The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-02-14
The River Press.
Published every Wednesday Morning
By the River Press PMblish-
ing Company.
THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

Whether or not the railroads as
whole are sufficiently we'll paid by thu
government is a question about which
for q there has been much cOntro
versy, says the New York Times. The
compensation of the railroads wa.
fixed by law in 1873. BY subsequent
amendments in 1876 and 1873 the rate
of pay was reduced 10 per cent. and
then 5 per cent. There has been nc
change since. The scheme of compen.
sation, however, was based on a slid.
ing scale, which reduced the ATE OF
pay as the weight of the mail carried
increased. In addition to this pay by
weight, an allowance is made to rail.
roads employing cars devoted exclu.
sively to the carriage of mail. The
total amount paid to the railroads
under both these heads in the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1905, was ga, 226,
500. OF this total about S39, 600 900
was for transportation proper, and
about S5, 200, 900 was the allowance for
special mail cars.
The rate of pay graduates from
Sl.7l per ton per mile in the case of q
daily average of 200 pounds of mail
carried to .O68 per ton per mile for
each 1000 pounds in excess of 5000
pounds. This shows clearly how the
rate of pay drops with an increase in
the amount of mail carried. This
also accounts for the further fact
that. while the rate of pay as fixed by
law is now what it was in 1878, when
the average passenger and freight
rates were much higher the automatic
working Of the sliding scale has iu ef-
feet reduced the rate of carrying the
mai as much Of more than the
freight and passenger rates have been
reduced.
The railroads are allowed no extra
pay for increasing the speed of mail
trains. All that has been accom-
plished in this direction has been ac-
complished by thea ppeals of the post
Office department ia the interest Of the
public and by competition between the
themselves.
An illustration of the Inadequate
pay sometimes received by the rail-
roads for mail carriage is found in
The statement of a former president of
The Long Island railroad to the effect
the bootblacking privilege on the
company's ferryboats yielded the
company one-ffth Of the amount re-
ceived from the government for trans.
porting the mails all over the lines of
the company.
The average weight upon which is
based the payment for mail transport.
tation is determined by actual weigh
ings made for a period of ninety days
in four years. The weighing
was formerly fixed by law at
not less than thirty days, but vas re.
increased to ninety days. Just
now the date is approaching for the
weighing of mails on the western lines.
For the moment this has added greater
zest to the competition between the
several lines. The more mail the
roads can carry during the three
months of weighing t~hellarger will be
their pay for the next four years.
This quadrennial determination of the
weight is something OF q hardship for
the railroads. The mails normally
increase very greatly during the
course Of four years. 1t has been esti.
mated that on an average the roads in
this way carry 20 per cent more
weight than they are paid for.
In 1866, when the Union Pacific rail-
road was opened to the Pacific coast,
the running time from New York to
the coast was about nineteen days.
That was considered remarkably fast
time in those days. Now it is three
aud a half days. A more striking
illustration OF the evolution of our
railway and of our mail service as
we'll could hardly be found.