The wide credence which has been given to the statement that the
Government is paying to the railroads an annual rent for postal cars
equal to the cost of building them is remarkable.
The Government does not pay a rental for any car. The idea is an
erroneous one, and is based upon ignorance regarding the payment of
what is called "Post Office Car Pay."
Originally, the mail business on railroads was the transportation of
mail bags, and was essentially a freight traffic. But its character
has entirely changed.
The business now consists almost wholly in providing moving post
offices, expensive to build and expensive to operate, in which the
average weight for which pay is received is about two tons in full
postal cars and six hundred pounds in apartment cars.
The Post Office Department weighed all the mails carried in all postal
cars and apartment cars in the country during October, 1907, and the
average weight of mail on the Burlington road loaded in a forty-foot
postal car was found to be less than 2,000 pounds; in fifty-foot cars
it was 2,500 pounds; and in sixty-foot cars it averaged less than
4,500 pounds; in apartment cars it was 607 pounds.
The average load carried in an ordinary freight car on the Burlington
road is from 36,000 to 40,000 pounds. Railroads, as a rule, haul a ton
of paying or productive freight for every ton of dead or unproductive
load. In the Government mail business they carry nineteen tons of dead
weight for each ton of paying weight.
These cars are fitted up as post offices and are used for distribution
en route in order to expedite and facilitate the prompt transmission
and delivery of mails. They largely take the place of very expensive
distribution offices in cities.
The railroads provide cars for freight traffic, but refused to build,
and maintain, and haul these moving post offices with their clerks and
paraphernalia, without pay. That is the post office car pay of which
so much is said.
The truth regarding this feature of the subject is clearly stated in
the following recent letter from the Postmaster-General:
(_Congressional Record_, March 5, 1910, 61st Congress, Second Session,
Vol. 45, No. 61, Page 2852.)
LETTER OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL RELATIVE TO THE COST OF
FURNISHING AND OPERATING RAILWAY POST OFFICE CARS.
"OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 2, 1910.
"Hon. JOHN W. WEEKS,
_Chairman Committee on Post Offices and
Post Roads, House of Representatives_.
"MY DEAR SIR: In response to your inquiry made of the Second
Assistant Postmaster-General in regard to the cost of
maintaining and operating railway post office cars and its
relation to the compensation received by railroad companies for
the same and your reference to the speech delivered by Senator
Vilas on the subject in the United States Senate, February 13,
1895, I have the honor to advise you as follows:
"The Department has not at this time sufficient information upon
this point to give from its own records a reliable estimate. As
you are aware, we have recently asked railroad companies to
submit answers to inquiries with reference to the cost of
operating the mail service, and it is believed that when these
shall have been received we will be in a position to furnish
such information. Inasmuch, however, as it may be of importance
to you to have estimates made from time to time by others and
such incomplete information as we have at present, I submit the
following:
"The cost of operating a railway post office car has been
variously estimated (but not officially by the Department) as
from 15 to 30 cents a car mile. The average run per day of such
a car is about 300 miles. Estimating the cost at 18 cents a car
mile, the total cost of operating such car for one year would
be $19,710.
"The specific items which constitute this total cost are not
definitely known to the Department. However, as to the cost of
lighting, cleaning, repairs, etc., the General Superintendent of
Railway Mail Service furnished the following estimates before
the Commission to investigate the postal service in 1899, viz.:
Lighting, $276; heating, $365; cleaning, water, ice, oil, etc.,
$365; repairs, $350; proportion of original cost of car
(estimating the life of a car at fifteen years and the original
cost at $6,000), $400; total, $1,756. Recent inquiry gives the
following as the approximate cost of maintaining a car at the
present time: Lighting (electric), $444; heating, $150;
cleaning, $360; repairs, $300; oil and brasses, $120; interest
on cost of car (at $7,500), $300; annual deterioration
(estimating the life of a car at twenty years), $375; total,
$2,049. These figures give the cost of a car built according to
the Department's standard specifications. The cost of modern
steel cars being built by some of the railroad companies is from
$14,000 to $15,000.
"The compensation received by a railroad company for operating a
car and carrying the mails in it would be approximately as
follows:
"The pay for a 60-foot car at $40 a track mile per annum, for a
track mileage of 150 miles, would be $6,000. The average load of
a 60-foot car, according to statistics obtained recently, is
2.83 tons. The rate per ton of an average daily weight of 50,000
pounds carried over the route is $25.06. At this rate the
company would receive $10,637.97 per annum for the average load
of mail hauled in the car. This sum added to the specific rate
for the railway post office car ($6,000), makes the total pay
for the car and its average load $16,637.97 per annum.
