The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-16
RECENT ORDER OF THE POsTOF-
FICE AUTHORITIES DENY
ING LINES THE RIGHT
no CARRY THEIR OWN LETTERS
WITHOUT PAYING POSTAGE TO
THE GOVERNMENT FOR
DOING SO
TO BE CONSIDERED BY MANAGERS
AT Meeting In Chicago Today
Gossip of Local Railway
Officers.

A meeting of the general managers
of the leading railway lines Will De
held in Chicago tody to consider the
recent order of Postmaster General
Wilson insisting upon the enforcement
of postal laws against railways carry
ing their own mails. The order is di-
rected against improper use of the "R-
r. B." envelopes in which railway COM
panies have always been in the habit
of sending printed matter and letters
pertaining to their own business by the
hands of employees in baggage cars
The order quotes sections 1885 and 81
993 of the revised statutes, which read
as follows
mo stagecoach, railway car steamboat or
Dther vehicle or vessel which regularly per-
forms trips at stated periods on any post
route, of from any city, town or place to any
Dther city town or place, between the which
the mail is regularly carried, shall carry,
Ootherwise than in the mail. any letters or
packets, except such as relate TO some part
of the cargo of such, steamboat or other yes
sell or to some article carried at the same
time by the stageeoach, railway car or
other vehicle, except as provided in section
1898.
''For every such offense the owner Of the
Etagecoach, railway car, steamboat or other
vehicle or vessel shall be liable to penalty
of $780, and the driver. conductor, master or
other person having charge thereof, and not
at the same time owner Of the whole or any
part thereof, shall for every such onense be
udOie 10 d penalty VI SoU.
The solicitor of the postoffice de-
partment is quoted as saying: THE
government loses thousands of dollars
in postal revenue annually by this eva
sion of the law, and we have determin-
ed. to put a stop to it. The railways
will resist of course, and we will have
a fight on our hands, but the law is
as plain as day, and 1t is going to be
enforced. Some time ago the inspec-
J. do
vestigation of this subject all over the
United States and discovered an alarm
ing state of things. The railways have
established regular mail exchange
at all their leading connections and
have complete postal system Of their
own, from which the government gets
no revenue For example, when an
officer of the Southern Pacific in San
Francisco writes to an officer of the
New York Central in New York he
puts his letter in what they call "R.
r. B." envelope. 1t is carried to Og-
den by a Central Pacific gageman
There he delivers it to Union Pa
cif1e baggageman, who takes it to
Omaha. There a Northwestern bag
gageman takes it, carrying the letter
to Chicago. At Chicago a Lake Shore
baggageman takes the letter, turning it
over to a New York Central baggage
man at Buffalo, by whom it is carried
to New York. 1t can hardly be real
lied what an enormous amount of
mail is carried in this way. Every bag
gageman on every railway in the United
States has his mail bag and carries
railway mall not only for his own COM
pany but for lines connecting with it
or intercepting 1t. Nearly all the cor
respondence between the general office
of a railway and the station agents
along its line is carried in what is
called the baggage mail. This is all a
clear violation of the law. Not con-
tent with carrying their own private
mail, the railways are carrying letters
for their employees in the same way"
The general managers will consider
the question and if they think the roads
are abusing their rights will take some
action to correct it, Referring to the
matter in it's last issue, the Railway
Age says: ut is possible that some
abuse may have crept into the business
of carrying railway mail, which will
now be reformed. But it is not likely
that an attempt wilfTbe made to stop
the carrying of communications per-
tanning strictly to the bushes of the
road by employees of the company. If
the law were to be literally construed
1t would seem to prevent a passenger
from carrying in his pocket a letter to
be delivered by hand in another town,
but nobody supposes that to be the in
tent of the prohibition