190 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



It is carrying over 400,000,000 parcels a year, al- 

 though it is less than four years old. It carries a 

 4-pound package at a profit, whereas the express 

 service loses money on a 20-pound package. And 

 it delivers these packages promptly and at a low 

 cost. These 400,000,000 packages would probably 

 not have been carried at all by the express com- 

 panies, for their business has not been materially 

 diminished in volume by the competition of the 

 government. The parcel-post has created new busi- 

 ness. It has increased the wealth produced and 

 been of incalculable service to the producer and 

 the consumer. 



It is probably no exaggeration to say that the 

 wealth of America could be increased materially, 

 possibly by 10 or 20 per cent., if those who pro- 

 duced knew that they had at their command an 

 impartial, prompt, and adequate means of transpor- 

 tation; while the people of America might have the 

 cost of living reduced by a billion dollars a year 

 by the ending of the exclusive private control of the 

 transportation agencies of the nation. We dare not 

 blink this situation. We are kept in ignorance of 

 the actual conditions which prevail. Only the rail- 

 roads know how bad it is. And they will not let 

 the country know. But the blockade which now 

 exists is only less of a menace to the success of the 

 nation and the Allied cause than the submarine 

 peril. For it not only affects our ability to supply 



