IS THE GOVERNMENT PAYING THE RAILROADS FOR CARRYING
THE MAILS THE COST OF DOING THE WORK?
No. The Government paid the C. B. & Q. for carrying the mails in November $194,435, or at the rate of $2,333,220 annually.
The total operating expenses of the road for that month were $5,452,830.
The items of passenger train operating expense strictly assignable were as follows:
A large part of the operating expenses of every railroad, such as maintenance of roadway, station expense, general office expense and the like, are common to both the freight and passenger service, and it seems impossible to assign all of them specifically. The Post Office Department, in the circular under which the roads are reporting, recognizes this condition and calls for the "proportion" of the expense "not directly assignable and the basis of such apportionment."
The apportionment of non-assignable expense on the Burlington has been made on the basis of train mileage.
In the month of November the mileage of passenger trains was forty-five and four-tenths per cent of the total train mileage, and the foregoing sum ($1,278,016) of non-assignable expense is forty-five and four-tenths per cent of the operating expenses for that month, common to both kinds of traffic, and therefore incapable of specific assignment to either.
These two classes of passenger expense (assignable and non-assignable) aggregate $1,915,371 monthly, or at the rate of $22,984,452 per year, and 11.75 per cent of this sum, or $2,700,675, is the annual operating cost to the Burlington Company of transporting the Government mails.