HE 
 
 DOCUMENTS 
 DEPT. 
 
 B 3 M5D q?D 
 
L 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 J 
 
RAILWAY MAIL PAY 
 
 AN OUTLINE OF 
 
 
 The Post Office Departments Position 
 
 'T'HIS BOOKLET is issued by the Post Office Department in response 
 
 to many requests from individuals, business men, publications, 
 
 boards of trade, and Members of Congress for the facts relating to the 
 
 proposed change in the method of adjusting Railway Mail Pay. 
 
 YT tells what the Railway Mail Transportation Service is, what the pro- 
 posed law seeks to accomplish, and it shows — 
 
 WHY the space basis is preferable to the weight basis 
 of computing pay — 
 
 WHY public interest demands a prompt settlement of 
 the question — 
 
 WHY the new rates of pay proposed by the Post Office 
 Department are just and reasonable — 
 
 AND it answers some of the many erroneous statements that have been 
 circulated about this question. 
 
 POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 
 WASHINGTON: 1916 
 
THE WEIGHT BASIS <f 
 
 An Antiquated, Complex, Unbusiness- 
 like, Inequitable System 
 
 THE law now governing railway mail pay provides for pay on 
 the basis of the average daily weights of mails carried over 
 authorized routes. It dates back to 1873. 
 Maximum rates of pay are prescribed in the law. These are 
 applicable to the average daily weights carried upon authorized 
 mail routes ascertained by weighings held once every four years. 
 On each route the mails are weighed for a period of 105 successive 
 days. The rates are arranged on a sliding scale, whereby, as the 
 weights increase, the rates decrease. 
 
 The country is divided into four contract sections and the mails 
 weighed successively in each section. That is to say, while a 
 weighing occurs once in every four years on each particular route 
 and in each contract section, a weighing occurs in one section 
 each year. The average annual cost to the Department for weigh- 
 ing the mails is $250,000. 
 
 In addition to the pay for weights the present law au- 
 thorizes additional pay for railway post-office cars, 40 
 feet and more in length, at specified rates. This constitutes 
 partial recognition of the space principle as a proper factor in 
 making mail transportation rates. 
 
 The plan of 1873 has never been changed, although the rates 
 were somewhat reduced by Congress in 1876, 1878 and 1907. 
 
 The weighings are costly and annoying, ?nd interfere 
 seriously with the operation of the service in the field. 
 Compensation thus determined is not fairly distributed 
 according to service rendered. The system lacks the 
 elasticity to meet cha nging con ditions and fluctuations of 
 traffic, that, w ith th e growth of the parcel post, have been 
 frequent and far-reaching . 
 
 Computation of pay under the old law with its several 
 amendments is a complex process, little understood, and 
 productive of endless and vexatious disputes. 
 
 The whole plan is unscientific, inequitable in results, 
 and needlessly complex. 
 
 (2) 
 
THE SPACE BASIS 
 
 A Simple, Practical, Accurate, Just 
 
 Method 
 
 AS far back as 1876 so much dissatisfaction with the 
 weight system of determining railway mail pay ex- 
 isted that Congress provided for a commission, to be 
 appointed by the President, to investigate the subject. A 
 succession of inquiries by Congressional commissions, by ap- 
 pointive commissions, and by the Post Office Department 
 have followed. 
 
 Practically every such investigation, including that 
 made by the Joint Committee of Congress which 
 reported in 1914, resulted in the conclusion that the pres- 
 ent system is inadequate, complex, cumbersome, and un- 
 businesslike, and in recommendations for the substi- 
 tution either in whole or in part of the space basis 
 for the weight basis. 
 
 Hauling a Car One Mile 
 Made " Unit of Service." 
 
 The space method now proposed by the Post Office De- 
 partment adopts the " car-mile unit of service" as the basis 
 upon which to make authorizations of and payments for the 
 major part of the railroad mail service. This would mean 
 rates of pay — which have been ascertained after thorough 
 inquiry to be fair rates — for hauling standard full railway 
 post-office, apartment, and storage mail cars one mile. 
 
