Nevertheless, the advantages of the present system over the old are not
sufficient. A large majority of the 25,000,000 persons served by the
rural postal delivery are still without express service. There is still
little opportunity for the direct transmission of foodstuffs from the
producer to the consumer which at the present time presents the most
hopeful method of attacking the soaring cost of food. There is still
much potential and helpful express business which has not been called
into being, and there is accordingly a considerable lowering in the
rates which has not yet been effected. There is still no possibility of
coordinating postal facilities with express facilities. There is still
no change in the method of remunerating the railroads, and hence in the
unscientific and discriminating methods of fixing rates. In a word, if
this study may be said to have proved anything, it has proved that the
express service belongs to the Post Office Department, not to the
Railroad Administration; indeed, one can hardly avoid the deduction that
the present war-time express system could have been adopted only from
considerations of either temporary political expediency or of transient
personal efficiency; or else of inattention to the true nature of the
problem presented.