Remembering, then, these secondary as well as the primary aspects of the express business, the students of the 1890 Census on Express Companies would have learned the following facts:
Number of companies 18 Total mileage operated 174,535 Total on Railroads 160,122 Total on Water Lines 10,822 Total on Stage Lines 3,055 Value of Equipment and Fixtures $5,074,045 Expenditures $45,783,123 Receipts Not reported Number of employees 45,718 Number of Money Orders Issued 4,598,567 Number of packages carried by Express 115,377,112 Paid to Railroads, Steamboats, and Stage Lines for transportation $19,561,182
Of the total mileage operated, as shown below, 92.7% was operated by the five leading companies listed above and the Pacific Express Company. The latter, organized in 1879, was owned and directed by the Gould group of railroads (the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific and Wabash Lines); its business was taken over in 1911 by the Wells-Fargo Company.
Total mileage operated 174,535 Adams Express Company 24,919 American Express Company 43,126 Pacific Express Company 21,332 Southern Express Company 21,714 United States Express Company 21,479 Wells-Fargo Express Company 29,098
These six companies also carried 92% of the parcels carried by express, as follows:
Total number of packages 115,377,112 Adams Express Company 26,456,382 American Express Company 23,871,251 Pacific Express Company 7,552,622 Southern Express Company 7,552,622 United States Express Company 17,039,844 Wells-Fargo Express Company 22,658,384
The unquestioning devotion of the American public of 1890 to the principles of private enterprise is attested by the fact that there was no further census, and hence no further reliable information about the express companies, until 1907. It is true that the express companies were included in a Census Report on Transportation in 1894, but this survey could hardly be considered comprehensive.
Until the twentieth century, then, the express companies remained unchallenged and even uninvestigated in their control of the service of transporting packages and parcels weighing more than four pounds. (Packages and parcels up to four pounds in weight could be sent by mail.) In ownership and control as well as in the nature of their activities, they were linked with the great railroad systems; and there was in addition an extensive amount of interownership between the various express companies. When the 1907 (the second) Census report on express companies was published, it was found that of the $68,853,200 capitalization of the seventeen important express companies, $20,668,000, or 30%, was in the hands of the railroads as such. [The express companies as such had reciprocated by buying and holding the stock of railroad companies to the amount of $22,218,950 and railroad bonds to the amount of $12,324,000.] Moreover, of the $68,853,200 capitalization of the express companies, $11,618,125, or 17%, was held among the various express companies as such. How much of the remaining 53% of the capitalization of the express companies was held by individuals interested in the railroad holdings and control cannot be told, but may certainly be surmised.