Until the twentieth century, then, the express companies remained unchallenged and even uninvestigated in their control of the service of transporting packages and parcels weighing more than four pounds. (Packages and parcels up to four pounds in weight could be sent by mail.) In ownership and control as well as in the nature of their activities, they were linked with the great railroad systems; and there was in addition an extensive amount of interownership between the various express companies. When the 1907 (the second) Census report on express companies was published, it was found that of the $68,853,200 capitalization of the seventeen important express companies, $20,668,000, or 30%, was in the hands of the railroads as such. [The express companies as such had reciprocated by buying and holding the stock of railroad companies to the amount of $22,218,950 and railroad bonds to the amount of $12,324,000.] Moreover, of the $68,853,200 capitalization of the express companies, $11,618,125, or 17%, was held among the various express companies as such. How much of the remaining 53% of the capitalization of the express companies was held by individuals interested in the railroad holdings and control cannot be told, but may certainly be surmised. It is therefore not surprising to find that in 1909 of the seven directors of the Adams Express Company, four were directors of railroad companies; of the nine directors of the American Express Company, three; of the seven of the Pacific Express Company, six; of the seven of the United States Express Company, two; and of the thirteen of the Wells-Fargo Company, ten. In 1918, more than half of the directors of the four large express companies were also directors of railroads. The explanation of the willingness of the railroad companies not to disturb the express companies in their exclusive exploitation of the express service field is hence not difficult to find. Even those few of the directors who were not directors in railway systems were nevertheless also of that group of controllers of industry which was responsible for the sinister connection between American politics and American big business which for so many years had prostituted the promise of American life. Furthermore, whatever few regulations could be applied generally to corporations as such had little effect upon the express companies; for the Wells-Fargo and the Southern were, and up to the present time are, the only large companies which have the corporation structure. The other three maintain their early status as limited partnerships of a fixed number of shares without fixed par value, although the Adams Express Company, on December 15, 1913, assigned a par value of $100 to each of its 120,000 shares outstanding, giving it a capitalization of $12,000,000.