 The new plan contemplates additional compensation in 
 the form of terminal allowances for services not covered by 
 the space payment, representing charges for loading mails, 
 and for heating, lighting, cleaning, and switching mail cars 
 at the terminals of car runs and provides for the retention 
 of the weight basis for "closed-pouch service." The latter 
 comprises a very small per cent of the mail traffic and re- 
 quires so little space in trains and fluctuates in quantity to 
 such an extent that the space system could not be easily 
 adapted to it. By far, the bulk of mail pay would be deter- 
 mined by the space-and-distance gauge. 
 
 (3) 
 
 345840 
 
Differing Rates for 
 Various Typos of Car. 
 
 The standard mail car is 60 feet long, and is usually 9 feet 
 wide and 8£- feet high, inside measurements. Only the 
 length is to figure, however, in determining pay. 
 
 There are two kinds of full mail cars — railway post-office 
 cars and mail-storage cars. 
 
 The former, as the name signifies, are traveling post offices 
 in which the mail is "worked" — that is, opened, distrib- 
 uted, assembled in packages or bags for individual post 
 offices, other railway routes, and for stations and carrier 
 routes in large cities. When an entire car is thus utilized, 
 it is called a "full railway post-office car." 
 
 The storage cars, as the name also implies, are traveling 
 storehouses in which the mail is stored before and after 
 being worked or for through carriage. 
 
 The railway post-office cars are equipped by the railroad 
 companies, and must be heated and lighted while en route 
 at the expense of the railroads. These expenses do not 
 apply in the same degree to storage cars, which require only 
 light and heat in a limited degree and provision for making 
 stall separations. Hence, for R. P. O. car service, as it is 
 called, a somewhat higher rate of pay should be allowed 
 than for storage-car service. This is amply provided for in 
 the scale of rates proposed. 
 
 Apartment Cars Get 
 Proportionate Rates. 
 
 The volume of mail passing over the thousands of railway 
 mail routes varies. On the heavy routes — New York to 
 
 Chicago, New York to St. Louis, etc a number of full cars 
 
 and storage cars are needed each trip. On other routes one 
 full car, with or without a storage car, meets the need. On 
 the majority of routes a half car or a quarter car suffices. To 
 fit this condition a third class of railway mail car service is 
 operated, known as apartment-car service. This requires 
 combination cars, used in part for mail and in part for bag- 
 gage or other railway business. At present these are of 
 various lengths, but the proposed law provides for two stand- 
 ard sizes, viz., 30 feet and 15 feet. 
 
 Under the space system apartment-car service would be 
 paid for at a rate proportionate to the full-car rate ; for a 
 30-foot apartment, one-half the full-car pay ; for a 15-foot 
 apartment, slightly more than one-fourth the full-car rate. 
 
 (4) 
 
Closed-Pouch Service 
 Retains Weight Basis. 
 
 "Closed-pouch" service is the carriage of United States 
 mail pouches locked or sealed containing letter and paper 
 mail, or sacks containing paper mail only, transported over a 
 route without breaking bulk. As performed by the railroads 
 this service consists of the transportation of one, two, three, 
 or more closed mail bags over routes or on trains upon which 
 the mail traffic is not heavy enough to require special ac- 
 commodations for distribution en route. These mails are 
 in the custody of the baggageman, who receives and de- 
 livers them without the intervention of postal employees. 
 
 Manifestly, because of its fluctuating character and the 
 fact that in many cases the mail involved consists of simply 
 a pouch or sack, computation of pay for closed-pouch service 
 on the space basis would be exceedingly difficult; hence the 
 retention of the weight basis for this class of business. It 
 is provided that the weighings of closed-pouch mails and re- 
 adjustment of pay for their carriage shall be made annually 
 instead of quadrennially as at present. The annual weigh- 
 ing, it is estimated, will cost the Post Office Department 
 about $100,000. 
 
 New Plan Failed Last 
 
 Year By a Narrow Margin. 
 
 The desirability of a revision of the laws govern- 
 ing railway mail pay has been recognized by pos- 
 tal administrations for many years, but no definite 
 proposition was presented to Congress until August, 1911, 
 when the Department reported the results of an exhaustive 
 inquiry commenced in 1907, and submitted a tentative plan 
 for revising the laws upon the basis of space, with rates 
 based upon the cost of the service to the companies plus a 
 reasonable rate of profit. 
 
