Postmaster-General in 1890 regarding parcel post, but most of them had,
by 1891, expressed themselves in favour of a full parcel post system,
and according to Mr. Wanamaker the remainder were "probably interested
express agents." The situation was in some respects unsatisfactory. It
was a common practice for business firms to contract with express
companies to carry large quantities of small packages at a rate per
package just below the rate of postage. The express companies took such
of the packages as they thought fit to handle, and left the Post Office
to carry the remainder, all long-distance traffic, and unprofitable both
to the express companies and to the Post Office. But the companies were
secured by their profit in the short distances. Naturally, therefore,
they offered strenuous opposition to the establishment of a parcel
post.[416]
With the establishment of rural mail delivery there arose a new demand
for a parcel post. Persons living on the rural routes desired to take
advantage of the new service for the delivery of small parcels of
merchandise of all kinds, food-stuffs, tobacco, dry goods, etc., which
they would order from the local store-keeper by post or by telephone.
The rate then payable on such parcels was the general rate for
fourth-class matter, viz. 16 cents a pound, which for parcels of goods
of small intrinsic value was prohibitive. In response to this demand,
the first definite proposals for a parcel post[417] were put forward by
the department in 1904, when the establishment of a special rate of 3
cents a pound was suggested, with a maximum limit of weight of 5 pounds,
for parcels from any distributing office for rural routes to any patron
on the routes from that office. Such a rate "would be a great
convenience to the patrons and become a source of revenue to the
department." The rate of 3 cents was estimated to be ample remuneration
in such cases, because there would be no expense for railway
transportation, and as it would be merely employing a system already
established, there would be no additional expense for delivery: the
rural carriers could easily perform the service.[418] They had at first
been allowed to carry express packages, but the privilege had been
subsequently withdrawn. They were, however, still authorized by law to
carry merchandise for hire, on behalf of patrons of the rural routes,
and to carry passengers. In general, their work for the Post Office only
employed them to the extent of 30 percent, of their full capacity, and a
large unutilized margin therefore existed.
The proposal was again advanced in following years. Postmaster-General
Meyer interested himself in the question, and advocated in speeches in
various parts of the country the immediate adoption of a parcel post
system. In 1907 he suggested the introduction of a local parcel post
service experimentally. He made at this time numerous treaties with
foreign countries for parcel post services between those countries and
the United States, at a general rate of 12 cents a pound. The result was
that parcels could be posted at any town in the United States for
transmission to places in, say, Europe or Australia, at the rate of 12
cents a pound, but could only be posted for transmission to another town
in the United States on payment of a rate of 16 cents a pound. When this
situation was realized, there was naturally a good deal of irritation,
and the existence of such an anomaly was made an argument for a domestic
service.[419]
The preferential rate obtained by parcels going abroad continued to be a
strong argument in favour of a general parcel post, and members of
Congress constantly referred to it in the discussions on the subject.
There was, moreover, and still is, an important body of opinion which
goes much further than the advocacy of a parcel post system. In that
view, the express companies are the enemy or, at any rate, the
oppressive character of the express rates is viewed so seriously that no
solution of the present difficulties of the country, and especially of
the "high cost of living" problem, is thought possible short of a
complete express service run by the general Government. Relief will
only be found under some system which will bring the producer of the
necessaries of life into direct relationship with the consumer,[420] in
order that the enormous middleman's charges be eliminated and the
consumer obtain the produce at a price not greatly above the actual cost
of production. The railways refuse to handle shipments less than 100
pounds, and their minimum charge is 25 cents. The ordinary consumer who
requires consignments of much less than 100 pounds' weight has no use
for such a service. For shipments of less weight, the only service
available is the express service, the minimum rate for which, in general
25 cents, is too great for farm products, which are usually of low value
and could not bear a rate of 25 cents. The express service, which is
restricted to the railway system, has, moreover, no means of reaching
that vast body of the people, estimated at some 40,000,000, who are
living on the farms, and who alone are able to supply the desired
traffic in food-stuffs. The Government has in recent years, at heavy
expense, extended to some 20 millions of people the benefits of free
mail delivery, and the intention of the advocates of a Government
express service, a "postal express," is that the State should take over
the express companies, paying them fair compensation for their property,
and work their service in conjunction with the rural mail delivery. By
this means an extensive service could be provided at reasonable rates of
charge.[421]
In February 1908 Bills were introduced in the Senate to increase the
limit of weight of fourth-class matter, and to provide a rural delivery
parcel post for merchandise and other articles mailed on rural delivery
routes. Legislation did not, however, result.
