The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-12-18
MILLIONS ARE WASTED
IN CARRYING MAILS.
Railways Accused In Congress
of Gross OverCharges.
MURDOCH ATTACKS SYSTEM
The Law as to Averages Should Be
Changed Daily Weight
is False Should BE
Stricken Out


Washington. d. Charging that
the Government is paying the rail-
roads too much for carrying the
mails, Representative Murdoch Gre
publican), of Kansas, made plea to
the House to change the system, He
asserted that the weighing Of the
mails every four years to determine
the rate of pay is not conducted on
business principles.
Before tAis Congress adiourns,
he said, the weighing of the mails
in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Iowa, Missouri, Michigan and Mime
sofa will be in progress, and contracts
for carrying the mails will be made
running four years and calling for an
expenditure which may reach twenty
million dollars year, a greater ex-
penditure than was made for the SER
vice in the whole country in 1888.
There are practices which should
be corrected and new methods adopt
ed before any further contracts are
made The basis of most of our en-
ormous outlay for railway carriage OF
mails of s45, 900, 900 this year is the
average daily weight. Through the
Justification of this average this Gov
eminent in the last ten years has
overpaid for the carriage of mails
about forty million dollars.
Even if the average should be cor
rected the system is still Anticipated
and inequitable. and should be
changed. In a given section the mail
is weighed los days, Sundays and all,
and these weighings tOtalled. Then
to get the average daily weight, am
informed, the total is not divided by
los days, but by ninety days; that is,
the Sundays are excluded.
AS nearly all the heavy averages
come from routes which have Sunday
malls, the discrepancy is enormous.
This system has continued for years.
The Postoffice Department has its
warrant for it in an opinion given by
an Attorney-G General in 1884. The
law under which an average is struck
is itself thirty-three years old. Com
paratively few trains in 1873 carried
Sunday mails.
The country now is divided into
four weighing districts. At the last
weighing on the New York Buffalo
route (New York Central) the weigh
ing was for seventy-eight successive
working days, but the mail was
weighed, in fact, for ninety days. The
Sunday weights, so far as I can find,
were included in the total, but when
the average was struck the Sundays
were excluded, leaving seventy-eight
days. This average gave an aver
age daily weight of 411,838 pounds,
although the true average was $685.
929 pounds. The true average would
have given the New York Central an
annual pay of $1,728,140.60, instead
of the $1,9S5.910.27 actually re-
ceived, difference of about $751;
000
If the construction of the former
attorney general is right and the
presence of the word working forces
a false and costly average daily
weight. the word should be stricken
from the law at once
las the law stands. the rate of pay
automatically decreases from an av-
erage daily weight of 200 pounds to
5000 pounds, with a provision that
$21.37 shall be paid for every 1000
pounds above 5000 pounds carried.
In 1878, when the law was adopted,
very few routes carried over 5000.
The New York Central, the New
York-Buffalo route, which to-day car
ries 411,838 pounds. then carried
10000 pounds. The diminishing rate
should continue beyond the 5000
pound limit"