Our Postal Express.
S P E E CH
OF
H ON. WILLIA M S U L ZER,
O F N E W Y O R K,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Thursday, June 9, 1910.
The House having under consideration the bill (S. 5876) to estabiish
postal, savings depositories for depositing savings at interest with the
Security of the Government for the repayment thereof, and for other
purposes— -
Mr. SULZER Said :
Mr. SPEAKER : I am in favor of a parcels post. I believe the
people of the country generally favor it, and I feel confident its
establishment will be of inestimable benefit and advantage to all
ColmCerned. The post-Office is one of the oldest of governmental
institutions, an agency established by the earliest civilization to
enable them to inform themselves as to the lilan S and Innova:-
ments of their friends and foes; and from the dawn of history
the Only limit upon this service has been the CapaCity Of the
existing transport machinery. - -
The cursus publicus of imperial Rome—the post-office of the
Roman Caesars—covered their entire business of transportation.
and transmission, and with its splendid post-roads, swift post-
horses, and ox post-wagons the Roman post-office was a mechan-
ism far wider in its scope than that of our modern post-office;
and except for the use of mechanical power, the old Roman
post was far more efficient in its service of the Roman rulers
than is our modern post-office in the service of the American
Citizen. -
The evil of the Roman post-office and of the royal postal serv-
ices that succeeded it was their common restriction to the en-
richment of the ruling powers. They were the prototypes of
Our modern private railway and express. Companies, which have
for their chief end the enrichment of their managers rather than
the promotion of the public welfare. In this country the citizen
Owns the post-Office and wants to use it as his transportation
company. Its end is to keep him informed as to what his
representatives are doing at the Centers of public business, to
make known to them his Wiśhes, and to provide means by which
he may communicate with his fellow-citizens for their mutual
benefit, and to supply his wants and dispose of his wares at the
least possible cost, in the shortest possible time, and with the
greatest possible security. . - - 4 - > *.
The postal system of rates, regardless of distance, regardless
of the character of the matter transported, and regardless of:
the volume of the patron's business, eminently fits it for this
great service. That it will sooner-or later be greatly extended
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over the entire field of public transportation, is absolutely cer-
tain ; and the people will duly appreciate the aid of those who
assist in its extension and development. As far back as 1837,
Rowland Hill, of England, promulgated to the world the law
that once a public transport service is in Operation, the cost
of its use is regardless the distance traversed upon the moving
machinery by any unit of traffic within its capacity, and upon
this law he established the English penny-letter post of 1839.
On the 21st of February, 1849, Congressman Palfrey, of
Massachusetts, in the course of a speech in behalf of a uniform
2-cent letter post, spoke as follows:
The idea of charging higher postage on a letter on account of the
greater distance it travels is an absterdity, says Rowland Hill. It is not
a matter of inference, but a matter of fact, that the expense of a post-
office is practically the same whether a letter is going from London to a
village 11 miles distant or to Edinburg, 397 miles. An average rate that
will, in the aggregate, defray the whole cost of transportation on the
short routes will, in the aggregate, defray the whole cost of transporta-
tion, for the whole Service consists, in their respective localities, of
Short rotliteS. - -
As to the effect of a system of uniform rates on the public
welfare, Judge Cooley, the first chairman of the Interstate Com-
merce Commission, speaking Of the uniform rate on milk trans-
ported by rail to New York in 1888, when the uniform rate cov-
ered distances up to 220 miles, Said of the System :
It has served the people well. It tends to promote consumption and
to stimulate production. . It is not apparent that any other system
could be devised that would present results equially useful or more just.
It is, upon the whole, the best system that could be devised for the
general good of all engaged in the traffic.
In his great work, The Economic Theory of Railway Location,
Arthur M. Wellington SayS: - {
As a matter of purely public policy—that is to say, if the interests
of the railways were identical with the interests of the community as:
a Whole—railway rates should be the same for all distances.
The Hon. L. S. Coffin, late railroad eommissioner of Iowa,
said that the position of Iowa as the foremost of States in agri-
culture was due to the system of uniform rates On her farm and
dairy products that had put her on a level as to cost of trans-
portation with localities 600 or 1,000 miles nearer the great
marts of trade. To this custom, he said, was due the fact that
his farm—a thousand miles farther from the great markets of
New York and Boston—was worth as much for dairy pterposes
as farms in New York or Vermont. It was this application of
the postal principle to railway traffie that had brought to him.
his prosperity and had enabled him to so educate his children
that they could be as intelligent as the children of farmers
living near the great markets and educational Centers.