Meantime, the feeling in favour of a parcel post was spreading, more
especially in the farming districts. In November 1911 a Sub-Committee of
the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads was appointed to
examine the practicability of establishing a parcel post system. The
Sub-Committee was appointed on a resolution of the Senate, moved by
Senator Jonathan Bourne, Jr., the Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Post Offices and Post Roads, and there is indication that the adoption
of the system had already been practically decided upon, the real
question before the Sub-Committee being that of its practicability as an
immediate proposition. The Post Office representatives advocated a
limited experimental introduction of parcel post on rural routes and in
the city delivery offices. They were impressed with the radical
differences between the United States and most other countries where
parcel post was in operation, and hesitated to recommend the
introduction of a general service. But the members of the Sub-Committee
had in mind to introduce as soon as practicable a complete system by the
method of enlarging the scope of the fourth-class regulations and
reducing the rates of postage. Numerous witnesses appeared before the
Sub-Committee, representing general societies of business men, such as
the National Dairy Union, the Associated Retailers of St. Louis, Me.,
and the Retail Dry Goods Association of New York; educational or social
societies, such as the American Library Association, the Postal Progress
League, and the Knights of Labour; farmers' societies, such as the State
Granges and the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of America.
Several farmers, lawyers, and other gentlemen appeared to give their own
personal views. The chief opposition to the parcel-post came from the
representatives of the retailers, who stand in constant fear of losing
their business to the mail-order or catalogue houses. The business of
these houses is very large, amounting in the aggregate to nearly
$200,000,000 per annum, and there is perhaps some reason for the local
merchants' apprehensions. The bulk of the mail-order traffic is,
however, distributed as freight. But the country merchants were much
alarmed, and there were doleful prophecies of the results of a parcel
post. The local merchant was represented as the mainstay of the
country-side. He it was who sustained the country town, which afforded
so valuable a local market for the farmer. He it was to whom alone that
same farmer could look for credit to tide him over bad times. He it was
who made the country town a social centre where the farmer might come
into touch with civilization and refinement. And on the continuance of
the prosperity of the country merchant depended the continuance of the
army of travelling salesmen, without whose patronage railroads would be
driven to reduce the number of trains, hotels would go out of business,
and throughout the country accommodation for travellers would be found
extremely poor. In short, parcel post would reduce the country merchant
to the same condition as the small shopkeeper in Europe; and the country
towns would become mere hamlets and deserted villages.[422]
The parcel post was, of course, as likely in 1912 to prove a blow to the
express companies as in the earlier years when they had so strongly
resisted any proposal for its introduction. In face, however, of the
strong and widespread movement in the country in its favour, they
realized that they would be unable always successfully to resist its
establishment, and no open opposition to the proposals of 1912 was
encountered from them. They did not appear before the Senate
Sub-Committee.
The Sub-Committee saw no insuperable difficulty in the way of
introducing a general system at once. Moreover, they were impressed by
the fact that a parcel post system was in operation in most other
countries of the world, even in Australia, a country slightly larger in
area than the United States and much more sparsely populated, where the
two factors which so radically distinguished the United States from most
other countries in which a parcel post had been established were met
with in even greater degree.
When the questions of the desirability and practicability of
establishing a system had been decided, there still remained the
difficult and important question of the scheme of rates of charge on
which the system should be based. Some of the witnesses before the
Sub-Committee advocated a uniform rate, representing that a graduated
rate was undesirable and would be unacceptable, as giving a special
privilege to certain sections of the people. A more general opinion was
that a flat rate would be unsound economically. With such a rate, the
express companies would step in and take all the profitable traffic; and
it would, moreover, be necessary to fix the rate so high as to render it
prohibitive for goods of low value and for the purpose of moving traffic
on the rural routes. In a country of vast extent the actual cost to the
Government for the transportation of parcels of the same weight would
differ widely in proportion to the distance for which they were conveyed
in the mails, and the differences would be sufficiently great to render
it easily possible to graduate a scale of postage approximately in
accordance with the distance and the actual cost. The department
estimated the cost of transportation for mail matter to be 1.32 cents
for each 200 miles, and taking this as a basis, differential rates in
respect of transportation were arrived at for a series of zones.
The charge for handling, i.e. for collection, delivery, administrative
and all other incidental services, was calculated as an altogether
separate item. The Sub-Committee had the evidence of Mr. John L.
