Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1907-03-04
R. R. POSTAL GRAFT
IS THOROUGHLY EXPOSED BY The
San FRANCISCO STAR.
Talk in Congress to Avoid Postal De-
fiCif by Raising Second Class Rates
Not Based on Facts. Express
Companies Carry Magazines at a
Lower Rate.

NowueIo 10 kTalC IHoTe UldZeHiy pTaC'
ticed than in the carrying of the United
States mails. Nowhere does the bare
faced robbery of the American people
exhibit at once the depths of moral tur-
pitude to which the government itself
has fallen and the absolute and impeii-
GUS power exerted by the corrupt railway
interests over the recreant public SER
wants than are seen in the contracts with
the railways for mail service. The postal
deficit is deficit only because our rail-
ways are owned by private parties on the
one hand, and because the government
is also the servant of these unscrupulous
interests on the other. In his chapter
on 1.-THE Railways and the Postal Ser
vice." Professor Parsons lays bare this
unhoIy alliance on the part of depart.
ment Of government with the railways
which is confession that the govern
ment is the tool of the interests.
"Another and most grievous form of
graft" says the author, consists in ex-
cessive charges for the carriage OF mails.
While the railways in other countries
carry the mails for nothing or at cost,
our government has to pay much higher
rates than private shippers. The rail-
way tax on the transmission Of intelli
gence is one OF the worst handicaps re-
sulting from our transportation system.
For hauling mails the railways receive
from the government from two to four
times az much as they get from the ex-
press companies for equal haulage, more
than twice what they get for carrying
Communication passengers and excess bag
gage equal weights and distances, two to
five times their charges for first-cass
freight, twelve times what they receive
for some OF their dairy freight, and six
teen times what they get for the mass OF
common freight"
Professor Parsons cites at length from
Professor Henry G. Adams, of Michigan
University, the statistician of the United
States Commerce Commission, giving
Professor Adams tables, after which he
continues:
ION these estimates the railway le-
ceipts from the express between New
York and Boston would average so cents
per hundred, and 38 cents for first. class
freight. against 80 cents for the mails;
New York to Chicago, rs cents freight,
$1.25 express and 1886 mail; New York
to Atlanta, 1925 freight. 70 express, and
$3.50 mail; Chicago to Milwaukee, 25
cents freight, 80 cents express, "a cents
mail per hundred (this seems fairly rea-
sonable); New York to San Francisco.
SO freight, $6.75 express, and $l3.2S
mail (this seems very unreasonablc) {;
Atlanta to Savannah, 81 cents freight, 81
cents express, and 1917 mail (more I'm.
reasonable stilD.
"These and other data too numerous
for insertion here indicate that as rule
railways receive for express so to 100 per
cent more than for first.class freight, and
for mail 100 to 300 per cent more than
for express.
IA specific case will show more clearly
the relation between railway receipts
from mail and express. The New York
Central gets 10 per cent Of the gross
earnings of the express company opera
ting over its line. The result is the fol-
lowing relation between mail and express
for the route from New York to Buffalo,
439 miles:
Railway earnings per year for
l25 tons of mail daily. .....$l ,447 $40
Railway earnings per year for
125 tons OF express daily. 36,250
"Railway officers claim that the value
received from the express should be put
somewhat above the 40 per cent contract
division of earnings because the exv
performs some 'grattuitous' service in
the handling Of railway packages. etc.,
but even make full allowance for this
and all other claims OF the railroads in
relation to such comparison, as Adams
does on page % of the Railway Mail
Pay report, the railway value from ex-
press would only be $3.50. 3l2 in the above
statement, against $1,447, $40 from the
ul8lI WlJuOut COuutlHS ICCCIPtn III Poot"i-
car rentals or value resulting from the
stimulation OF traffic due to the mails.
"The census Of 1890 affords the means
Of very broad and instructive compari.
son. From that census we learn that
the express companies paid the railways
1882 900 for carrying 1922, 0O0,0 900
pounds Of express matter, or Clio of a
cent pound. The same year Postmaster
General Wanamaker reported the weight
of the mail, paid and free, to be S65. $685.
All pounds, or 10 Of the express weight,
and by no means all of this was carried
by the railways, yet they received $22,-
100000 for less than tenth of the weight
the railw avs hauled for the express COM
panies for several millions less money.
The rate per pound on mail was fully ten
times the rate per pound on express.
The average haul for express is estimated
at 25 to so per cent less than for mail.
So that the ton.mile rate for mail APP.
a =. - G,,o