friction with customs officers. Boxes with declared value are subject
to the legislation of the country of origin or destination as regards
payment of stamp duties on articles exported and as regards the control
of stamp and customs duties on articles imported. The stamp duties and
charges for examination by customs officers involved in the importation
are collected from the addressees when the articles are delivered.
_Provision for Insurance_
Practically the same rules apply for all parcels post. There is
provision for insurance and also for “trade charges,” which latter
term means that goods can be sent c. o. d., the maximum value being
f.1000. The limit of weight is 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. The cost
of conveyance comprises a charge of 10 cents for each country
participating in the territorial transit, a graduated distance tax
for sea conveyance and extra rates for cumbersome parcels, and may be
increased under certain conditions by delivery fees and, in case of
declared values, by insurance fees. Weights under 2 pounds, however,
are transported for a maximum of 1 franc. Special forms are provided
for registering for customs declaration, for certificate of prepayment,
when that is desired, and for trade charges.
The United States is not a party to this comprehensive parcels post
convention, by which a vast quantity of merchandise is carried to
different parts of the world annually, but Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Venezuela are among the signatories.
But the United States has parcels post conventions with 33 different
countries on somewhat different but fairly liberal terms. It keeps the
postage for parcels it sends to other countries and they in turn retain
the postage on parcels sent here. That saves in bookkeeping and has
been found economical, whereas the more comprehensive convention, under
which most of the European and Asiatic countries operate, divide the
postage receipts pro rata. The United States will not transmit through
its mails parcels en route from one foreign country to another. Among
the latest parcels post conventions the President has ratified under
statute authority are those with Sweden, Peru, Denmark, Ecuador, and
Bermuda.
_Customs Easily Collected_
The popularity in this country of the parcels post is well demonstrated
by the great growth in the use of international facilities. The
dispatches from this country for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905,
amounted to 560,228 pounds and for the year ending June 30, 1906, was
721,164 pounds, an increase of 28.73 per cent. Only one-fifth of the
dispatches of the last mentioned fiscal year went to Europe, which
indicates that a good share of the parcels business was with Mexico and
Central South America. Parcels for Germany, Hongkong, Japan, Norway,
Belgium, Great Britain, Sweden, and Denmark are accepted only for a
maximum weight of 4 pounds and 6 ounces, where the maximum weight
for the other countries with which the Postoffice Department now has
conventions is 11 pounds.
The customs officials say that the parcels post business with
foreign countries is increasing by leaps and bounds. Within recent
months better facilities for the collection of customs dues have
been inaugurated, with the result it is said, that many packages
which hitherto passed without being noted are now being examined and
recorded. There are offices of exchange, so called, in several of the
larger post-offices of the United States where customs officials are
stationed to attend to the collection of duties on these parcels from
abroad. In the Washington City post-office this foreign parcels post
business is said to have increased 300 per cent within the last twelve
months. The Treasury Department keeps about 25 customs employees now on
duty at the New York City post-office to attend to the foreign parcels
post business which goes through that office. Dutiable packages to
minor offices are handled from exchange offices. Such mail addressed
to Plymouth, Mass., for instance, would be held till the addressee had
forwarded to the postmaster at Boston the amount of duty required.
Post-office, Our Mutual Express Company. pp. 1-3.
William S. Bennet.
MR. CHAIRMAN: In connection with this subject I take pleasure in
submitting the following views of the Postal Progress League:
_The Post-Office, Our Mutual Express Company_
From the foundation of our national government, the people of the
United States, through their representatives in Congress, have always
determined the scope of their postal service, the pay of their mail
carriers, their own postal rates; and from the first they seem to have
provided for the postal transport of merchandise in very small sealed
parcels at very high rates--by the act of 1792, 24 cents an ounce for
distances up to 30 miles, higher rates for greater distances. In 1810
they fixed the postal weight limit at 3 pounds, and it so remained
for many years. In 1863 the postal rates were made uniform regardless
of distance, and since 1863 Congress has definitely provided for the
transport of merchandise in unsealed parcels, but still with a weight
limit so low and rates so high as to be practically prohibitive.
In the old era of household industries when the peddler, with his
pack on his back, or driving his own team, was the chief agency of
commercial intercourse, these postal limitations worked little harm,
but their continuance in our day, when every industry needs a continent
for its development, is no longer endurable. The common welfare
demands the widest possible extension, the most efficient and economic
administration of our great mutual express company.
In its report of January 28, 1907, the Postal Commission of the
Fifty-ninth Congress declared that: “Upon the postal service, more than
upon anything else, does the general economic as well as the social and
political development of the country depend.” And yet the United States
merchandise post of to-day is limited to 4-pound parcels at rates:
Sealed parcels 2 cents an ounce, 32 cents a pound, with no insurance
against loss or damage unless registered; and unsealed parcels, with no
insurance under any conditions, at rates:
_Third-Class Matter_
Some specific kinds of merchandise; printed books; Christmas cards
printed on paper; advertisements on ordinary paper; seeds, bulbs, etc.,
for planting, 1 cent for 2 ounces, 8 cents per pound.
