The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-15
MAIL TRANSPORTATION
QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE DEFEAT
OF THE LOUD BILL.
Charges that Railroads Are Overpaid
Figures Indicating that a Re-
ductiOn Should BE Made.
Washington Letter in New York Post

Washington Letter in New York Post.
Unless the House of Representatives had
believed that the real source of our postal
deficits was the excessive over-payment of
the railroads for mail transmission, it is
hardly likely that the Loud bill would have
been defeated. The House, especially on
the Democratic side, accepted the advice
of Jerry Simpson that railroad rates should
be attended to before attempting other
economics in the postal service or such a.
measure of reform as that proposed by Mr..
Loud. The time is therefore ripe, now that
the House has thus said in substance that
1t believes railroad compensation to be the
true cause of the heavy loss at which our
postal business is conducted, to investigate
that source of leakage, and apply the rem
edy Some extraordinary facts were GER
tainly brought to light in the recent debate,
which should be promptly and satisfactorily
explained, or else the compensation paid
to the railroads should be cut in two at the
earliest possible moment
Here is an amazing situation The govern
ment, in carrying second-class matter at 1
cent pound, is generally counted as losing
IL cents pound on the transaction: and
yet within radius of five hundred miles,
according to the acknowledgement of Mr..
Loud himself, the express companies are,
to some extent, competing for this very
business. In other words, what it costs the
government a dollar to do, within certain
generous limits, the express companies
would like to do for 8 cents. There must be
an immense leakage somewhere. and it be-
hooves Congress to find out where it oc-
ours. 1t is noticeable that during all this
discussion about advertising sheets, with
practically no bona-fde subscription lists
res Qf
so tremendous a loss to the government the
fact remains that perhaps, the most con-
splcuous example of this kind of publica-
ton in the country does not to any great
degree make use of the privilege, but trans
mits its huge bundles of papers on its own
account by the fast freight or express, and
distributes them from house to house by
means of corps of boys who are tempo
rarily drafted into service for that purpose.
only last summer, the newspaper publish
erS, particularly Of Philadelphia, made a
tremendous outcry when 1T was proposed
mat the government should take the. bust
ness of transporting the newspapers to the
agencies in Baltimore, Washington, etc.,
away from the express companies, and COM
pei the use of the mails In short, evidence
is abundant that that branch of the mail
service upon which the government loses oy
common consent $40. 900 year is not such
after ALL since private concerns come very
near being able to do the business at that
rate for profit
RAILWAY CHARGES.
Figures showing the rate paid to the rail-
roads for mail transportation are very hard
to interpret in comparison with ordinary
express rates. So many exceptions and
modifying circumstances enter into the
computation that the schedule of rates for
railway mail transportation is much like the
sugar schedule Of our tariff acts, which, by
common consent nobody is supposed to I'M
derstand fully, while no two persons are ex-
IL. Tll..s
government sets the minimum of weight
carried per day at 200 pounds, and allows
for each mile on any particular route %2.15
per year. To ascertain the cost of mail
transmission from Washington to Balti-
more, take an average day and weigh the
mail; then, for each 200 pounds, multiply
$4275 by "A, which We may call the number
of miles between the two cities For weight
averaging less than 200 pounds the railroads
get the same compensation. For 800 pounds
the rates per mile per year is $64.l2; for
1000 pounds, $3.50; for 1,5OO pounds $le6.S1;
for 1900 pounds, $l2825; for $500 pounds,
$149.62; for 5000 pounds, Sill, and for all adj
ditional at the rate of $21.37 per 1900 pounds.
Railroads aided by land grants, by act OF
July IL, 1876, get so per cent. of these rates.
There is also an arrangement for deter
mining intermediate weight between the
quantities named, but the general results
The government pays also for railroad
postal cars, when authorized, per mile per
forty feet s95: for forty-five feet. $40: for for
fifty feet, $40: for sixty feet. $50 In addition
there is an appropriation for special facili-
ties so called. Some years ago this appro-
priation reached as high as 81 100000 annu-
ally, but as 1t was useless and almost mean
ingless it has been gradually cut down until
in 1897 the sum paid was $4,000. Most of
this now goes to the Southern Railway and
comes pretty near being a gratuity. The
department so advises Congress, but the
Southern members and some others perpet-
uate the appropriation nevertheless. This
was originally allowed upon the theory that
the postmaster general at times desired to
have the mail carried faster than the rail-
road companies cared to run their trains
for ordinary passenger service, and so he
was empowered to pay for this extra speed.
But in point of fact, it generally sufices to
have the mails carried at the speed at which
competition for passenger traffic compels
the trains to run, and hence this Special
facility appropriation is a good deal of a
humbug. The rates paid on postal cars are
of course, excessive. A forty-foot car run
one way daily would yield rent to its own
ers of more than S. 900 a year, which it is
easy to see amounts to more than ''the or
binary rate CT interest ON safe invest
ments."
THE RATES NOW PAID.
This general schedule of postal rates was
made in 1S73 but has been twice modified
since then by horizontal reductions, one of
10 per cent. in 1876, and another of per
cent. in 1878. So we have, in reality, the
rates of 1873. with 10 and 5 off,, as the
commercial traveller would put it. If these
terms were sufficiently remunerative for the
railroads under conditions then prevailing,
they are at least twice too high to-day
Since railroads are paid by weight. consider
the enormous increase in the size OF the
mail packages since 1873. brought about by
the development of the newspaper and mag
azine press. Every reader will realize how
the weight of the Evening Post, for exam
pie. has increased in the last twenty-five
years. Letters are now heavier, since an
ounce at cents instead of a half ounce at
3 cents Is the unit. Population is more
dense, and the mail service is more freely
and generally used. Again. our currency Ii