In fact he made no proposition of any sort to that committee. Nor did he submit any statements or figures to that committee, other than those contained in his 1910 report and in the President’s message.

Rather a queer procedure that, is it not? Especially is it queer, likewise suggestive, in a man who, for two years, had been running with anti-skidding tires on and the high-speed lever pushed clear down, in a wild chase to capture an increase in the second-class mail rate.

That is the way it looks to The Man on the Ladder, anyway.

Why did Mr. Hitchcock so completely ignore that House committee? Or why, at most, did his attitude, when present at any of its sessions, manifest so little interest as almost to indicate an indifference as to what was done or not done? Why, again, was Mr. Hitchcock so inactive, so void of suggestions and recommendations when before that branch of federal legislative authority with which he knew must originate all measures for the raising of revenues?

Why? To that question there appears, to The Man on the Ladder, but one valid answer. Mr. Hitchcock was waiting.

When the House bill was sent to the Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, it appears from reports of people whose business it is to watch things done and doing at Washington, D. C, that Postmaster General Hitchcock livened up a bit, being careful, however, not to put any noticeable pressure on his high-speed lever until those meddlesome publishers had left town and were well away.

These publishers, knowing the constitutional prerogatives of the Lower House, considered matters safe and settled when the House bill making appropriations for the Postoffice Department was adopted and advanced to the Senate. They knew it carried no section advancing second-class postage rates nor any recommendations favoring such advance. With the publishers that ended it. But they failed to consider Mr. Hitchcock. His wiles and ways were, it appears, neither understood nor even suspicioned by those publishers. So, confident and content, they gathered up their belongings, packed their grips, paid their hotel bills and hied away to their several homes. Then it was that Mr. Hitchcock got busy with that discriminatingly selected committee of the Senate—the Committee on Postoffices and Postroads.

To see how “discriminating” some one or more persons had been in selecting that committee, let us look over its membership. At its head, as Chairman, sat Boies Penrose. He is the reputed Republican boss of Pennsylvania and an “organization” man. So is President Taft an organization man. Therefore Senator Penrose is an Administration man to the last ditch—that is, of course, if the administration is Republican. Mr. Hitchcock is also an organization man, and if both the President and his Postmaster General wanted this “rider” turned loose on the senate tanbark, Mr. Penrose was willing to go along with them. The other members of the committee were:—

Republicans:—