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Show I'lacervllle. 59.9 miles long, over which jt transports an average of 1,312 pounds of mail a day at nn average speed of 14.24 miles an hour. The railroad provides for this service an apartment 8x9 foot for six round trip a week and 11x9 feet seven round I rip a week the railroad is paid $5,428 73. There If, of cotrrso, no railway mall postollice on that route, i The Southern Pacific Is also pahl $ro5.75 per annum for carrying malt ! of an average dally weight of 183 j pounds, thirteen miles between Sul-I Sul-I tun City and Napa Junction Its man , trains were shown at the last welgh- ing four years ago to travel an hour, j making fourteen round trips a week. I This is a cloned pouch service which I does not call for any allotment a3 I to "apartments." The Southern Pacific Is now receiving receiv-ing $6,070.62 a year from toe govern-I govern-I ment for carrying mails over the Oro- vllle-Woodland route 63.95 miles long i The average dally weight of mail ihere Is 1.410 pounds, the average tpeed 31.54 miles an hour, tire average trips a week fourteen The service class for an apartment 21x9 feet seven times a week. The Yreka Railroad company re- ! celvea $595 14 a year for carrying an average or 771 pounds of mall a day j fourteen round trips a week at a ! speed of 18.72 miles an hour, over lt3 line from Yreka to Montague, 4.71 miles. The Iake Talmc Railway and Transportation company, under a special agreement carries mall in summer six round trips a week be. I ween Truckee and Tahoe, 15 "3 miles, for $642. nR a ji-nr. These figures might be continued (or many other railway postal routes in California and Nevada. They represent rep-resent the rate fur the last four years, but probably wll be Increased somewhat some-what for the next four years. It all depends upon weighing and presumably presum-ably the weight of malls carried on ' most of those roads is every whit as I great as It was four year6 ago. WEIGHING OF MAIL BEGINS By Ernst G. "Walker.) Washington. D. C. Jan. 2C Within a few weeks the poPtofftce department depart-ment will begin the weighing of malls fur the Western division or the country, coun-try, which Include? California, Ne-tfcda, Ne-tfcda, and all the states up and down ' the map, beyoud the Rocky Mountains. Mount-ains. There have been long standing against the rates paid for trie transportation trans-portation of malls to the railroads, and especially against the prices paid for railway mall posi office cars. Representative John W. Weeks, chairman of the potofllee bouse committee, com-mittee, said today that a more or lesn cursory examination of the subject convinced the government was paying pay-ing some of the big roaGs too much lor hauling mail, ami. In some cases, was paying the little roads less than it ought to pay. He added that congress was unable to take tho subject up at this session he department has written to the rail-roodR rail-roodR all over the the country for specific Information about too cost of particular kinds of transportation service. ser-vice. Congress will not undertake ro consider the subject rill these replies are all In. Some replies have already come to tbs department but It will be seTeral weeks, if not several rnonthB, beforw the record can bo made up and the returns analyzed. Weighing the Malls. Meanwhile the weighing or mails on the Western roads will proceed, ana" on the result of these welgblngs the contracts for a four- year period will - be let The contracts wUl dare from Judy 1st next and will be baaed upon a regular rate, as provided In tho current cur-rent laws. There Is a somewhat complicated com-plicated schedule of rates, based largely upon acts of congress approved July 17, 1S7S. A reduction In the rate Is made in contratcts carrying an average weight of 200 pounds a day over the whole length or a roure the pay to a railroad is $41 75 per mile per annum, but, the pay to is 34 90 per annum. The schedule runs up to S.oou pounds of average weight of malls per day, when the pay Is $171 per mile per annum, or $136 80 for land grant roau3. On Lookout For Fraud. The quadrennial weighing, of course. Is for the purpose xi ascertaining tho average weight of malls per day. In these tiroes precautions are taken to prevent the old methods of rrauctu lently loading down the tnai;s