Life Span Development A Topical Approach 3rd Edition Feldman Solutions Manual

Life Span Development A Topical Approach 3rd
Edition Feldman Solutions Manual pdf download
https://testbankfan.com/product/life-span-development-a-topical-
approach-3rd-edition-feldman-solutions-manual/

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit testbankfan.com
to discover even more!
Life Span Development A Topical Approach 3rd Edition
Feldman Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/life-span-development-a-topical-
approach-3rd-edition-feldman-test-bank/
Development Across the Life Span 8th Edition Feldman
Solutions Manual
https://testbankfan.com/product/development-across-the-life-
span-8th-edition-feldman-solutions-manual/
Development Across The Life Span 7th Edition Feldman
Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/development-across-the-life-
span-7th-edition-feldman-test-bank/
Business Intelligence A Managerial Perspective On
Analytics 3rd Edition Sharda Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/business-intelligence-a-
managerial-perspective-on-analytics-3rd-edition-sharda-test-bank/

Fiber Optic Communications 5th Edition Palais Solutions
Manual
https://testbankfan.com/product/fiber-optic-communications-5th-
edition-palais-solutions-manual/
Services Marketing An Asia Pacific and Australian
Perspective 6th Edition Lovelock Solutions Manual
https://testbankfan.com/product/services-marketing-an-asia-
pacific-and-australian-perspective-6th-edition-lovelock-
solutions-manual/
Criminal Law and Procedure 7th Edition Hall Solutions
Manual
https://testbankfan.com/product/criminal-law-and-procedure-7th-
edition-hall-solutions-manual/
Practicing Texas Politics 16th Edition Brown Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/practicing-texas-politics-16th-
edition-brown-test-bank/
South Western Federal Taxation 2018 Comprehensive 41st
Edition Hoffman Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/south-western-federal-
taxation-2018-comprehensive-41st-edition-hoffman-test-bank/

Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit
Organizations 4th Edition Denhardt Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/managing-human-behavior-in-
public-and-nonprofit-organizations-4th-edition-denhardt-test-
bank/

Copyright © 2017, 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
137
Chapter 6
COGNITIVE GROWTH:
INFORMATION
PROCESSING
APPROACHES
CONTENTS
Chapter-at-a-Glance 138
Learning Objectives 139
Chapter Outline 140
Lecture Launchers 145
Student Activities 146
Supplemental Reading 147
Multimedia Ideas 148
Handouts 149

138
CHAPTER-AT-A-GLANCE
Chapter Outline Instructor’s Resources Professor Notes
Module 6.1: The Basics of
Information Processing
Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval:
The Foundations of Information
Processing
Cognitive Architecture: The
Three-System Approach
Comparing Information
Processing Approaches to
Alternative Theories of Cognitive
Development
Learning Objectives 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Lecture Launchers 6.1, 6.2
Module 6.2: Attention and
Memory
Attention
Memory and Its Duration
Memory Development and
Control
Lecture Launcher 6.3
Student Activity 6.1
MyDevelopmentalLab Video:
School and Education in Middle
Childhood Across Cultures
Module 6.3: Applying
Approaches
Children’s Eyewitness
Testimony: Memory on Trial
Contributions to the Classroom
Reconsidering the Information
Processing Perspective
< Return to Contents

139
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
LO 6.1: Describe how information is taken in, held, and used, according to information processing
theorists.
LO 6.2: Explain how the architecture of the human information processing system functions.
LO 6.3: Compare the information processing approaches to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
LO 6.4: Explain why attention is important for children’s cognitive development.
LO 6.5: Describe memory improvements during childhood and analyze how childhood memories change
over time.
LO 6.6: Analyze how memory changes as people age and describe strategies for developing and
improving memory.
LO 6.7: Describe applications of information processing approaches to the recall of events for legal
purposes.
LO 6.8: Apply insights from information processing theory to classroom instruction.
LO 6.9: Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the information processing approach and other
approaches to cognitive development.

140
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Module 6.1: The Basics of Information Processing
Lecture Launchers 6.1, 6.2
A. Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval: The Foundations of Information Processing
1. INFORMATION PROCESSING is the process by which information is encoded,
stored, and retrieved.
a. Encoding is the process by which information is initially recorded in a form
usable to memory.
b. Storage refers to the maintenance of material saved in memory.
c. Retrieval is the process by which material in memory storage is located,
brought into awareness, and used.
2. Automatization is the degree to which an activity requires attention.
a. Processes that require little attention are automatic.
b. Processes that require large amounts of attention are controlled.
c. Automatization processes help children in their initial encounters with the
world by “automatically” priming them to process information in particular
ways.
d. Children learn how different stimuli are found together simultaneously. This
permits the development of concepts, categorizations of objects, events, or
people that share common properties.
e. Automatization permits more efficient processing to enable concentration.
f. Sometimes automatization prevents more focused, intentional, nonautomatic
responses.
B. Cognitive Architecture: The Three-System Approach
1. Information moves through the cognitive architecture: the basic, enduring structures
and features of information processing that are constant over the course of
development.
a. Atkinson and Shiffrin posit processes for encoding, storage, and retention
that are not located in physical locations in the brain but are more abstract
functions performed by the brain.
2. The SENSORY STORE is the initial, momentary storage of information, lasting
only an instant.
a. If information is not attended to and sent on for further processing, it is lost
forever.
b. highly accurate and detailed information
3. SHORT-TERM MEMORY is the short-duration, limited-capacity memory
component in which selected input from the memory store is worked on.
a. thoughtful, deliberate processing of meaning
b. lasts for 15 to 20 seconds
c. limited capacity, increases with age
d. Adults can hold up to 7 items or “chunks” of items at a time.
e. Children aged 2 or 3 can hold 2 items.
f. At age 7, children can recall up to 5 items.
g. Capacity or memory span increases due to better rehearsal strategies and
increased speed.
4. WORKING MEMORY is a set of active, temporary memory stores that actively
manipulate and rehearse information.

141
a. Memory is determined by a central executive that coordinates processing,
directs attention, and selects strategies.
5. LONG-TERM MEMORY is the memory component in which information is stored
on a relatively permanent basis.
a. Processing includes filing and cataloguing information for retrieval.
b. nearly limitless in capacity
c. Retrieval problems and availability of retrieval cues—stimuli that permit
recall by guiding attention to a specific memory—restrict what is recalled.
d. Different types of long-term memory modules comprise this system.
(1) declarative memory
(2) procedural memories
C. Comparing Information Processing Approaches to Alternative Theories of Cognitive
Development
1. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development posits stages of development.
2. In contrast, information-processing theorists posit gradual, continuous improvements
in how children perceive, understand, and remember.
a. As children process information more efficiently, they become more
sophisticated in complex forms of thinking and problem-solving.
b. Quantitative changes constitute development, rather than the qualitative
changes posited by Piaget.
II. Module 6.2: Attention and Memory
Lecture Launcher 6.3
MyDevelopmentalLab Video: School and Education in Middle Childhood Across Cultures
A. ATTENTION is information processing involving the ability to strategically choose
between and sort out different stimuli in the environment.
1. Without attention, information is not noticed.
2. Children and adults do not differ in the way they initially encode information into the
sensory store.
3. Failure to remember is likely due to not being able to retrieve information from
memory.
4. Variation in attentional factors determines how effectively information is processed.
5. Control of Attention
a. Ability to tune into certain stimuli while tuning out others is an indication of
cognitive control of attention.
b. Ability to concentrate, as well as to ignore irrelevant stimuli, increases with
age.
6. PLANNING is the ability to allocate attentional resources on the basis of goals that
one wishes to achieve.
a. Young children exhibit some level of “planfulness.”
b. Gradual development from childhood leads adolescents to become highly
proficient.
c. Children have difficulty in effective planning due to:
(1) difficulty choosing what to do and what not to do to achieve their
goals
(2) Over-optimism about their ability to reach their goals leaves them
unmotivated to plan.
(3) lacking skills to coordinate and cooperate with others
(4) limits in dividing attention

142
d. Combined with increases in brain maturation and educational demands,
planning and attention greatly improve over time.
B. Memory and Its Duration
1. The ability to recognize previously encountered objects and events implies some
memory.
2. Infants’ memories improve with age.
3. Research suggests that memory during infancy is processed in ways similar to
processing during adulthood, but that recall may depend upon different structures of
the brain.
4. Duration of Memories
a. Research supports the notion of INFANTILE AMNESIA, the lack of
memory for experiences that occurred prior to 3 years of age.
(1) Although memories are stored from early infancy, they cannot be
easily retrieved.
(2) Early memories are susceptible to interference from later events.
(3) Memories are sensitive to environmental context.
b. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY, memory of particular events from
one’s own life, is not very accurate until after age 3.
(1) Preschoolers’ autobiographical memories fade, they may not be
accurate (depending on when they are assessed), and they are
susceptible to suggestions.
(2) Adults, too, show errors in autobiographical memories.
C. Memory Development and Control
1. Memory Control Strategies
a. With age, people use more control strategies: conscious, intentionally used
tactics to improve cognitive processing.
b. Children also learn ways to organize information into coherent patterns.
c. They also begin to use strategies that are explicitly taught by others, such as
the keyword strategy.
d. As they get older, children increasingly organize their memories of familiar
events in terms of SCRIPTS, general representations in memory of a
sequence or series of events and the order in which they occur.
e. With age, scripts become more elaborate.
2. The Growth of Metamemory and Content Knowledge
a. METAMEMORY: an understanding and knowledge about the processes
that underlie memory; emerges and improves during middle childhood.
b. With metamemory, children realize their memory limitations and how to
overcome them by spending more time examining and studying material.
c. Teaching metamemory skills to children helps them understand material
better.
d. Increasing knowledge in all domains leads to increases in how much they can
recall as well as what they remember.
e. As more knowledge in a given topic is stored in memory, it is easier to learn
new, related material. Older children therefore are better able to recall
information than younger children.
3. Perspectives on Memory Development
a. Memory improves through childhood and adolescence.
b. This is due to:
(1) increased amount of information remembered in working memory
as information processing becomes more efficient
(2) Control strategies improve as people get older.