Newbold, a gentleman of long experience in a transport business which
dealt mainly with small parcels for delivery within the limits of the
City of Washington, and was therefore in a high degree comparable to
delivery service which would be performed by the Post Office in respect
of parcels. Mr. Newbold offered to contract with the Government to
handle all post parcels for delivery within the City of Washington at 5
cents a parcel, with a limit of weight of 25 pounds. Estimates by
similar delivery companies in New York City indicated the cost to them
of packages up to 25 pounds, which was a little over 5 cents per
package. The department's estimate of the handling cost of fourth-class
matter showed a cost of a fraction under 3 cents for the first pound,
with an approximate increase of 20 per cent. for each additional pound.
These data furnished a basis for calculating rates of postage, when the
limitation of the zones had been determined, a matter of some little
difficulty. The first, and most obvious, suggestion was that the zones
should be reckoned as from each post office, but in view of the fact
that there were some 60,000 post offices in the United States, grave
practical difficulties would arise with a scheme providing for special
rates from each post office. It was then thought the State might be
adopted as the unit of area, but the States differ so widely in area
that such a system would have resulted inequitably, giving equal postage
charges for very unequal services. A citizen in Texas or New York State,
for example, would be able to send his parcel many times as far as a
citizen of Massachusetts or Delaware. The same objection applied, though
not in so great degree, to the county as a unit of area. Moreover, these
units would be liable to arbitrary change. Failing the discovery of any
satisfactory unit based on the political divisions, recourse was had to
purely theoretical divisions, based on the imaginary lines of latitude
and longitude. The actual degree parallels were rejected as the limits
of the units of area because, within the quadrangle formed by them,
there would be a maximum zone distance of some 80 miles; while at the
same time, for transmission between two places perhaps only two miles
apart but lying on different sides of the line, postage would be
chargeable as for the second zone. This difficulty was overcome by an
ingenious suggestion, which emanated from the department, to divide the
degree quadrangles in four, that is, into squares of 30 minutes
dimension, and to allow the sending of parcels at the first zone rate
from or to places in every contiguous quadrangle.
Under this method, which was adopted, the United States is divided into
3,500 units of area, which are definite, never-changing, and practically
uniform in size, the slight difference in area depending on the distance
from the Equator being negligible. Each unit is given an index number,
and all post offices in the unit have the same index number. Each unit
has its own zone limits, which apply equally to every office in the
unit. So that in order to discover for what zone postage is to be
charged between two places, it is only necessary to ascertain what are
the zone limits for the units of area in which the places are
respectively situated. A simple reference to a guide showing in what
unit of area the post office of destination falls, and a consultation
of the zone map of the office at which the packet is posted, that is, a
map showing the boundaries of each zone measured from the unit of area
in which the office is situated as centre, gives in a very short space
of time the rate applicable to the parcel.
A simplification of rates and regulations is always attended by a
diminution of the difficulties of administration, by economy of actual
working, and by convenience to the public. In connection with the
proposed parcel post the department, with these objects in view,
suggested the abolition of the separate class for printed matter, and
its amalgamation with the parcel post matter, thus reducing the number
of classes of mail matter to three. The Chairman of the Senate
Sub-Committee adopted this suggestion, and embodied it in the Bill which
he prepared and introduced in the Senate on the 16th May 1912,
retaining, however, a rate of 1 cent per ounce up to 4 ounces, in order
to provide for circular matter which, under the third-class rate, passed
at 1 cent for 2 ounces. This was apparently a doubling of the rate, but
as the average weight of circulars is under 1 ounce, in actual practice
the great bulk of them would continue to pass at 1 cent. This provision
would, however, raise the rate on all catalogues and circulars weighing
more than 1 ounce; and although 90 per cent. of the number of pieces of
third-class matter actually posted are under 4 ounces in weight and
would have fallen under the proposed special rate, and 50 per cent. are
under 1 ounce in weight and would have passed for the same amount as
under the existing third-class rate, viz. 1 cent, this provision of the
Bill was strenuously opposed by printers and catalogue houses. Not
regarding the consolidation of the two classes as in any way essential
to the establishment of a parcel post system, the Senate Committee on
Post Offices and Post Roads, when they came to consider the Bill,
decided to eliminate that feature.
In general this Bill represented the conclusions of the Sub-Committee,
and, apart from the foregoing change, was substantially accepted by the
Senate Committee. The only other amendments made were an increase of the
number of zones from six to eight, with the view of "protecting the
local merchant in the field of his business," and a slight raising of
the rates for the shorter distances, partly from a fear that the rates
proposed in the Bill would not be self-sustaining, and partly from a
desire further to protect the local retail merchant against the
catalogue houses.
