Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1874 — The Railway Postal Service. [ARTICLE]

The Railway Postal Service.

Washington, Nov. 27. George S. Bangs, Superintendent of the Railway Postal Service, has completed bis annual report. From tjiis report ft appears that, at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, there were in operation fiftynine lines of railway postoffice cars, extending over 14,801 miles of railroad, was performed 34,925 miles of service daily and 12,747,625 miles'of service Annually, by 752 railway postoffice clerks. These -clerks are classified as follows: 283 head clerks, 379 clerks, aud ninety assistant clerks. By the establishment of new lines of railroad the postal facilities have been greatly increased. During the threatened refusal of the railroads to carry the mails au offer or the Baltimore A Ohio was accepted by the department. This gave daily service between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Chicago, 111., 310 miles. This completes a through line between Washington and Chicago, anti forms a connection between' the roads centering at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Chicago.

* Of the. present condition of the railway postoffice service Mr. Bangs says: “The railway postoffiee cars are now in operation on most of the most important connecting and trunk lines of railroad, giving the most direct and available transit to the mails between the office of origin and destination, and forming nearly a perfect connection between the varion» railroads upon which service is perfortned by route agents. *■ The Pennsylvania Railroad system,perhaps the most extended and important m the country for mail transportation, is now used to-a great extent in the forwarding of through and direct mails; but, owing to the poor postal facilities at present furnished by that road, it cannot be utilized to any great extent in the distribution of mails in transit. As this company has expressed its willingness to grant improved accommodations the benefit to be derived would fully warrant the department in the acceptance of the same. .The necessity of this addition to the postal-ear lines can best be judged by the following statement of the bulk of mails passing between the East and West: New York city originates fifty-five to sixty tons of mail matter daily, as shown by their official statement. Forty-five to fifty tons of this is forwarded on the*trunk lines" leading to the West and Southwest. Three of these lines—the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York A Erie Railroad and New York Central A Hudson River Railroad—carry daily over their whole length an average of 93,000 pounds of mail, and as the bulk of this mail is deposited in the offices at the latest hour possible to make the trains, or arrives on connecting trains, it must be distributed in transit, taxing the present accommodations to the utmost, especially as the Erie Railroad is the only one upon which the department have such accommodations as are required. The propriety of establishing a fast and exclusive mail-train between New* York and Chicago has been discussed for some time and there appears to be a growing necessity for the same, this train to be under the control of the department so far as it is necessary for the purposes designed, and to run the distance in about twenty-four hours. It is conceded by railroad officials that this can be done. The importance of a line like this cannot be overestimated. It would reduce the actual time of the mail between the East and West from twelve to twenty-four hours, as it would necessarily he established upon one or more of tie trunk lines having an extended sygtem of connections. Its benefits would be in no wise confined, but extended to all parts of the country alike. It would also, if this line be established, be practicable to reduce to one line daily, beside this through line, the service upon the three trunk lines to the West. This reduction,would compensate for all the additional expense incurred by the fast mail train, especially as, by the operation of the law governing mail transportation, the more mail concentrated upon a single line of railway the less is the aggregate cost of transportation! per pound or ton per mile.” With reference to the complaints of some railroads that the compensation is inadequate, Mr. Bangs-thinks it advisable to recommend legislation placingthe compensation to railroads on the basis of weight alone. With regard to the extra cost of the railway postal service the Superintendent thinks erroneous opinions obtain,and that the amount ($1,692,620) is more apparent than real, owing to the fact that many minor distributing offices and a large amount of clerk hire along the railroad routes and at the terming not now required, would be necessary in the absence of the present system. The superintendency would- be necessary under —any system, as the distribution anil dispatch of mails would require the same general supervision as now to secure the best possible results. Not the least consideration in favor of the railway postoffiee is the avoidance of delays resulting from any other system than the distribution of mails in transit.