It is scarcely necessary to note that all kinds of traffic require "working space" in addition to the space actually occupied by the traffic itself, and that this is especially true of the mail traffic, or that where there is a preponderating movement of a certain traffic in one direction there must be some empty space on account of that traffic, sometimes called "dead" space, in trains moving in the direction of lighter traffic. Thus passenger cars must have aisles, vestibules and platforms, and postal cars must have a great deal of space in which to sort the mails while, for mail carried in baggage cars, there must be space in which to reach the pouches and to receive and deliver them through the doors. A through train must also have the full capacity required for the maximum traffic of any kind likely to seek accommodation on any part of its journey, although during much of each trip the actual traffic may be considerably below this limit. The Postmaster-General, however, refused to credit the mail service with much of the space thus required by the Department although his figures for the other passenger train services allowed fully for all such space required by them. In fact in many cases such space, actually required by the mails and so reported by the railways, was taken from the total mail space and, without reason, assigned to the passenger service. These modifications of the data correctly reported, not susceptible of justification upon any sound transportation principle, were carried so far that the tabulations of the Post Office Department, which are stated for railway mail routes having a total length of 194,977.55 miles[E] show only 926,164,459 "car-foot miles" made in the mail service, although certain railways, included therein, and having railway mail routes aggregating only 178,709.96 miles, had correctly reported mail space equivalent to 1,153,110,245 "car-foot miles." Thus, although the Department's figures cover 8.3 per cent. more mileage, its reductions of space resulted in assigning to this greater mileage about one-quarter (24.5 per cent.) less mail space. At the same time the Department actually increased the space assigned to the other passenger train services, its figures showing 12,014,065,506 car-foot miles in these services for 194,977.55 miles of mail routes which must be compared with 11,222,478,739 car-foot miles reported by the railways for 178,709.96 mail-route miles.
This treatment of the controlling figures as to space, supplementing the other errors of method and omissions of fact, which have been or will be cited, was amply sufficient to turn a real loss into an apparent profit.
VI. THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL IGNORED DATA WHICH HE HAD OBTAINED SHOWING EXPENDITURES ON ACCOUNT OF THE MAILS LARGELY IN EXCESS OF THE DIRECT EXPENSES FOR THAT SERVICE WHICH HE REPORTED.
As a part of the investigation reported in Document No. 105 the Postmaster-General obtained from the railways statements showing the amounts expended by them for the station and terminal services required by his Department and the amount of free transportation furnished on his requisition for officers and agents of the postal service when not in charge of mail. These data were not used (Document No. 105, p. 6) and, as no adequate allowance was made in any other way for these expenses, the omission unjustly reduced the estimates of the cost to the railways of their postal services. The Postmaster-General's explanation of this omission implies that it was partially offset by the assignment as cost of mail service of its proportion, on the space basis, of all the station and terminal expenses of the passenger train services but these special mail expenses are disproportionately heavy and the amount so assigned was far too low. The expenses for station and terminal services especially incurred for the mails, during November, 1909, and reported to the Postmaster-General, for ninety-two per cent. of the mileage covered by Document No. 105 aggregated $401,136.00, as follows:
| Amount of wages paid to messengers and porters employed exclusively in handling mails | $79,980.84 | |
| Portion properly chargeable to mail service, pro-rated on basis of actual time employed, of wages paid to station employees a part of whose time is employed in handling mails | 198,927.01 | |
| Amount expended for maintenance of horses and wagons and for ferriage, etc., in connection with mail service | 5,640.98 | |
| Rental value, plus average monthly cost of light and heat, of room or rooms set apart for the exclusive use of the mail service | 37,258.93 | |
| Rental value of tracks occupied daily for advance distribution of the mail | 47,029.12 | |
| Average monthly cost of light and heat for postal cars placed daily for advance distribution of mail | 18,400.57 | |
| Interest at the legal rate upon the value of cranes, catchers and trucks required for mail service | 3,895.36 | |
| —————— | ||
| Total | $401,126.00 | [F] |
All the foregoing data were reported to the Postmaster-General in response to his request but he made no use of these items, an omission manifestly to the serious disadvantage of the railways and having the effect of unduly reducing his estimates of the cost of the mail service.
Similarly, the Postmaster-General omitted to use the data he had obtained from the railways showing the volume of free passenger transportation, already referred to, supplied to the officers and agents of the Post Office Department and his estimates contain no recognition of the cost of this service although its extent should be a matter of record in the Department as it is furnished only on its requisition. The space in passenger coaches occupied by these representatives of the Post Office Department, traveling free, was not assigned to the mail service but was treated as passenger space.