Middletown transcript., 1915-07-10
RAILROAD MAIL PAY

NEW YORK. July A. The committee
on railway mail pay has made public a |
booklet entitled, "What the Railway !
Pay Means to the Railroads.. The |
booklet contains information originally |
prepared for the use of the executive |
officers of all the railroads of the coun-
try and submitted at conference of |
executives held at New York City on
May 20, 1915.
Copies of the booklet have been sent
today to all members of Congress, Off
GERS of the national administration,
state and federal regulative commits
siOns, and many other persons in pnb-
lie or semi-public life, as well as to all
daily newpayers and other publications.
The purpose of distributing this book
let is to inform the public as fully as
possible, concerning the facts on which
the railroads base their claim of inequita
bic treatment regarding the transpor-
tation of the United States mails; ;also to
present fairly all essential information
necessary for a clear understanding
of the matter from every point of view.
In the booklet the committee on rail
way mail pay discusses the proposed
law, dealing with the system of pay
ment for mail transportion, which has
been advocated by the Postoffice De-
partment and was introduced in the
last session of Congress. This proposed
law, known as the Moon bill, failed of
passage, but the postmaster general
has announced that he intends to have
it introduced again in the new Congress
and to bring every effort to bear to
achieve its enactment.
The Moon bill, as analysed in the
booklet, is shown by the committee on
railway mail pay to amount to an al
most complete delegation of the rate
making power, as far as the trasporta-
tation of the mails is concerned, to the
postmaster general, who would be vest
ed, under its terms, with authority to
make the rates anything he might
choose, mot exceeding" certain speci-
fled sums. He could reduce the rates
without restriction and could also die
tate in almost every respeCt, the char
acter and extent of servic the rail
roads would be required to render. The
railroads would be compelled to per-
form such service as the postmaster
general might demand, at such rates as
he might choos, to pay, under penalty
of $5, 900 per day for each refusal.
In the opinion of the committee on
railway mail pay, as set forth in the
booklet, the defects of the present
practice respecting the payment to the
railroads for carrying the mails, can
best be remedied by providing the fol
lowing reforms:
l. That the mails be weighed anC
the pay be readjusted, at least once {
year on every railway mail route, in
stead of once in four years, as at pres
ent.
2. That the railroads be paid for the
use and operation of apartment post
office cars for which the present Law
allows no pay-on pro rata basis will
the compensation allowed for full rail
way postofIice cars.
3, That the railroads be paid for, o
relieved from, the duty of carrying tn
mails between railroad stations an
postoffices.
The booklet contains the resolution
unanimously adopted at the meeting o
railroad executives in New York Cit
on May goth last, at which 80 per. cent
of the mileage of the country was re
presented. These resolutions complete
ly sustained the position of the CON
mittee on railway mail pay and indor:
ed the remedies it has suggested.
The resolutions also approved tn
suggestion of the committee on railwa
mail pay that in its opinion the ultimat
solution of the railway mail pay problel
would lie in reference of the matter
the Interstate Commerce Commissit
with full power.