The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-09-30
RAILROADS NOW
FACE BIG LOSS
ON PARCEL POST
Governments Business OF S14.-
100000 For First Six Months
Alarms Carriers.

The news from washington that
PostmaSter-Ge General Burleson expects
that the Governments receipts from
January to June 80 from fourth
class mail which includes parcel post
matter, will amount to $14,0OO.OOO
was received by railroad officials yes
terday with great interest, but with
out much enthusiasm. The railroads
feel that they must bear the burden
of the increased mail matter without
sufficient return.
Two hundred and sixtY-four rail
roads of the country, carrying mails
on more than 700 miles of line,
have felt that the parcel post was a
burden to them. Several months ago
a committee was appointed to try to
get higher pay from the Post Office
Department for carrying the mails.
Hearings have been held before a
Congressional commission, but so far
Congress has not yet made a rate
which the railroads believe to be
equitable.
Ralph Peters, president of the Long
Island Railroad, is chairman of the
railroads committee.
Without reference to other bur
dens which the railroads have to
bear said Mr.. Peters yesterday, "the
continual growth of the parcel post
system makes it seem probable that
this class of mail will be carried free
ment will increase it's receipts from
100000 to S4O,00O,O0O a year.
Most of the parcel post matter is car
ried over railroads. Under the pres
ent system by which the roads are
compensated they will not be paid at
all for the increase.
while we carry this matter for
nothing we are losing on our receipts
from other classes of our business.
Most packages which make up the
parcel post would be shipped by
freight or express if the parcel post
had not been established. We would
then be carrying it at a fair profit.
THE principal point of our objec-
tons is that weighing. periods to de-
termine how much mail the railroads
carry only occur every four years.
There is no law to make g. railroad
carry mail, but there is a law that if
a railroad carries mail 1t does so at
arbitrary rates fixed by the Govern
ment in 1873. but reduced twice since
then.
-At the four year weighing periods
all the mail which goes over a road
is weighed. From the figure obtained
the amount the road will carry in the
next four years is estimated. No al
Iowance is made for natural increase
of mail. We want this weighing per
iod to occur every year.
tOther adjustments which we be-
lieve to be fair are compensation for
performing messenger service between
railroad stations and post offices and
compensation for apartment cars. We
are not allowed to charge for carrying
postal clerks, and in addition we
carry them free from the end of their
runs to their homes.
ION the basis of a sixty foot car
the average earnings of all the rail-
way cars in the United States are as
follows: In the passenger service,
26.52 centsl a mile; express service,
23.16 cents a mile and mail service,
1888 cents a mile. If the mail ser
vice yielded the same rate per mile
per car as the rest of the passenger
train the Government would have paid
nearly s17,OOO,0OO more to the rail-
roads in 1910.
I'm 1901 the postal revenue was
$111.631,193 and the railway mail pay
was 81 per cent. of this or $38,158, 96s.
In 1912 the postal revenue had in
creased 800 per cent, to a total of
$246,T44, 900. while the railway mail
pay only increased So per cent, bring
ing it to $51, Sol, or 20 per cent.
of the otaI~revenue. And each day
the parcel post is growing larger