The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-03-29
GREAT DECREASE
IN RAILWAY FINES
Fall From $675, 900 to
$4,000 In One Year
RELIEVE POSTAL DEFICIT

On Its Face This Showing Would
Seem TO Indicate Il Great Improve
n,ent in the Railway Mail Service
But the Facts Do Not Justify That
Conciusion-The Truth is That the
Authority Given the Postmaster
Service Was Taken From Him
Chance to Help Out Postal Deficit
Now.
Especial to News and Observer
Washington, d. c., March "a
Fines assessed against the railroads
of the country by the p%ostoffice depart
ment, and deductions mad in rail-
way mail pay for failures OF service,
late operation of mail trains, ana
n delinquencies' have decreased
from $685. 00 net in 1870 TO $4,000
net last year.
These figures would seem to indi-
Feate a surprising Improvement in
railway mail service, and a stricter
pES SoI1tC vi put II IN'tiA
they mean nothing of the sort.
The specific provision authorizing
the postnnaster-general to assess fines
AS formerly has not been incorporated
in the postofice appropriation bill for
the past two years.
The news dispatches called atten-
ton to this oversight two years ago.
When members of the committee on
postoffices and poast roads of the
House were asked about the omission,
they insisted hat the paragraph was
not needed in the appropriation bill
each year, as there was general lesis-
ation on the subject. AS explanation
of why the paragraph had been put
into the annual appropriation bills at
all, it was explained that this was done
merely as a remind r to the depart
ment that Congress wished the old
law regarding fines enforced.
But Congress left out the para
graph, and the p~ostoffice department
has construed the oversight into a
repeal Of the old provision in the
statutes, and treated it as a dead let
ter
Fines Shrink Amazingly.
Thus while fines assessed in 1905
amounted to nearly thTee-fourths OF
II million dollars, there was collected
in 1909, the nominal sum Of S34 600.
For the first half of the current fis-
cal year there have been assessed net
fines amounting to $4,000 In q letter
70 Representative Hitchcock on his
subject PoStmaSter-GeneraI Hitchcock
said:
The heavy deductions made dur
ing he fiscal years ending June so,
1907, 1908 and 1909, We're largely due
to the enforcement OF the provision
of the acts of Congress of June 20,
1906, and March 2. 1907, that the
postmaSter-general should require
all railroads carrying the mails to
maintain their regular train schedule
as to the time of arrival and departure
of said mails, and to impose and col
Iect reasonable fines for such delay
when such delay was not caused by
This provision has not since been in
corporated in the law. The provision
for fines i'll the appropriation bill
was very reasonable. 1t only called
for fines in case of delays that could
have been avoided by ordinary dill
sence.' On this subject the postmas-
ter-general himself in a recent letter
to Representative Goulder, of New
York, writes:
A Frank Confession.
Postfnaster-General Hitchcock gives
the comparative figures on this subject
letter as follows:
Fiscal year. Net Reductions
and Fines.
1890 . e. -. ..$135,471.15
1901 .. =. 9o,262.59
l9oZ-. :. -. 95,uD9.II
1905. :. .. :. 12l,53O.9C
lJUt =. -. L Z