The railroad expert, Prof. Hugo R. Meyer, stated that the one
thing that had done more than all others for the development of
this country was the common custom of the railways—in their
through traffic—to group large districts of territory with a
uniform rate, regardless of distances. It was this that had
made possible the wonderful growth of agriculture in the West
and of manufactures in the East.
President Tuttle, of the Boston and Maine Railroad, speaking
on the subject, said:
The boot and shee industry of New England flourishes because of
the common rate, 1% cents a pair on shoes carried 20 to 1,400 miles.
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The barbed-wire industry of Worcester, Mass., continues to employ
8,000 hands because of Worcester's common rate with Pittsburg to all
the West. The textile industries of Massachusetts flourish because of
their grouped rates over a good part of the United States.
And then Mr. Tuttle went on to tell how a postal system of
rates not only preserves but creates industries, and brings into
being new towns, and illustrated it by the story of the creation
and growth of the little town of Millinocket, in Maine, that had
Come into being as the result Of the uniform rates upon paper
1 mile to 1,500 miles that he had given to a Maine paper mill to
induce them to Settle there.
As a result—
He Said— .
we have this place Millinocket, with its schools, churches, streets, elec-
tric lights, and its population of three or four thousand—requiring
unquestionably, numerous small stores and small dealers—who live as
comfortably as they do anywhere in the World, a place where ten years
ago it was primeval forest. -
Mr. Speaker, if there is any lesson to be drawn from these
statements, it is that if this Congress has at heart the welfare
Of Our farmers and Of Our Smaller Communities, if it desires to
bring new life to abandoned farms and decadent towns, if it
would make it possible for small towns and small dealers to live,
then it will at this session of Congress extend the postal service
to the widest possible limits.
On the 10th of June, 1870, the Hon. Charles Sumner, of Mas-
sachusetts, congratulated the Senate, of which he was a Mem-
ber, that slavery being dead, one more step might well be
taken in behalf of a wider economic liberty by the establishment
of a 1-cent letter rate, and this is his language:
Not to make money, but to promote the welfare of the people and to
increase the happiness of all, such is the precious object I would pro-
pose, and here I ask no such question as “Will it pay ?” . It may not
pay in revenue at once, but it will pay in what is above price.
Unhappily, the post-office, whether at home or abroad, has
been from the beginning little more than a taxing machine, a
Contriyance to make money, and do as little for the people as
possible. In England it was at times farmed out to the specu-
lator, and then it was charged with the support of a royal mis-
tress or favorite. For its profits Only was it regarded and not
for its agency in the concerns of life. In other respects it was
not unlike the government, which was simply a usurpation for
the benefit of a few. All this is much changed now, for the peo-
ple know that government is a mere agency for their good.
Instead of a taxing machine, a Contrivalnce for making
money, the post-office should be an agency for good, reach-
ing out its multitudinous hands with help and comfort into all
the homes in our widespread land.
Without the post-office where would be that national unity,
with its guaranty of equal rights to all, which is the glory of
the Sisterhood Of States? -
The postal savings system and parcels post was inaugurated
in England largely through the efforts of the great Commoner,
William E. Gladstone. Near the close of his life he made the
following statement about it:
The post-office savings bank and parcels post is the most important
institution which has been created in the last fifty years for the welfare
of the people. I consider the act, which called the institution into ex-
istence as the most useful and fruitful of my long career.
. . 48479–9179 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . --
ł
It is because we realize these truths so keenly that we are so
persistent in urging favorable consideration of a parcels post.
Its only fault is its conservatism. What this country now
needs, what Congress should give it, is a parcels post covering
much of the business of public transportation.
Mr. Speaker, imbued with these views and conscious of the
desires of the people, I prepared and introduced in Congress a
bill to inaugurate a parcels post. It is a short bill, and I Send
it to the Clerk’s desk, and ask to have it read in my time as
a part Of my remarkS. -
The Clerk read as follows: - -
A bill [by Mr. SULZER ; H. R. 26581] to reduce postal rates, to improve
he postal service, and to increase postal revenues.
Be it enacted, etc., That the common weight limit of the domestic postal
service of the United States is hereby increased to 11 pounds, the common
limit of the Universal Postal Union, and that in the general business
of the post-office the 1 cent an ounce rate on general merchandise—
fourth-class mail matter—be, and is hereby, reduced to the third-class
rate, 1 cent for each 2 ounces or fraction thereof. -
SEC. 2. That the rate on local letters or sealed parcels posted for
delivery within the free-delivery services is hereby determined at 2
cents on parcels up to 4 ounces, 1 cent on each additional 2 ounces ; at
nondelivery offices, 1 cent for each 2 ounces.
