Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-12

companies as can be reasonably expected. Very respectfully, c. NELSON, "'Second Assistant Postmaster Gen eral.'
 at my office on March 24 the following: " Railway Mail Service, Office of Super intendent, Third Division.
 Washington, March 23.
 Subject: Completion of Mail Weigh ing.
 tendent, Portsmouth, Va
 "'Sir: The weighing of mails on all Seaboard AFT Line routes will be discon- tinued after Tuesday, the 91st instant. Kindly have scales kept in mail and bag gage cars on all trains departing from any point on the line up to F o'clock mid night of the 31st instant. Very respect fully, CEAS. w. VICKERY,
 Superintendent
 "On receipt of the above official notice we arranged for the adoption of our sum- mer schedule, and on March 29 discontin- ued two trains which had been carrying mall for over two years, for which service we had received no pay from the govern ment. Under these circumstances 1t was a matter of much surprise when l re- ceived on March 31 0wo days after the change of our schedule) telegram from the department stating that the weigh ing would be continued for thirty days more. On the Sd of April l called at the office of the general superintendent of railway mail service and asked why he proposed to continue weighing mail matter after he had notified me that he would discontinue doing so, and his reply was because we had changed schedules. l asked him if 1t was usual to reweigh every time schedule was changed. Now, l do not object to weighing every month in the year, but I claim the right of proper notice and the privilege of re- pSfa blisbinp the which taken off. I was not given the proper mo- tice, but on the contrary was de- ceived, as shown by the second assist ants letter, and thereby lost 1000 pounds of mail per day, which he arbitrarily diverted from the Seaboard Air Line. I had advices from the department the latter part of April, however, that the weighing would be discontinued on the 9th of May, and I have received tabu- lated statements of the weights over our line for April, which are signed by the second assistant postmaster general and certified to by the superintendents of railway mail service as follows:
 "I I do hereby certify that the forego- ing statement of weights of mail is cor rect according to daily returns made by sworn employees of the department, and the statement of service is correct, to the best of my knowledge and belief
 CHARLES w. VICKERY, Superintendent Railway Mail Service, Third Division.
 "'L. M. TERRELL,
 superintendent Railway Mail Service Fourth Division.
 We have had no notice from the post office department to the contrary that the weights were not correct and we are entitled to our pay under the legal meth ods of computing weights and their sworn certificates of the correctness of the same
 "The published statement alleged to have been authorized by the postmaster general is unbecoming and libelous, and l am prepared to court a full, free and fair investigation throughout, with fur- ther investigation of other lines, includ- ing the different methods and prevailing customs by which the mail pay Is ad- justed, or will the postmaster general au- thorize another statement and give his reasons why the Seaboard Air Line was singled out and made the object of un- just criticism, or why we are discredited for carrying public documents when it was known to him that other lines had carried tons of public documents in March, which had been shipped and re- shipped, weighed and reweighed, besides thousands of pounds of other matter, in- cluding extra car load lots of patent med fcine advertisements, all of which passed apparently unnoticed by him: or could he have been deceived by lack of vigil lance on the part of his inspectors, or were reports withheld from him? It is certainly a new departure for the head of one of the chief departments of this government to use the great powers of his office through authorized statements in the press to injure railroad company
 "V. 10. McBee