 Subsequent study and further information obtained during 
 the progress of the investigations of the Joint Congressional 
 Committee having demonstrated that the cost basis was im- 
 practicable under present conditions, the Department 
 changed its view and submitted a new plan essentially iden- 
 tical with the proposed law now advocated. 
 
 In June, 1914, this plan was presented by the Chairman 
 of the House Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, 
 Hon. John A. Moon. Hearings on this bill were had before 
 the proper committees of Congress. 
 
 (5) 
 
Passed the House Twice ; 
 Agreed to in Conference. 
 
 Twice, by large majorities, the House, in August, 1914, 
 and January, 1915, approved the plan proposed by the Post 
 Office Department. This plan carried the essential features 
 of the recommendation of the Joint Congressional Com- 
 mittee for a change to the space basis, except that it pro- 
 vided for retaining the weight basis for closed-pouch serv- 
 ice. The Joint Committee advocated the space basis for 
 all service. The plan provided for a scale of pay exceedingly 
 liberal in the light of every factor that justly enters into 
 the question of fixing reasonable compensation for carrying 
 the mails, and assured the railroads a somewhat larger 
 revenue per car mile for carrying the mails than they are 
 now receiving. 
 
 On the occasion of its first passage in the House, the mail- 
 pay measure was incorporated, along with other needed 
 postal legislation, in the Moon Bill. Because of the conges- 
 tion of legislation during the short session, it became 
 apparent that the Moon Bill could not be enacted, and, 
 hence, the mail-pay section of the Moon Bill was incorpo- 
 rated in the annual post-office appropriation bill. 
 
 In essentials, the Department's plan was agreed to 
 in the Conference Committee of House and Senate 
 upon the appropriation ; but a final vote upon the 
 Conference Committee's report was not reached in 
 the Senate. 
 
 New Rates Compensate 
 All Classes of Service. 
 
 Under the Department bill, the rates of railway mail pay 
 are divided into two classes: (1) car-mile line rates; (2) 
 initial and terminal rates. 
 
 The former provide compensation for hauling the different 
 sizes of standard mail cars and will constitute the bulk of 
 the pay. The latter cover expenses of loading and unload- 
 ing mails, switching, heating, lighting, and cleaning cars 
 and other station expenses at the termini of the car runs. 
 
 This division of compensation into two parts, one of 
 which provides special allowances for costs of terminal 
 station service at points of origin and destination on all 
 runs regardless of distance, for the first time allots pay with 
 equitable recognition of long and short hauls. Initial and 
 terminal costs vary little, whether the car run is 100 miles 
 
 (6) 
 
or 1000 miles. The terminal allowances which are the same 
 regardless of the length of car run will increase the pay per 
 mile according to the length of run, the longer the trip the 
 smaller the increase per mile. 
 
 The following is a schedule of rates proposed by the Post 
 Office Department : 
 
 CAR-MILE LINE RATES. 
 
 Class. 
 
 Unit. 
 
 Car-mile 
 rate. 
 
 Full R. P. O. cars 
 
 6^-foot cars 
 
 $0.21 
 
 Apartment cars __ 
 
 30-foot apartment. 
 
 .10 %. 
 .05)4 
 
 Apartment cars.. 
 
 15-foot apartment. 
 
 Storage cars 
 
 60-foot cars 
 
 .20 
 
 
 
 
 INITIAL AND TERMINAL RATES. 
 
 Class. 
 
 Unit. 
 
 Initial and 
 terminal al- 
 lowance per 
 
 single trip. 
 
 Full R. R O. cars 
 
 60- foot cars 
 
 $4.00 
 
 Apartment cars 
 
 30-foot cars. . 
 
 15-foot cars . 
 
 2.00 
 
 Apartment cars. 
 
 1.00 
 
 Storage ears., 
 
 30-foot cars 
 
 4.00 
 
 Passenger Revenue Less 10 
 Per Cent Is Basis of Rates. 
 
