pounds each, or 64 ounces each, or 128 ounces for the two, had been
divided into parcels of 1 ounce each, and one-half of them directed
to parties in New York, the rate on the sixty-four parcels would
have been 64 cents to New York, and the postage on the sixty-four
parcels addressed to London would be $7.68.” According to the Second
Assistant’s report, rates on parcels addressed to foreign countries are
not uniform. The rate to Bermuda is 12 cents per pound, and the rate to
Ecuador is 20 cents per pound. The rate to Sweden, Peru, and Denmark is
20 cents per pound or fraction of a pound for parcels which require the
use of the expensive transit across the Isthmus of Panama, and 12 cents
per pound or fraction of a pound for parcels which do not use that
expensive transit. So we find that rates on parcels weighing 1 ounce
addressed to Sweden, Peru, or Denmark which require the use of the
expensive transit across the Isthmus of Panama is 20 cents, or twenty
times as high as the rate on parcels weighing 1 ounce addressed to New
York. Why this incongruity in rates? Rates on mail matter between the
United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and Panama are fixed by treaty
with each country and with all other countries by conventions of the
Universal Postal Union. The last convention was held at Rome, 1906, and
took effect October 1, 1907. The acts of these conventions are binding
on these countries, but have nothing to do with domestic rates, they
being fixed by Congress and the Department. The conventions are simply
agreements as to international mail matter. The rate on parcels post is
fixed with each country, or in thirty-five parcels-post conventions.
The rate is generally 12 cents per pound or fraction thereof, the pound
being the unit of weight. The rate is 1 cent per ounce. The rate on 5
ounces to the Philippine Islands is 5 cents and to London 12 cents.
Parcels Post. pp. 8-11.
S. C. Smith.
_In Foreign Countries_
The sentiment in favor of this new governmental service has been built
up in this country chiefly by holding up to view more or less highly
painted pictures of what is being done along a similar line in the
countries of Europe. Any fair comparison of the postal service in
those countries and in ours must take into consideration density of
population, expanse of country or length of transportation routes, and
the ownership of the means of transportation. The density of population
and the relative size of the United States and of the principal
countries of Europe having a cheap parcels post are shown by the
following table:
+---------------+--------------+----------+-------------+------------+
| | | | | Population |
| | | Ratio of | | per |
| Country. | Area. | size. | Population. | square |
| | | | | mile. |
+---------------+--------------+----------+-------------+------------+
| | _Sq. miles._ | | | |
| United States | 3,602,990 | 100 | 84,154,009 | 23.35 |
| Great Britain | 121,391 | 3.36 | 41,976,827 | 345.79 |
| Germany | 208,860 | 5.79 | 60,641,278 | 290.34 |
| France | 207,054 | 5.74 | 38,961,945 | 139.87 |
| Belgium | 11,373 | .31 | 7,074,970 | 622.08 |
| Italy | 110,550 | 3.06 | 32,475,253 | 293.76 |
| Switzerland | 15,976 | .44 | 3,315,443 | 207.73 |
+---------------+--------------+----------+-------------+------------+
These figures are extremely interesting and important in connection
with this subject. We constantly lose sight of the immensity of this
country and its “magnificent distances,” as compared with the nations
of Europe; but in considering a question of transportation, distances
and density of population stand in the foreground. Let it be observed,
for instance, that while our country is over 300 times as large as
Belgium, the latter has a population of 622 people to the square mile,
while we have but a fraction over 23. Yet we will hear it argued that
“Belgium carries 132-pound parcels by mail; why can not we?” or, “If
Switzerland can carry 110 pound parcels, why not the United States?”
entirely ignoring or forgetting the fact that our country is 250 times
as large as Switzerland and has about one-tenth the population in a
given area. Postal authorities have estimated that the average distance
traveled by a piece of mail, including letters, papers, and parcels, is
40 miles in Great Britain, 42 miles in Germany, and 540 miles in the
United States. Of course it is still less in the smaller countries of
Europe. The admission of paper mail to this calculation greatly reduces
the average, since newspapers circulate chiefly in the vicinity of the
city of their publication. Parcels of merchandise or produce would
certainly move much farther on an average, because they would chiefly
flow to and from the great cities. If one is going to trade by mail,
and the cost of delivery is the same, why not go to “headquarters,”
which, in the popular mind, means one of the larger cities in the
country?
The maximum parcel carried by the principal nations is as follows:
Pounds.
United States 4
Great Britain 11
Germany 110
France 22
Belgium 132
Switzerland 110
Italy 11
Austria 110
_Railroad Ownership_
Another factor of equal importance is the nature of ownership of the
means of transportation. In this country all routes are privately
owned and operated. The railroads--the chief means of transporting
the mails--have been constructed for the most part by private
capital, without the aid of the government, and the government, like
individuals, must pay a rate for its service which will yield a fair
return to the owners. The roads in the foreign countries used in
this comparison are largely owned by the governments, in which case
it matters little whether merchandise and produce move by mail or
by freight. In some of the countries, as in France, the government
guarantees the interest on the capital invested in the roads, and in
return has its mails carried free or at a nominal rate.
The English writer above referred to says of the mail-carrying
situation in Germany:
The German post has no occasion to enforce heavy rates. It can
impose its own terms on the railway companies. By law these
have to carry free all parcels under eleven pounds in weight.
Thus the mistake which has crippled the activity of the British
parcels post has been avoided.
Of course there can be no just comparison between a service carried
on under such conditions and ours, for the basic conditions are so
fundamentally dissimilar.
The matter of railroad ownership lies at the very foundation of this
question. If this government owned the roads and operated them, it
would matter little what went forward as mail and what under another
designation. But that is not the case now and it is to be hoped never
will be. From this standpoint, as well as from those hereinbefore
mentioned, it is manifestly unfair to argue that because other
countries do so and so in their mail service, therefore we should do
the same.
It is significant that no country giving a large service of the kind
under consideration undertakes to say that its receipts equal the
cost of the service. I have not been able to find any report showing
the cost of the parcels department. It is stated by some pretty high
authority that the general belief among these nations is that they
are rendering it at a loss. It is hard to reconcile that condition of
the business with any idea of fairness. We may properly carry on the
educational feature of the mail service, in part, out of the general
revenue of the government; but who will say that we may fairly carry
the individual’s produce to market or his merchandise home for him at
public expense in whole or in part? Why should all the people be taxed
to pay a postal deficit created by moving freight for the people at
less than cost of service? Is there any reason why this branch of pure
business should be conducted at public expense which would not justify
the performance by the government of any other department of business?
End of Project Gutenberg's Selected Articles on the Parcels Post, by Various