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Show THE COST OF SECOND CLASS. Tho railroads, it appcarsf have had a committee at work looking into the matter of pay for second class mail mat-tor. mat-tor. Tho President put the cost of tho transportation of 1 his matter at "more than 0 cents a pound." And he suggested that "Congress may well consider con-sider whether radical steps should not bo taken to reduce tho deficit, iu the Post-Office Department caused by this discrepancy between tho actual oost of transportation and the compensation exacted ex-acted therefor. ' ' This committee of railroad mon is headed by Mr. .T. Kruttschuitt of the llarriman roads; and tho other members mem-bers arc Lucius Tuttle. president of the Boston & Maine; Ralph Peters, president presi-dent and goneral manager of tho Long Islnnd; C. A. Wickersham, president and general manager of tho A. & V. P. and W. Ry, of Alabama, and "V. W. Baldwin, vice president of tho C, B. & Q, R. R. These men, being thoroughly familiar with tho transportation .business, .busi-ness, whether of mails or anything else, havo made a report on this question of tho cost of transporting second-class postal matter, which lliey arc sending to tho country. They know exactly what thoy get for this mail transportation which they do, and their report clarifies clari-fies tho problom complotoly. First, they show that tho Postmaster Goneral 's report discloses the fact that the President's figures arc wrong; for ho says: "The cost to the Government, Govern-ment, for its handling and transportation transporta-tion averages 0.25 cents a pound." That is on all the mail. This is made more emphatic in anothor part of his report whore he says that this figuro includes "transportation, handling, administration, administra-tion, and all items in connection with tho operation of the postal establishment." establish-ment." Even, it appears, the rural mail delivery, which shows for itself aloue, a deficit of $2S,000,000. Next, this railway committee goes into an exhaustive analysis of tho details de-tails of this transportation service, showing a comparison between mail rates and express rates, as well as tho items of pay to the railroads by tho Post-Office Department under different differ-ent accounts, and concludes: "Therefore, "There-fore, the railroads receive lor the transportation trans-portation of second-class mail and oquipmeuts used by tho Department to contain it, NOT over 9 cents a pound, but 1.65 cents a pound, and lS-lOOths of a cent per pound for hauling for an average distauco of 010 miles in passenger passen-ger trains, a post-office on wheels which is of no service to the railroads whatever in performing contract to transport the mails." This commit.iee represents 139 railroads, rail-roads, operating 192.S0S miles of road, and has taken the method indicated, of investigating the actual conditions in detail, and presenting the ascertained and assured facts to the public. Tho report is an illuminating ono, and incidentally in-cidentally it exposes tho shocking stale of the Post-Office Department as to iis bookkeeping and tho out-of-date, ineffective inef-fective apd incomploto methods it employs, em-ploys, Truly, as has been proclaimed from "Washington, what the Post-Office Department most needs is a thorough reorganization on modoru business lines. As it is, it seems incapable of furnishing furnish-ing needed information of the most pressing character, out on the contrary, its allegations in this matter of the most urgent public interest, arc completely com-pletely misleading, and so untrustworthy as to be easih refuted, subject to successful suc-cessful attack from many sides and sources. |