parcel-post were dispatched C. O. D. The question is one of administrative efficiency, and in practice the present one-fee-for-normal services system of the express companies might prove more desirable than the theoretically more desirable separate C. O. D. fee of the present parcel-post. In other countries, practises in this respect vary. In Austria, Italy, Rumania and Switzerland, a special fee is charged for collecting on delivery. Belgium renders this service free for packages upon which the postage is above ten cents and Denmark, when the weight of the package is above ten pounds. Germany collects free upon packages above ten pounds and renders the service at a fee upon packages under that amount. NOTE 3--The possibility of economy in a postal express as contrasted with the express companies may be readily understood by a glance at the following table of the equipment required and utilized in 1917 by the express companies of the United States: Cars 256 Horses 19,986 Automobiles 2,886 Wagons 14,907 Sleighs and Buggies 3,563 Trucks 56,924 In 1917 there were about 1,800 railway postal cars in operation. These are furnished the Post Office Department by the railroads. As has been said, other corresponding equipment used by the Post Office Department is usually owned by private contractors who furnish transportation by wagon and by automobiles on contract, so that it is impossible to get accurate figures concerning it. Some idea of the equipment needed, however, may be gleaned from the postal operations within the cities of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Nashville. In these cities all the transportation of mail between the railroad stations and the post offices as well as in the collection and delivery services is performed by automobiles owned by the Post Office Department itself. The number of automobiles required for the service in these cities and operated in them in 1917 was 541. This method of conveying postal matter within the cities mentioned represents a departure from the contract system which the Postmaster-General asserts should be and will be extended. Accordingly, more and more the economies under this head in consolidating the express service in the Postal System would accrue to the Post Office Department directly rather than indirectly.