_Fourth-Class Matter_
General merchandise; blank books; Christmas cards of any other
substance than paper; advertisements on blotting paper; seeds, bulbs
for food, etc., 1 cent per ounce, 16 cents per pound.
In 1874 third-class matter covered all merchandise at one-half the
present general merchandise rate.
The Postal Report of 1904, pages 593-595, shows the effect of these
limitations on the free rural service. In its daily 24-mile course,
visiting over 100 families, the average rural post-wagon handles
less than 26 pounds of mail per day, collected and delivered; it
collects less than 1 pound. The average rural family posts hardly one
merchandise parcel a year. Its total merchandise traffic dispatched
and received is less than 10 parcels a year. The postal revenue from
its entire merchandise traffic is less than 50 cents a year. The
total cancellations of the average carrier in 1904 amounted to only
$10.64 a month; to less than $132 a year. With the same limitations in
1909, his postal income must remain practically the same. Meanwhile
the 4,000,000 families on the rural routes go to and from their post
towns and their homes, carrying their supplies and their produce at a
needless expense--estimated at only 50 cents a week per family--of over
$100,000,000 a year.
And the postal weighings of 1907 disclose a similar state of things
in the general-merchandise traffic of the post-office. Of the general
postal business, the merchandise traffic represents:
Per cent.
In number of parcels 1.12
In weight 4.79
In revenue 4.44
The weight of the average merchandise postal parcel is 5.45 ounces;
its average haul is 687 miles. The merchandise tax, 1 cent per ounce
or fraction thereof, amounts in practice to 17.23 cents per pound.
The average family posts less than 9 parcels a year--less than 3
pounds--and pays for the service about 50 cents a year.
The local merchandise mailed in October, 1907, at 17 representative
post-offices of Alabama weighed only 65 pounds, at 16 representative
post-offices of Arkansas only 14 pounds, at 18 representative
post-offices of Iowa only 116 pounds, at 16 representative post-offices
of New Hampshire only 27 pounds, at 16 representative post-offices of
North Carolina only 30 pounds, at 14 representative post-offices of
Oregon only 1 pound, at 14 representative post-offices of Montana only
1 pound, at 14 representative post-offices of Nevada only 4 pounds, at
12 representative post-offices of South Dakota only 15 pounds, and at
14 representative post-offices of Wyoming only 1 pound.
The weight of the parcels posted in October, 1907, by the 4,000,000
people of New York City in their local traffic amounted to only 55,918
pounds, less than 1¼ ounces per family, and in their total traffic to
only 469,111 pounds, about 8 ounces per family.
The post-office is the most important department of our national
government. Its system of rates--regardless of distance, regardless of
the character or volume of the matter transported, rates determined by
the representatives of the rate payers in Congress assembled on the
basis of the cost of the service rendered--its system of uniform rates
places our whole country on a plane of the most perfect commercial
equality. Up to its limits there can be no possible discriminations
either as to persons, places or things. Up to its limits, the humblest
citizen on the most out-of-the-way rural route is guaranteed the
transport of his supplies and his produce at the same rates as the
biggest corporation in our greatest metropolis. These rates moreover,
may be steadily reduced with the improvement of our transport machinery
and its administration. And yet by our own limitation of this mighty
service we deny ourselves its use almost altogether in local traffic,
and in through traffic confine it to parcels of less than 6 ounces.
Meantime we pay private express companies what “the traffic will bear”
for the transport of our large parcels, and in our local traffic
cheerfully carry our small parcels in our pockets or hand bags or
dispatch them by private messengers or private vehicles. Such petty
work is beneath the notice of our great private express companies. In
many small places they have no offices. Even in our great cities they
have no regular daily courses, save in a few business districts. If
the ordinary city resident would dispatch a parcel by express, he must
go after an express wagon on foot or by telephone. The post-man--our
public expressman--comes to our doors one, two, three, four times a
day, or oftener. We have but to substitute a machine post for our
overburdened foot post and, with a perfected system of collection and
delivery of insured parcels at reasonable rates, we shall have a postal
express at hand, ready and competent to do our bidding on our own terms
and conditions.
The possibilities of such a service were illustrated some years ago,
when James L. Cowles, of the Postal Progress League, dispatched an
11-pound suit case from New York City to New Haven, Conn. Prepaid as
a sealed parcel, with a special-delivery stamp affixed, the suit case
was mailed at a branch post-office on Fifth avenue about 5 o’clock in
the afternoon; it was delivered at its address in New Haven before 10
o’clock the same evening. On another occasion Mr. Cowles telegraphed
from Philadelphia about noon for a parcel of stationery to be sent him
from his office, 361 Broadway, New York City. The Philadelphia postman
delivered the parcel at Mr. Cowles’ hotel before 8 o’clock the same
evening.