SEC. 3. That all mail matter collected and delivered within the dif-
ferent rural routes of the United States is hereby determined to be in
one class, with rates, door to door, between the different houses and
places of business and the post-office or post-offices on each route, as
follows: On parcels up to one twenty-fourth of a cubie foot, or 1 by
6 by 12 inches in dimensions and up to i pound in weight, 1 cent;
on larger parcels up to one-half a cubic foot, or 6 by 12 by 12 inches
in dimensions and up to 11 pounds in weight, 5 cents ; , on larger par-
cels up to 1 cubic foot, 6 by 12 by 24 inches in dimensions and up to
25 pounds in weight, 10 cents. No parcels shall be over 6 feet in
length, and in no case shall a carrier be obliged to transport a load
of over 500 pounds. .
SEC. 4. That on all unregistered prepaid mail matter without de-
clared value an indemnity up to $10 shall be paid by the Post-Office
Department for such actual loss or damage as may occur through the
fault of the postal service, and this without extra charge. Certificates
of posting shall be provided on demand. On registered parcels of de; ,
clared value, and on which the fee for registration, insurance, and
postage has been duly prepaid, the Post-Office Department shall pay the
full value of any direct loss, or damage that may occur through the
fault of the postal service. The fees for insurance and registration
shall be as follows : For registration and insurance up to $50, 10 cents ;
for each additional $50, 2 cents. No claim for compensation will be
admitted if not presented within one year after the parcel is posted.
SEC. 5. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act 31I’e
hereby repealed.
SEC. 6. That this act shall take effect six months from and after the
date of approval thereof.
, Mr. SULZER. Mr. Speaker, the bill just read by the Clerk
is self-explanatory, and if enacted into law will accomplish the
purpose desired. Let me call the attention of the House to the
absurd postal taxes which this bill proposes to consolidate at
the rate of 8 cents a pound:
&
Printed books and pamphlets $0.08
Blank books --> ---------------------- . 16
Printed Cards . (38
Hlank cards - . . 16
Raw chestnuts - . 08
Roasted chestnuts . 16
Holiday cards printed on anything but paper . 16
Holiday cards, paper - , (),8
Onions for eating . 16
Onions for planting . OS
Advertisements on plain paper—— . OS
Advertisements on blotting paper . 16
Beans, peas, potatoes, etc., for eating . 16
Beans, peas, potatoes, etc., for planting , 08
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Compare this system of postal rates with its 4-pound weight
limit with that provided by the Postmaster-General in the
postal express arrangements made by him with foreigners:
Weight limit 11 polinds, with its Common rate for all mer-
chandise posted from the United States to foreign countries, 12
cents a pound; and from foreign countries to the United States:
From Austria : -
43 pounds $0.35
11 pounds - - . - . 36
From Italy :
7 pounds----- - . . 39
11 pounds ... 79
From Norway : -
23 pounds - . 16
11 pounds . 93
From Germany :
• 43 pounds—— . 33
11 pounds - . 81
From Belgium :
# pounds . 35
11 pounds - 1. 10
United States foreign rates :
Weight limit 11 pounds. Common rate 12 cents a pound—
23, pounds . 36
7 pounds . 84
11 pounds–––––––––––––– - 1. 32
Weight limit 4 pounds. Common rate 1 cent per ounce, 16
Conts per pound—
23 pounds . . 36
7 pounds (2 parcels) 1. 12
11 pounds (3 parcels) 1. 76
Let Ime also call attention to the following discriminations
of our private express companies in favor of the foreign
Citizen against the American citizen. Under the English post-
American express arrangement English postal parcels now come
to the United States as follows: Three pounds for 60 cents,
7 pounds for 84 cents, 11 pounds for $1.08, and the ex-
press company transports these parcels from New York City at
a common rate for the whole country of 24 cents a parcel.
Meantime the express company taxes domestic merchandise of
the same weights from 25 cents to $3.20, according to the dis-
tance traversed, while Congress taxes the public for a similar
domestic service on a 3-pound parcel 48 cents, 7 pounds in two
parcels $1.12, 11 pounds in three parcels $1.76.
