30 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



maintain the roadbeds and the accessories in good condition. But 

 these are the rates I was going to give yoii: From England to Aden, or 

 from Aden to England, an 11-pound package costs $1.20; from 

 Germany, 83 cents; from Mexico, 90 cents. The American pays $4 — 

 quite a handicap against Americans. To Algeria, in northern Africa, 

 from England, 62 cents; from Germany, 30 cents; from Mexico, 40 

 cents. We pay $3.50. You see, gentlemen, the handicap on our for- 

 eign trade. One consul estimates that we are losing $2,000,000 annually 

 in the West Indies alone for lack of an adequate parcels post. To 

 Argentina, South America, from England, $1.16; from Germany, 73 

 cents; from Mexico, 58 cents. We pay $4.50. 



I w^as telling you that we had parcels post conventions with thirty- 

 one countries. They are chiefly small countries, except Germany, 

 Mexico, and Chile. With the Bahamas we have a convention, and we 

 can send 11 pounds there for $1.32, England for $2, Germany $1.36, 

 Mexico 58 cents; by express from Washington, $3.80, but our post- 

 ofhce carries it for $1.32. Now if you were in Egypt and wanted to 

 send home 11 pounds of curios, to England the rate is 78 cents, to Ger- 

 many 44 cents, to Mexico 45 cents; the American pays $3.50. If you 

 went to Japan and wished to send home any lacquered boxes, or vases, 

 or anything of that kind, to England it is $1.24, to Germany 93 cents, 

 to Mexico 97 cents; the American pays $3.24. 



Now so much for the foreign parcels post. The modern parcels 

 post began in British India in 1865, and Great Britain itself under- 

 took it about 1883, and 1884-5 was the first fiscal year of any 

 prominence in the matter. They handled that year nearly 23,000,000 

 parcels. They agreed to give 55 per cent of the gross receipts to the 

 railroads for carrying the parcels. The gross postage was nearly 

 $2,500,000; the railways received a million and a quarter, and the post- 

 office something less. The second year there was an increase of 15.3 

 per cent — quite a large increase; in 1886-7 it was still larger, the 

 increase being 24.3 per cent. Last year they handled 90,300,000 pack- 

 ages, and the postoffice made more money than the railways. They 

 found that the 55 per cent they were giving the railroads Avas far too 

 much compensation, and they hauled their own parcels — ten and one- 

 half millions of them — by horse-van or by motor-van as far as from 

 London to Liverpool or from London to Birmingham. The Great 

 Eastern Railway Company there, with thousands of miles of lines, has 

 found it possible to maintain what they call an agricultural parcels 

 post. They take parcels up to 60 pounds weight at a rate of 8 cents 

 for 20 pounds, or 24 cents for 60 pounds, and carry them anywhere on 

 their lines, and deliver them by vehicle anywhere within three miles of 

 a depot, free of charge. Now this is not only possible in Europe, but 

 with the express companies in our own country for the foreigner. Is 

 this thing worth urging here? 



