OCR Text |
Show CARRYING OF U. S. MAIL New York. July 31. That the present pres-ent plan ol paying the railways for carrying the mall results in great in-Justlce in-Justlce to the railroads is set forth today to-day In a statement Issued by the rail -, roads as part of their plan of appeal -lng to the public lor support. Railroads are now paid by two .methods of measurement: 1. Accordinc to the weight hauled each mile; and 2. For each mile a postal car is j used for sorting mails enroute. The railroads claim, however, that the nation does not pay for the entire , weight carried or all the car space utilized for sorting In detail: 1. Weight Ninety per cent of all the money paid to the railroads is for i he weight of mall carried The law stipulates that the mall shall be I weighed for a typical period at least I once every four years and that payment pay-ment shall be made during the entire period according to the average "'-Ills then actually ascertained. In practice, the postoffice department has construed this law to mean that the mails shall be weighed not often -er than every four years. The result re-sult Is that though there is a con-i stantly Increasing weight of mail, the! railroads receive no payment what-l over for the Increase until the next quadrennial weighing period when a basis is arrived at which shall gov ern me payments to be made for the succeeding four years An Illustration of the injustice ol I 'his quadrennial weighing system is in the fact that just sfter the weigh- mg of the mails in Ohio in Ci"7. he prlntiug of Stamped em-elopes and I newspaper wrappers was changed from New England to Dayton. Ohio, so that many railroads have been required re-quired to handle this traffic fur four years without compensation, while other roads have been receiving r,r the 6ame period com pi nsation for services not performed. This prlncl-I prlncl-I Pie Is at present working great hardship hard-ship to many railroads. The parcels Posj started Jauu.m l, 1913, and Immediately Im-mediately there was H greal increase oi mail and a reducilon n matter for which the railroad: h ul neen previously paid Congrei bs allowed a 5 per cent increase in pjv to compensate for the parcels post nut i ho records alrca.lv indicate that '"" Government s postal rewmi. increase this year irom -ii to :: p.-r cen on account of the parcels post ihe government makes no addition-' addition-' Payment for speed or for frequency of service. 1 here is no greater pay atcordo, th0 ra,roa,Js ur iarr,,c ni a He at a speed of sixty miles per i-our than for fifteen miles per hour, mere is no gTeater pav lor 100 trip? aaj than for one trip a 1j. The aggregate weight of mail carried, and therefore the pay. iB ibe sulue. what ever the speed or whatever the frequency fre-quency with which It is carried. The railroads maintain, therefor?, that while weight is the propei measure meas-ure of pay. it should be ascertained every year and paid for accordingly, 2. Railway Postal Car Service. To facilitate the distribution or mail on- .route, the railways have provided J3S j traveling postal cars. The mlleagi made by full railway postoffice cars I of all sizes In the performance of service ser-vice during the fiscal year 101:' w;(n 126.79S.405. Passenger cars on American railroads the same year yielded revenue of about 25 cents for each mile run. If the railway postal cars had yielded as much per mile, it would have amounted to a total or j $21.Ci9,fi01. |