The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-02
Finding Out How Nation Loses 0n
 End Class Mail
Democratic Committee Conduct. ing Deep Probe, Results of Which Will Astonish
 Country
(By Clyde H. Tavenner, Special Wash lngton Correspondent of The
 FarmeT.)

Washington, Oct 2@That the Demo- crats in Congress are determined to put in force a constructive program
 of legislation is indicated by the pres ent action of the House committee on l Expenditures in the Post Office De partment. This committee. of which William E.. Ashbrook of Ohio is chair man, IS pressing the most comprehen- s1Ve investigation ever undertaken by a CongresSi onal committee having to do with post office affairs, and by the time Congress convenes in December the committee expects to present facts and figures on which the law makers can base a just and intelligent esti- mate of what should be done to make the postal service efficient and eco nomical.
 l AS part of this Investigation MT | Ash hbrOOk's clerks are sending to each publisher throughout the country a set of blanks to be filled out. They are being requested to make known l to the committee just how much mail 1 they handle, and in what shape it is l handled. The blanks require them to state how much of the mail is carried by express, freight, mail, and by the Individual carriers.
 The purposesof this is to reach an | d rate would be for second class mat ter, which comprises the bulk of the postal business. The committee is convinced that the Hughes commis- sion, appointed a. year ago by Presi- dent Taft to investigate the same sub | ject, failed to reach the bottom of the subject, and the present investiga- tion.. in addition to going over much of the ground covered by the Hughes body, will go still deeper into the sub- ject
 It is apparent to anybody who has investigated the subject at all,' said MT. Ashbrook recently, that the gov ernment is getting the worst of it on the long haul feature of the mail bus mess. Most of the big publishers of the country use the express and and when they want large amounts of matter carried across the conti- nent they load it on to the govern ment. If the express and freight lines got the same proportion of long haul business as they do of the short haHls, the cost would not be nearly so much to the government. There fore we propose to find out exactly how the second class matter is car- ried. and what proportion of it is car ried in the different methods"
 The Ashbrook committee is also in- vestigating the question from angles that were not touched upon by the Hughes commission The publishers of the country, including newspaper, trade journal and magazine publish CTS, are asked to tell the committee, in confidence, just how their publica- tions are sent to their destination. whether through the mails or by freight or express. Any statements
 made by the publishers are akept se- cret, so that no publisher need have fear of any rival learning about his business. The committees sole pur- pose is to find out the averages ap- plying to the business, so that the correct figures and conclusions may
 be submitted to Congress.
 The Ashbroek committee promises
 to submit a. report which will aston
 ish the members of Con sresS for the
 thorough way it covers this important
 question. It also expects to show
 how tremendous saving can be eff
 fected in the department without in
 turing the service or reducing the
 number of employees.