RAILWAY MAIL PAY PRIMER Issued by Committee on Railway Mail Pay. REPRESENTING 139 RAILROADS WITH 192,808 MILES OF ROAD. What is the measure of service rendered by the railroads in handling United States mail? 492,960,059 ton miles new basis (old basis 532,096,419 ton miles), year ending June 30, 1909. The mail alone? Yes. The mail and bags. How much did United States pay the railroads? $49,737,519, out of which they have to meet many expenses imposed on them by regulation and law. Does United States furnish any facilities? Only the clerks on the cars. What do they do? Postoffice work. What's that? Same as in postoffices. Postal cars are postoffices on wheels. Does United States pay clerks' fares? No. How much does their travel foot up? In 1908, the equal of one man riding 629,778,443 miles. At 2 cents per mile that would be how much? $12,595,568.66. These men must weigh something? At 160 pounds average, their haul would be equal to 50,382,275 tons one mile. Does United States require the railroads to furnish anything else free of charge? Yes. Office facilities at railroad junctions and terminals; delivery of mail to postoffices which are within a quarter of a mile of station; and free annual passes for about 600 postal officials on all railways carrying mail. What revenue does the United States receive per pound for mail? An average of about 12.88 cents per pound tendered by the public. What does United States pay the railways? About 3 cents per pound for every pound of matter tendered the railroad. That is, out of every dollar received the Government pays the railroads 20 cents? Yes. Does the rural free delivery cost much as yet? United States spent 72 cents for rural free delivery in the limited territory thus served, for every $1 paid the railroads for their entire hauling in the year 1909. How is the service rendered by the railroads ascertained? Weighing every parcel carried for a year? Oh, no! Weighing for 105 consecutive days only once every four years and finding the average for one day over the whole length of route. Is this the weight United States pays for during the entire four years following a weighing? Yes. Why only every four years? A law requires weighing not less often than once in four years. Then weighing oftener is not prohibited? No. Would the railways prefer weighing, say, once a year? Yes. Mail increases regularly with growth of country. Each four years means a large increase in weight, and as the pay is based on the smallest weight carried at the beginning of the period, the increases each year are carried with no pay whatever. Why are yearly weighings not made? The postoffice officials interpret the law to mean they don't have to, and they don't do it, as it is not to their interest. Is that fair to the railways? It is not, as they are deprived of amounts to about 10 per cent of the total revenue received for mail transportation. During last ten years the weight increased 80 per cent, an average of 32 per cent each four years. Has the pay increased 80 per cent? No. Only about 40 per cent. Why? Because of acts of Congress and orders of postmaster general arbitrarily cutting rates of pay; automatic reductions of rates prescribed by law with increased tonnage. Can you name some? Yes. March 2, 1907, United States reduced the pound rate 32 per cent and the rental rates of post cars 16 per cent. Total $2,676,468 per year. Was this because it cost the railways less to do the work? No. It cost the railways more. What other acts? June 26, 1907, it decreed empty mail bags shall be returned, and certain supplies forwarded by freight or express. Formerly they were handled with and as part of the mail. The estimated loss to the railroads by this change is $1,000,000 a year. Does this withdrawal return space in cars of value to the railroads, that they can sell to other patrons? No. What "orders" can you name? June 7, 1907, changing methods of computing weights. What does that mean in money? About $4,500,000 per year loss to the railways. Any other recent one? Yes. Requires railways to furnish postoffice cars to run one way, and refuses to pay for hauling them back, though the cars. are of no use whatever to the railways, being fitted up as postoffices and unfit for baggage or express. Where is such a service in effect? Omaha to Ogden line requires six postal cars to do the business. Each car weighs over 100,000 pounds and costs about $9,000. The railway buys the cars, supplies light, heat and maintenance. How much does the United States pay the railway for the use of these traveling postoffices in such cases as just referred to? The equivalent of one passenger fare per round trip. Can you explain it in figures? Yes. The United States pays 5.5 cents per mile for the going trip, with two to six passengers in it-nothing for return trip, which is the equal of 2.75 cents for the whole distance the car travels. Why do you call the clerks passengers, and think the Government should pay for their carriage? Because the Government demands of the railroads the same care and responsibilities as accorded passengers. The men are furnished heat and ice water and in case of accident the railroads are liable to the same extent as to passengers. Is it possible you mean that the railroads get 5.5 cents for hauling a full car and in addition are obliged to furnish the postoffice department with free tickets for say four men worth 2.5 cents a mile each at tariff rate? That is just what I mean. The railroads haul the car free, and pay 4.5 cents a mile for the privilege in such a case. Why on earth do the railroads do this? Perhaps they have never stopped to think how very foolish such a practice is. Maybe this will start them thinking. How much do railways receive per mile for hauling empty cars? Diners, parlor and sleeping cars on their own wheels 12 to 20 cents per mile. Passenger coaches 10 to 18 cents; baggage and express cars 8 to 15 cents; freight cars 6 to 10 cents per mile. Then the railways receive on the average, for hauling various classes of cars on freight trains, from three to eight times as much as United States pays on these one-way runs for postoffice cars on passenger trains? Correct. Are postoffice cars any real value or service to railways? They are not, as their design is fixed by the department, and being postoffices, are unfit to carry ordinary freight or baggage. How much mail does each of these cars carry? About what would take up one-eighth of an ordinary baggage car, or two tons. How much more can one of these cars carry? About 15 tons, if stripped of postoffice fittings. What do express companies pay railways for their privileges? 50 to 55 per cent of their gross receipts. Do express companies assume all responsibility to its patrons? Yes. Do express companies get any extra facilities, such as enjoyed by the postoffice, free? No. On the contrary they contribute toward salaries of station men and train baggage men; release the railways from claims for personal injuries to employes, handle free to the railways, remittances and railway express packages. The number of express employes carried on trains is much less than on post office cars. Do express companies make money on the 45 to 50 per cent which is all they get out of their receipts? They do. It is stated above that United States pays only 20 per cent of gross receipts for railway transportation of mails, and yet the department is operated at a loss? That's what the report of postmaster general shows. What is the difference in the method of charging by the express companies and the postoffice department? The former charges according to distance; the latter as you know carries letters or other mail matter under postage without regard to distance. How does the dead weight of cars carrying United States mail compare with the weight of the mail hauled? 21.7 tons dead weight, to one ton of mail. How is it with passengers? About the same. And freight? 1.1 tons of dead weight to one ton of freight hauled. Does United States pay rent for postoffice facilities, in cars used partly for baggage or express? No. United States pays only when United States has the entire car, and as it then pays less than the fare of the clerks in it, and if empty only one-third to one-eighth of what the railroads secure from the public for haul alone, it is hard to find the rent. Who decides when cars shall be exclusively postoffice? United States. Who specifies the construction of postoffice cars? United States. Who pays for them? The railways. Do cars now specified by United States cost more than a few years ago? Standard steel, weighing 108,000 pounds, cost about 60 per cent more. |