 The car-mile line rates are based primarily upon the aver- 
 age car-mile revenue earned by the passenger service of the 
 country as reported to the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
 with a suitable reduction to offset the difference in char- 
 acter between passenger and mail services. Many consid- 
 erations applying to the carriage of the mails do not apply 
 to the carriage of passengers, and facilities furnished by 
 the railroads for passenger service differ materially from 
 facilities furnished for mail service. 
 
 There is no justification for the claim that the 
 mail service should participate fully in the enor- 
 mous costs of elaborate terminals and station struct- 
 ures. The mails neither seek nor need housing in 
 $100,000,000 buildings ; in fact, the least expensive 
 parts of stations are devoted to the mails, and very 
 rightly so. 
 
 The initial and terminal rates are based upon estimates 
 of the initial and terminal costs — loading, unloading, 
 switching, etc., as stated above. 
 
 (7) 
 
The New Schedule Is 
 Result of Long Study. 
 
 The determination of the rates was a most difficult 
 problem. Numerous bases were suggested, considered, and 
 rejected. 
 
 The conclusion was reached after long and thorough 
 inquiry that a 10 per cent reduction would approximately 
 represent the proper difference between the passenger- 
 service revenue and an adequate mail revenue. 
 
 Applied to 25.43 cents, the passenger-car-mile revenue 
 for 1911 (the latest figure available at the time the rates 
 were constructed), the 10 per cent reduction produced 22.89 
 cents as a fair mail revenue per 60-foot car mile. Applied 
 to the passenger car-mile revenue for 1912, 24.29 cents, the 
 result is 21.87 cents. The 60-foot car-mile revenue received 
 by the railroads at the rates provided in the Department 
 bill, based upon the service estimated as being necessary 
 for the fiscal year of 1915, would be 22.96 cents. 
 
 Total Pay Would Be 
 Increased By Change. 
 
 The total mail pay upon the present basis, including both 
 pay for weight and pay for space, for the fiscal year of 1915, 
 was more than fifty-nine million dollars. The rates carried 
 in the proposed law would have resulted in a payment for 
 that year of about sixty-two million dollars, estimated on 
 the basis of the service in operation. For service as of 
 present date the expenditure would probably be somewhat 
 greater, although legitimate economies in the way of con- 
 centrated loading and dispatches and along other lines 
 would, it is believed, tend to reduce such increase materially 
 
 Although the facts would warrant a reduction of 
 railway mail compensation, the Post Office Depart- 
 ment has not advocated this action . 
 
 "Not Exceeding" Clause 
 Is Unjustly Attacked. 
 
 The proposed law authorizes the Postmaster General to 
 pay not exceeding the rates specified in it. 
 
 The railroads have contended that this and other phrase- 
 ology of the bill give the Postmaster General arbitrary rate- 
 making power which, it is insinuated, he would use to 
 compel the roads to carry the mails for less than the maxi- 
 
 (8) 
 
mum rates designated. By inference, the charge is made 
 that the Postmaster General is seeking power he does not 
 now possess, and it has been declared in so many words that 
 he would use this power to oppress the railroads. 
 
 In every law enacted by Congress on the subject of rail- 
 way mail pay, since Congress first legislated seventy-seven 
 years ago in regard to the carriage of mails on railroads 
 (July 7, 1838), the Postmaster General has been given free 
 and full power to contract with a railroad for the carriage 
 of mails at any rate -within the maximum rates named 
 in the several laws if he should be able to do so. 
 
 During the life of the present railway mail pay statute, 
 passed in 1873, no Postmaster General has arbitrarily 
 reduced rates, though under the law he has had full power 
 to do so. The history of the service for the last forty years 
 sufficiently refutes the charge that the inclusion of the 
 words not exceeding will give the Postmaster General 
 power which he would use in an autocratic or unfair 
 manner. 
 
 Operates to Protect 
 Department and Roads 
 
 The flexibility of the provision " not exceeding " is abso- 
 lutely necessary for practical administration, and works 
 both in the interest of the Government and many of the rail- 
 roads. If rates were absolutely fixed, the Govern- 
 ment would be compelled to use the short line be- 
 tween the large mailing centers and could not give 
 the competing roads having longer lines the privi- 
 lege, as is done now, of hauling a part of the mails 
 at the rate for the short line. 
 
