=Parcel Post Service.=--In many countries the post office department also performs, through the parcel post service, what amounts to an express business. Thus in a number of the European countries one may send boxes or parcels weighing as much as fifty or even one hundred pounds through the mails at very low rates of postage. In the United States books and packages of merchandise may be sent through the mails, but the weight of the package except in the case of books was until 1913 limited to four pounds.[47] The limitation as to weight and the comparatively high rate of postage--sixteen cents per pound--made resort to the express companies necessary much more than in Europe. For some years there was a widespread agitation for the establishment of a parcel post system in the United States, and in 1912 Congress provided for the installation of such a system on January 1, 1913. The maximum weight limit of parcels that might be transported through the mails was increased to eleven pounds (and later to fifty pounds; seventy pounds for short distances), and the list of mailable articles was enlarged so as to include butter, eggs, meats, fruits, and vegetables. In 1914 books were added to the list. The country is divided into zones according to the distance from each post office, and the rate of postage varies both with the weight and with the zone to which it is sent. About one billion parcels, weighing over two billion pounds, are handled annually. So popular is the service that in 1914 the postmaster-general recommended that the government take steps toward acquiring the telegraph and telephone service of the country. [47] The United States has long had "parcels post" treaties with a number of foreign countries, however, by which parcels weighing as much as eleven pounds may be sent through the mails to those countries at the rate of twelve cents per pound. =Postal Subsidies.=--In recent years there has been considerable agitation, principally by the postal authorities and the commercial organizations of the country, in favor of extending our postal facilities with certain foreign countries, notably South America and the Orient, where they are now very inadequate. While most of the European governments have quick and frequent postal communications with these countries, ours are slow and infrequent. Most foreign governments have adopted the policy of subsidizing private steamship lines to carry the mails to out-of-the-way places. In 1891, Congress passed a law for this purpose, but the amount appropriated is so small that the post office department has not been able to extend our mail facilities with foreign countries as rapidly as needed. [Illustration: POST OFFICE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY] [Illustration: POST OFFICE, DES MOINES, IOWA]