143
(3) metamemory understanding and knowledge about how memory
works
(4) Increased knowledge permits older children to learn new, related
material more efficiently.
(5) The more children know about a topic, the better they remember it,
and the faster they learn new material that relates to it.
(6) These changes take on different levels of importance across
different periods of childhood.
4. Memory in Adulthood: You Must Remember This
a. For most people, memory peaks in early adulthood.
b. Long-term memory declines with age as people register and store
information less efficiently.
c. People are also less efficient in retrieving stored information as they age.
d. These declines typically present as minimal memory loss.
e. Most people are absentminded throughout life, but with cultural stereotypes,
adults attribute this absentmindedness to aging.
f. Adults can compensate for declines in memory.
III. Module 6.3: Applying Information-Processing Approaches
A. Children’s Eyewitness Testimony: Memory on Trial
1. Preschoolers have difficulty describing certain information and oversimplify
recollections that may have implications for eyewitness testimony.
2. Young children are susceptible to suggestions from adults, and sometimes what they
appear to recall is not accurate.
3. Repeated and leading questioning by adults may lead to inaccurate memory reports
by children.
4. Questioning children right after the event and outside the courtroom may produce
more accurate recollections.
5. Adults’ memories are also prone to significant error, even when they are confident in
their accuracy.
B. Information Processing: Contributions to the Classroom
1. Proponents of code-based approaches to reading believe that reading should be taught
by presenting the basic skills that underlie reading.
a. They emphasize processing the individual parts of reading (sounds, letters)
and combining them into words and meanings.
2. In contrast, whole-language approaches value the construction of meaning of words
as they are placed in context through trial and error.
3. Data suggests that code-based approaches are superior to whole-language
approaches.
4. Teaching Critical Thinking
a. Critical thinking is thinking that makes use of cognitive skills and strategies
that increase the likelihood of solving problems, forming inferences, and
making decisions appropriately and successfully.
b. The critical thinker considers information, weighs alternatives, comes to a
reasoned decision.
c. U.S. children typically do not demonstrate high levels of critical thinking
skills in comparison to age-mates from other cultures.
d. Four components of critical thinking are:

144
(1) Identify and challenge assumptions underlying a statement or
contention.
(2) Check for factual accuracy and logical consistency among
statements.
(3) Take the context of a situation into account.
(4) Imagine and explore alternatives.
C. Reconsidering the Information-Processing Perspective
1. With age and practice, preschoolers can process information more efficiently and
with more sophistication.
2. According to information-processing approaches, cognitive development consists of
gradual improvements in the ways people perceive, understand, and remember.
a. These changes are quantitative, not qualitative as Piaget argued.
(1) Preschoolers begin to process information with greater
sophistication.
(2) They have longer attention spans, attend to more than one
dimension of an object, and can better monitor that to which they
are attending.
3. Information processing provides a clear, logical, and full account of cognitive
development.
4. It is also testable and empirical in nature, and provides logical sets of concepts
focusing on processes that underlie children’s thinking.
5. Information-processing theorists also focus on aspects of development typically not
attended to by alternative theories.
a. role of memory, attention
b. more comprehensive accounting of cognitive skills
6. Criticisms focus upon several aspects of the approach to development.
a. lack of attention to motivations and goals that inform much of people’s
thinking (aspects of humans that set them apart from animals and cold
processing machines)
b. Information-processing developmentalists contend that their models are
precisely stated and testable, and that more research supports their theories
than any others.
c. Reliance on well-defined processes that can be tested is one of this
perspective’s most important features.
d. Information-processing theorists pay little attention to social and cultural
factors.
e. Information-processing theorists pay so much attention to the detailed,
individual sequence of processes that they never paint a comprehensive
picture of cognitive development.

145
LECTURE LAUNCHERS
Lecture Launcher 6.1: How Kids Learn
Some of your students may be parents of preschoolers or entering the field of education. Recent
arguments suggest that children between the ages of 5 and 8 learn differently than older children. Young
children learn best through active, hands-on teaching methods like games or dramatic play, not from
hours of workbooks and homework. Raise this issue with your students and ask for their opinions, as well
as their own experiences when they were young.
Lecture Launcher 6.2: Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Students are fascinated by the concept of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder because they all seem to
be aware of someone who has been diagnosed with it. Your lecture should concentrate on three areas: (a)
the current DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for ADHD (see Handout 9-1); (b) the effects on school
performance and social interactions; and (c) the treatment of the disorder, which often includes stimulants
such as Ritalin and Dexadrin and cognitive behavior training.
Lecture Launcher 6.3: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Young children sometimes have difficulty recalling information. One study suggests that drawing can
enhance children’s memories for events.
Sarnia Butler, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, led a study involving 5- and 6-year-
olds who took a field trip to a fire station. While there, the children clambered on the fire engines,
watched drills performed by the firefighters, tried on the firefighting gear, and even watched as one of
their chaperones slid down the firepole, much to the displeasure of the tour leader, who reprimanded her.
(This event, and several others, were prearranged ahead of time.) Both one day and one month later, the
children were asked about their outing. Those children who were asked to draw and describe the events of
that day—how they got there, what they saw, the events that transpired—accurately reported much more
information than those children who were simply asked to tell what happened. This effect was not
observed among 3- to 4-year-olds, although among both groups drawing did not appear to increase errors
in recall.
This research indicates that memory for pleasant events may be increased by coupling words and pictures.
It remains to be seen whether the same effect would hold for negative events. If so, this technique may
hold promise for boosting children’s recall of abuse, incest, or other traumatic events.
Butler, S., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (1995). The effect of drawing on memory performance in young children. Developmental
Psychology, 31(4), 597–608.
Staff (1995). Kids draw on their memories. Science News, 148, 111.

146
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Student Activity 6.1: Let’s Share, Show, or Recall
Select a class meeting when you’ll be discussing memory, and ask students to bring a photo of themselves
as a preschooler, preferably engaged in some activity or attending some event. If students are unable to
locate an early photo, ask them to make a note about their very earliest memory. At the beginning of class
you might divide the students into groups and have them share as much as they can remember about what
was going on when their photo was taken. Can they remember the place, who took the photo, how old
they were, the time of year, anything special about the clothes they were wearing or any props in the
photo? Similarly, have students describe their earliest memory. Encourage students to interpret their
memories in light of knowledge about young children’s cognitive development.
Invite the class into a discussion about memory capabilities of preschoolers, especially autobiographical
memory. Note that memories are not very accurate until after age 3, and that they are susceptible to
suggestion. Also discuss the fact that preschoolers have difficulty describing certain information and tend
to oversimplify recollections. You might also discuss whether preschoolers can learn to remember. What
strategies might parents or preschool teachers employ to facilitate children’s memory? Ask the students to
share whether they felt their memories of those earlier times had been influenced in some way. Ask them
if they have learned to improve their ability to remember information. You might engage in a more in-
depth discussion of information processing theory (e.g., sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term
memory) as well as metacognitive strategies (e.g., rehearsal, mnemonic devices).
Student Activity 6.2: Reflective Journal
Use Handout 5-3 to help your students reflect on their own intellectual growth during infancy.

147
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
Baillargeon, R. (October, 1994). How do infants learn about the physical world? Current Directions
in Psychological Science. pp. 133–140.
Emmons, H., & Alter, D. (2015). Staying sharp: 9 keys for a youthful brain through modern science
and ageless wisdom. New York: Touchstone Books.
Schaie, K. W. (1994). The course of adult intellectual development. American Psychologist, 49(4),
304–313.
Schaie followed 5,000 adults for over 35 years in the Seattle Longitudinal Study to assess whether
intelligence changes over adulthood. He and his wife also tested various intervention strategies that
worked to offset the loss of fluid intelligence.
Siegler, R. S. (2004). Children’s thinking (4th
ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Zigler, E., & Styfco, S. (2010). The hidden history of Head Start. New York: Oxford University
Press.

