Postal Riders and Raiders

by W. H. Gantz

That, with the falling away in paid second-class matter, will provide him a “deficit” which should make him jubilant—should furnish wadding for his embrasured guns for two or three years in his attack on those recalcitrant periodicals which attend to their own business in a clean, truthful way and expect nothing of a Postmaster General other than that he attend strictly and efficiently to his business, to the business of the Postoffice Department—to the business of collecting, transporting and distributing the federal mails.

I have probably discussed Mr. Hitchcock, his faults and his excellencies sufficiently. I will therefore, pass to another phase of our general subject.

THE HUGHES COMMISSION.

First, however, I must introduce a few paragraphs here in summary of the work done by the Hughes Commission at its August session in New York City. The commission comprised Associate Justice Hughes, President Lowell of Harvard University, and H. A. Wheeler, President of the Chicago Association of Commerce. That this triumvirate of gentlemen will act disinterestedly and fairly, so far as their knowledge and the evidence relating to postal affairs extends, there is here no question.

That they have not and will not dig up and uncover facts and data relating to the haulage and handling of second-class mail matter, beyond that already known to and on file with government officials, is equally certain. No finer trinity of men could well have been selected by President Taft, but the fact is none of the three has had any opportunity to make a study of the federal mail service, second-class or other. Or if they have had such opportunity, the press of official and private business in other lines and directions preventing, in large extent, their study of postal service costs and affairs. No doubt, these three gentlemen will do the very best and fairest they can—or know how to do—with the evidence presented to them. Still, I am of the opinion that they will discover little which has not already been discovered—which, as Congressman Moon said on the floor of the House last March (1911), “has already been discovered and filed for departmental and official reference.” Each of them is a man of high academic training but neither of them, so far as The Man on the Ladder has been able to learn, had made, as previously stated, any qualifying study of federal postal affairs. So the best we have a right to expect from them is that they will tell the story, draped in new or different verbiage, told by predecessor commissions on second-class postal rates, costs of haulage and handling the same, etc.

Incidentally it may be said with all due courtesy and respect that the Hughes Commission will probably succeed in spending the $50,000 appropriated for its expenses, subsistence, incidentals, etc. The present commission would not be loyal to precedent if it permitted any of that $50,000 to return to the general fund as an “unexpended balance.”

Just here I desire to introduce a few items from the testimony of Mr. Wilmer Atkinson before the Hughes Commission, which, in August last began strenuous efforts to spend $50,000 and to discover and report upon facts anent the cost of hauling and handling second-class mail matter—which facts have already been collected, collated and filed with labored, likewise expensive, care somewheres in the government’s archives. I have quoted from Mr. Atkinson several times in forward pages. I desire to quote here from his testimony before this Hughes Commission, because the Hughes Commission is the latest and “best seller” on the second class mail shelf and because I recognize in Mr. Atkinson one of the first and most dependable authorities in the country on the cost of carriage, handling and distribution of mail—whether of the second or any other class. Especially do I desire to quote part of his testimony before the Hughes Commission because I am of the opinion that the reader, as well as the Commission, must necessarily gather forcefully pertinent facts from it:

To ascertain what second-class matter costs has been found to be a puzzling proposition. Many have tried to solve the puzzle and all have failed.

The Joint Congressional Commission consisting of Penrose, Carter and Clay for the Senate, and Overstreet, Moon and Gardner for the House, with the aid of numerous expert accountants, at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars (according to the President’s statement), attempted it and gave it up. All these gentlemen are on record as declaring that it is a task impossible of accomplishment.

Senator Bristow, a former Assistant Postmaster General, who has given postal questions much careful study, said in a recent speech that “It does not cost nine cents a pound, nor can the Department ascertain with even approximate accuracy what is the cost of handling any special class of mail. It would be just as easy for the Pennsylvania Railroad to state in dollars and cents what it costs to haul a ton of coal from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, or 100 pounds of silk from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis, as for the Postoffice Department to state what it costs the Department to handle newspapers or magazines. Anyone familiar with transportation knows that such calculations cannot be made with accuracy, because there are so many unassignable expenses that must be considered—expenditures that cannot be subdivided and assigned to the different classes of freight. The same is true as to the different classes of mail.”