"My Dear Sir: In response to your inquiry as to the difference between the service rendered the Post Office Department by railroad companies in the carriage and handling of the mails, and that rendered express companies, I would state that from such information as we have been able to obtain in regard to the service rendered to express companies, the difference is substantially as follows:
"The Post Office Department requires the railroad company to take the mail from the post office wherever the office is within 80 rods of the depot, and the company has an agent, and in many cases to perform the terminal service regardless of the distance between the post office and the station. Wherever the terminal service is taken up by the Department, by means of regulation or screen-wagon service, the contractor delivers the mail at a specified place at the depot, and from that point the railroad employees transport it to the cars, and if the amount is so great that it would impose a hardship upon the postal employees to load and store this mail, the railroad company is called upon to furnish porters to do the work. Where the mail messenger or contractor can drive direct to the cars, he does so. The express companies haul all of their matter to the railroad stations and put it in the cars, using their own employees and their own trucks.
"The cars furnished the Post Office Department and those furnished the express companies differ very materially. The former are built according to specifications furnished by the Department, and are fully equipped with letter cases, paper racks, drawers, and lockers for registered mail and supplies, and all of the equipment necessary for the distribution of mail en route. The cars furnished the express companies have very little, if any, interior furnishings, and are more like the cars used for the transportation of baggage. In both cases the cars used are owned by the railroad company.
"The number of employees transported for the Post Office Department is very much greater than for the express companies. There are frequently five or six clerks in the postal cars, and on fast mail trains, where there are two or three working cars to a train, the number runs up as high as 23. The express seldom requires more than two men in a car.
"The Post Office Department claims as much space at depots without specific payment therefor as may be required for the storing and handling of mail in transit. The express companies are required to pay the railroad companies for all space used at depots.
"On smaller lines a separate apartment must be furnished for the mails other than baggage mails. The express matter is usually placed in the baggage car.
"Upon arrival at terminals the railroad company may be required to unload a mail car, if the quantity is such as to impose a hardship upon the clerks, and to see that it is loaded into the contractor's wagons; or, if the terminal service devolves upon the railroad company, that it is delivered into the post office. The express company unloads and handles its own matter.
"The railroad and express companies frequently use a joint employee to handle baggage and express, thereby economizing in cost of help. That can very seldom be done in connection with the postal service.
"The railroad company has charge of all baggage mails in transit and receives them into and delivers them from the cars. It also handles other mails when necessary to transfer them between cars or trains. It is held responsible for reasonable care in their transportation. Deductions are made for failures to perform service according to contract, and fines are imposed for delinquencies. The company is required to keep a record of all pouch mails carried on trains in charge of their employees and handled at stations where more than one regular exchange pouch is involved and no mail transfer clerk is located, and to prepare and forward shortage slips when a pouch is due and not received. They are required to make monthly affidavits as to performance of service. It is understood that the company never assumes control of express matter. The Department is not informed as to the terms of contracts between railroad and express companies, and therefore can not state what responsibility is imposed as to transportation.
"Mail cranes for the exchange of mail at points where trains do not stop are erected and kept in repair by and at the expense of the railroad company, whose employees must hang the mail bag on the crane and adjust it for catching at points where the company provides side service. The mail catchers are also furnished by them. No service of this character is rendered express companies.