The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-20
WEIGHING The MAIL
HoT tbe POStOffiCe Adjusts Railway
Nail Rates With the Roads.

\
ysnia's Plum.
From the Washington Star.
The postofice department is getting
-, IN weigh the railroad mail in the
1T division. All of the railroad mail
q Weighed once in four years to deter
.ine the rate of compensation to be paid
- the railroads for the four years to
ro1,s Instead of weighing mail on all the
-.Iroads in one year, the Postmaster
General has the country divided into four
d;,tricts. and weighing is done in one of
these each year. Last year the mail of the
Atlantic division was weighed. This year
=, ,ril1 he the mail of the Pacific division.
Iost Years reweighing increased the ex-
Denses of the postofice department for
r.ilrosd transportation little more than
n $4,000. or 81 per cent. This year the
increase will not be so great, because the
business on the western routes is not
nearly so heavy as the business on the
eastern routes.
The weighing of mail is done usually in
February or March. Last year it began
an Ian. so. AS the postoffice department
wants to establish fair average of the
there is an average" mail handled. To
veigb the mail in summer, when business
"a light. would not be fair to the rail
roads To weigh it in Decemb er when
there is a rush of holiday business, would
not he fair to the government. February
and March are recognized as average"
months. and they are chosen blythe super
intendent of the railway mail service
usually The Postmaster General has the
for he
weighing. and he will order reweighing
of mail on a road if the railroad company
gives any good reason for believing that
there has been an unusual increase in the
amount of mail carried.
Sometimes, when there is a phenom-
enal development of new country, the
railroads ask a reweighing of the mail
A big road would not do so unless the
occasion was extraordinary. None of
the railroads running to the Oklahoma
country have asked a reweighing since
that country was. opened to settlement,
though the increase in mail service has
been very heavy. The Oklahoma routes
are likely to show the largest per cent.
of increase in the readjustment next
month.
The road which asks reweighing is
usually the small road which has to look
closely after the dollars and cents. Some
diverted unexpectedly to some small
road as part of through route. Then
the company asks the Postmaster Gen
eral for a special weighing, and usually
gets it. ....-..
HOW THE WEIGHING is DONE.
The quadrennial weighing of the mail
is done by the employees of the railway
mail service, the clerks of the large post
offices and few special agents. When
ever it is possible, the regular employees
are used. Where this is not possible,
special agents are employed for thirty
days a 50 a day. These special agents
travel in the railway mail cars. A plat
form scale is put in each car The special
agent puts each bagor bundle of mail on
the scales as it is put on board of the cars
and notes the weight AS each mail bag
is delivered at the appropriate station it
is weighed and its weight entered in an
other column. The two columns are
added and they should balance within
fraction of a pound. The mileage of each
package of mail is noted at the end of.
thirty days the postoffice department
figures up the number of pounds of mail
hauled and the number of miles and cal
culates the haul for the whole year. Then
the compensation of the road is figured
out at the rate provided by law.
Contracts for carrying the mails are
not let to the lowest bidder. There is no
competition for them except as one rail
road offers better facilities than another.
The Postmaster General awards the con-
tract for carrying the mail where he
peases-always where the quickest SER
vice can be had if there is a. choice.
Where there is no choice in speed, the
oldest established road usually has the
contract-because it has always had it
and because it is better prepared, there
fore, to handle the business. A railroad
Is never willing to give up the mail con-
tract though every railroad company in
The United States will swear that it is
losing money on mail handling. Even the
Pennsylvania railroad. which takes more
than 81, 100000 frem the treasury every
year on account of post Office work, will
sOlemnly assure congress that it is losing
money If the question of reducing COM
pensetion is brought up. The New York
Central railroad receives more than ST.
9WOOO annually for hauling mail matter
put MIR. Depew would assure congress
Nonal committee that the work was
worth 100000.
WHAT THE RAILROADS RECEIVE.
There are many mail routes which do
not pay expenses. Just as congress has
arbitrarily determined that letter from
Portland, Me, to Bangor, Me, shall pay
SAA4O LduO dS d l6bbCE lEOul
Me, to Portland, Ore, so it has deter
mined that the railroad that hauls thou
Sdnds OF pounds shall receive almost the
same compensation as the railroad that
Iauls hundreds of pounds. There is a
SHght graduation which lessons a little the
compensation for carrying large quaint
lIes OF mall-and there is minimum rate
per mile for every unimportant routes.
no railroad receives less than $40 rs per
miie per year for carrying the mail. The
minimum used to be $50. 1t was reduced
W congress 10 per cent. in 1876 and 5 per
cent. Two years later. From S42 rs mile
me compensation ranges up to IS, Isl per
uIIle, Which is the "a tie that will be paid
70 The Pennsylvania railroad for three
years TO come for hauling the mail from
view York to Philadelphia. The haul
rom New York to Philadelphia is 90.65
mics The number of mail trips made
every week is 252. That makes more than
Io}uOO Trips In year. For this the Penn
1syanla Company used to receive $257, 495.
Duuer the readiustment last year this
was raised to $685., 1856, and that is the sum
IudJ VIII be paid to the Pennsylvania until
June 80 1897, when another readjustment
VIII be made, The adjustment of com
p1usd ZION on this route is too important a
natter TO be determined by a thirty-day
S.erage The New philadelphia
, mai IS always weighed for sixty consecu-
, i've Jays to get an average for readjust-
SPECIAL MAIL CARS.