But the hardest blow to the express companies had been delivered on
August 24, 1912. On that day, after years of agitation, a bill providing
for a parcel-post in the United States became the law of the land; and
the parcel-post system went into effect on January 1, 1913. Congressman
David J. Lewis conducted a staunch campaign to have a postal express
provision included in the new law, but unsuccessfully; and the weight
limit of the parcels which could be sent through the post office was
fixed at eleven pounds. Nevertheless, the United States Express Company
saw the handwriting on the wall, and in that year decided to wind up its
business, ceasing operations on June 30, 1914.
The detailed history of the development of the parcel-post in the United
States, closely related as are the parcel-post and express problems, is
not pertinent to this study. It is sufficient to point out that more and
more the parcel-post has been broadened so as to include much of what
was the express companies' field. At the present time, the weight limit
is 70 lbs. for a distance up to 300 miles and 50 lbs. for greater
distances. Packages may be sent collect on delivery up to $100, and
they may be insured up to $100. There are separate fees for those two
latter services up to ten cents, which amount covers both a collection
on delivery of $100 and insurance of $100. A receipt is given for the
uninsured pre-paid parcel for a fee of one cent. So that by January 1,
1918, the business of transporting goods too small or too valuable to be
transported as freight was divided between two agencies in competition
with each other--one of them governmental, one of them private.
_THE PRESENT ACTIVITIES OF EXPRESS COMPANIES_
Before considering the problem thus presented to the mind--nor would it
be inexact to add, to the conscience of every keenly-scrutinizing
student of political and industrial phenomena in the United States--a
resume of the practically contemporaneous activities of the private
express companies will be helpful. In the twelve months preceding
January 1, 1918, the statistics of the eight express companies doing
interstate business in the United States--the Adams, American, Canadian,
Great Northern, Northern, Southern, Wells-Fargo and Western--were as
follows: