"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.