TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



29 



postal service can only be altered by action of Congress, by your own 

 action through your congressmen. The foreign postal service is 

 arranged for in this way: Our Postmaster-General, by and with the 

 consent of the President, has power to conclude conventions with any 

 foreign countrj^ he sees fit. In a British postal guide I saw a list of 

 names of 234 countries with which Great Britain had foreign parcels 

 post conventions. Out of the 234 countries we had postal conventions 

 with 31, not even having a postal convention with Great Britain. They 

 had no convention with this country as to sending parcels to and fro, 

 and, realizing that "postal service" means just what it says — that they 

 were there to serve the public and to serve them to the utmost of their 

 ability — they arranged with the American express companies that the 

 British postoffice would bring the parcels to New York and deliver them 

 to the express companies and have those express companies carry them 

 all over the United States. You can send 11 pounds from London to 

 New York, Hoboken, Brooklyn, or Jersey City for 75 cents, but to Pacific 

 Grove you must pay $1, or to any point in the Union except the four 

 places named you must pay $1. Now this means, gentlemen, that 

 the express company, after paying the railroad company for transport- 

 ing the packages, and after paying their shareholders a handsome 

 dividend, can carry 11 -pound packages all over the Union at a postage 

 stamp rate of 25 cents, and if they can do that and make a profit, is 

 there any reason why we should not tell our Government to go and do 

 likewise? I went to the Pacific Grove Wells-Fargo's office and said : 

 How much is the charge on an 11-pound package from here to New 

 York? And what do you suppose he said? "Two dollars and thirty- 

 five cents!" They carry it for the Britisher for 25 cents, and they 

 charge you and they charge me $2.35 for the same service. Now that 

 may not strike you in the light of a tax, but it strikes me as such. 

 King George's tea tax, against which your forefathers rebelled, was not 

 a circumstance compared to the tax you are paying Wells-Fargo for 

 carrying your packages, and it is because you will not direct your own 

 postal service. 



I want to tell you what Mexico has done regarding the postofiice. 

 You will find in article 145, section 7 of their law, certain provisions 

 governing franchises to railroads. They make those franchises for 

 ninety-nine years, with the understanding and stipulation that at the 

 end of ninety-nine years the roadbed, the depots, wharves, and all 

 accessories, besides the rolling-stock, shall revert to the government free 

 of any cost, the rolling-stock to be appraised and the government to 

 have the first opportunity to buy at the appraised value. They also 

 have required that the railroads shall carry all postal matter and all 

 postal employes on government business free of charge, and have 

 reserved the right to keep the last five years' earnings of the roads to 



