East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-04-21

Representative ]. ]. Lloyd, of Mis-
souri,, member of the house commit
tee on postoffices and postroads has
riddled the business methods of the
postoffice department and the system
by which the railroads are paid $4S,-
100000 for the transportation Of
malls.
There has been a definite purpose
by members of the house, led by
Chairman Overstreet, of the postal
committee, to convince the public that
the $14,000,000 deficit in the postof-
flee department last year was due to
the low rate on second-class mail mat
ter-newspapers and magazines.
Lloyd, taking the reports Of the
postmaster general and his assistants,
absolutely demonstrated that this ar
gument was without any basis. He
showed that the department Is paying
more for the transportation Of empty
mail sacks and office furniture that
are shipped by mail when they might
| go by freight than is paid for trans
portation of all classes of mails for
the whole country.
"The railroads have made a volun-
tary reduction of freight and passen-
ger rates of 20 per cent since $780,"
said Mr.. Lloyd. "There Is supposed
to be an automatic reduction of mail
pay in proportion to the increases in
tonnage. The government pays more
money for carrying mail sacks than
is paid for carrying the mails"
Illustrating this subject, Mr.. Lloyd
read the following figures from the
report of the investigation of the rate
for mail transportation in 18S9-the
latest report on the subject:
First-class mail, 100000 pounds;
second-class, 3S,OOO,OOO pounds; Sec
ond-class (free), 100000 pounds;
third and fourth-class, $4,000, 900
pounds; government, free, 9.21S,000
pounds; equipment, 1896, 900
pounds.
He then quoted a recent letter from
Second Assistant Postmaster General
Shallenburg, who explained that
equipment meant empty sacks,
locks and other paraphernalia.
THAT year" Mr.. Lloyd resumed,
T.565, 100000 pounds of mail was
carried and only 40 per cent of 1t was
paid matter-60 per cent was free
| government matter Of equipment.
! There would be no deficit IL the gov
ernment paid its own postage. We
have been paying for the carrying of
safes, desks, trucks and all sorts OF
equipment at mail rates and under
the present system of weighing It
would take us four years If we start
ed now, to get rid of that incubus
ut is absurd to pay more for the
carrying of empty sacks than is paid
| for carrying mail Reduce the num-
Der Of sacks, reduce the weight OF
sacks and send them and other bulk
by freight and the deficit will be
wiped out.
my own conviction is that second
class mail matter does not mean any
| such expenditure to the United States
government because nearly all the
first-class mail is caused by second
class literature. I am not in sympathy
| "Ath bhtib iuct VI llle iDuse VI
class mail. My own conviction is that
the most important mail carried is
second-class matter. 1t carries intel
ligence to the people; it carries infor-
nation to the people, 1t brings knowl-
edge to the great people of this coun-
try. Would you take away the bene-
fits that now come from the country
press all over this land and put tax
on the newspaper production which
absolutely goes free today?"
Lloyd's remarks were cut short by
the expiration of his allotted time.
He was requested to continue, but de.
clined to infringe upon the time OF
others.
The Tacoma Chamber of Commerce