In his testimony before the congressional committee on railway mail
pay, in 1898, Mr. H. S. Julier, of the American Express Company,
testified that the weight of the average express parcel is 25 pounds;
its average charge is 50 cents; its average haul in the eastern states
is 100 to 125 miles; in the central states a little more; in the
western states from 175 to 200 miles. In local traffic the ordinary
express charge on the smallest merchandise parcel is 15 cents; in
general traffic, 25 cents. The private express service is chiefly
confined to traffic between cities. To be successful, a business
requiring express service must be located in a large city, where
the different express companies have their headquarters; otherwise
their parcels will often be subjected to two or three express charges
before they reach their destination. The private express company, with
its rates based on the value of the service rendered and determined
according to volume of business, is deadly to the small place and the
small dealer.
Under the growing differentiation of industry there is a steadily
growing demand for a door-to-door express service of parcels ordered
by telephone, telegram, or by mail. The business can not be done by
private express companies to the public satisfaction. Their machinery
does not reach the rural districts. An extended postal service is the
only public choice.
As long ago as December 6, 1898, the Merchants’ Association of New York
issued the following statement to the merchants, manufacturers, and
shippers of the State of New York:
A very large part of every dollar paid by you for express
charges is exorbitant and exacted to pay a monstrous profit to
an unrestrained monopoly.
Many of you are compelled by present conditions of competition
to use the express service on a large part of your shipments,
and to pay express charges which are from 300 to over 20,000
per cent of corresponding freight charges. The express charges
on many classes of goods average from 5 to 15 per cent of the
value of the merchandise transported.
These are the charges that you pay. But many of your strongest
competitors are favored by discriminating rates and pay much
less.
The express companies are now uncontrolled by law and you
have no recourse against exorbitant charges; you must ship by
express and must pay whatever the express companies see fit to
charge.
On the 10th of February, 1909, the Merchants’ Association of New York
again returned to their attack upon the express companies. Note their
charges:
_Exorbitant Rates_
Rates so high in the case of the Adams Express Company as to enable
them to pay dividends of over 80 per cent a year on the amount actually
invested in their business. In 1907 they made a dividend of $24,000,000.
Excessive charges for collection and delivery varying, on 100-pound
parcels, from 27 cents to $7.79 for similar services.
Unreasonable restrictions of free delivery service.
Unreasonable regulation as to size of parcels.
Unreasonable regulation as to packing.
Delays in delivery.
Failure to notify shippers of nondelivery.
Delays in settlements of claims.
Delays in returns of undelivered goods.
Marking parcels 1 to 5 pounds over actual weight, and compelling
consignees to pay for the fictitious increase.
System of Postal Express.
David J. Lewis.
MR. CHAIRMAN: In December the government issued its first annual
report on the statistics of express companies for the year 1909, which
developed the fact that the average pay of the express companies to
the railways for carrying express matter was about three-quarters
(0.74) of a cent a pound, while the postal reports show that the
government paid for its letter or mail transportation about 4 (4.06)
cents a pound, barring the weight of equipment in both cases. It
was apparent to me at once that the parcels function could not be
successfully or economically discharged by the government on the basis
of letter-transportation rates. And then the economic significance
of another fact developed: It was that the express companies’
service was at a disadvantage, even greater than that of the post
office, in regard to the nonrailway transportation of its parcels.
The express companies have no agency and at present rates can not
secure an agency to reach nonrailway or rural points. In short, it
appeared that the express companies had exclusive control of one of
the absolutely essential conditions of fast package transport, the
express rate of three-quarters of a cent a pound, while the post
office had equally exclusive possession of the other great agency of
necessary service--the rural delivery system. Common sense indicated
what the solution must be; these two advantages, the railway express
transportation rate and the rural delivery system must be made
cooperative; must be united under one control. The express railway
transportation rate would, if the government parcels amounted to but
one-fourth of the express business, save it, if in its control, at
least $50,000,000 a year, while the addition of rural delivery to the
express business would add to this great service the farming population
of our country at practically no cost to them or the country. The bill
I have introduced for postal express is the result of these conditions.
_Principal Provisions of the Postal Express Bill_
As I have said, the idea of the bill is to unite in one service the two
great instrumentalities above named, in order that a greatly cheapened
and an even more extended service to the public may be had. For this
purpose the bill provides for the compulsory purchase by condemnation
of the railway-express company contracts and franchises, as well as
the equipment and property devoted to the express business per se, and
their subsequent employment by the postal department in connection
with rural delivery and the postal system. The express-railway
transportation privileges are all the subjects of contracts between the
railways and express companies. They constitute the primary condition
of the express service, and while the equipment and other facilities
are only immediately necessary to a running plant, and their
acquisition is provided for, it is the contracts which constitute the
conditions sine qua non of the service. Happily, there can be no legal
question as to the right of the government to acquire these contracts
and other facilities upon providing just compensation.
