The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-02-26

movement in the Senate to cripple
the parcel post as "fendishly Unfair
and directly charged that the pro-
posed amendment to the parcel post
act is worth $50,000,00 to the Ex-
press Companies
The Marylander called upon the
people to rise up and help defeat the
Senate rider to the Postoffice Ap-
preparations bill if they desire to save
the parcel post from being stabbed
to the heart
The amendment to the parcel post
act, which the Senate Committee on
Postoffice and Post Roads has recon-
mended, strips the Postmaster Gen
eral and Interstate Commerce Com
MISSION of all power to make rates
and extensions in the Government
express service and vests such au-
thority in Congress.
Mr. Lewis laid stress upon the con-
tenton that the railroads, the express
companies and private transportation
agencies have the power to change
rates and traffic conditions with the
consent of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, and that the Postmas-
ter-General should have the same au-
thority in order that the parcel post
might be properly developed.
Not Mincing Words.
He went on to say:
cit is no use mincing words. If
the old legislative-made parcel post
rates still remained, we would have
no parcel post today, except from
one pound up to five. The express
rates being much lower, only traffic
to tI1n
moved by post. Traffic, like water,
tends to seek the lowest rate level,
so that any person who favors the re-
tention of the old parcel post rates
must be set down as being opposed
to having a parcel post at all.
"a system of mere paper rates,
which cannot be used to move the
potential traffic, is not what the
people intended to establish as their
parcel post service, and anyone fight
ing to prevent the rational changes
of such paper rates into real rates
as low at least as the express rates
cannot deceive anyone as to his real
purpose. If these paper rates had
not been reformed by the Postmas-
terGeneral and the Interstate Com
merce Commission, and little or no
traffic had passed through the post,
certainly the will of Congress and
the people ito promote the public
service would have been almost ut
terly defeated"
All Except Three Rates Profitable.
Mr.. Lewis read a table comparing
the cost of handling a parcel post
package and the postage rate. He
said that out of ITO rates all except
three yield a profit, and some of
them profit as high as 20 per cent.
of the rate, after allowing 10 cents
per ton mile for railway payments
and 3 cents per average parcel for
other postal expenses. Going into
the postal expenses, Mr.. Lewis said:
''The total cost of the average mail
piece. of all kinds in 1912 was one
and One-third cents. If we add a
cent per parcel for miscellaneous ex-
penses to the known special costs,
we should have an average cost per
parcel of cents, including the non
delivery Offices. 1t appears from a
census taken of the traffic last OctO-
Der that the average parcel weighed
four pounds and produced 20 cents
postage. Treating the parcel as hav-
ing travelled the full length of the
zone, the actual rate of railway pay
was cents a ton mile, and adding
cents per parcel post for general
postal expenses we should have the
cost per parcel as 13 cents against
receipt of 20 cents, or. profit of
cpDtS nor Darpn1 The nxnrpSS cOm-