72D CONGRESS 1st Session } SENATE { REPORT No. 105 INVESTIGATION OF LEASE OF POST-OFFICE GARAGE IN BOSTON JANUARY 15, 1932.-Ordered to be printed Mr. Moses, from the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 88] The Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, having had under consideration S. 88, authorizing the Postmaster General to investigate the conditions of the lease of the post-office garage in Boston, Mass., and to readjust the terms thereof, reports the bill with a recommendation that it do pass. The Postal Service garage in Boston was constructed by the Rawson Realty & Construction Co., of Boston, upon plans and specifications submitted by the Post Office Department, to be leased to the United States for 10 years, with an option of renewal by the Government for an additional 10 years and an option of purchase by the Government during the term of the lease or renewal thereof. After work was started on the building, excavation for the foundation disclosed subsoil conditions which made future settlement of the building during the Government occupancy probable if piles were driven for the foundation, and the contractor, although not required to do so by the terms of his contract or by the building laws of the city of Boston, made excavation to bedrock for a part of the foundation to assure a permanent building, instead of using pile construction. The extraordinary conditions which made pile construction inadvisable could not have been foreseen at the time the specifications were drawn and the bids submitted. Because of the wet subsoil and to provide better accommodations for the offices and service rooms of the building, the contractor, at increased expense, also offered, in lieu of certain rooms to be provided in the basement under the plans and specifications, to build an additional story for part of the building, to furnish rooms with the same floor space as were to have been constructed in the basement but with better light and air and with elevator service to the street from the new upper floor. After the Post Office Department had accepted this proposal the department decided that it also needed to have most of the rooms in the basement finished off, for which the additional rooms on the upper floor were to have been substituted, and this was done by the contractor. In consequence, the building as constructed, which the Post Office Department is now occupying under the lease and upon which it has an option to purchase, has substantially all the space in the basement called for by the specifications and in addition the new rooms on the upper floor, so that it has obtained a larger and better building than was contemplated when the plans and specifications were made, and the present building has been built at a cost in excess of the building which the contractor was required to build and upon which he figured the rental and option price at the time he submitted his bid and accepted the contract to construct the building. The Postmaster General has written in regard to this bill as follows: Hon. TASKER L. ODDIE, OFFICE OF THE Postmaster General, United States Senate. MY DEAR SENATOR ODDIE: I have your letter of the 17th instant, forwarding a copy of a bill (S. 88) to authorize the Postmaster General to investigate the conditions of the lease of the post-office garage at Boston, Mass., and to readjust the terms thereof, the findings of the Postmaster General to be final. The matter has been given consideration and this department has no objection to the passage of the measure. Very truly yours, WALTER F. BROWN. JANUARY 15 (calendar day, JANUARY 16), 1932.-Ordered to be printed Mr. HAYDEN, from the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 1663] The Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1663) to prohibit the sending of unsolicited merchandise through the mails, having carefully considered the same, report the bill back to the Senate with the recommendation that the bill do pass without amendment. The text of the bill is as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter unsolicited merchandise which any person desires to send for the purpose of sale to the addressee shall not be accepted for mailing. The term person, "when used in this act, means an individual, partnership, corporation, or association. SEC. 2. If such unsolicited merchandise is deposited in the mails it shall not be delivered to the addressee, but, under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe, shall be returned to the sender charged with postage due at double the regular rates to be collected from him upon delivery. On failure of the sender to pay such return postage the matter shall be disposed of as other dead matter. The object of the bill is to abate a general nuisance and annoyance to the public known as the buy it or return it plan of selling merchandise through the mails. The enactment of such legislation was recommended to the Seventieth Congress by the then Postmaster General in the following letter: Hon. W. W. GRIEST, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., January 9, 1928. Chairman Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. GRIEST: I have your letter of the 4th instant inclosing a copy of bill H. R. 351, to prohibit the sending of unsolicited merchandise through the mails. This bill was introduced by Mr. Watson. You also inclose a copy of bill H. R. 3991, a bill upon the same subject, introduced by Mr. Watson in the last Congress. 8R-72-1-VOL 1-13 The bill H. R. 351 makes some desirable changes from the provisions of the first bill and is approved by me. Your attention is invited to what is said in my annual report for 1927, at pages 58 and 59, on the subject of sending unsolicited parcels of merchandise through the mails for sale. This statement described the condition as it exists in the service. Sincerely yours, HARRY S. NEW, Postmaster General. The following is an extract from the Annual Report of the Postmaster General for 1927, above referred to: UNSOLICITED PARCELS OF MERCHANDISE SENT THROUGH THE MAIL FOR SALE The practice of using the mails for the purpose of sending unsolicited articles through the mails for sale is increasing to an extent which demands legislation prohibiting the same. Under this practice articles and merchandise are sent to addresses unsolicited and in the absence of any order therefor for the purpose of sale and with the request to transmit a price therefor. This places upon the addressee a burden of the receipt and attention thereto without any solicitation on his part and the necessity of returning the article or remitting for it. neither of which he is under obligation to do, or of ignoring the matter altogether. Following this he is subject to receipt of follow-up letters from the sender, all of which are annoying and some of which are abusive and threatening. The claim made by some that postage will be guaranteed or inclosed for the return of the article does not relieve the situation materially. It still puts the burden upon the recipient of keeping or returning the article, which is an uninvited annoyance to him. The department receives many bitter complaints from individuals who receive such merchandise and from retail merchants, also from organizations such as merchants' associations, chambers of commerce, and others. The Postal Service is a public service for the legitimate use of the people. It should not be made the instrument of a practice which works an uninvited hardship or inconvenience to recipients of mail matter subjecting them to annoyance and abuse. They have equal rights with the senders. The attached letters show that Hon. Walter F. Brown, the present Postmaster General, has also favorably recommended the enactment of this legislation: Hon. LAWRENCE C. PHIPPS, United States Senate. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, MY DEAR SENATOR PHIPPS: Referring to your letter of the 26th ultimo, requesting my views on S. 610, being a bill to prohibit the sending of unsolicited merchandise through the mails, I have to report as follows: Legislation upon this subject has been pending before Congress for several years. On March 3, 1926, hearings were held before a subcommittee of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, House of Representatives, on H. R. 3991, which had been introduced by Representative Watson, of Pennsylvania. This bill covered the subject now embraced in S. 610 and in addition had a penal provision. The views of my predecessor upon that bill were contained in a letter addressed to the chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads of the House, dated January 26, 1926, such letter being printed on page 36 of the hearings above-mentioned. The views of the then Postmaster General were also incorporated in his annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1927, on page 58. Representative Watson introduced a new bill upon the subject (H. R. 351) in the Seventieth Congress upon which hearings were held on February 2 and 3, 1928. On pages 1 and 2 of the hearings will be found a letter in which the Postmaster General said that H. R. 351 provided desirable changes from the provisions of the first bill. My predecessor also renewed his recommendation for appropriate legislation upon the subject on page 55 of his annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1928. I am transmitting herewith copies of the annual reports mentioned. |