The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-01-20
Poured Into Camp of
Postal Officials by
Sen. La Toilette.
Spotlight Rigidly Center
ed on Rotterness of
Congressional Bias in
Mail Service Matters.

ator Robert NJ. LaFollette Yields the
two-edged sword of truth with unsparinp o
hand with the recently announced annual
! postal deficit as his text.
And when he is through you feel as
if you missed it in not getting sufficient
West Point education to be able to WELD
saber of your own
Here are tho lightning like thrusts and
passes, the points and ripostcs of the
doughty 'insurgcnt' gladiator:
The failure of the postal revenue to
meet the postal expenditures is Il subject
! of perennial discussion The postal def
cit, like the poor, we have always with
us. Various plans and departures have
been suggesed to wipe it out. 1t has
been suggested that the extravagant pay
of the railroads for carrying the mails
be reduced. But with congressional boss.
es who would frank back and forth dur
| ing the mpil-wcig Ching period tons of use
less public documents for the mere pur-
pose of stulIing the mails and increasing
the railroad rake-of, this suggestion
never got far
1t has also been recommended by at
least one postmaster general that the gov
crnment build and own the railway mail
ears instead of paying the railroad more
than their total cost annually for the
rent of the cars. But this recommends
tion never received consideration by con-
gress.
Then there is the postal savings banks
proposition, to which the Republican par
ty is committed. The operation of a
r1nS tsl1
tai receipts without corresponding in
crease IN expenses and thus tend to re-
duce the deficit. But the system is
against this radical and - socialistic', ),
undertaking and the system congress has
thus far stranglcd postal savings bank
legislation.
Recent disclosures of express compa-
ny s earnings add new and important ar
gumcnts for parcels post. 1t was Post
master General Wanamaker who said that
there were only four reasons why the
people could not have Il parcels post.
These four reasons were the four big ex-
press companies.
The Wells Fargo Express Company in
the fiscal year 1909 earned net, after
the payment of all expenses and taxes.
over Sc per cent of the total value of
all its property and equipment used in
its business, and received in addition
/ 81, 100000 income from investments of
the accumulated profits. 1t presentes its
share holders with a special Christmas
dividend OF 300 per cent or $24, 900, 900.
The American Express Company has
been paying dividends of to IL per
cent for years, on capitalization half
water; and last year received an income
of $l,l7S,00o from investments of its ad.
ditional accumulated profits.
The Adams Express Company with a
total investment of about $4,000. 900 has.
in recent years, i'll addition to high reg
ular dividends. distributed additional, ac-
,cumulatcd profits in special dividends,
amounting to $36, 100000 and last wear
received from its accumulated profits not
Iyet distributed an income of over 81 900.
200. So that another special distribution
dividend of 100 per cent is about due to
the Adams share holders.
And so we might go on giving the
statistics of the extravagant profits of
the express carriers. Some of the smaller
companies earned last year 200 to 800
lper cent net on their investment.
The pertinencc of these facts in con-
nection with the postal deficit is this:
These earnings represent what the public
lis paying private interests for the trans
portation of eXpress-freight. parcels and
also mailable matter and money, trans
ported by the express companies partly
i'll competition with the postal depart
ment and probably in contravention of
the postal laws of the United States
Now the public has little use for the
independent express company arrange
ment The public wants q parcels post
conducted by the government for the
transportation of smaller parcels and the
railroads should furnish adequate fast
! freight service for the transportation of
such large parcels and shipments as re-
quire expedition. y parcels post. estab-
ished on an honest basis, would give the
public better service at lower rates. and
| yield revenue that would wipe out the
postal deficit. However. 4 parcels post
is not recommended by the present post
master general.