148
MULTIMEDIA IDEAS
MyDevelopmentLab Video Series
The MyDevelopmentLab Video Series engages students and brings to life a wide range of topics
spanning prenatal development through the end of the lifespan. New international videos shot on location
allow students to observe similarities and differences in human development across various cultures.
Video: School and Education in Middle Childhood Across Cultures
Discussion Questions
1. What common educational threads do you see among the individuals in this video?
2. If you did not know the teacher in this video was from Africa, would you think (based on her
responses) that she could have been discussing teaching in the U.S.?

149
Handout 6-1
Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Inattention: Six or more symptoms of inattention for children up to age 16, or five or more for
adolescents 17 and older and adults; symptoms of inattention have been present for at least 6
months, and they are inappropriate for developmental level:
• Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, or
with other activities.
• Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities.
• Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
• Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the
workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked).
• Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
• Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time
(such as schoolwork or homework).
• Often loses things necessary for tasks and activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools,
wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones).
• Is often easily distracted.
• Is often forgetful in daily activities.
Hyperactivity and Impulsivity: Six or more symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity for children up
to age 16, or five or more for adolescents 17 and older and adults; symptoms of hyperactivity-
impulsivity have been present for at least 6 months to an extent that is disruptive and inappropriate
for the person’s developmental level:
• Often fidgets with or taps hands or feet, or squirms in seat.
• Often leaves seat in situations when remaining seated is expected.
• Often runs about or climbs in situations where it is not appropriate (adolescents or adults may be
limited to feeling restless).
• Often unable to play or take part in leisure activities quietly.
• Is often “on the go,” acting as if “driven by a motor.”
• Often talks excessively.
• Often blurts out an answer before a question has been completed.
• Often has trouble waiting his or her turn.
• Often interrupts or intrudes on others (e.g., butts into conversations or games).
In addition, the following conditions must be met:
• Several inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were present before age 12 years.
• Several symptoms are present in two or more settings (e.g., at home, school or work; with friends
or relatives; in other activities).
• There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, school,
or work functioning.
• The symptoms do not happen only during the course of schizophrenia or another psychotic
disorder. The symptoms are not better explained by another mental disorder (e.g. Mood
Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, or a Personality Disorder).

150
Handout 6-2
Reflective Journal Exercise
If possible, ask your parents to help you write about your cognitive development during the first two
years of life. (If your parents are not available, you can write about your own children or interview a
parent of an infant.) You can use the following questions to help you reflect.
What were your first words?
What is your earliest memory? How old were you?
Was there a game you particularly liked to play, such as peek-a-boo or patty cake?
What were your favorite books?
How did your parents try to stimulate your intellectual growth?
Was your intelligence ever tested?
Was more than one language spoken at home? If so, which did you prefer to use?

Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:

in the agricultural regions. A parcels post that allows the
transportation of merchandise at as low a rate as that provided for in
the Henry bill, would enable consumers residing in agricultural
districts, where wages are high, to purchase their goods in the
lowest priced markets in the United States, and the results of this
system would be to concentrate industries in the large cities and
densely populated districts to the detriment of agricultural and other
sections now undergoing commercial and manufacturing
development. This would retard the growth of towns and the
upbuilding of manufacturing industries in those sections. Thus it can
be seen that there would be no compensating effects to justify the
installation of a parcels post of this character.
The exorbitant charges made by the express companies and other
carriers have caused the people of the United States to demand that
the package carrying machinery of the United States postal
department be enlarged. Recognizing this demand, Postmaster-
General Meyer in his annual report made the recommendation that
the parcels carrying service of the government be broadened and
that the parcels post be extended so as to make the maximum
weight of a package carried 11 pounds with a graduated rate up to
one pound and a pound rate of 12 cents, making the maximum rate
for the maximum weight $1.32. He also recommended that a parcels
post be established over rural delivery routes, starting from the post-
office where the route emanates and ending upon a rural route. For
this service he recommended that the limit of weight be 11 pounds
and the charge 5 cents for the first pound and 2 cents for each
additional pound, making the maximum charge for an 11 pound
package 25 cents, and that this service be limited to bonafide
merchants and others residing along the line of a rural route.
In making his recommendation as to parcels post enlargement, it
is evident that the postmaster-general well considered not alone the
welfare of the department as to revenues sufficient for proper
maintenance and the installation of a more efficient service, but as
well carefully weighed the economic aspects as they relate to
geographical and commercial conditions throughout the Union.

A careful study into Mr. Meyer’s plan will show that it does not
contemplate any revolution in commercial methods. Notwithstanding
the charges made to the contrary, by those opposed to his views, it
does not appear that should his system be adopted by Congress that
the large houses doing an exclusive mail order business would have
any advantage over the merchants of the smaller cities and towns.
The rural parcels post would certainly be not alone advantageous to
the twelve or fifteen millions of people residing in agricultural
districts, who are now served by more than 38,000 rural carriers, but
would be of great value to the live merchants in the smaller towns
who at a minimum of expense could utilize the rural service for the
delivery of goods to their patrons in the country.
The bills introduced, respectively by Senators Burnham and Kean,
are in perfect harmony with the recommendations of the
postmaster-general.
With the diversion of small packages from the express companies
to the mails, the revenues to the postoffice department would be
proportionately greater than the increased cost occasioned by the
greater tonnage of matter carried.
During the past fiscal year, the expense of maintaining the rural
delivery routes was in excess of $26,000,000. The installation of a
parcels delivery over the rural routes would most likely during the
first year place the rural delivery on a self-sustaining basis. There are
38,253 rural routes. Should each carrier over a route on his daily trip
carry only 88 pounds of merchandise from the local stores to the
patrons on his route, it would give the government a revenue of
approximately $24,000,000 annually, and this service can be
performed without other carrying equipment than rural carriers now
have.
When every phase of the recommendations of Postmaster-General
Meyer be carefully weighed, it becomes apparent that his plans are
based upon soundest business judgment.

Opposition to Mr. Meyer’s recommendations comes from three
sources, namely:
Large manufacturers, jobbers and other classes of business men
who annually spend enormous amounts for letter postage.
Country merchants who are unduly alarmed over the growth of
the catalogue houses, and who fear that a parcels post extension
will increase the mail order business to their detriment.
Express companies, whose revenues would be decreased by
operation of the system.
Data Relative to Proposed Extension of Parcel
Post. pp. 1-6.
OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
Washington, D. C., March 4, 1908.
My Dear Senator: It affords me great pleasure, in compliance with
your request, to place at your disposal the data which are available
relative to the proposed extension of the parcel post.
It does not appear to be generally appreciated that a
comprehensive system of parcels post is already in satisfactory
operation in most foreign countries. Exhibit No. 1 gives detailed
information on this subject. I show here the limit of weight which
has been fixed in a number of instances:
Pounds.
Great Britain 11
Germany 110
France 22
Italy 11
Chile 11

New Zealand 11
Austria 110
Belgium 132
The Netherlands 11
Cuba 11
The rates in the countries mentioned are much lower than those
shown in Exhibit No. 2, which have been recommended for the
general parcel post in the United States.
The present rate on the general parcel post is 16 cents a pound
for people in our own country, the limit of weight being 4 pounds,
while the rate from the United States to 29 foreign countries is 12
cents a pound and the limit of weight to 24 of these countries is 11
pounds. In other words, our own people must pay 4 cents a pound
more for the privilege of dispatching packages to each other than
when destined to residents of a foreign country. I have therefore
urged a rate of 12 cents a pound for packages forwarded through
the mails to post-offices in the United States and its possessions,
subject to the same regulations as exist at the present time, with the
exception of increasing the weight limit to 11 pounds. The service
can be rendered at a cost well within the rates recommended.
According to the report of the record of weight of second-class
mail matter, transmitted by the Post-Office Department to the House
of Representatives under date of February 1, 1907, the average haul
of all second-class matter was 540 miles.
Of the total receipts of the Post-Office Department 69 per cent are
expended for labor and supplies, and 7 per cent for conveyance
charges other than those paid the railroads for transporting the mail.
A general rate for parcel post of 12 cents a pound would produce a
revenue of $240 a ton. Even on the basis of a 540-mile average
haul, I find the debit and credit sides of 1 ton of parcel post to be as
follows:
By postage $240.00

To railroad transportation, 540 miles, at 5½ cents $29.70
Other transportation charges 16.80
Labor and supplies 165.60
Total cost 212.10
Profit 27.90
A local parcel post confined to rural delivery routes is also
advocated at the rates given in Exhibit No. 3. The Department favors
the establishment of this special service because of its ability to
render it with great advantage to the farmer, the country merchant,
and other patrons of the routes, as the necessary machinery (over
38,000 routes now regularly covered by rural carriers) is in
operation. There are some 15,000,000 people living on these routes,
which shows the vast possibilities of the rural service. It has been
estimated that if but three packages of the maximum weight were
handled each trip on the rural routes now established the resulting
revenue, even at the low rates given, would more than wipe out the
postal deficit. The increased cancellations would automatically
advance the salaries of postmasters of the fourth class, and the
remaining revenue, which would be clear gain, would be of great
assistance in making the rural service self-sustaining. The rural
service will, in all probability, cost the government this year
$34,000,000, an increase of $10,000,000 over last year.
The history and advantages of the rural delivery should be
understood by our people. There is a feeling in many quarters that it
is an extravagance and an unnecessary drain upon the postal
revenues. The first rural route was established in the latter part of
1896, $14,840 being expended for rural delivery during that fiscal
year. At that time the postal deficit was $11,411,779. During the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1907, the expenditures for rural delivery
aggregated $26,671,699, while the postal deficit showed a decrease,
as compared with 1897, of $4,800,000, the deficit amounting to
$6,653,282. This would seem to show that while the expense
incurred for maintaining rural delivery is great, yet the rural delivery
has been instrumental in increasing the general postal receipts.