In April last representatives of at least 10,000,000 American
voters, including the great agricultural associations of the
country, National Grange, the Farmers' Union, the Farmers'
National Congress, Retail Dry Goods Association of New York,
the Associated Retailers of St. Louis, the manufacturing per-
funners of the United States, the American Florist Association,
and others, appeared before the House Postal Committee, de-
manding a domestic express post as extended and as cheap as
that provided by the Postmaster-General in our foreign postal
service. The argument in behalf of this legislation, with its
4-pound weight limit, had then been before the committee for
many months, but the bill was not up to the demands of these
friends of the post-office. The report of the hearing showed that
the public wanted an 11-pound service at least. Seldom, if ever,
has any proposition received a stronger public support, and it
seemed as if the House Committee on Post-Offices would be
obliged to report at least some legislation back to the House for
its COInsideration. -- - - - - --- - -
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Their answer finally came on the 27th of May in the shape of
H. R. 26348, introduced by Chairman John W. WEEKS, which
provides :
That all mail matter of the fourth class shall be subject to examina-
tion and to a postage charge at the rate of three-fourths of 1 cent an
ounce or fraction thereof, to be prepaid by stamps affixed—Stamps of
the following (i.enominations :
CentS.
1 ounce #
2 ounces ––––––– 13.
3 ounces ––––. — 23
4 OunceS –––– 3
5 Ounces ––– 33
6 Oun CCS - 4%
7 Ouh ceS - * = ––– 55
8 ounces –––––––––––– -- - - 6
On the 1st of June Mr. WEEKS wrote to the secretary Of the
Postal Progress League as follows:
It does not seem to me likely that any other parcels-post legislation
than possibly the bill which I introduced last week—this bill—providing
for the reduction in rate on fourth-class matter, will be considered at
this session of Congress.
This means that for at least two years more the American
people are to be left subject to the extortions of the rigſ, and
powerful express companies, while we have in the post-Office a
well-equipped service of our own through which much of the
people's business now carried on by these companies could be
done quicker and at infinitely less cost. -
Mr. Speaker, if the powers arraigned against the post-office
continue their efforts to limit its functions in behalf of private
interests, they will soon find themselves confronted with a Con-
gress pledged to extend the service of the post-Office to a much
larger degree of the public transmission business; and hence,
'I think it wise that my bill should now be brought before the
House for inneſliate consideration.
In his notable postal programline of 1862, suggesting a world
postal union, Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair proposed
a system of postal insurance providing an indemnity up to $10
for the loss or damage of matter handled in the mails. This
wise suggestion soon became the common law of the progressive
world outside the United States, but for over thirty years his
successors deliberately refused to provide any indemnity for
the loss or damage of any kind of mail matter in the postal
service for which they were responsible; and even now we con-
fine our liability for the losses that occur in the mails under
our management of the people's business to $50, and this
applies only to sealed parcels that have paid a registration fee
of 10 cents, while a similar fee on an English postal parcel
carries insurance in the postal service of England up to $300.
The neglect of the United States to establish a proper parcels
post has So far limited the easy exchange of commodities and
merchandise between manufacturers and Consumers that it is
making Our Government appear to be away behind the times as
compared with some foreign nations, such, for instance, as Eng-
land, France, and Germany. It is a fact to-day that an Amer-
ican in England can send home by mail to any part of the United
States a parcel weighing two and One-half times more than the
United States limit for about One-third less in cost than the
present home rates. In other words, the world postal-union
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package unit is 11 pounds to the parcel, at the rate of 12 cents
per pound, whereas the United States unit is only 4 pounds to
the package, at a cost of 16 cents to the pound. The parcel
rate in the United States prior to 1874 was 8 cents per perºd
for a package limited to a weight of 4 pounds. After that the
rate Was doubled, but the weight remained the same. Since
1S74 the cost of transportation has greatly decreased. The
Question is, why should not the people be given the benefit of
this decrease by the establishment of a uniform low postal rate
for parcels that will encourage the use of the post-office as a
medium of exchange of commodities, and thus greatly facilitate
trade?
Since the introduction of the rural free-delivery system in
this country, its operation has proved so satisfactory and so
successful that Congress overlooks the annual deficit arising
from the unreasonable restriction placed in the law limiting
the kind of postal matter to be carried to letters, newspapers,
and periodicals. The weight of this average load is ascertained
to be but 25 pounds per trip, while the vehicle which the postal
agent is required to Supply Can readily Carry at least 200
pounds. It is estimated that should the restriction be removed
and farcels be carried enough revenue would be received from
the additional postage to more than pay the total cost of the sys-
tem, and not only make it self-supporting, but largely decrease
the annual postal deficit.
