New-York tribune., 1918-06-13

and recommended that the govern
ment buy out Mr. Milholland and his
stockholders, of whom there are more
than three thousand, mainly in New
England, especially Massachusetts,.
But there was a dissenting member.
Arthur B. Rouse, Of Kentucky, who
submitted a minority report recon-
mendng that the tubes be not pur-
chased, and that the underground
unless a system could be developed
which would handle all the mail in an
expeditions manner.
Mr.. Rouse reported the existence Of
widespread propaganda to effect the
sale of the existing tubes to the gov
ernment. 1t had been going on. he
said, for ten years, and the reasons
tor 1t were three, namely: That the
principal owners were aware that the
tubes were becoming obsolete; that
their franchises were sure to expire
and that the physical condition of the
properties had been detcriorating until
now it would be only short time until
they would have to be rebuilt or aban-
doned.
House Vote Tomorrow
In the Postof{ice appropriation bill
the House refused to authorize the
purchase Of the tubes. The Senate
added to the bill mandatory para
graph providing for their immediate
purchase. The bin went to a confer
ence. The conferrees could not agree.
Therefore the House will vote to-mor
row either to adopt or reject the SEN
ate amendment. A fine row is expected.
AS to the merits of the pneumatic
tube service there Is a mass of contra
dictory evidence. That of the postal
experts is mainly to the effect that the
tubes are an obsolete convenience.
They were introduced more than
twenty years ago. before the motor
truck arrived. The tradition the tubes
mail has survived, they say, without
having been intelligently checked up
against new experience.
There Us no doubt that under GER
tain conditions and in respect to q
very small proportion of first class
mail, the tubes do assist the service;
the question is whether they are worth
what they cost. The quantity of mail
matter has increased SO enormously
the tubes are swamped
Taking it New York alone, it is the
81 per cent of the mail now being han
died by tube could be handled Just as
expeditiously by the trucks already
running, without increasing their num-
ber or speed-that is to say, without
any increase of cost whatever AS to
the remaining 13 per cent, which actu-
ally is advanced by means of the tube,
if you divide it into the operating
cost of the tubes it amounts to about
13 cents a letter. That is what the
postal experts mean when they say
the tubes are not worth what they
cost.
chase and operation of the tubes, as
provided for in the pending bill, would
cost New York alone about 100000 a
year; but if the tubes were abandoned
it would require only twenty trucks
to handle all the mail as rapidly as it
now is being handled, and the cost Of
these twenty trucks would be $1,000
a year.
Big Saving in New York
The saving in favor of the trucks,
therefore, would be $4,000 year in
New York alone, without any impair
ment of service. SO say the postoffice
authorities. They are not very patient
with the argument that the tubes ought
to be retained in order not to add to
the traffic congestion in the streets.
Their answer to this is that to retain
the tubes would take no motor traffic
off the streets, and that to abandon the
tubes, for saving of $34O,OGO a year
in New York, would add only twenty
trucks to the number of 243 already
in use, making total of 263 in city
where the number of motor vehicles in
use is 100000. The total number of
postal trucks is relatively insignificant,
and the number to be added would be
infinitesimal
This contention as to the effect upon
street traffic is touched by Representa-
tive Rouse in his minority report. A
PHILADELPHIA witness, testifying warm
ly for the tubes, protested at the
thought of adding twenty three trucks
to the postal service in that city, but
afterward it developed he was in the
automobile business and in one season
had sold 1928 cars for use in the
streets of Philadelphia.