra fee of 25 centimes (5 cents) is charged for delivering the parcel at the residence of the addressee.

Certain elementary items of cost enter into the service of European countries that would not be identical with the maintenance of a similar service in the United States. In Germany a considerable mileage of the railroads is state owned. They carry certain parcels in the mails without compensation. In large sections of Europe there has never been anything like adequate service by express companies, and in the absence of business enterprises in establishing such transportation the people have been compelled to look to their governments for relief. The cheap rates for parcels post there were originally, in some part, intended as an accommodation for the poorer classes.

The distances for transportation are less and the population is denser. The United States is 225 times larger than Switzerland, 60 times larger than England, 17 times larger than Germany, 12 times larger than the three countries combined. In England the average distance a letter or mail package travels is 40 miles; in Germany it is 42 miles; in the United States it is said to be 542 miles.