The ranch., December 15, 1909, Page 10, Image 10

About The ranch. (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914

Image provided by: Washington State Library; Olympia, WA

                
*•*'
(All inquiries for information from this
Department should be addressed to
210 Twelfth Aye. N, Seattle.)
The Ranch stands for the welfare of
the people who live on the ranches.
It it did not it would belie its name.
One of the things that the people liv
ing in the country have been calliug
for is the parcels post. It goes with
out saying that the voice of the resi
dents in the rural districts is unani
mous lor this long felt need but their
pleadings have thus far been without
avail. Nearly every other civilized
country on the face of the globe has
the parcels post aud the farmers of
the United States are denied this
privilege. Just the other day I clip
ped the following statement from one
of our daily papers: "Postmaster
General Hitchcock has orderod that
placard! be posted in all United
States post-offices calling public at
tentioD to the parcels post service to
foreign countries. During the past
few months parcels post conventions
have been entered into by this country
with practically every civilized nation
of the world."
Some one may want to say, "Why
is not that a evidence of the use of the
parcels post?" Yes, it proves that
we can use it with other countries
while wo are denied this privilege in
our own country. Let mo quote the
following from the Housekeeper:
'"The largest pac&Sge one can send
through the mails (from Minneapolis
to St. Paul for instance is four pounds
weight, and for this you are asked to
pay sixteen cents a pound. But if
you want to send a package to anyone
ol twenty-four foreign countries you
can sond it for twelve cents a pound
and the postmaster will let you send
a parcel weighing cloven pounds."
Let me further illustrate this point:
I could mail a package weighing four
pounds from Seattle to Paris for 48
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cents, 17 miles away, would be obliged
to pay 04 cents. Thus it appears that
it is a misfortune to be an American
In America so far as sending packages
through the mail is concerned. But
people living in England, Germany
and France and most other oivilized
countries, have a very decided advan
tage over the people of the United
States in the use of the paicels post,
both as to rates and the amount to be
sent. I again quote from the House
keeper as follows: "In London the
Government runs motor wagons in all
directions into the country for the
delivery of parcels, and this service
is being extended until presently it
will cover the entire country. Parcels
up to the weight of eleven pounds are
carried through the British mails,
while in some other countries the
limit is much higher. Italy, Chile,
Cuba, the Netherlands and New
Zealand are the only other countries
holding the weight of the same maxi
mum as Britten. In Germany and
Austria packages weighing 110 pounds
are received and in Belgium the limit
is 182 pounds. In France it is 32
pounds. In the United States alone
the limit is as low as four pounds,
while the rate is so high, sixteen cents
a pound, as to make the service pro
hibitive for ordinary use. A broad the
rates vary, but they are always aimed
to be not much above cost. " This is
a very fair presentation of the case.
Practically we have no parcels post at
all.
Why is it, we may ask, that the
farmers of this country, constituting
a large majority of the population,
boasting at the same time that this is
a "government of the people, and hy
the people and or the people," can
not get what they demand and what
they certainly ought to have? This
is a burning question and the answer
should be given. It is not a very
difficult matter to answer this ques-
tion. Someone has very pertinently
answered that there are rive reasons
why the great mass of the people are
denied this privilege which is enjoyed
by the citizens of the most despotic
nations on the face of the globe. And
pray, what are these five reasons?
They are the tlve express companies
of the United States. Is it true that
these corporations protected by the
laws of this freo land, are able to
keep the people from enjoying this
great blessing? Such is most certain
ly the case. The question may again
be asked, "How can these five com
panies whioh do not contain one per
ceut of the people, manage to still
hold on to this special privilege? We
can better understand the answer to
this last question when we learn who
the people are that make up these
express companies. They are, iv a
large majority of cases, the directors
of the various railroads of the coun
try. Don't be mislead at this point.
The railroads do not own these ex
press companies. Usually the di
rectors organize these express com
panies as private enterprises, separate
and apart from the railroad companies
and whatever profits are deiived from
the express business, goes into the
pockets of these directors. These ex
press companies do not own much
stock and are capitalized at a vory
low late, but the profits are enormous.
1 want here to copy a very sensible
editorial recently appearing in the Se
attle Post Intelligencer, entitled
"Cutting a Big Melon."
"In the language of Wall street,
Wells, Faigo & Co, have cut a melon
of gigantic proportions. The minority
stockholders have been protesting
vigorously for many years that the
profits of the company were not
divided up, as they should be, not
withstanding that the stock of the
company has always paid a regular
dividend of 10 per cent, on its capital
ization, nominally of $8,000,000. Now
the company has divided among its
stockholders $24,000,000, or three
times the par value of its stock. It
has also tripled its capital and offered
the new stock to the holders of the
present stock at par. This is probahly
the record in melon cutting.
"The interesting thing to the public,
about this distribution of accumulated
earnings is that the company which
has made such tremendous profits on
its ostensible capitaliaztion has little
tanigble property of any kind in the
nature of a plant. Its assets of value
consist merely of its contracts with
the railroads and other transportation
companies to do carrying for it. The
company owns no transportation and
none of the plant through which it
carries on its operations. There is
nothing tangible or assessable about
the properties through which it ac
cumulated undivided piofits of enor
mous amounts.
"The groat profits of this and other
express companies are made throng*
the fact that, iv the absence of a par
cels post, such as is enjoyed by the
people of other_countries, the express
10
companies furnish the only convenient
medium for the transmission of small
parcels from one place to another.
The express companies, with a very
small investment in tangible property,
furnish this convenience and exact,
in the aggregate, from the public a
price disproportionately high to the
cost and to the capital investment.
Through contracts with the trans
portation lines they have a practical
monopoly of this field. The only
break in the monoply will come when
congress provides for a parcels post
service at least as liberal as that en
joyed by people in other countiies."
This Is a very clear presentation of
this matter and the farmers of the
United States should be very grateful
that so able an ally as the P. I. has
been enlisted in this war. Just think
of it: capital of $8,000,000 paying a
regular dividend of 10 per cent and
at the same time accumulating a sur
plus of 524,000,000. But when we
remember that these express com
panies are largely composed of the
directors of the railroad companies,
we can see how the thing has been
done. These express company mana
gers have virtually made a contract
with themselves and of course on very
liberal terms for the express com
panies. Honest and plain people have
often wondered why such railroad
managers as Harriman, Hill and many
others starting as poor men, have be
come immensey wealthy in a very few
years. Ah, for tricks of the trade,
the Standard Oil company is not the
"only pebble on the snore." We must
revise Bret Harte's quaint saying and
make it road "For ways that are
dark and tiicks that are vain the
heathen Chinese is not peculiar."
Lot us remember that this big melon
with its §24,000,000 surplus represents
only one or' the five companies. We
have no reason to doubt but the others
did equally well. Think of these com
panies paying its stockholders 10 per
cent and then piling up a surplus of
§120,000,000. No wonder that these
express companies have "moved
heaven and earth and hell itself" to
prevent congress from passing reason
able parcels post law.
But when we remember the com
position of these express companies
and these enormous profits they have
accumulated, tnere is no great wonder
that President Roosevelt and his Post
master General, Moyei. failed to get
through Congress a very moderate and
reasonable bill for B parce.'s post.
The whole railroad system of the
country with its untold millions had
to be reckoned with and the railroads
won. Senator Pratt, of New York, so
feeble that he had to be lead to this
seat, had power enough to defeat any
measure that looked to the establish
ment of the parOdJ post. Behind him
was the greatest and most powerful
(Continued on pag^e 14)
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