The Post-Office report of 1909 shows a loss to the public in
our registered-mail service of $200,000, and for this loss we
returned to our constituents Only $18,000. On unsealed mer-
chandise we acknowledge no liability whatever for the loss or
damage of property intrusted to us by our constituents. Con-
trast this system of postal insurance with that of Great Britain.
In the British domestic postal service the ordinary rates of
postage on unsealed parcels—letters, so called—2 cents on par-
cels up to 4 ounces, 1 cent on each additional 2 ounces, 8 cents
a pound; in the British parcels-post service, unsealed parcels
6 cents the first pound, 2 cents each additional pound, carry
insurance up to $10 on parcels not of declared value; and on
parcels of declared value the British 4-cent registration fee.
carries insurance up to $25, 6-cent up to $100 and the payment
of an additional fee of 2 centS Carries an additional insurance
of $100 up to $2,000.
The common rate of the foreign and colonial parcels post of
Great Britain is 24 cents for 3 pounds; larger parcels up to 7
pounds, 48 cents; for yet larger parcels up to 11 pounds, 72
cents; and these rates on parcels of a bulk 1 by 1 by 2 feet,
twice the bulk of our proposed local rural Service, carry insur-
ance up to $5, while an insurance fee of 8 cents insures these
foreign and colonial bound parcels up to $60; and an addi-
tional indemnity of $60 is provided on the payment of an addi-
tional fee of 2 cents up to $2,000.
Our failure to provide a reasonable parcels service on the
rural routes is causing to the Post-Office a needless loss of full
$28,000,000 a year and to the rural public a loss of hundreds
of millions, while at the same time we deprive the carriers of
an opportunity to earn a reasonable living.
Estimating the needs of the average rural family to require
the posting of but one 10-cent—one suit case—packet a week to
48479–91.79
8
and from the post town and the home, our proposed improve-
ment of the Free Rural Service would increase the postal reve-
nues from our 4,000,000 rural families upward of $40,000,000 a
year. If the service saved the average rural family but one
trip to and from its post town in four weeks, then according to
the estimated cost of such a trip by the Fourth Assistant Post-
master-General—$2.25—the Saving Of the entire population of
the rural routes would be over $117,000,000 a year. -
In the general service of the Post-Office the mailing of but 25
pounds of merchandise a year by the average American family
at the new 8-Cent-a-pound Common-merchandise rate would in-
crease the merchandise income of the Post-Office from the about
$8,000,000 of 1907 to over $32,000,000, and the mailing of a simi-
lar amount by the average city family under their new local
2-cent 4 ounce sealed parcels post would add a local city income
of fully $10,000,000.
Hon. WILLIAM SULZER. M. C.,
Washington, D. C.
MY DEAR SIR : I wish to congratulate you on introducing the im-
proved parcels-post bill to provide for a domestic parcels-post on an
...” with the universal parcels-post, having some improvements
adided.
It is a fine bill and ought to be popular, especially when the express
companies' profits are so huge and their system of increasing the ter-
minal charges for delivery of goods in accordance to the distance they
carry the goods on the railroad is considered. ... If you ever get the
Committee on Post-Roads to report your bill, either favorably or ad-
versely, to the House, the express companies' operations of charging
such high rates for local delivery will afford a magnificent argument
for the establishing of a genuine parcels-post On the basis of a uniform
rate regardless of distance. That is What the people and merchants
want and what the Colnbined express Companies do not want. If the
vote on the postal savings-bank bill is any criterion of the feeling in
Congress, there should be a good prospect to expect a favorable vote on
parcels-post.
In England the express companies use the parcels-post to send their
light-weight merchandise to distant cities to their local agents there,
and they (the agents) deliver the goods to the consignees at theiß
homes or places of business. ... I'lice; lear large cities the express
company delivers for less than the English parcels-post rate.
Another possibility soon to arise is the aerial letter and light par-,
cels post, to be carried even at less cost than the railroad charges. just
think of the letters carried to-day from New York to Philadelphia by
Hamilton -
... I believe the post-bank bill can be amended at another session to util-
ize—as you suggest—a portion of the surplus in road building. It is a
good idea, .economical, patriotic, constitutional, and should be encour-
agéd, but at the start it may seem radical to some. . . . - -
... With the hope - that we may get some parcels-post legislation, I
remain, ‘’’ • * - . . - - - •r
* : Yours, sincerely,
JUNE 13, 1910.
FREDERICK C. BEACH, y
President Postal Progress. League -
and Editor of Scientific American.
O
*
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