The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-03-14
THE COST OF SECOND CLASS.

The railroads, it appears, have had
a committee mt work looking into the
matter of pay for second class mail mat
Ter. The President put the cost OF
the transportation of this matter at
more than Q cents a pound. And he
suggested that Congress may well con-
slider whether radical steps should not
Post Office Department caused by this
discrepancy between the actual cost or
transportation and the compensation eX-
acted therefor.
| This committee of railroad mon is
| headed by Mr.. J. Kruttschnitt of the
Hartman roads: and the other mem-
bers arc Lucius Tuttle, president Of the
Boston & Maine; Ralph Peters, presI-
dent and general manager of the Long
Island; c. a. Wickersham, president
and general manager Of the a. & w.
p. and w, Ry. Of Alabama, and w. w.
Baldwin, vice president of the c., b. 6
Q. r. R. These men, being thoroughly
familiar with the transportation busi-
ness, whether of mails or anything else,
have made a report on this question of
the cost of transporting second'class
postal matter, which they are sending to
the country. They know exactly what
they get for this mail transportation
which they do. and their report clari-
fies the problem completely,
First, they show that the Postmaster
General s report discloses the fact that
the President s Figures are wrong; for
he saws: ''The cost TO the Govern
ment for its handling and transporta-
tien averages 9.25 cents a pound, That
is on all the mail This is made more
emphatic in another part of his report
where he says that this figure includes
transportation. handling, administra-
tion and all items in connection with
the operation of the postal establish
ment.' Even, it appears, the rural mail
delivery. which shows for itself alone,
a deficit of $2S,000,000
Next, this railway committee goes
INTO an exhaustive analysis of the de-
tails of this transportation service,
showing comparison between mail
rates and express rates, as well as the
items of pay to the railroads by the
Post.Office Department under differ
emf accounts, and concludes: "There
fore, the railroads receive for the trans
portation of second-class mail and
equipments used by the Department to
contain it, NOT over Q cents a pound
but l,65 cents pound, and 1S-100ths
of a cent per pound for hauling for an
average distance of 6l0 miles in passen-
ger trains, post-office on wheels which
is OF no service to the railroads whatever
in performing contract to transport the
mails"
This committee represents 139 rail
roads, operating l92, sos miles of road,
and has taken the method indicated, of
the actual conditions in
detail, and presenting the ascertained
and assured facts to the public, The
report is an Illuminating one, and in
cidentally it exposes the shocking state
of the Post-Office Department as TO its
bookkeeping and the out-of date. inef-
fective and incomplete methods it EN-.
ploys. Truly, as has been proclaimed
from Washington, what the Post. Office
most needs is thorough
reorganization on modern business lines. |
As it is, it seems incapable of furnish
ing needed information Of the most
pressing character, but on the contrary,
its allegations in this matter of the
most urgent public interest, are COM
pletely misleading, and so untrustworthy
as TO be easily refuted, subject to sue
cessful attack from many sides and