b sending send-ing large quantities of books and heavy material through under congressional congres-sional franks and by other means. The weighing extends over quite a period, generally about three months. A6 the weight increases over 5.000 average av-erage dally, there Is a sliding scale of prices up to 48.000 pounds dally. Then there is a special sliding scaie ror average av-erage dally weights above tiiat These rates are independent of tho prices paid for railway jiostal cars, whereon there are distributing offi-cies.. offi-cies.. When the space allotted In a car Is less than forty feet of its length it is an apartment, and no extra pay Is allowed. But for more than forty feet of a car, which means a railway postofTice. there Is a graded rate of pay. A law, approved Judy 1, 1907, provides that "for every line comprising compris-ing a dally trip each way of railway or railway postollice cars" the pay "shall be at a rate not exceeding $23 per mile per annum for cars rorty feet Jn length, and $27.50 per mile per annum for forty-flve-foot cars, and 32 50 per mile per annum for fifty-foot cars, and $40 per mtlc per annum for cars fifty-live feet or more In length. The "per mile " means per mile of the route aud not the number of aggregate miles traveled trav-eled by the car. It is the pchedule of pay against which there has been much outcry iu well-informed quarters. quart-ers. The longest railway postal route in California u)xm which the quan-drennlal quan-drennlal weighing will soon be con-dusted con-dusted is that orr the Southern Pacific, Pa-cific, from the Ferry- station In San Francisco to Ogden. Utah. Only a portion of that route, of course, I through northern California, but it is the big railway postal route a total length of 787.3) miles, carrying an average av-erage of 99,110 rounds of mall a day at an average speed of 25.33 miles an hour, the government Is paying the Southern Pacific $926,234.46 a year. This includes a great numDer of local as well 36 express trains, some with a closed pouch service only, and without with-out any railway postal cars The railway postofflco pay allowed I he Southern Pacific on this San Fran-clsco-Ogden route now amounts to $122,579 T.O pr annum, being $230 per mile for 27.67 miles. $l!n a mile for 75.S6 miles and $150ta mile for 678 fiS miles. The railway postollice car service ser-vice authorized on tho rontA Includes two lnes daily of sixty-foot postal enr and two lines of fifty foot cars. There are many varieties in the amount of postal car cervlce on this route at various points, differences In the number num-ber of round trips a week and deferences defer-ences in the number of trips out ana the number of trips in. Another Southern Pacific route is over the line from Rosevllle. Cal . to Ashland, Ore,. 323 24 miles, carrying an average of 15,513 pounds of mail a day, according to the weighing of lour years ago, at an average rate of speed of 1S.6C miles an hour The an-rural an-rural rate of pay to the Southern Pacific Pa-cific on that route is $91,505 22. ot which $12,900 is for railway mall post-office post-office cars at the rate of $4u per mile per annum for 322.61 miles. This ter-lce ter-lce comprises an average of 14 26 trips per week and the pay per mile per annum, $1,176.48. The California Northwestern Railroad Rail-road company has a mall route from San Francleco Ferry to Sherwood, an average weight ot 3,624 pounds or mall a day at an average spoed of 14.84 trips a week. Tho annual pay for that j service is $22,970.38. or $15134 per annum. There arc no railway postor- I flees on that route, but there are apart-! mcnts for the storage of mall, these apartments being of prescribed dimensions. dimen-sions. The Very Shortest Haul. Tbo figures for somo of the shorter railway mail routes In NV.rtnern Call- fomla ,as per present four year contracts, con-tracts, soon to expire, afford some op portunltv for comparison. The California Cali-fornia Northwestern Railway tras a mall route 6.16 miles long from Po- j taleum to Lakevllle over which It maintains a closed pouch service six trips every week, carrying an average aver-age of thirty pounds of mall at eighteen eigh-teen miles an hour. The rate paid for this service is $2C3.34 a year or $43.73 route on Its line from Sacramento to per mile per annum. The S. P. has a mall route to |