 Also, if the rates were inflexible there would be innumer- 
 able instances in the conduct of the service involving dis- 
 putes between the railroad companies and the Department 
 as to the precise amount due for service, and the usual 
 order of the Postmaster General, which, if it fixes the rate 
 within the maximum prescribed by law, has been held by 
 the courts to be final, would onty mark the beginning of 
 numerous and vexatious lawsuits. 
 
 What Mail Pay Means 
 To Parcel-Post Service. 
 
 In little more than two years the parcel post has grown 
 so rapidly that its annual traffic is now estimated at 
 
 (9) 
 
1,000,000,000 parcels a year. This expansion demonstrates 
 the public need and demand in this country for a service 
 which for years has been provided in every other advanced 
 nation on earth. 
 
 This tremendous burden of service has been successfully 
 assumed by the postal establishment and is being performed 
 at a margin of profit for the government notwithstanding 
 the inordinately heavy transportation costs — at times 
 amounting to double the transportation costs borne by the 
 express companies upon a great part of their traffic — which 
 the government has been compelled to shoulder. 
 
 In the face of the unequal conditions, the Govern- 
 ment is doing an enormous parcel business at 
 charges to the public much lower on the whole than 
 were made by the express companies before the 
 coming of the parcel post, and is giving express 
 facilities alike to practically every township, hamlet, 
 village, and city, great or small, in the United States. 
 
 UPON the majority of these great mail routes, mail and express 
 transportation conditions are practically identical. The cost to 
 the railroads of the incidental services rendered in transporting the 
 mails on these routes is inconsiderable as compared with the great disparity 
 in the returns from the two services. It follows from the inequality of 
 transportation costs that the parcel post rates to the public, for the higher 
 weights, greatly exceed the express rates. Between New York and 
 Chicago, parcel postage is $1.20 for twenty pounds, as compared with 
 an express rate of sixty-eight cents. A more equitable scale of mail pay 
 would make possible a readjustment of parcel postage upon the higher 
 weights and long hauls, would expand the public's transportation facili- 
 ties and would still give the railroads adequate compensation under 
 their own standard of what constitutes adequate compensation— to wit, a 
 "commercial rate." 
 
 * * 
 
 THE railroads are receiving from the government amounts which, for 
 hauls of any considerable length, exceed by about two to one the 
 amounts they receive from the express companies for like and 
 similar service. 
 
 (10) 
 
ADVANTAGES OF THE 
 SPACE BASIS 
 
 Increase of Service Is Automatically 
 Paid for— Justice to AH the Rail- 
 roads — Better Facilities for Hand- 
 ling Parcel-Post Matter Assured 
 
 UNDER the space basis of payment provided in the 
 Moon Bill and in the appropriation bill, and agreed 
 to by the Conference Committee on the latter, 
 fluctuations in service would be promptly recognized and 
 compensated. 
 
 If the expansion of the parcel post resulted in need of 
 additional space, it would be paid for. At the same time the 
 Department would have opportunity for economies in the 
 utilization of the authorized space to its maximum capacity, 
 which entirely proper action would work no injustice to the 
 railroad companies because they would still be paid for all 
 space provided. 
 
 It is the belief of the Department officials, and of many 
 railroad officials as well, that the space plan would enable all 
 service furnished according to the needs to be properly 
 compensated; in other words, the Department would pay 
 for what it receives , and the railroads would receive 
 pay for all service furnished. 
 
 Square Deal Assured 
 to All the Railroads. 
 
 Under the space plan, each company will receive compen- 
 sation for all service performed by it, and changes in service 
 requiring additional space wiU be immediately recognized 
 by authorization of additional space and pay. This will 
 eliminate complaints regarding cases wherein heavy diver- 
 sions of mail are made from one route to another without 
 changes in pay, which are continually occurring under the 
 existing weight system. 
 
 Under the present law it is often asserted that the pay is 
 inequitable between companies, in that there may be two 
 routes carrying the same weight of mail upon one of which 
 
 (11) 
 
the space and facilities required may greatly exceed those 
 required on the other route, notwithstanding which each 
 company receives the same pay. The new plan will correct 
 inequalities of this kind. 
 