"Senator Vilas' argument was based upon the theory that the
rates fixed for railroad transportation alone, based on the
weights of the mails carried, are adequate compensation for all
services rendered, including the operation of railway post
office cars, and that, therefore, the railroad companies would
be required to operate postal cars owned by the Post Office
Department for the compensation allowed by law for the weight of
mails alone, including apartment-car space and facilities. Such
theory is not justified by the facts, as will appear from the
following:
"A careful perusal of the debates in both Houses of Congress
which led to the enactment of the present law fixing the rate of
pay for railroad transportation of the mails and for railway
post office cars clearly indicates that the additional
compensation for railway post office cars was intended to cover
the additional expense imposed upon the railroad companies for
building, maintaining, and hauling such cars. The companies at
that time insisted that these cars, which were practically
traveling post offices, did not carry a remunerative load, and
that therefore the amount of pay, based on weight, did not
compensate them for their operation. This led to the specific
appropriation for railway post office cars. In this connection
it should be borne in mind that the purpose of the railway post
office car is to furnish ample space and facilities for the
handling and distribution of mails en route. Therefore, the
space required is much greater than would be required for merely
hauling the same weight of mails.
"In regard to any proposal for Government ownership of postal
cars, other facts as well as the above should be given
consideration. Such cars must be overhauled, cleaned, and
inspected daily. It would be necessary to either arrange with
the railway companies for this service or for the Department to
employ its own inspectors, repair men, and car cleaners at a
large number of places throughout the country, which would
probably be more expensive than the cost to the railway
companies in that respect at present. It would hardly be
feasible to establish a Government repair shop. Therefore, the
Department would be compelled to use the shops of the several
railway companies throughout the country. Without the closest
supervision and attention of the Government's inspectors it
could scarcely be expected that our cars would receive the same
consideration in railroad shops as those owned by the railway
companies. These shops are frequently congested, and it is
probable that the railroad work would be given the preference.
"Yours very truly,
"FRANK H. HITCHCOCK,
"_Postmaster-General_."
The Wolcott Commission carefully investigated the whole subject of
Postal Car Pay and their conclusions regarding this form of
compensation and its reasonableness are set forth in their report in
the following language:
"Until a comparatively short time prior to 1873 the distribution
of the mails in transitu was unknown. Prior to the late sixties
the railroads simply transported the mails, which were delivered
at the post offices and there distributed. Accordingly, 'weight'
as the basis of compensation was at the time of its adoption and
long thereafter entirely adequate.
"For a few years, however, prior to 1873 the distribution of the
mails in transitu had been practiced to a sufficient extent to
satisfy the Post Office Department and Congress that it was a
desirable innovation and a branch of the postal service that
should be very much enlarged. But it was recognized that if the
railroads were not only to transport the mail itself, but also
to supply, equip, and haul post offices for the distribution of
the mails, the compensation upon weight basis that had obtained
up to that time was not entirely adequate and just, and
therefore the law of 1873, as already indicated, contained a
provision allowing additional compensation for railway post
office cars. At first these cars were mostly not exceeding 40 or
45 feet in length and of light construction, similar to baggage
and express cars.
"From the policy of the Department, however, of constantly
demanding better and better facilities from the railroads and
the introduction of every improvement that could be discovered,
it has come to pass that, today, the railroad post office cars,
with the exception of a few obsolete ones that are being
discontinued as rapidly as practicable, are elaborate
structures, weighing between 90,000 and 100,000 pounds; built as
strongly and fitted up, so far as suitable to the purpose for
which it is intended, as expensively as the best Pullman and
parlor cars; costing from $5,200 to $6,500; maintained at a cost
of $2,000 per year; traveling on an average of 100,000 miles per
annum; provided with the very best appliances for light, heat,
water, and other comforts and conveniences; placed in position
for the use of the postal authorities from two and a half to
seven hours before the departure of the train upon which they
are to be hauled, and owing to the small space allowed in them
for the actual transportation of the mails, accompanied on the
denser lines by storage cars for which no additional
compensation is paid by the Government and on the less dense
lines the larger bulk of mails is carried in the baggage cars
without additional compensation for the car.
"These cars are constructed and fitted up by the railroads in
accordance with plans and specifications furnished by the
Department, and the amount of mail transported therein is
determined exclusively by the postal authorities. From these two
facts it results that the railroad must haul 100,000 pounds of
car when the weight of the mail actually carried therein is only
from 3,500 to 5,000 pounds--often very much less, and
occasionally somewhat more.
"Taking in view all these facts, as disclosed by the testimony
filed herewith, we are of opinion that the 'prices paid * * * as
compensation for the postal-car service' are not excessive, and
recommend that no reduction be made therein so long as the
methods, conditions, and requirements of the postal service
continue the same as at present."