However, its benefits to our people can not be measured in dollars
and cents.
That a local parcel post would be of material advantage to the
retail merchant in competition with mail-order houses is seen at
once when it is pointed out that the latter, at the proposed general
parcel post rate of 12 cents a pound, would be obliged to pay $1.32
for sending an 11-pound package to a rural route patron, a
difference in favor of the local storekeeper of about 10 cents a
pound, or $1.07 on an 11-pound package.
Letters and petitions for the extension of the parcel post are being
received from all sections of the country. Many commercial bodies
formerly opposed to any action of this kind are on record as being
heartily in favor of it.
On the other hand, objections have been raised to the measures
the Department is advocating. Although no sound argument has
been advanced in opposition, the contentions which have been made
are not without interest. I mention the more important of them, at
the same time giving the replies which they have elicited:
It has been stated that the Department is not equipped to deliver
11-pound parcels received in the general mails. The present postal
regulations provide that where a package is of undue size or weight
a formal notice shall be sent the addressee requesting him to call for
it. This practice, would continue were the weight limit increased to
11 pounds, in the case of offices having free delivery. Nor would it
work a hardship, for under the present limit of 4 pounds the average
weight of parcels sent through the mails is but one-third of a pound.
Increasing the weight limit would not have nearly as great an effect
on the average weight of parcels mailed as seems to be commonly
supposed. Where packages were addressed to persons living on
rural routes they would, of course, be delivered to the boxes of the
patrons by rural carriers, who would not thereby be inconvenienced.
The claim that the special local rate recommended for the parcel
post on rural routes would eventually be extended to include the

entire postal service has been given considerable publicity. The
impossibility of this becomes apparent when attention is directed to
the cost of railroad transportation, which has no part in the former
service. About $45,000,000 were paid last year for mail
transportation and $6,000,000 for postal cars.
Others have said that large mail-order houses would, under the
proposed law, utilize the special parcel post or rural routes through
agents to the great disadvantage of the country merchant, first
assembling their orders and despatching them by express or freight
to suitable distributing points. The Department has recommended
provisions which will prevent any such use of the routes. It should
be remembered, too, that even in the absence of a specific
prohibition of this nature, any systematic attempt upon the part of a
mail-order house to thus distribute its wares would necessitate the
employment of many thousands of local representatives. The
catalogues of these concerns indicate in no uncertain way that they
attribute their success, in large measure, to their low selling
expense, and that the absence of any sort of agents is the principal
feature of their argument in accounting for the supposedly low
prices of their goods.
The cry of “class legislation” has been raised. There is, of course,
no discrimination involved, for all who can be reached by rural
carriers will be accommodated. It would be as reasonable to decry
the laws which permit the delivery of mail to patrons living on rural
routes, while persons differently situated are obliged to make a trip
to a near-by post-office to obtain their letters.
Those who claim that an increase in the weight limit would work
an injury to country merchants appear to have the impression that
mail-order houses now deliver their goods extensively through the
postal service, and that this practice would largely increase if the
recommendations which have been made become law. Upon a
moment’s reflection it will be perceived that the present rate of 16
cents a pound ($16 per hundred-weight), as well as the proposed
rate of 12 cents a pound ($12 per hundred-weight), are alike

prohibitive on practically all lines of merchandise. Mail-order houses
make their shipments usually by freight or express and would
continue to do so.
Antagonism to the proposed measures, when analyzed and found
not to be the result of selfish motives, appears to be based upon
inaccurate or insufficient information. In illustration, I desire to invite
attention to a communication of the Richmond Commercial Club, of
Richmond, Ind., which appeared in the Congressional Record of
January 4, 1908. In this letter the statement was made that a
certain mail-order house would save $40,000 a year on the mailing
of catalogues alone. Catalogues are rated as third-class matter,
whereas the Department’s recommendations with respect to parcel
post relate to fourth-class matter only. Catalogues are now mailable
at 1 cent for 2 ounces, or 8 cents a pound, 4 cents a pound less
than the rate proposed for the general parcel post. The mail-order
house referred to, therefore, would gain nothing under the proposed
law in the mailing of its catalogues.
With the adoption of new conveniences of life by urban residents,
and the ever-increasing attractions of the city, especially potent in
their influence upon the younger generation, the importance of
affording farmers and ruralites generally every legitimate advantage
becomes more and more apparent. The free rural delivery has
improved materially and intellectually the life of great numbers of
these people. Is it too much to ask that the Department shall make
a further use of this important system; a use which, while adding
appreciably to the postal revenues, will directly and vitally benefit
every man, woman, and child within reach of a rural route? The
countryman would have the necessities of life delivered at his gate
at an average cost of 2 cents a pound, thereby facilitating and
increasing consumption. This would mean augmentation of the trade
of thousands of country merchants. The commercial traveler should
appreciate the advantages of this system; it would increase his
orders because the country merchant buys from the jobber or the
wholesaler. Every component part of our commercial system would
feel the effects of an increased prosperity.

It would inevitably tend toward the improvement of the roads.
Better roads and improved postal facilities in the rural districts would
result in increased values of farm lands. The rural service as now
organized has accomplished something in this direction; its
enlargement will add to the good attained.
Believe me, faithfully yours,
G. v. L. Meyer.
Hon. Henry E. Burnham,
United States Senate, Washington.
Exhibit 1.
Parcel Post Rates in the Domestic Service of the Countries Named.
Great Britain.—Postage rates for the first pound, 3 pence (6 cents), and for
each additional pound, 1 penny (2 cents); maximum weight, 11 pounds;
greatest length, 3 feet 6 inches; greatest length and girth combined, 6 feet.
New Zealand and the States Composing the Commonwealth for Australia.—
Limits of weight and size, same as in Great Britain. Postage rates, 6 pence (12
cents) for the first pound, and 3 pence (6 cents) for each additional pound.
Germany.—Greatest weight, 50 kilograms (about 110 pounds); no limit of
size. Postage rates: For all parcels conveyed not more than 10 geographic
miles, 25 pfennig (6 cents), and 50 pfennig (13 cents) for greater distance; if
a parcel weighs more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds av.), it is charged for each
additional kilogram (2 pounds) carried 10 miles, 5 pfennig (1 cent); 20 miles,
10 pfennig (3 cents); 50 miles, 20 pfennig (5 cents); 100 miles, 30 pfennig (8
cents); 150 miles, 40 pfennig (10 cents); and more than 150 miles, 50
pfennig (13 cents). Unwieldy parcels are charged in addition 50 per cent of
the above rates.
Austria.—Greatest weight, 50 kilograms (110 pounds); except that parcels
containing gold or silver coin may weigh up to 65 kilograms (143 pounds).
Postage rates: Parcels up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in weight are charged
30 heller (6 cents) for the first 10 miles, and 60 heller (12 cents) for greater
distances. A parcel weighing more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds) is charged
for each kilogram (2 pounds) in addition to the above rates, for the first 10
miles, 6 heller (1 cent); 20 miles, 12 heller (2 cents); 50 miles, 24 heller (5
cents); 100 miles, 36 heller (7 cents); 150 miles, 48 heller (10 cents), and
more than 150 miles, 60 heller (12 cents).