 Existing Rates Pay for 
 
 Four- Year Increase of Mail. 
 
 Under the present law, one of the principal complaints of 
 the companies has been that during the four-year period 
 between adjustments the increased weights of mails carried 
 by them are transported without compensation. The rail- 
 roads advance this as their principal argument for annual 
 instead of quadrennial weighings, asserting that it is 
 inequitable and unjust to require them to carry the accre- 
 tions without additional pay. 
 
 The Department has taken the position that the rates 
 provided in the existing law were fixed high enough to cover 
 the increased regular mails to be carried during the term. 
 Nevertheless cases have arisen where schedule changes or 
 unusual conditions have resulted in diverting to a line a 
 considerable quantity of mails not theretofore carried and 
 not weighed on that line, with a corresponding reduction in 
 weights carried on the line from which diverted. Unless 
 the weights diverted equal at least 10 per cent of the average 
 daily weight on any of the routes involved, the Department 
 is without authority to restate the pay and correct the 
 inequity. 
 
 The proposed law corrects these inequalities, and the 
 administration of the service under its provisions wiU enable 
 the Department to compensate the railroads for all service 
 performed. Fluctuations in the volume of mail which 
 require the furnishing of a greater or lesser amount of 
 space than regularly authorized can be met by the authori- 
 zation on lines where such conditions obtain of a certain 
 amount of space beyond the regular authorizations to be 
 used and paid for when needed. This extra space would, 
 of course, not be used if surplus space is available on 
 another line affording equal service for the mails involved. 
 
 Saves $600,000 a Year 
 on Returning Equipment. 
 
 There is usually a preponderance of mail tonnage in one 
 direction and the space required in that direction is neces- 
 sarily greater than is needed in the return movement. 
 Under the provisions of the proposed law, the maximum 
 
 (12) 
 
space needed in either direction is to be determinative of 
 the space to be paid for in return. 
 
 On account of the heavier movement of mails in one 
 direction the equipment used to enclose the mails naturally 
 accumulates, after use, at points remote from the centers 
 where the mails originate. Under existing law, this equip- 
 ment is returned to points where needed by freight at 
 considerably less expense than if returned by mail. The 
 annual cost of such service aggregates about $600,000. 
 
 Under the new plan, which specifies that the companies 
 shall be paid for the round-trip movement of a car of the 
 maximum size needed in either direction, there will probably 
 be a surplus of unused space available in the return move- 
 ment which may be utilized for the carriage of a greater 
 part, if not aU, of this returning empty equipment without 
 additional cost and with a saving of its transportation cost 
 by freight. Other opportunities for the use of return 
 empty space paid for and not needed for mails will no doubt 
 present themselves in the carriage of supplies and stamped 
 paper for the service, and of periodicals now sent by fast 
 freight. 
 
 Cars Will Be Used 
 to Their Capacity. 
 
 The tendency under the space plan will be to load autho- 
 rized cars to the maximum consistent with the conditions 
 required for distribution and handling. Under the weight 
 basis, where the weight is paid for no matter whether 
 transported in postal cars, baggage cars or storage cars, 
 the tendency is to relieve the distributing cars wherever 
 possible and carry mails in baggage or storage cars. 
 
 Under the space basis the space in the authorized R. P. O. 
 cars will be utilized to capacity before authorizing addi- 
 tional space in storage or baggage cars, thus relieving the 
 baggage cars of their loads. The new plan also affords 
 opportunity for consolidating mails for transportation 
 between large centers where more than one line is available 
 and the utilization of all authorized space to capacity before 
 it will be necessary to authorize additional space for 
 additional mails. 
 
 In cases where several partly loaded cars are now carry- 
 ing the mails, it will be practicable to concentrate the mails 
 in a less number of cars, thus securing the most economical 
 loading and reducing the car mileage to be paid for to the 
 minimum. This will provide an entirely proper economy 
 with no burden on the railroads. 
 
