The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-04-27
PROVING TOO MUCH.
railroads Claim Great Loss I'm Trans.
portatiOn of L. S. Mails.

Richmond News-Leader.
we print in another column a COM
munication from Charles A wicker-
sham' president and general manager
or the Atlanta and West Point Rail-
road Company and Western railway
OF Alabama. Mr.. Wickersham en-
closes with his letter some literature
bearing on the cost to the general
government of mail TRANSPORTATION.
and the amount paid for this trans
portation to the railways. The letter
was called forth by President Taft's
statement that it costs the govern
ment cents per pound for trans
portatlon of mail. Mr.. Wickersham
Tears this will be taken by the gen.
eral public to mean that the railways
are paid this amount On the CON-
trary, he shows that the railways re-
celve an average of 3.19 cents per
net pound Of mail matter He fur
ther shows that by reason of the re-
quirement to haul other things be-
sides mere mail, that this average
payment should be further reduced
so that the railways get only 1.S3
cents per pound Of weight carried by
them.
We have been unable, as yet to go
critically over the literature bearing
on this subject Of mail transporta-
ton that come with Mr.. Wicker
sham's communication. We are not
quite certain that we have sufficient
technical knowledge of railway rates
and mail rates and regulations to be
able to follow intelligently and check
UP the statements contained in this
literature. We certainly can not 60
so until we have further sources of
information upon which to draw. We
shall, therefore, for the present con-
fine ourselves to discussing Mr.. Wick.
ershams letter, and chiefly one para
graph of it. He says you vii be
surprised to learn that the railways
actually haul the mails at a loss-not
theoretical loss, but at an actual
expense Of one dollar and seventy-two.
cents for every one dollar we get.
This don't include any share of the
| interest on money we have borrowed
to equip the road
Mr.. Wickersham is undoubtedly
right in expecting us to be surprised
at this extraordinary stateemnt. AS
suming it to be true, it will be a mat
ter of unmixed surprise not only to
us, but probably to every one else
who reads it. There is a very gem
eral belief on the part of the public
shared in, we admit, by us, that the
amounts paid to the railway COM
panies for transporting the United
States mail were unnecessarily heavy,
and that these mail contracts were
regarded by the railroad companies
as eminently desirable. Furthermore
we have generally regarded, as has
the public, railway companies as bus
mess organizations, operated primar-
lily, so far as the stockholders were
concerned for the purpose Of making
money. But according to Mr. Wick
ersham's letter all these pTeconceived
views must be thrown to the wind
Not only coes the government pay to
the railways ridiculously inadequate
amounts for the transportation, but
we are solemnly informed by a re-
sponsible office of a railway, to wit
a president and general manager,
that the railways actually haul the
mails at a loss, not a theoretical loss,
but at an actual expense Of one dol
lar and seventy-two cents for every
dollar we get"
Figures, we are told can prove any
thing and we confess that we had a.
very considerable faith in their prov
ing ability; but we never thought
that they would prove that the rail-
way companies not only entered into
but sought after transportation con-
tracts which cost them $1.72 to exc
cute for every dollar they were paid.
If this is true, and Mr.. Wicker
sham says it is true, we respectfully
suggest that the stockholders of the
various railways would do we'll to
take the matter under consideration,
because we can perceive no good rea-
son or excuse for their executive Off
GERS and directors Squandering their
money in this ridiculous fashion.
There is no law of God or man re-
quiring railway companies to carry
United States mail at a positive loss.
They enter into contracts with the
government Just as they enter into