France.—Greatest weight 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds); no limit of size.
Postage rates: Up to 3 kilograms (7 pounds), 60 centimes (12 cents) delivered
at the railway station, and 85 centimes (17 cents) delivered at a residence;
from 3 to 5 kilograms (7 to 11 pounds), 80 centimes (16 cents) at a station,
and 1 franc 5 centimes (21 cents) at residence; from 5 to 10 kilograms (11 to
22 pounds), 1 franc 25 centimes (25 cents) at a station, and 1 franc 50
centimes (30 cents) at a residence.
Belgium.—Greatest weight 60 kilograms (about 132 pounds); no limit of
size, but unwieldy parcels are charged 50 per cent in addition to the following
rates for any distance: Parcels up to 5 kilograms (11 pounds), 50 centimes
(10 cents)—or if by express trains, 80 centimes (16 cents); up to 10 kilograms
(22 pounds), 60 centimes (12 cents)—or if by express trains, 1 franc (20
cents); for each additional 10 kilograms (22 pounds), 10 centimes (2 cents)—
or if sent by express trains, 50 centimes (10 cents) additional. Fee for
delivering at residences, 30 centimes (6 cents).
Italy.—Greatest weight, 5 kilograms (11 pounds). For ordinary parcels,
greatest size in any direction, 60 centimeters (2 feet), except rolls which may
measure 1 meter (40 inches—3 feet 4 inches) in length by 20 centimeters (8
inches) in thickness. Postage rates for a parcel not exceeding 3 kilograms (7
pounds), 60 centimes (12 cents); and 1 franc (20 cents) for a parcel
exceeding that weight. A parcel which exceeds 60 centimeters (2 feet) in any
direction, but does not exceed 1½ meters (5 feet), is admitted to the mails as
an “unwieldy” parcel and is charged, in addition to the above rates, 30
centimes (6 cents) if it does not weigh more than 3 kilograms (7 pounds), and
50 centimes (10 cents) if it exceeds that weight.
The Netherlands.—Greatest weight, 5 kilograms (11 pounds); greatest size,
25 cubic decimeters (1,525 cubic inches), or 1 meter (3 feet 4 inches) in any
direction. Postage rates: 15 (6) cents (Dutch) up to 1 kilogram (2 pounds); 20
(8) cents from 1 to 3 kilograms (2 to 7 pounds); 25 cents (10) from 3 to 5
kilograms (7 to 11 pounds).
Chile.—Greatest weight, 5 kilograms (11 pounds); must not measure more
than 60 centimeters (2 feet) in any direction. Postage rates: 30 centavos (10
cents) if a parcel does not weigh more than 3 kilograms (7 pounds); 50
centavos (17 cents) if it weighs more.
Cuba.—Greatest weight, 11 pounds; greatest size, 3 feet 6 inches in length
by 2 feet 6 inches in width. Postage rates: 10 centavos (10 cents) a pound up
to 5 pounds; and 6 centavos (6 cents) for each additional pound.
Exhibit 2.

Rates recommended by the Postmaster-General in his annual report (year
ended June 30, 1907) for packages forwarded through the mails to post-
offices in the United States and its possessions, subject to the regulations
which exist at the present time, with the exception of increasing the weight
limit to 11 pounds.
Cents.
One ounce 1
Over 1 ounce and not exceeding 3 ounces 2
Over 3 ounces and not exceeding 4 ounces 3
Exhibit 3.
Rates recommended by the Postmaster-General in his annual report (fiscal
year ended June 30, 1907) for packages covered by the special local parcel
post on rural delivery routes.
Cents.
For the first pound 5
For each additional pound, up to 11 pounds 2
For fractional parts of a pound:
Two ounces or less 1
Over 2 ounces and up to 4 ounces 2
Over 4 and up to 8 ounces 3
Over 8 and up to 12 ounces 4
Over 12 ounces and up to 1 pound 5
Our Postal Express.
James L. Cowles.

The United States post-office has always been an express service,
although Congress long confined the business to sealed parcels of
very small weights—not over 3 pounds—and at very high rates
graduated according to distance, with no insurance whatever against
loss or damage in the mails. In 1874, however, the business was
extended over all kinds of merchandise in unsealed parcels at a
common rate of one cent each two ounces, regardless at once of
distance and of the volume of a patron’s business. This placed the
humblest citizen in the most out of the way postal district of the
country on a par with the biggest corporation in our greatest
metropolis as to the cost of the transportation of his produce and of
his supplies in parcels up to four pounds, and, though still with no
insurance against loss or damage, the new postal express
immediately became a dangerous competitor to the private express
company with its distance rates based on what the subject will bear
and always discriminating in favor of the big town against the little
town, the big corporation against the ordinary citizen.
The private express interests got quickly to work, therefore, and
Congress soon checked up the growing postal express business by
increasing the postal rate one hundred per cent—from eight to
sixteen cents a pound. Later Congress bowed to the powerful book
and seed interests of the country and reduced the rate on their
merchandise to the old rate of 1874, and now, for many years, the
post-office and the public have been subjected to two sets of rates
on matter indistinguishable both in character and as to the cost of
their transportation.
The evil of this absurd postal classification, continued these
twenty years by Congress, becomes decidedly evident when our
domestic service is compared with the foreign parcels post services
established by President Taft and Postmaster-General Hitchcock, with
their common 11 pound weight limit at 12 cents a pound, on all
merchandise posted from the United States to foreign countries and
from those countries to the United States:
From Austria:

4½ pounds .35
11 pounds .86
From Italy:
7 pounds .39
11 pounds .79
From Norway:
2½ pounds .16
11 pounds .96
From Germany:
4½ pounds .33
11 pounds .81
From Belgium:
4½ pounds .35
11 pounds 1.10
U. S. Foreign Rates:
2¼ pounds .36
7 pounds .84
11 pounds 1.32
U. S. Domestic Service:
2¼ pounds .36
4½ pounds (2 parcels) .72
7 pounds (2 parcels) 1.12
11 pounds (3 parcels) 1.76
Under the English post-American express arrangement English
postal parcels now come to New York three pounds for sixty cents;
seven pounds for 84c; eleven pounds for $1.08, and these parcels
are forwarded by the American express company throughout the
country at a common rate of twenty-four cents a parcel, eight cents
a pound on a three-pound parcel; about three and a half cents a
pound on a seven-pound parcel, and less than two and a half cents
a pound on an eleven-pound parcel. Meantime the express company
taxes domestic merchandise of the same weights from 25 cents to
$3.20, according to the distance traversed, while Congress taxes the

public for a similar domestic postal service, three pounds, forty-eight
cents; seven pounds, 2 parcels, $1.12; eleven pounds, 3 parcels,
$1.76.
Data Relative to Proposed Extension of Parcel
Post. pp. 8-14.
From The Boston Herald.
Ernest G. Walker.
Postmaster-General Wanamaker first actively urged the
establishment of a parcels post on a large scale. He summed up the
situation epigrammatically in his 100 reasons for it and only 4
reasons against it—those 4 being the express companies. Others
after him, especially the late Postmaster-General Bissell, made like
recommendations. But Mr. Meyer now has an advantage in his
campaign which none of his predecessors had in the rural delivery
routes. Every one of the many thousands of routes would be a little
parcels service in itself, aside from being a line of communication, by
which small packages could be conveyed from all parts of the
country or to any part of the country. Mr. Meyer is building much
upon that fact. The local service at cheaper rates will also protect
the local store-keepers, to which the big department stores and
mail-order establishments are bogeys.
Ever since he announced his intention of urging a better parcels
post service for the United States, the Postmaster-General has been
the recipient of many letters. These come from various classes of
people. Most of them commend his plan, but the retail associations,
such as the associations of hardware men and grocers, come out in
bold opposition. It is such people as these that the Postmaster-
General hopes to convert when they are brought to understand the
details of what he wants to do. Some of these critics, besides

claiming that the legislation would favor the catalogue houses, argue
that the government should not go into a general freight business
and that if the express companies are charging exorbitant rates, the
Interstate Commerce Commission, which now has authority over
them, should step in and require that the rates be lowered.
The operations of parcels post in other countries make a very
interesting transportation chapter. They are conducted on a gigantic
scale and, apart from what J. Henniker Heaton, long an English
member of Parliament from Canterbury, and a great advocate of
postal reforms, calls “grandmotherly regulations,” have worked with
practically world-wide success. Shopping by mail is made easy,
whether one in the country would trade with the local draper or the
big metropolitan merchant.
Great Britain’s conservative enactments will likely be a model for
any extension of the parcels post service by Congress. The service is
almost twenty-five years old over there. It has become one of the
most important and highly appreciated postal features. Its growth
has been continuous and phenomenal. The scope has frequently
been broadened. There was an early clamor for an agricultural
parcels post. The owners of small farms in remote localities wanted
it. The growers of spring flowers in Kerry said it would enable them
to compete with the south of France and the Scilly Isles. Eventually
the agricultural parcels post was authorized and also spacious
dimensions for packages. Flower growers can now send full length
orchid spikes and long-stemmed roses by post, where formerly only
simple blooms were admissable.
Send Fish, Eggs and Fruit
The produce of the culturists goes forward to London and other
big English cities in tremendous volume. Fresh fish, dispatched from
seaport towns to the large hotels, are delivered with celerity. Meats,
cheese, fruits, vegetables, and freshly laid eggs in mail packages

