New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-15
OBJECT TO MAIL PAY
Railroads Vigorously Oppose
Proposed Reduction.
NOW "UNJUSTLY LOW"
Government Assumes, Circular
Says, Parcels Post Will Go
Without Compensation.

A committee. representing railways
whose lines include 80 per cent OF the
aggregate length of all railway mail
routes in this country, has Issued
pamphlet, arguing that the payments 10
the railways for the services furnished 10
the Postoffce Department have been Tor
long time "unjustly low" Arguments
are used which are said to be refutauons
OF the estimates submitted by the Post
master General to Congress, which lea
him to decide that a reduction Of about
20 per cent could be made on the basis of
payment.
The committee says the creation OF the
parcels post will enormously increase the
volume Of the shipments, and the govern
ment seems to have assumed that, under
existing contracts, made before the
meaning of the word mali was thus
extended, the railways can be compelled,
until these contracts expire, to carry
this great additional volume OF mall
traffic without any compensation what
ever The committee calculates that II
new contracts are made in conjunction
with the regular time for weighing, as al
present, the railroads OF New England,
for instance, will have to submit TO this
arrangement for four and a half years
1t Is also held that the Postmaster
Generals assertion that the railways
were overpaid about 100000 in 1903 Is
erroneous and rests primarily upon his
adopting an unprecedented theory which
allows nothing for a return upon the cap
ita1 In taJ In, II IL
maintained that the railway mail pay at
present is not only insufficient TO produce
any return upon the principal, but does
not even pay It's proper share Of operating
cost and taxes. Passenger train service
does not pay, and as mail service is more
than q per cent below the average for
other services It Is held that It must be
even less lucrative.
Argument is used that a Congressional
committee reported IN January. 1901. that
the prices paid for mail transportation
against a reduction, yet the volume Of
mail has increased greatly since that
time. A table is used to show that in
1901 the total railway mall pay was $685.
l5S. $50. and the average pay per 800 Of
postal receipts S34lS, while I'm 1911 the
total pay was $50, $50. 1923 and the pay per
800 was s2l IS; meanwhile the railways
have been constantly improving mail
transportation.
The committee contends that the Post
office Department has not made any
other reduction In twelve years In the
annual total of its expenses for other
purposes than railway transportation, "or
In the proportion OF It's revenues required
for such other expenses, but the whole
saving, which has nearly eliminated the
annual deficit OF the department, is rep
resented by the reduced payments per
unit Of service to the railways"
The final opinion is that the Postmaster
Generals proposed plan OF payment,
based on operating cost and taxes to be
ascertained by the department, plus 6
per cent. is seriously wrong in principle
and would encourage and perpetuate in
justice" The committee says that under
the Postmaster Generals plan "a railroad
would be penalized FOR all the capital ex-
penditures made by ii for the purpose of
decreasing its operating cost. because the
more It decreased its operating cost the
more II would decrease It's mail pay"
The committee says 1t represents IA 90
miles Of railroad, operated by 26s COM
panies. The signers OF the pamphlet are:
j. Kruttschnitt chairman. director of
maintenance and operation, Union and
Southern Pacific systems; Ralph Peters
chairman, president Long Island
Railroad; Charles 4. Wickerskam presI-
dent and general manager Western Rail-
way OF Alabama; W. w. Baldwin, vice.
president Chicago, Burlington q Quincy
Railroad; W. w. Atterbury, vlce-presilent
Pennsylvania Railroad; George T. Nichol-
son, vice-president Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe Railway; e. J. Pearson, first
vice. president Missouri Pacific Railway;