Until the twentieth century, then, the express companies remained
unchallenged and even uninvestigated in their control of the service of
transporting packages and parcels weighing more than four pounds.
(Packages and parcels up to four pounds in weight could be sent by
mail.) In ownership and control as well as in the nature of their
activities, they were linked with the great railroad systems; and there
was in addition an extensive amount of interownership between the
various express companies. When the 1907 (the second) Census report on
express companies was published, it was found that of the $68,853,200
capitalization of the seventeen important express companies,
$20,668,000, or 30%, was in the hands of the railroads as such. [The
express companies as such had reciprocated by buying and holding the
stock of railroad companies to the amount of $22,218,950 and railroad
bonds to the amount of $12,324,000.] Moreover, of the $68,853,200
capitalization of the express companies, $11,618,125, or 17%, was held
among the various express companies as such. How much of the remaining
53% of the capitalization of the express companies was held by
individuals interested in the railroad holdings and control cannot be
told, but may certainly be surmised.
It is therefore not surprising to find that in 1909 of the seven
directors of the Adams Express Company, four were directors of railroad
companies; of the nine directors of the American Express Company, three;
of the seven of the Pacific Express Company, six; of the seven of the
United States Express Company, two; and of the thirteen of the
Wells-Fargo Company, ten. In 1918, more than half of the directors of
the four large express companies were also directors of railroads. The
explanation of the willingness of the railroad companies not to disturb
the express companies in their exclusive exploitation of the express
service field is hence not difficult to find. Even those few of the
directors who were not directors in railway systems were nevertheless
also of that group of controllers of industry which was responsible for
the sinister connection between American politics and American big
business which for so many years had prostituted the promise of American
life. Furthermore, whatever few regulations could be applied generally
to corporations as such had little effect upon the express companies;
for the Wells-Fargo and the Southern were, and up to the present time
are, the only large companies which have the corporation structure. The
other three maintain their early status as limited partnerships of a
fixed number of shares without fixed par value, although the Adams
Express Company, on December 15, 1913, assigned a par value of $100 to
each of its 120,000 shares outstanding, giving it a capitalization of
$12,000,000.
Of no less wisdom than cynicism accordingly was the remark of a
prominent American statesman when propaganda for the establishment of a
parcel-post had finally begun to rear its defiant head: "There are four
reasons why the parcel-post cannot be established in the United States,"
with the explanation, when pressed for details: "The four reasons are:
(1) The Adams Express Company; (2) the Wells-Fargo Express Company; (3)
The American Express Company; and (4) The United States Express
Company."