under the 11-pound limit form a very considerable factor in the
commerce of the Kingdom.
The general rates are low. A 1-pound parcel takes a three-penny
stamp. That is 6 cents in our money. For 2 pounds an 8-cent stamp
is required; for three pounds, a 10-cent stamp; for 5 pounds, 12
cents; for 7 pounds, 14 cents; 8 pounds, 16 cents; 9 pounds, 18
cents; 10 pounds, 20 cents, and 11 pounds, 22 cents. Four-pound
parcels cost as much as five pounds, and 6 pounds cost as much as
7 pounds. For inland parcels 3 feet 6 inches is the maximum length;
6 feet the maximum measurement for length and girth. These have
been adopted as standard dimensions in the services of numerous
other countries. Parcels should not be posted at a letter box, but
presented at the counter of a postoffice. The government virtually
guarantees the sender against loss up to $10. Payment of a registry
fee of 4 cents, in addition to the regular postage, insures the parcel
for $25; a 25-cent registry stamp carries an insurance of $1,000.
There have been demands, not yet conceded, for the cash on
delivery system that several European countries have adopted.
The big retail stores of London avail themselves extensively of the
parcels service for delivery of goods. The rates, ranging from 6 to 22
cents, are not prohibitive. In many cases the government service is
cheaper and quicker. Laundries return washing by parcels post. In
Germany, where the rates are even cheaper, lads away at school
send their soiled linen home by mail to be washed and it is returned
to them by the same conveyance.
Sidney Buxton, the postmaster-general of Great Britain, in his last
report, statistically demonstrates the continuous growth, and
consequently the popularity, of the parcels post in the United
Kingdom. The number of parcels delivered in the country districts of
England and Wales in 1896-97 was 41,512,000, and increased
annually by from 3 to 6 per cent, till in 1905-6 the number was
66,277,000. In the London district for the same ten-year period the
increase was from 11,229,000 parcels to 18,167,000. A similar
increase was shown for Scotland from 6,802,000 to 10,725,000

parcels, and for Ireland, where the increase was from 4,172,000 in
1896-97 to 6,513,000 in 1905-6.
The gross amount of revenue the government collected increased
from £1,445,126 for 63,715,000 parcels in the United Kingdom for
the first year of the decade to £2,138,673 for 101,682,000 parcels in
the last year of the decade. The post-office’s share of these
collections increased from £763,307 to £1,142,224. The average
postage per parcel decreased during the period from about 11 cents
to 10 cents. The postmaster-general undertakes to deliver both
letters and parcels at every house in the Kingdom. They are
delivered by the same postman, except in the large towns, where
there is a special staff for parcel work.
Call Swiss Service Best
Because of competition from private agencies, that have charges
graduated on a basis of distance, there is a tendency for an unduly
high proportion of long distance parcels and parcels for delivery in
rural districts, which are the least remunerative. The post-office has
met this competition by establishing, for comparatively short
distances, a large number of horse and motor parcel van services, as
road conveyance for these distances makes possible an economy as
compared with conveyance by railway at the charge of 55 per cent
of the receipts.
The Swiss is cited much as one of the most efficient and
satisfactory in Europe. The mountain villages and resorts of that
industrious little country receive a large portion of their supplies by
post, as a maximum weight of 110 pounds is carried within a radius
of 62 miles. The conditions there are somewhat the same as with
the dwellers in the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains, to whom
it has been declared that a parcels post would be a great boon
because there is no prospect that either the railroads or the express
companies will ever approach their hamlets and villages.

This Swiss law includes an agricultural parcels post and likewise a
passenger post, agitation for both of which has generally followed
the establishment of parcels post in most countries. The passenger
post of Switzerland is something like the mail coaches in the United
States before the coming of railroads, except that the coaches are
owned by the state and the fees are prescribed by the same
authority. A very large business is done in sending parcels through
the mails. A treasury official, who was traveling in Switzerland during
the past summer, saw at one railroad station several enormous
baskets filled with hams and provisions. They were samples of mail
parcels under the 110-pound limit.
Cash on Delivery Plan
The general rates are more liberal than in any other country. A
parcel weighing 1 pound is carried anywhere within the boundaries
of the Federation for 3 cents, a 5-pound parcel for 5 cents, a 11-
pound parcel for 8 cents, a 22-pound parcel for 17 cents, a 33-
pound parcel for 23 cents, and a 44-pound parcel for 33 cents.
Parcels weighing as much as 110 pounds are carried within a radius
of 62 miles for 60 cents, which enables many of the peasants to
market much of their light produce by mail. The rates are so
adjustable that housewives can secure anything by post from a
paper of pins to a bag of flour. The V. P., or value payable, system is
a part of the Swiss postal arrangements, so that purchaser can pay
for his goods on delivery, and there is but one financial transaction
connected with the purchase as far as he is concerned. A provision
for delivery makes the service all the more attractive.
Belgium’s parcels post has even a higher weight limit than
Switzerland, for it accepts articles of 62 kilograms, or about 132
pounds, in one package, and puts no limit upon the size, except that
unwieldy packages are subject to an extra charge of 50 per cent. But
up to 5 kilograms, which is the conventional 11-pound limit of a
majority of the parcels post countries, the charge is 50 centimes, or
10 cents; for 10 kilograms 12 cents, and two cents extra for every

additional 10 kilograms (22 pounds). A higher charge is made in
Belgium, as in several other European countries, if the parcel is to be
carried on an express train. It amounts to six cents for five
kilograms. The fee for delivering at residence is six cents additional.
Germany and Austria maintain the 50-kilogram limit. The first
named country enforces the 50 per cent extra charge for unwieldy
articles. It also has what is called the zone system. For conveyance
10 geographic miles the charge is six cents (25 pfennigs), and 13
cents (50 pfennigs) for greater distances. If the parcel weighs more
than 11 pounds there is a charge of one cent (five pfennigs) for each
additional kilogram carried 10 miles, 10 pfennigs for 20 miles, 20
pfennigs for 50 miles, 30 pfennigs for 100 miles, 40 pfennigs for 150
miles, and 50 pfennigs, approximately 13 cents, for more than 150
miles. The same rate of charges applies in Austria.
A Table of Charges
The French parcels post law requires presentation at the railroad
station. Some other European countries, like Great Britain, require it
to be delivered at the postoffice. The French maximum weight is 10
kilograms (22 pounds) without any restriction as to size. The
postage rates are 12 cents up to 3 kilograms; 16 cents up to 5
kilograms, and 30 cents up to 10 kilograms. These rates are for
delivery at a railroad station. An extra fee of 25 centimes (5 cents) is
charged for delivering the parcel at the residence of the addressee.
Certain elementary items of cost enter into the service of
European countries that would not be identical with the maintenance
of a similar service in the United States. In Germany a considerable
mileage of the railroads is state owned. They carry certain parcels in
the mails without compensation. In large sections of Europe there
has never been anything like adequate service by express
companies, and in the absence of business enterprises in
establishing such transportation the people have been compelled to
look to their governments for relief. The cheap rates for parcels post

there were originally, in some part, intended as an accommodation
for the poorer classes.
The distances for transportation are less and the population is
denser. The United States is 225 times larger than Switzerland, 60
times larger than England, 17 times larger than Germany, 12 times
larger than the three countries combined. In England the average
distance a letter or mail package travels is 40 miles; in Germany it is
42 miles; in the United States it is said to be 542 miles.
Difficult to Estimate Cost
No accurate information is available as to whether the European
parcels posts are in reality self-supporting. They certainly are nearly
so, and in some instances are regarded as profitable government
ventures. Everywhere the service is characterized by prompt
transmission and prompt delivery. The percentages of loss are very
small. The several national constituencies that have a parcels post
system would no more relinquish such privileges than American
cities would relinquish electric lights or automobiles. One European
enthusiast pronounced the establishment of the parcels post “a
service to mankind only less splendid than that of the transmission
of thought.”
In England it is claimed that the parcels post service would be a
source of profit but for the amounts paid to the railroads for
transportation, the share of 55 per cent of the receipts being
regarded as exorbitant. Generally the parcels post is so joined with
the rest of the mail service that its entire cost can not be counted.
The international business has grown to enormous proportions.
The figures collected at Berne for 1904, in connection with the Postal
Union, show that the parcels mailed across the frontiers of 36
nations and colonies that year numbered something like 38,000,000.
The small percentage of that total, where the value was declared,
showed an aggregate of about $162,000,000 worth of property. In
that list the United States would have stood about eleventh on the