The essential provisions of the Bill, as thus amended, were embodied in
the Post Office Appropriation Bill for the fiscal year 1913, were
accepted by Congress, and became law on the 24th August 1912. The actual
zones and rates fixed were as follows:--
First zone: All territory within quadrangle or unit of area and
every contiguous quadrangle.
Second zone: All units of area outside the first zone within a
radius of, approximately, 150 miles from the centre of a given unit
of area.
Third zone: The same within a radius of, approximately, 300 miles.
Fourth zone: The same within a radius of, approximately, 600 miles.
Fifth zone: The same within a radius of, approximately, 1,000
miles.
Sixth zone: The same within a radius of, approximately, 1,400
miles.
Seventh zone: The same within a radius of, approximately, 1,800
miles.
Eighth zone: All units of area outside the seventh zone.
The rates were:--
On rural route: 5 cents for the first pound or fraction of a pound,
and 1 cent for each additional pound or fraction of a pound.
Each additional
First Pound. Pound.
First zone 5 cents. 3 cents.
Second zone 6 " 4 "
Third zone 7 " 5 "
Fourth zone 8 " 6 "
Fifth zone 9 " 7 "
Sixth zone 10 " 9 "
Seventh zone 11 " 10 "
Eighth zone 12 " 12 "
Although, of course, with the body of the people the main arguments had
been the ordinary contentions of the advantage of such a system as
providing a most convenient facility for persons in all parts of the
States, and especially in the rural districts, whereby they would be
able by the utilization of existing machinery to have articles of all
descriptions brought to their doors, yet in Congress the argument was
largely based on the possibility of finding in the parcel post a means
of reducing the "high cost of living," a problem which is giving much
anxiety to politicians in America. By means of the parcel post, producer
and consumer are to be brought into direct relations the one with the
other. All middlemen and their profits will be eliminated, and either
the producer will get more for his products or the consumer will pay
less--which of these will happen does not appear: probably in some
degree both are hoped for.
The experience of England may not be any indication of what will happen
in America. But it is certain that in England the produce sent direct
from farm to consumer, whether eggs, butter, or poultry, is not obtained
by the consumer at less cost than he could buy it in his own town. There
is an advantage, but it rests solely in quality. The products obtained
from the farm are more fresh, are probably better altogether, but the
price is not less. In England these considerations have been sufficient
to prevent the wholesale use of the parcel post for food-stuffs. It is,
in fact, in general used for such traffic only by those people to whom a
little extra expense is not an object of consideration. The conditions
in America seem, however, to be substantially different from those in
this country, and a large development of parcel post business of this
character is anticipated.[423]
On the 15th August 1913 the limit of weight was increased to 20 pounds
in the local, first, and second zones; and on 1st January 1914 the limit
in local, first, and second zones was further increased to 50 pounds,
and in the remainder of the zones to 20 pounds. On the 16th March 1914
books and printed matter were admitted to the fourth class, or parcel
post, with a rate of postage of 1 cent for each 2 ounces up to 8 ounces,
the ordinary parcel post pound rates to apply to packets exceeding 8
ounces in weight.
The service, as a whole, has been enormously successful. It is estimated
that in the second year the post office was handling parcels at the rate
of 800,000,000 annually, a figure which may be compared to its advantage
with that for the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom the annual
number of parcels posted is some 130,000,000, say three per head of the
total population as compared with eight per head in the new service in
the United States.
* * * * *
PARCEL POST IN FRANCE
The conveyance of parcels of merchandise, which had been undertaken by
the early posts in France, was abandoned to private enterprise in
1795.[424] When, therefore, proposals were made for the establishment of
an international parcel post service, France was without an internal
service of the kind. She became, nevertheless, a party to the Convention
of 1880, which established an international service,[425] availing
herself of the privilege reserved to those countries without an inland
parcel post service, of arranging for their obligations under the terms
of the Convention to be assumed by railway and steamship companies. A
contract was concluded with the administration of the State railways,
the six great railway companies, and the shipping companies in receipt
of subsidies for the conveyance of mails, under which those bodies
undertook to conduct a service on behalf of the postal administration in
accordance with the provisions of the Convention. They were to receive
in its entirety the prescribed territorial transit rate of 50 centimes
on every parcel, but not the surtax of 25 centimes.[426] The payment of
50 centimes per parcel was to be divided by the companies among
themselves if the parcel was conveyed by more than one party, and
constituted the full remuneration for the entire service performed,
including the customs formalities. The contracting companies were
required to print at their own cost a list of places served, and to keep
the list available for reference by members of the public.