Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1903-01-01
Government Ownership Of Rail-
COMMUNICATION.
EDITOR, News ITEM:

/ oty AZ anu Willie US
makes a sensible reply to Editor
Newell he does not get tho facts by
any means and some of his deduct
ions are not well based.
Any railroad man who has stud
led the question knows that the car
rying of the mails is the most poor
iy compensated business that the
railroads have. Without knowing
exact figures of our local road we are
inclined to believe that their mail
pay would not amonnt to the fare of
the messenger they carry, if he paid
like other people, and yet he must
have private compartment fitted
up specially for his use, it must be
warmed, lighted and cleaned for
him. Besides this mails are carried
in closed pouches on all the trains
where the messenger does not go.
In addition to all this the mails
must be carried to and r7Om every
train and the Post Office if it is not
more than eighty rods distant.
Any comparison between our
country and the European nations is
idle in view of the difference in dis
tance and conditions. Amy compar-
ison between freight car and pos
tai car is equally unfair. No one
would tolerate for moment the
thought Of any such service as would
be afforded by freight conditions
either as to time or safety. If our
letters mailed in New York last
night do not reach us this morning
we get impatient. Freight may be
week and and out in all weathers
and subject to all sorts of rough US
age. The government has had many
opportunities to try the wagon plan
where it would not pay the rail
roads. 1t r",y-;r ,yasa success and
the comparison of the cost of haul
ing ton of mail between New York
and Chicago by wagon or train is
idle and probably incorrect.
The railroads earn all they get
and if the government was running
them it could honestly charge up to
the mail service all the.compensation
that is now allowed. The deficit is
not in that direction.
We have heard that during the
civil war the. Post Office Department
was not run at loss, and it was be-
cause thousands of mail routes
through the South where the service
was expensive and the returns mea-
gre, were not served ON account of
the war.
Many letter is delivered that
costs the Department dollar for
which it gets two cents and there is
not much doubt that letters reach
far off regions toward the north pole
in Alaska that have cost nearly fif-
ty times dollar and yet the pay
was two cents. Does any one sup
pose for one moment that letters are
delivered all over the PHILIPPINES at
a cost of no more than the two cent
stamp? These are the instances
where the money is lost in the Post
Office Department and it is sound
policy to lose it. OF course s'Fourth
Class Postmaster is right in his ref
erence to the free carriage of news
papers and similar publications and
there is not the slightest foundation
for Editor Newell's conclusion that
because the Post Office Department
is run at a loss therefore the govern
ment is incapable of running any
thing at profit. 1t makes hand
some profit out of the little stamp
books that it manufactures at one
cent each, and it's Money Order bus
mess has balance on the right side.
If it would only make every post Of
flee place of deposit for savings and
I pay a small rate of interest the peo-
pie would furnish it with all the
j money it needs and it could realize
| handsomely out of it.
2 Then if it would take over the
5 Telephone and Telegraph business
+ it could give us cheaper service,
? weather reports free and have bal
. ance to spend.
Let up on the railroads on the cost
r of the Post Office Department.
e A FOURTH CLASS RAILROADER,
Don't wait this is your best
| ohnuao h., kho ocr 1ocI -,