 (13) 
 
POSTAL EXPRESS SHIPMENTS 
 
 Empty Mail Bags Shipped by Express to 
 Avoid the High Mail Rate 
 
 r T l HE Department is authorized by law to ship by mail from No- 
 * vember 15 to January 15 empty mail bags ordinarily sent by 
 freight. Mail bags may go by express at any time, but are cus- 
 tomarily shipped by freight Unless an emergency arises, as the 
 express rate is usually more than double that of the freight rate. 
 During the recent holiday period it was found that shipments 
 could be made by express at a lower rate than by mail between 
 many points, and the express service was utilized to a consider- 
 able extent at an average saving of 37i cents per hundred pounds 
 over the cost had they been sent in mail trains, and the railroad 
 companies get only 50 per cent of the express rate. 
 
 The following table shows some of the points between which the Department shipped mail bags 
 by express during the holiday season of 1915, the mail and express rates, and the amount saved 
 in each case by using express: 
 
 Points. 
 
 Rates per 
 100 pounds. 
 
 Express Mail 
 rate. rate. 
 
 Excess 
 of mail 
 
 rate 
 over ex- 
 press 
 rate. 
 
 Amount 
 saved. 
 
 Burlington, Vt.-Boston, Mass 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio-Washington, D. C 
 
 Corinth, Miss. -Mobile, Ala 
 
 Corinth, Miss. -Nashville, Tenn 
 
 Corning - , N. Y. -Boston, Mass 
 
 Decatur, 111. -Chicago, 111 
 
 Elmira, N. Y.-Boston, Mass 
 
 Hornell, N. Y.-Boston, Mass 
 
 Hornell, N. Y. -New York, N Y 
 
 Huron, S. Dak. -St. Paul, Minn 
 
 New York, N, Y.-Chicago, 111 
 
 Ohio City, Ohio-Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
 Parkersburg, W. Va.-New York, N. Y. 
 Parker sburg, W. Va. -Pittsburgh, Pa .. 
 
 Phoenix, Ariz. -Kansas City, Mo 
 
 Rouses Point, N. Y.-Boston, Mass 
 
 Rutland, Vt.-Boston, Mass 
 
 Salida, Colo. -St. Louis, Mo 
 
 Vanceboro, Maine-Boston, Mass 
 
 Watertown, N. Y.-Boston, Mass 
 
 Watertown, N. Y.-New York, N. Y 
 
 $1.15 
 1.90 
 1.55 
 1.55 
 1.50 
 1.00 
 1.25 
 1.50 
 1.30 
 1.80 
 2.40 
 
 .75 
 1.90 
 1.00 
 6.50 
 1.15 
 
 .90 
 4.65 
 1.50 
 1.25 
 1.20 
 
 $1.52 
 2.07 
 2.08 
 2.79 
 1.86 
 1.09 
 1.79 
 2.04 
 1.37 
 4.95 
 2.51 
 1.99 
 1.93 
 1.10 
 6.85 
 1.40 
 1.08 
 7.40 
 1.59 
 1.49 
 1.31 
 
 $0.37 
 .17 
 .53 
 
 1.24 
 .36 
 .09 
 .54 
 .54 
 .07 
 
 3.15 
 .11 
 
 1.24 
 .03 
 .10 
 .35 
 .25 
 .18 
 
 2.75 
 .09 
 .24 
 .11 
 
 $16.17 
 
 4.07 
 42.22 
 194.74 
 32.65 
 43.64 
 65.70 
 176.33 
 
 4.19 
 
 45.08 
 
 29.92 
 
 117.47 
 
 3.72 
 18.01 
 17.98 
 
 7.74 
 18.51 
 81.36 
 
 4.99 
 81.36 
 
 8.34 
 
 $1,014.19 
 
 (14) 
 
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 (15) 
 
THE SPACE BASIS 
 
 ELIMINATES Troublesome and Expensive Weighing — 
 
 PROVIDES A System of Rates Definite and Understandable— 
 
 UTILIZES Facilities Paid for to Maximum Capacity — 
 
 PAYS For Service Actually Rendered and for Space Furnished — 
 
 AND 
 
 WILL ENABLE THE DEPARTMENT TO PROCEED WITH 
 ITS PLANS FOR THE EXPANSION OF THE 
 PARCEL POST.