_Necessity for Postal Express_
In addition to those grave needs for such a service, which the majority
of national communities have recognized, as commending its adoption
domestically and internationally, there exist in the United States
supplementary reasons which it is believed render the institution
uncommonly necessary.
Briefly summarized, they are:
(_a_) The greater area over which our population is distributed and
correlatively greater transportation distances which consume so much
time by freight that a fast or express service needs to be resorted to
in a larger number of instances than if the journey were short.
(_b_) The 100-pound minimum and corresponding charge in railway
practice and the inadaptability of railway methods to diminutive
consignments.
(_c_) The prohibitive minimum charge of the express companies in
respect to small consignments.
(_d_) Absence of railway “collect and delivery” service and absence of
“collect and delivery” service by express companies as to our farming
population and a large portion of our urban population.
(_e_) Incalculable waste of transportation effort, so far as made,
in movement of necessaries of life from the farms to points of
consumption, a serious factor in our high cost of living.
Of course, the need for fast service will depend upon the greatness of
the distance, when demand is immediate, as much as upon the valuable or
perishable character of the shipment. In our country, with an average
haul for freight of 251 miles, from three to ten times as long as in
Europe, the demand for speed to overcome the obstacle of the time
lost in distance, the time-element necessity for an express service
is correspondingly increased; and so the disadvantages of inadequate
or ineconomical express service are vital. The railway organization
of America and its system of practices does not seem adapted to meet
this great need; while its refusal, upon adequate grounds, to accept a
smaller payment than the rate for its minimum shipment of 100 pounds
precludes it from this service even if speed were not prerequisite.
The minimum charge of 25 cents (average 27 cents) imposes an equally
substantial and serious restriction upon the express service as now
conducted; so that when it is considered that the farmers or nonurban,
about half of our population, are virtually excluded from the service
of this great agency, and the express rates by their prohibitive
costliness substantially minimize the service for the urban population,
it is apparent that instead of possessing an express service
commensurate with its needs, the United States has both unexampled
necessity for, and unexampled deficiency in, its dispatch or express
agencies. Add to this situation the tremendous waste and corresponding
costliness of the unorganized country-to-town transportation of our
necessaries, and such almost equally wasteful and quite equally costly
express service as we have, and have we not put a finger on one of the
big leaks which swallow so much of the unprecedented productiveness of
our country?
_Prohibitive Express Charges_
We should expect express charges to be higher per ton here than abroad,
as much higher as our freight-per-ton charges. But no necessary
economic cause is known which justifies a substantially higher
proportion or ratio of the express to the freight charges here as
compared with other countries. The average express charge per ton here
is shown to be $31.20, while the average freight charge is $1.90 per
ton, giving a ratio of the express charge to the freight charge of 16
(16.42) to 1. This express charge includes the cost of such collect
and delivery service as is rendered, covering, it is thought, about
90 per cent of the traffic. In the table now inserted this element of
the expense of the express companies for collecting and delivering,
amounting to 11.50 per cent, is excluded, because many of the European
countries and other data do not include this factor of cost. The table
embraces 10 countries, while the specific data upon which the ratios
are based are set forth in Appendix B. All countries have been included
where the express data is clearly distinguishable from general freight
statistics.
_Ratios of average express charges to average freight charges in 11
countries._
-----------------------------+----------+----------+----------
| Average | Average | Ratios of
| express | freight | average
Countries | charge | charge | and
| per ton. | per ton. | freight
| | | charges.
-----------------------------+----------+----------+----------
Argentina | $6.51 | $1.95 | 3.2-1
Austria | 3.77 | .74 | 5.0-1
Belgium | [A]4.92 | .53 | [A]9.3-1
Denmark | 5.49 | .87 | 6.3-1
France | 6.88 | .95 | 7.2-1
Germany | 3.80 | .76 | 5.0-1
Hungary | 3.68 | .93 | 3.9-1
Netherlands | 2.43 | .67 | 3.6-1
Norway | 1.90 | .49 | 3.8-1
Prussia | 4.32 | .86 | 5.0-1
+----------+----------+----------
Average for 10 countries | | | 5.23-1
United States | 27.61 | 1.90 | 14.53-1
-----------------------------+----------+----------+----------
[A] Belgium delivers parcels.
From this table it appears that while Argentina charges three times,
Austria five times, Belgium nine times, Denmark six times, France
seven times, Germany (including Prussia) five times, Hungary, the
Netherlands, and Norway, about four times as much for carrying a ton
of express as of freight, the express companies of the United States
charge nearly fifteen times as much.