The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-03-20
Postal Work.

:, 500, 100000 a year; the city carriers, ST.
I G0, coo, The postal railway mail service
T 81 n.JG,00e, The star route service S7,G1O.O Oh
all Of them growing.
The politica! Power of Railroads.
IT was supposed for Il long time that
rural free delivery would do away with
star routes. Not at all. IL Is constantly
GROWING. How theG. with these great
pipes of expenditure leading out or that
reservoir, has 1t come about that there IL
to be no deficltY Largely through the col
lection of one item, and that item has d.
rectly to do with the activity of you gen
uemen. For tiirty-five years in this coun-
try congress has been looking into two of
these question:. One of them was the
system under which we paid the railroads
for the carriage of rails. The OTTER was
how to get an adequate return out Of Gee
ond class matter. Five commissions on
the one subject. that or the carriage OF
mail, have struggled with 1t. They paid
PROFESSOR Adams, OF Ann Arbor. $4,000
to make an analysis OF the question of the
carriage of railway mails. Three or four
commissions have handled the question
OF second class matter. and every congress
Tor ~lhirty-hve years until now has backed
away from those tive propositions. Why?
First and foremost because the railroads
>SAANay aiS I-iliS Eo"GilIt Rpii-
tically, and fecond, because the newspa-
pers are right un behind them when il
comes to power.
Last winter congress took hold Of the
first proposition, that is the carriage of
railway mail, and they performed in THIS
way; First OF all. 1t made a reduction on
roads that carry over 5000 pounds 81 day.
All Of you men who are active in the serv-
ice know the old table OF the graduated
scale which stopped at 5000 pounds. That
was adopted IN 1879 by one OF the greatest
men that was ever in the service, MIR.
Bangs. general superintendent of the rail-
way mail. Bangs is credited with having
the longest head of any man that ever
served in that capacity. He got up this
graduated scale under which we pay for
the mail. 1t was one of the most remark
able things for a man to do in that day
and age that has ever been done. But MIR.
Eangs could not see beyond his day. In
that day there was one road In the United
States, the New York Central, that car
red the enormous amount OF mail of 49,
G0 pounds, average daily weight. On,
think OF 1T! Nineteen thousand pounds of
mail every day! That was thirty-five years
ago., and today the New York Central car
ries-the same road-not 1870 pounds, but
4ll,00 pounds OF mail a day. Bangs could
not foresee that. 1t was beyond any mans
foresight, so Bangs stopped that scale at
ie'Soo PcNAAao nv aS SIIIllSCu. lItilllC
has changed, but the old law stood and
that old scale.
The Jokes in the Weighing.
Now congress last winter reduced the
pay for the carriage of mails above 5000
pounds 6 per cent. which makes a cut OF
100000. Congress went after the Il. p.
GA very intricate proposition. which had
not been changed in its system since 1873,
and congress cut that 81. 900, GOO, and Mr..
Il ~ ID Nro,v11k %lso,,1L ts. =. 4.
t%rstion. is cutting 1t still more. That
makes 100000 and $1,000. GOO is $4,000. COO.
When I first went down to Washington.
met a man by the name of Dobb. He
was a clerk of the postoffice commit
tee and had been there for years with Mr..
Loud. and he says. why don't you take
UP the question Of railway mail pay and
study that?" and l says. has there been
anything written on it?" He says. "there
are libraries and books without end" and
so l got the books down and began to
read them, and 1t Is the most intricate
subject In the world. 1t goes to the bot
tom of the subject Of transportation: it
goes into the cost and strength of q
bridge; how much wear and tear a freight
train will make upon that bridge: and how
much is to be charged to passenger trains
and how much to freight trains: the
wages of the station master: and how
much IS to be charged to a passenger
train and how much to a freight train
per train mile and what Is the cost of
train mall: and into the most outlandish
things. SO much so that as ! went into
that subject at great length and az I
have gone ahead trying to find what some
expert had said about 1t, and with the
help OF some OF the men OF the associa-
.on ol raliMas man c'etks. VINO nave ex-
p.a-hea 70 me .h.hss enat DOCKS cannon
espla.n; ! touhu q VIA point. ana ehat
was ms. q m 1913 wheh Mr. Bangs
l~hausurateo ms Ereat system OF Weighing
tnere were very rev ouhooy rams IN TINS
country anu "nen .hey wanted 70 ma tne
average aaiiy wsish.. IN oroer TO 40 that
nhey TOOK SIX lays Welshts. MONDAY
iuesaaS. WEDNESDAY. thursday. Friday
anu saturdoy, ana they TOOK the average
OF theHl. what any scnooi boy would DO
they took the SIX DAYS ana .V-de 1t by
SIX 10 get the average daily weights. ~
was all right IN 1915, but 81 per cent. OF
the mail carried IN this country today is
carried on roads that have Sunday trains.
The times had changed. but the govern
ment had not. And so now. in this day
and age of the world. they were still TAX
ling the WEIGHTS of Monday Tuesday