Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 288, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1914 — WEIGHING OF MAIL IS SOON TO START [ARTICLE]

WEIGHING OF MAIL IS SOON TO START

Work Will Begin After the Holidays and Continue for Three Months—Expense of $400,000. Advance notices have been received at the railroad offices, announcing the regular quadrennial weighing -the mails, for the fixing of rates for railway mail pay. The weighing is to begin on January 1, after all the heavy mail is carried, and will last between thirty to one hundred working days. Whether the railroads will receive an increase in thedr ratesior the carrying of mail will be determined after the weighing. Since the -parcel post Was inaugurated the railroads •have been seeking an increase loth eir rates for carrying mail, as the government has been taking in nearly $30,000,000 additional revenue and the railroads have received no compensation'- for the carrying of the mails. •Railroad officials say the only fair way to base the charge for carrying the malls is on either the carmile basis or the space rate basis. Weighing the mails is unfair, as a decrease in the amount of. mail carried makes the government the loser, while an increase makes the railroad the loser. .... „ The weighing of the mails is can ried on at an expense of $400,000 to the government. A settlement of the rate on the spate® basis wquld do away with this unnecessary expense and would be fair to both the railroad and the government The extent of time that the weighing will be carried on has not been determined.