tter were admitted to the fourth class, or parcel
post, with a rate of postage of 1 cent for each 2 ounces up to 8 ounces,
the ordinary parcel post pound rates to apply to packets exceeding 8
ounces in weight.

The service, as a whole, has been enormously successful. It is estimated
that in the second year the post office was handling parcels at the rate
of 800,000,000 annually, a figure which may be compared to its advantage
with that for the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom the annual
number of parcels posted is some 130,000,000, say three per head of the
total population as compared with eight per head in the new service in
the United States.

* * * * *

PARCEL POST IN FRANCE

The conveyance of parcels of merchandise, which had been undertaken by
the early posts in France, was abandoned to private enterprise in
1795.[424] When, therefore, proposals were made for the establishment of
an international parcel post service, France was without an internal
service of the kind. She became, nevertheless, a party to the Convention
of 1880, which established an international service,[425] availing
herself of the privilege reserved to those countries without an inland
parcel post service, of arranging for their obligations under the terms
of the Convention to be assumed by railway and steamship companies. A
contract was concluded with the administration of the State railways,
the six great railway companies, and the shipping companies in receipt
of subsidies for the conveyance of mails, under which those bodies
undertook to conduct a service on behalf of the postal administration in
accordance with the provisions of the Convention. They were to receive
in its entirety the prescribed territorial transit rate of 50 centimes
on every parcel, but not the surtax of 25 centimes.[426] The payment of
50 centimes per parcel was to be divided by the companies among
themselves if the parcel was conveyed by more than one party, and
constituted the full remuneration for the entire service performed,
including the customs formalities. The contracting companies were
required to print at their own cost a list of places served, and to keep
the list available for reference by members of the public.

The establishment of an international service of this kind necessitated
the provision of facilities for the transmission of ordinary inland
parcels within France.[427] The companies were accordingly required