In other words, while the government is expected to and of course must itself pay the full distance cost of transportation and delivery in every case, and could not give the service unless it did so, it is expected to look for reimbursement wholly to an average flat rate, like the rate for letter postage, or the present rate of the existing domestic parcels post for small parcels--a rate that is the same everywhere, without regard to the distance from point of mailing to point of destination.
The argument of averages is relied on to meet this insuperable objection. It has been suggested that the average haul of all second-class matter (which comprises only regularly entered publications, periodicals and magazines) was 540 miles in 1907, as shown by the report of the Postoffice Department, and on that as a basis it was estimated that an average rate of 5½ cents per pound or $29.70 per ton for other transportation charges, and $165.00 for labor and supplies, a total of $212.00 a ton, would leave a profit to the government of $27.00 a ton from a general parcels post rate of 12 cents a pound, which would produce a revenue of $240 a ton.
The estimates given above were embodied in an address by the Postmaster General before the Union League Club at Philadelphia on October 26, 1907.
For reasons based on facts that are undeniable and unquestionable, these averages and the estimates based on them, would prove utterly delusive and misleading when put to the test of a practical application of the proposed extension of the domestic parcels post to include merchandise in larger bulk and at lower rates than those now authorized by the postal laws. It is not necessary that the proposed extensions should be actually tried to demonstrate the deceptiveness of these average estimates. The conditions are before us and arise from facts so clearly known and established that he who runs may read.
The average haul of second-class mail matter, made up of printed reading matter, for every copy of which a regular subscription must be paid, is fixed by and is in proportion to the average density of the population.
To illustrate this, take the city of New York as a starting point. It is the leading publication center in the country, and a larger number of publications entered as second-class matter are issued from the city of New York than from any other one city of the country.