Show OU PUBLIC FORUM ralph peters 1 jt on railway mail M ail pay thel A controversy has been ra raging ing in the columns of the press dress between thu railroads ra and the federal post office department over tho the question of cioper compensation c for handling the united states mails mr ralph peters Chai Chah iman maii of the railway mail committee when asked to state the railroad side ot of the controversy to the american farmer said in part the railway mail pay question will bo settled and so settled led permanently and with justi justice cc to all concerned realize that tho the whole as soon oon as the american people subject t while seemingly complicated and technical boils down to a few simple points of fair business dealing which no one need bo be a rate expert to understand tho the first is that the post office department weighs the malls mails and readjusts the pay of tho the railroads only once in four years this compels the railroads to carry tho the increase in the mall tonnage during the intervening years without pay manifestly an injustice in tho the case of a rapidly growing business one consequence has been that last year the railroads carried fully halt half the parcel post tor for nothing I 1 A second point is this in addition to carrying tho the mails tho the railroads are required to operate many traveling post offices for sorting and distributing the malls mails while in transit but the post office department pays for such post offices only where they occupy whole cars and pays nothing in the many cases in which it merely requires the use of post office apartments in combination cars although such apartments differ from the full railway post office cars only in size wore more than apartments of this character have been fitted up and are maintained tor for the exclusive use of the post office department failure to pay for them has been an especial hardship to the smaller roads on which the department does not find it necessary to utilize whole cars one last point in thousands of instances though not in all the post office department requires the railroads to carry the mails back and forth between railroad stations and post offices but pays them nothing for this extra service beyond the rates covering the rail transportation the rail loads have no choice but to perform this additional service gratis or refuse to carry the malls mails at all now for the remedies the railroads ask they do not ask to have the malls mails weighed dally daily or to have each shipment weighed and paid for to separately ara aracely ara tely as is done in the case of private shippers they merely E ask s k to have the mails weighed and the pay of the railroads adjusted at least owes once a year instead of once in four years they also ask that apartment pout poet office cars cara be paid tor for at reasonable rates according to size lastly they ask that the post office department cease to require of them free messenger service between stations and post offices and either cither relieve them of this service or pay fairly for it these are the reforms the railroads ask of congress they gladly lay these reforms before the public confident that they will appeal to the common sense and fairness of american voters |