ated as an altogether
separate item. The Sub-Committee had the evidence of Mr. John L.
Newbold, a gentleman of long experience in a transport business which
dealt mainly with small parcels for delivery within the limits of the
City of Washington, and was therefore in a high degree comparable to
delivery service which would be performed by the Post Office in respect
of parcels. Mr. Newbold offered to contract with the Government to
handle all post parcels for delivery within the City of Washington at 5
cents a parcel, with a limit of weight of 25 pounds. Estimates by
similar delivery companies in New York City indicated the cost to them
of packages up to 25 pounds, which was a little over 5 cents per
package. The department's estimate of the handling cost of fourth-class
matter showed a cost of a fraction under 3 cents for the first pound,
with an approximate increase of 20 per cent. for each additional pound.

These data furnished a basis for calculating rates of postage, when the
limitation of the zones had been determined, a matter of some little
difficulty. The first, and most obvious, suggestion was that the zones
should be reckoned as from each post office, but in view of the fact
that there were some 60,000 post offices in the United States, grave
practical difficulties would arise with a scheme providing for special
rates from each post office. It was then thought the State might be
adopted as the unit of area, but the States differ so widely in area
that such a system would have resulted inequitably, giving equal postage
charges for very unequal services. A citizen in Texas or New York State,
for example, would be able to send his parcel many times as far as a
citizen of Massachusetts or Delaware. The same objection applied, though
not in so great degree, to the county as a unit of area. Moreover, these
units would be liable to arbitrary change. Failing the discovery of any
satisfactory unit based on the political divisions, recourse was had to
purely theoretical divisions, based on the imaginary lines of latitude
and longitude. The actual degree parallels were rejected as the limits
of the units of area because, within the quadrangle formed by them,
there would be a maximum zone distance of some 80 miles; while at the
same time, for transmission between two places perhaps only two miles
apart but lying on different sides of the line, postage would be
chargeable as for the second zone. This difficulty was overcom