Evening star., 1911-08-30
CUT COST OF MAILS
Hitchcock Would Gain Object
by New Pay Basis.
EXISTING RATES EXCESSIVE
Railroad transportation Charges at
Present Faulty.
SPACE USED rs PROPER GAUGE
Postmaster General Wants Congress
to Discard Hauling Tariffs
Based on Weight.
SPACE USED rs PROPER GAUGE

Mail transportation by railroads has
heretofore been paid for by the gov
ernment on basis that is faulty and
does not fairly represent the value of
the service performed. This was the
opinion expressed by Postmaster Cen
eral Hitchcock today. The Postmaster
General said he thought railway mail
service should be paid for according to
the space used for mail transportation
and not according to a schedule based
upon the annual mail weighing
Heretofore the country has been di-
vided in four sections, and there has
been a mail weighing in one of those
sections every year to determine the
rate of pay of the railroads carrying
the mails in that section. This plan
practically changes the rate of pay
every four years in given section
The last weighing took place in what
is known as the middle section, cover
ing the middle states, last spring.
Reads Furnish Data.
Since the beginning Of his admnistra-
tion. it is said, the Postmaster General
has been carefully looking into the ques-
ton of railway pay for mail transporta-
tion. Invoking a law already on the stat
ute books. he has required the railways
themselves to furnish detailed information
as to the service performed by them and
its cost to them. For a time the railways
resisted this attempt to get at the inner
workings of their systems; but the Post
master General persisted in his determina-
ton. and as a result, it is said, he has
collected data sufficient to convince Con-
gress that the time has come for a
change of system in paying railroads for
mail transportation.
The Postmaster General said today that
as a matter of fact even the railroads
were convinced that the present method
of computing their pay for mail transpor-
tation was. wrong They contend that
during the mail-weighing period the de-
partment withheld the shipment of it's
supplies and the government reduced the
quantity of its mail to such an extent as
to deprive the railroads of their fair
share of pay. Some quarters the mail
might be unusually light while in other
quarters it might be unusually heavy.
and neither represented the fair average
of transportation throughout the year.
1T is easy enough" said the Postmaster
General, for the roads to determine the
amount of car space required to trans
port the mails, and the car space used
furnishes an almost exact basis upon
which to compute the value of the rail-
way service 1t really is the only reason
able and fair way to determine what is
fair to the roads themselves and fair to
the department. and I hope to <see Con-
gress approve this plan of determining
the pay of the roads for mail transporta-
tion."
1t has long been claimed in certain
quarters that the railroads were receiv-
ing much more annually from the gov
ernment for mail transportation than
they should, and by some it has even
been charged that the department was
aware Of the fact and ignored 1t.
Postmaster General Hitchcock does not
propose to have this imputation made
against the department during his ad-
ministration.
Has Overcome Objections.
But aside from this it is his earnest
wish, he says. to have the mail service
conducted on a basis with sensible busi-
ness principles governing every cent of
outlay and every extension or curtail-
ment of service. He thinks the people
are entitled to every advantage an up-to-
date service should provide, but he says
it is possible to provide the fullest and
best service only by regulating every de-
tail of its operation according to common
sense business methods such as an in
dividual or corporation would adopt in
the conduct of its own business.
He says he has met with much we'll
meaning opposition even among the off,
cials of the postal service, who have be-
come welded to old methods, and were
loath to try new ones. but gradually he
has overcome objections and hopes during
the coming session of Congress to find
ready response to his efforts to give the
country the best mail service possible
and to pay no more for 1t than should