Show OUR PUBLIC FORUM ralph peters on railway hallway mall mail pay A controversy has been ragi rigAn the columns ot of the press between the railroads and the federal post office department over the question ot of proper compensation mr ralph peters for or handling the united states malls asked chairman of 0 the railway adall committee when to state the railroad side ot of the controversy to the american farmer said in part the railway mall mail pay question will be settled and settled permanently and with justice to all concerned the american people e realize that the whole as soon as subject while seemingly complicated and technical bolls boils down to a few simple points of 0 fair business dealing which which no one need be a rate expert to understand the first is that the post office department weighs the malls mails and readjusts the pay ot of tho the railroads only once in tour four years tills this compels the railroads to carry the increase in the mall mail tonnage during the intervening manifestly an injustice in the case ot of a rapidly growing without pay years business one consequence has been that last year the tha railroads carriel carried fully halt half the parcel post lor for nothing A second point la Is this in addition to carrying the malls tho the railroads traveling post offices tor for sorting and are ara required to operate many distributing tile the malls while in transit but the post domce department pays tor for such post offices only where they occupy whole cars and pays nothing in the many cases casca in which it merely requires the use ot of post apartments differ from the full in combination cars although such apartments railway post office cars only in size more afore than apartments ot of this character have been fitted up and are maintained tor for the exclusive Us use ot of tho the post office department failure 14 to pay for them has been an especial which the department does not find it hardship to the smaller roads on necessary to utilize whole cars one last point in thousands of instances though rot not in all the post office department requires the railroads to carry the malls back and forth between railroad st stations a tiong and po post S t offices but pays them nothing tor for this extra service beyond the rates covering the rail transportation the rail loads have no choice but to perform this additional service gratis gratia or refuse to carry tha cis malls at all now tor for the remedies the ask ash they do not ask to have the malls mails weighed dally daily or to have each shipment weighed and paid tor for separately ara tely as Is done in the caso case of 0 private shippers they merely ask to have the malls mails weighed and the pay of the railroads adjusted at least once a year instead of 0 once in four years they also ask that apartment post office cars be paid for at reasonable rate rateb ae according cording to size lastly they ask that the postoffice Post Office department cease to require of them trea free messenger service between stations and post and either relieve thera them ot of this service or pay fairly for it these are the reforms the railroads ask ot of congress they gladly lay these reforms before the public confident that they will appeal to the common sense and fairness of amerian ameri pan an voters |