Evening star., 1915-03-07
Moon Plan Reducing Pay for
Carrying Mails Attached to
Post Office Measure.
REFUSAL TO ADOPT
CALLED ACT OF JUSTICE
Postmaster General Would Have
Been Made Dictator of Trans
portation Charges, Is Claim.

On the heels Of the publication Of a
letter from Chairman Moon Of the
House committee on post office and
post roads, in which he informed Post
master Burleson that the strictest
economy would have to be practiced
in tho coming fiscal year. publication
is also made of q statement from, the
committee on railway mail pay re-
joicinE that the appropriation bill with
the Moon rider did not pass March
The Moon rider. as 1t 10 called. re-
duces the amount OF money to be paid
to railroads for carrying malls. ana
considerable attention vas paid to this
feature Of the un-enacted post once
bill in the letter Chairman Moon wrote
to TIL postmaster general.
Committee Statement.
The committee on railway mail pay,
of which Ralph Peters. president OF
the Long Island Railroad, is chairman
says in the statement:
I'm standing firmly against tho pas
sage of Representative Moons con
fiscatory railway mail pay rider In
the post ONCE appropriation bill. the
Senate, during the last hours OF Con
gress. performed a notable act OF JUS
tice.
at was, of course, regrettable that
the appropriation bill ITSELF 1ailea @ anu tha
Congress was compelled to race tne M
alternative Of an extra session or the
eleventh adoption of an emer-
gency resolution to provide the POST
Once Department with working iunos
after July /. That situation. however
was due solely to the refusal OF Mr.
Moon and his associates to withdraw
the rider even after it had become
plainly evident that they could not
succeed in forcing Its passage.
Would Create Dictator.
The Moon rider would have made
the Postmaster General sole dictator OF
what the railroads would be paid for
mail transportation. 1t would have
enabled the Post On1ce Department, in
REPRESENTATIVE Moons own words, to
force the railroads ito carry all your
parcel post probably without any ad-
ditional compensation.
with this obviously unjust measure
now out Of the way, the new Congress,
which will assemble next fall, can pro-
ceed in q sane and orderly manner to
provide the railroads their long de-
iayed fair payment for carrying the
parcel post"
Mr. Moons Letter.
Representative Moons letter on the
railway mail pay rider says:
Let US recur to the main and well
established fact in this contention:
The railroads are charging the govern
ment twice as much for the same serv-
ice as they charge the express COM
panies. For instance, their rates for
100 pounds of matter from New York
to Portland, Ore, as shown in the de-
partment's statement, Is $40. or this
amount the express company gives the
railroad company IS for carrying it.
For mail rates the railroad charges
per 100 pounds from the same point
to the same point, 1898: The freight
From Raleigh, N. C., 100 pounds will
70 by express for $2.1o. the railroad 8
proportion sl.o5; the government pays
$1.55, and SO on.
Cites Cost to Government.
Now, to make this question plain.
everywhere and under almost every
condition in the United States the gov
ernment has to pay for carrying its
mail little more in some instances
and little less in some instances, than
twice the amount the railroads charge
the express companies for carrying the
same matter, whether mail or mer-
chandise. We must not forget. either,
that the railroad companies get pay
for carrying the mails by the pound,
as stated, and they also get $1,000 a
year rent for a full railway post Office
car, q car that costs about $500 and
lasts sixteen years. 1t looks to me like
a statutory contract SO much against
the interest Of the people ought to be
modified, and that the law proposed is
a just modification of 1t. as 1t pays
the railroad companies nearly as much
for carrying the dead mail weight as
Il does to carry frst-class passengers.
That, indeed, is very liberal, and yet
the advantages Of the present law to
the railroad companies are such that
they are not willing to accept such a