The Washington herald., 1915-08-25
A Business Campaign.

| RCadjustment of the rate and system OF pay
| ing the railroads for Transporting the United
States mails will be a demand that the Sixty
fourth Congress- in its first session. will scarcely
be able to resist. While the controversy between
the roads and the Po>toffice Department. since
the parcels post has added tremendously to the
burden OF transportation, has amounted almost to
scandal, unfortunately only a comparatively
small number OF members of Congress have taken
pains TO inform themselves to its merits. with
the result that this important subject was not
brought to the front for free and fair discussion
At the last session, and attempt to enact a
piece OF harum-scarum legislation in the form OF
rider to appropriation bill was narrowly
frustated. To guard against any such situation
in the next Congress extensive campaign has
been undertaken by the Railway Business Assoca-
ton, the national organization OF manufacturing
mercantile and engineering concerns dealing with
the railroads. which has for its object the arous-
ing OF interest among business men throughout
the country to the point where they will take it
upon themselves TO call to the attention OF those
who represent them in Senate and House the need
OF radical reform in the present slip-shod unbuSi-
ncsslkc, and unjust methods of determining the
compensation OF the mail carrying roads 1t NAV
safely be asserted that part Of this campaign has
been won in advance No man OF sound business
sense study the question for five minutes and
not be convinced that tho present system is in
equitable and fundamentally wrong. 1t only re-
mains to be seen whether the business men OF the
country interested in seeing an important
branch OF the business OF the United States gov
ernmcnt, involving the expenditure OF MANY mill
lions annually, administered according to common
business principles sufficiently TO bring their
influence to bear on Congress-
The ted b,. +Lo D,J
Association needs argument. Citing the in
the present methods, the sum total OF its demands
when reduced to simple terms is that the railroads
be paid fair rate for the services actually rend-
cred TO the government, just they are paid for
services rendered to private shippers that there
shall be no haphazard guesswork and that such /
questions a Postofhcc Department surplus or !
deficit shall not be factor in determining what |
they are 10 receive.
great many well-informed\p \persons would be |
amazed to learn how far the present system falls
short of accomplishing this For instance mails |
arc weighed every four years for the purpose of |
ascertainng an average, upon which is based the !
rate of pay the roads are to receive during the |
four years succeeding How would the Interstate |
Commerce Commission regard such an arrange |
ment between a railroad and private shipper?
And again, roads were granted increased compen-
sation not exceeding 5 per cent for carrying the ,
parcels post in 1913, when that system was first
established. If that fair compensation two
years ago. what can be said of it now, since the
enormous extension and expansion of the parcels !!
post system' Certainly not that it is businesslike
These are only two of the evils that the Railway
Business Association seeks to have remedied, and
without doubt there will be strong and just de-
mand for reform in the next Congress