, 1888-12-20
WHAT NAIL COSTS.
The Pay Of Railways for
Carrying Letters.
Millions Paid Annually to the
Great Trunk Lines.
The Method OF Deciding the Rate at
which the various Lines
Are Compensated.

The largest single item 10 the postal ex-
pense account of the national government
is that for the transportation Of the mails
on the various railways throughout the
country. Over 81, 100000 Is annually ap-
propriated for this purpose. The system
| under which the compensation Of the
various railways for carrying the mails IL
fixed in one involving many details, and
as the rate OF payment is fixed four years
| at a tiuie. the proper expenditure OF over
$40, 100000 OF the public money de-
pends on the accuracy with which the
system Is carried out. G.. w. Dwenger,
the superintendent OF weighing of TIL rail
way mail service, will begin next moott
the work of computing the compensation
to be paid to the great trunk lines for car
ryiny the mails for four years from July l.,
1889. Mr.. DWenger is ciear-headed as
sistant in the second division OF the rail-
way mail service. He is not disnayed by
the largest aggregation OF figures, and he
and mis- assistants, from % nass of docu-
ments weighing several thousand pounds,
de5uce few columns Of figures which
form the basis of the settlement of accounts
ag2regatipg millions of dollars. The
preparatory work for next computation Is
now in progress.
HOW COMPENSATION Is FIXED
All the mail matter carried over the
various railroads for thirty to sixty days is
actually weighed once in four years, and
payments are made TO the railroad compu-
MES on the theory that the average amount
of mail matter on all days OF the four
years term will he the same as the daily
average for the one month or tao months
when the amount is accurately asccrtained.
The weighing for the local routes is made
under the direction Of the division super
intendcnts OF the railway mail service, and
Mr.. Dwenger has charge Of the weighing
for the second division. in which New
York is situated. He will begin, however, ON
January 18th under the direction OF the
| post office department the supervision Of
weighing the mails carried over the great
| trunk lines out of New York. The great
! through routes known in the postal service
as trunk are that over the New York Gem
| trail and Lake Shore roads TO Buffalo and
| Chicago; that over the Pennsy ylvania to
Philadelphia, Plttsburg, Columbus, In
dianapOlis. Chicago aud st Louis; and
| the local service on the Erie railway. The
amounts annually paid for the transporta-
tion of mails over these routes are: New
| York and Buffalo route (New York Gem
trail, 1851 900; Buffalo and Chicago
| (Lake Shore), 1850, 000 New York TO Poll
adelphia. SlS2,0O0; Philadelphia to Pitts
| burg. $4S4 600; Pittsburg TO Chicago,
1893. 900; Pittsburg to Columbus. &203.-
600; Columbus 10 indianapolis. $4,000
indianapolis to st. Louis, $4,000. The
aggregate is nearly S3,000.0OO year.
THE TINE or WEIGHING.
| The time of the year which shall be se-
lected for weighing the mails is import
ant as the amount of mail matter varies
greatly in the several parts of the year.
December is the month in which the larR-
est mails are carried, and November in
proot1apttLl y..a md fba .arl. .arks s,E f..,-
uary are also periods in which the railway
mail services is especially bnsy. The per
iod from January 18th to March 18th has
been selected for the next weighing On the
trunk lines. Every mail sent ont from the
New York Office or received there will be
weighed. On every railway postoffice car
weigher will be stationed, whose duty il
will be to weigh the mail received or de-
livered at eace station. As most of the
mails are carried on express trains which
have no postal cars attached,
all the postmasters at stations
along the railroad lines will be required
to report directly to the superintendent OF
! weighing the weight Of the mails received
and dispatched. Over 1000 reports from
| postmasters will be received each day for
one or two months. These reports are
handed TO experienced accountants con.
| nected with the weighing bureau, and
| the average amount for day is ascer-
tained, and by multiplication the average
amount for year. Then it becomes neces-
sary to ascertain how much of the mail 10
| carried for snort distances and how much
for long distances. The tables first pre-
pared contain many columns of figures,
but these are reduced in number as aver
ages are obtained until the final result is
contained in few columns. Over 250
weighers are employed aud score of
! clerks.
| The rate Of compensation on the trunk
lines was S2l .3S ''per ton per mile per AN
num"-that is, the accounts ascerta;ned
how many tons were carried iu year
over each mile of the road. and on that
basis the payments were made.