showing for the fiscal year of 1906, when 264,438 parcels of an
average weight of 2⅔ pounds were sent from this country abroad.
Tunis sent more according to the figures than the United States.
Germany, leading all other nations both in the dispatch and receipt
of parcels in international mails, sent a total of 11,675,385, of which
11,343,516 were classed as “ordinary,” and 331,869 were “with a
declared value” of $23,352,378. Austria, enjoying close postal
relations with Germany, dispatched 10,659,300 parcels to other
countries, of which 1,082,430 had a declared value of $68,396,578.
Has Become Great Factor
The totals of “receipts” and “dispatches” of course balance for the
36 countries in question, but are not the same for each country
represented. The rank in parcels dispatched runs: Germany, Austria,
France, Hungary, Great Britain, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium,
Netherlands, Tunis, British India, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia,
Denmark, Luxemburg, Japan, and Egypt; in parcels received the
order is: Germany, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Great
Britain, Belgium, Russia, Netherlands, Denmark, Roumania, Spain,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sweden, Norway, Luxemburg, Tunis, and so on.
Switzerland in 1904 received across her borders 2,788,406 parcels
by post, of which 2,635,090 were “ordinary” and 133,316 were
declared of a value of $9,863,886. Of 6,352,360 parcels that came
over the Austrian frontier, 778,380 had a declared value of
$64,788,927. Germany received 7,337,404 parcels in international
mails, of which 482,472 had a declared value of $35,901,435. The
parcels received by post in the United States during the fiscal year
1906 from abroad were recorded as 131,064, of an average weight
of 2.73 pounds. Probably the actual number was much larger,
perhaps twice as large.
Sufficient figures have been given to indicate what a great factor
the parcels post has become in the trade of the world. The value of
the merchandise thus transported can only be roughly estimated,
but it will probably exceed half a billion dollars annually.

This business is transacted across frontiers, causing little or no
friction with customs officers. Boxes with declared value are subject
to the legislation of the country of origin or destination as regards
payment of stamp duties on articles exported and as regards the
control of stamp and customs duties on articles imported. The stamp
duties and charges for examination by customs officers involved in
the importation are collected from the addressees when the articles
are delivered.
Provision for Insurance
Practically the same rules apply for all parcels post. There is
provision for insurance and also for “trade charges,” which latter
term means that goods can be sent c. o. d., the maximum value
being f.1000. The limit of weight is 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds. The
cost of conveyance comprises a charge of 10 cents for each country
participating in the territorial transit, a graduated distance tax for
sea conveyance and extra rates for cumbersome parcels, and may
be increased under certain conditions by delivery fees and, in case of
declared values, by insurance fees. Weights under 2 pounds,
however, are transported for a maximum of 1 franc. Special forms
are provided for registering for customs declaration, for certificate of
prepayment, when that is desired, and for trade charges.
The United States is not a party to this comprehensive parcels
post convention, by which a vast quantity of merchandise is carried
to different parts of the world annually, but Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Venezuela are among the
signatories. But the United States has parcels post conventions with
33 different countries on somewhat different but fairly liberal terms.
It keeps the postage for parcels it sends to other countries and they
in turn retain the postage on parcels sent here. That saves in
bookkeeping and has been found economical, whereas the more
comprehensive convention, under which most of the European and
Asiatic countries operate, divide the postage receipts pro rata. The
United States will not transmit through its mails parcels en route

from one foreign country to another. Among the latest parcels post
conventions the President has ratified under statute authority are
those with Sweden, Peru, Denmark, Ecuador, and Bermuda.
Customs Easily Collected
The popularity in this country of the parcels post is well
demonstrated by the great growth in the use of international
facilities. The dispatches from this country for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1905, amounted to 560,228 pounds and for the year
ending June 30, 1906, was 721,164 pounds, an increase of 28.73
per cent. Only one-fifth of the dispatches of the last mentioned fiscal
year went to Europe, which indicates that a good share of the
parcels business was with Mexico and Central South America. Parcels
for Germany, Hongkong, Japan, Norway, Belgium, Great Britain,
Sweden, and Denmark are accepted only for a maximum weight of 4
pounds and 6 ounces, where the maximum weight for the other
countries with which the Postoffice Department now has conventions
is 11 pounds.
The customs officials say that the parcels post business with
foreign countries is increasing by leaps and bounds. Within recent
months better facilities for the collection of customs dues have been
inaugurated, with the result it is said, that many packages which
hitherto passed without being noted are now being examined and
recorded. There are offices of exchange, so called, in several of the
larger post-offices of the United States where customs officials are
stationed to attend to the collection of duties on these parcels from
abroad. In the Washington City post-office this foreign parcels post
business is said to have increased 300 per cent within the last twelve
months. The Treasury Department keeps about 25 customs
employees now on duty at the New York City post-office to attend to
the foreign parcels post business which goes through that office.
Dutiable packages to minor offices are handled from exchange
offices. Such mail addressed to Plymouth, Mass., for instance, would

be held till the addressee had forwarded to the postmaster at Boston
the amount of duty required.
Post-office, Our Mutual Express Company. pp.
1-3.
William S. Bennet.
Mr. Chairman: In connection with this subject I take pleasure in
submitting the following views of the Postal Progress League:
The Post-Office, Our Mutual Express Company
From the foundation of our national government, the people of
the United States, through their representatives in Congress, have
always determined the scope of their postal service, the pay of their
mail carriers, their own postal rates; and from the first they seem to
have provided for the postal transport of merchandise in very small
sealed parcels at very high rates—by the act of 1792, 24 cents an
ounce for distances up to 30 miles, higher rates for greater
distances. In 1810 they fixed the postal weight limit at 3 pounds,
and it so remained for many years. In 1863 the postal rates were
made uniform regardless of distance, and since 1863 Congress has
definitely provided for the transport of merchandise in unsealed
parcels, but still with a weight limit so low and rates so high as to be
practically prohibitive.
In the old era of household industries when the peddler, with his
pack on his back, or driving his own team, was the chief agency of
commercial intercourse, these postal limitations worked little harm,
but their continuance in our day, when every industry needs a
continent for its development, is no longer endurable. The common

welfare demands the widest possible extension, the most efficient
and economic administration of our great mutual express company.
In its report of January 28, 1907, the Postal Commission of the
Fifty-ninth Congress declared that: “Upon the postal service, more
than upon anything else, does the general economic as well as the
social and political development of the country depend.” And yet the
United States merchandise post of to-day is limited to 4-pound
parcels at rates: Sealed parcels 2 cents an ounce, 32 cents a pound,
with no insurance against loss or damage unless registered; and
unsealed parcels, with no insurance under any conditions, at rates:
Third-Class Matter
Some specific kinds of merchandise; printed books; Christmas
cards printed on paper; advertisements on ordinary paper; seeds,
bulbs, etc., for planting, 1 cent for 2 ounces, 8 cents per pound.
Fourth-Class Matter
General merchandise; blank books; Christmas cards of any other
substance than paper; advertisements on blotting paper; seeds,
bulbs for food, etc., 1 cent per ounce, 16 cents per pound.
In 1874 third-class matter covered all merchandise at one-half the
present general merchandise rate.
The Postal Report of 1904, pages 593-595, shows the effect of
these limitations on the free rural service. In its daily 24-mile course,
visiting over 100 families, the average rural post-wagon handles less
than 26 pounds of mail per day, collected and delivered; it collects
less than 1 pound. The average rural family posts hardly one
merchandise parcel a year. Its total merchandise traffic dispatched
and received is less than 10 parcels a year. The postal revenue from
its entire merchandise traffic is less than 50 cents a year. The total
cancellations of the average carrier in 1904 amounted to only $10.64
a month; to less than $132 a year. With the same limitations in

1909, his postal income must remain practically the same.
Meanwhile the 4,000,000 families on the rural routes go to and from
their post towns and their homes, carrying their supplies and their
produce at a needless expense—estimated at only 50 cents a week
per family—of over $100,000,000 a year.
And the postal weighings of 1907 disclose a similar state of things
in the general-merchandise traffic of the post-office. Of the general
postal business, the merchandise traffic represents:
Per cent.
In number of parcels 1.12
In weight 4.79
In revenue 4.44
The weight of the average merchandise postal parcel is 5.45
ounces; its average haul is 687 miles. The merchandise tax, 1 cent
per ounce or fraction thereof, amounts in practice to 17.23 cents per
pound. The average family posts less than 9 parcels a year—less
than 3 pounds—and pays for the service about 50 cents a year.
The local merchandise mailed in October, 1907, at 17
representative post-offices of Alabama weighed only 65 pounds, at
16 representative post-offices of Arkansas only 14 pounds, at 18
representative post-offices of Iowa only 116 pounds, at 16
representative post-offices of New Hampshire only 27 pounds, at 16
representative post-offices of North Carolina only 30 pounds, at 14
representative post-offices of Oregon only 1 pound, at 14
representative post-offices of Montana only 1 pound, at 14
representative post-offices of Nevada only 4 pounds, at 12
representative post-offices of South Dakota only 15 pounds, and at
14 representative post-offices of Wyoming only 1 pound.
The weight of the parcels posted in October, 1907, by the
4,000,000 people of New York City in their local traffic amounted to
only 55,918 pounds, less than 1¼ ounces per family, and in their
total traffic to only 469,111 pounds, about 8 ounces per family.

The post-office is the most important department of our national
government. Its system of rates—regardless of distance, regardless
of the character or volume of the matter transported, rates
determined by the representatives of the rate payers in Congress
assembled on the basis of the cost of the service rendered—its
system of uniform rates places our whole country on a plane of the
most perfect commercial equality. Up to its limits there can be no
possible discriminations either as to persons, places or things. Up to
its limits, the humblest citizen on the most out-of-the-way rural route
is guaranteed the transport of his supplies and his produce at the
same rates as the biggest corporation in our greatest metropolis.
These rates moreover, may be steadily reduced with the
improvement of our transport machinery and its administration. And
yet by our own limitation of this mighty service we deny ourselves its
use almost altogether in local traffic, and in through traffic confine it
to parcels of less than 6 ounces.
Meantime we pay private express companies what “the traffic will
bear” for the transport of our large parcels, and in our local traffic
cheerfully carry our small parcels in our pockets or hand bags or
dispatch them by private messengers or private vehicles. Such petty
work is beneath the notice of our great private express companies.
In many small places they have no offices. Even in our great cities
they have no regular daily courses, save in a few business districts.
If the ordinary city resident would dispatch a parcel by express, he
must go after an express wagon on foot or by telephone. The post-
man—our public expressman—comes to our doors one, two, three,
four times a day, or oftener. We have but to substitute a machine
post for our overburdened foot post and, with a perfected system of
collection and delivery of insured parcels at reasonable rates, we
shall have a postal express at hand, ready and competent to do our
bidding on our own terms and conditions.
The possibilities of such a service were illustrated some years ago,
when James L. Cowles, of the Postal Progress League, dispatched an
11-pound suit case from New York City to New Haven, Conn. Prepaid
as a sealed parcel, with a special-delivery stamp affixed, the suit

case was mailed at a branch post-office on Fifth avenue about 5
o’clock in the afternoon; it was delivered at its address in New
Haven before 10 o’clock the same evening. On another occasion Mr.
Cowles telegraphed from Philadelphia about noon for a parcel of
stationery to be sent him from his office, 361 Broadway, New York
City. The Philadelphia postman delivered the parcel at Mr. Cowles’
hotel before 8 o’clock the same evening.
In his testimony before the congressional committee on railway
mail pay, in 1898, Mr. H. S. Julier, of the American Express Company,
testified that the weight of the average express parcel is 25 pounds;
its average charge is 50 cents; its average haul in the eastern states
is 100 to 125 miles; in the central states a little more; in the western
states from 175 to 200 miles. In local traffic the ordinary express
charge on the smallest merchandise parcel is 15 cents; in general
traffic, 25 cents. The private express service is chiefly confined to
traffic between cities. To be successful, a business requiring express
service must be located in a large city, where the different express
companies have their headquarters; otherwise their parcels will
often be subjected to two or three express charges before they
reach their destination. The private express company, with its rates
based on the value of the service rendered and determined
according to volume of business, is deadly to the small place and the
small dealer.
Under the growing differentiation of industry there is a steadily
growing demand for a door-to-door express service of parcels
ordered by telephone, telegram, or by mail. The business can not be
done by private express companies to the public satisfaction. Their
machinery does not reach the rural districts. An extended postal
service is the only public choice.
As long ago as December 6, 1898, the Merchants’ Association of
New York issued the following statement to the merchants,
manufacturers, and shippers of the State of New York:
A very large part of every dollar paid by you for
express charges is exorbitant and exacted to pay a

monstrous profit to an unrestrained monopoly.
Many of you are compelled by present conditions of
competition to use the express service on a large part
of your shipments, and to pay express charges which
are from 300 to over 20,000 per cent of corresponding
freight charges. The express charges on many classes
of goods average from 5 to 15 per cent of the value of
the merchandise transported.
These are the charges that you pay. But many of
your strongest competitors are favored by
discriminating rates and pay much less.
The express companies are now uncontrolled by law
and you have no recourse against exorbitant charges;
you must ship by express and must pay whatever the
express companies see fit to charge.
On the 10th of February, 1909, the Merchants’ Association of New
York again returned to their attack upon the express companies.
Note their charges:
Exorbitant Rates
Rates so high in the case of the Adams Express Company as to
enable them to pay dividends of over 80 per cent a year on the
amount actually invested in their business. In 1907 they made a
dividend of $24,000,000.
Excessive charges for collection and delivery varying, on 100-
pound parcels, from 27 cents to $7.79 for similar services.
Unreasonable restrictions of free delivery service.
Unreasonable regulation as to size of parcels.
Unreasonable regulation as to packing.
Delays in delivery.

Failure to notify shippers of nondelivery.
Delays in settlements of claims.
Delays in returns of undelivered goods.
Marking parcels 1 to 5 pounds over actual weight, and compelling
consignees to pay for the fictitious increase.
System of Postal Express.
David J. Lewis.
Mr. Chairman: In December the government issued its first annual
report on the statistics of express companies for the year 1909,
which developed the fact that the average pay of the express
companies to the railways for carrying express matter was about
three-quarters (0.74) of a cent a pound, while the postal reports
show that the government paid for its letter or mail transportation
about 4 (4.06) cents a pound, barring the weight of equipment in
both cases. It was apparent to me at once that the parcels function
could not be successfully or economically discharged by the
government on the basis of letter-transportation rates. And then the
economic significance of another fact developed: It was that the
express companies’ service was at a disadvantage, even greater
than that of the post office, in regard to the nonrailway
transportation of its parcels. The express companies have no agency
and at present rates can not secure an agency to reach nonrailway
or rural points. In short, it appeared that the express companies had
exclusive control of one of the absolutely essential conditions of fast
package transport, the express rate of three-quarters of a cent a
pound, while the post office had equally exclusive possession of the
other great agency of necessary service—the rural delivery system.
Common sense indicated what the solution must be; these two
advantages, the railway express transportation rate and the rural

delivery system must be made cooperative; must be united under
one control. The express railway transportation rate would, if the
government parcels amounted to but one-fourth of the express
business, save it, if in its control, at least $50,000,000 a year, while
the addition of rural delivery to the express business would add to
this great service the farming population of our country at practically
no cost to them or the country. The bill I have introduced for postal
express is the result of these conditions.
Principal Provisions of the Postal Express Bill
As I have said, the idea of the bill is to unite in one service the
two great instrumentalities above named, in order that a greatly
cheapened and an even more extended service to the public may be
had. For this purpose the bill provides for the compulsory purchase
by condemnation of the railway-express company contracts and
franchises, as well as the equipment and property devoted to the
express business per se, and their subsequent employment by the
postal department in connection with rural delivery and the postal
system. The express-railway transportation privileges are all the
subjects of contracts between the railways and express companies.
They constitute the primary condition of the express service, and
while the equipment and other facilities are only immediately
necessary to a running plant, and their acquisition is provided for, it
is the contracts which constitute the conditions sine qua non of the
service. Happily, there can be no legal question as to the right of the
government to acquire these contracts and other facilities upon
providing just compensation.
Necessity for Postal Express
In addition to those grave needs for such a service, which the
majority of national communities have recognized, as commending
its adoption domestically and internationally, there exist in the

United States supplementary reasons which it is believed render the
institution uncommonly necessary.
Briefly summarized, they are:
(a) The greater area over which our population is distributed and
correlatively greater transportation distances which consume so
much time by freight that a fast or express service needs to be
resorted to in a larger number of instances than if the journey were
short.
(b) The 100-pound minimum and corresponding charge in railway
practice and the inadaptability of railway methods to diminutive
consignments.
(c) The prohibitive minimum charge of the express companies in
respect to small consignments.
(d) Absence of railway “collect and delivery” service and absence
of “collect and delivery” service by express companies as to our
farming population and a large portion of our urban population.
(e) Incalculable waste of transportation effort, so far as made, in
movement of necessaries of life from the farms to points of
consumption, a serious factor in our high cost of living.
Of course, the need for fast service will depend upon the
greatness of the distance, when demand is immediate, as much as
upon the valuable or perishable character of the shipment. In our
country, with an average haul for freight of 251 miles, from three to
ten times as long as in Europe, the demand for speed to overcome
the obstacle of the time lost in distance, the time-element necessity
for an express service is correspondingly increased; and so the
disadvantages of inadequate or ineconomical express service are
vital. The railway organization of America and its system of practices
does not seem adapted to meet this great need; while its refusal,
upon adequate grounds, to accept a smaller payment than the rate
for its minimum shipment of 100 pounds precludes it from this
service even if speed were not prerequisite. The minimum charge of
25 cents (average 27 cents) imposes an equally substantial and

Life Span Development A Topical Approach 3rd Edition Feldman Solutions Manual

More Related Content

Similar to Life Span Development A Topical Approach 3rd Edition Feldman Solutions Manual (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Life Span Development A Topical Approach 3rd Edition Feldman Solutions Manual