The Mail Pay on the Burlington Railroad Part 5

_Exhibit A._

[Form 2601.]

There are on file in the Post Office Department one hundred and two separate statements showing, for the month of November as to each mail route on the Burlington system, the s.p.a.ce occupied and used for mail and for express and for pa.s.sengers.

In order to make a comparison it was, of course, necessary to reduce each item of s.p.a.ce used in each car to a common basis of feet, and the following table shows what are the actual facilities furnished in pa.s.senger trains for the three cla.s.ses of traffic reduced to linear car-foot s.p.a.ce:

_Car Foot Mileage._

_Mail._ _Pa.s.sengers._ _Express._ 62,246,130 428,164,920 39,525,540 (11.75%) (80.8%) (7.45%)

_Exhibit B._

[Form 2602.]

_Station Facilities Furnished for the Mails and Express and the Value of Other Items of Service Rendered._

_Mail Expense._

Monthly Cost of Handling Mail at Stations, labor, etc. $14,241.67 Monthly rental value of mail rooms in stations 1,008.61 Monthly rental value of tracks occupied by mail cars for advance distribution 157.69 Cost of lighting and heating mail cars for advance distribution 114.25 Value of 309,827 miles of free transportation to post office employees, not including postal clerks in charge of mail 6,196.54 Switching mail cars for advance distribution 2,795.80 ---------- Total for November $24,514.56

The foregoing does not include the rental value of s.p.a.ce furnished by the railroad company to the Government for handling mails and mail trucks on station platforms, and for storing the mails on platforms at large terminals. This is a large item, but statistics of such s.p.a.ce used were not called for. At Chicago Station platform s.p.a.ce to the amount of over 6,500 square feet is devoted exclusively to mails handled by the Burlington and Pennsylvania.

In addition to the foregoing, the Burlington Company transported on its trains during November postal clerks in charge of mail for the Government a distance of 3,109,747 miles in the aggregate.

If the Government had paid their fare at two cents per mile the amount paid would have been $62,174.94.

These items of station facilities and other service rendered to the Government for the mails amounted to $86,689 for November, or at the rate of more than one million dollars annually.

_Express Expense._

Rental value of s.p.a.ce in station buildings used for express, for which no rent is paid $488.68 Rental value of tracks used for advance loading of express 191.11 Value of 42,298 miles of free transportation to Express Company officials and employees at two cents per mile. 885.96 --------- $1,565.75

In addition to the foregoing, the agents and employees of the railroad company in the month of November rendered service at stations in handling express and in other ways for the Express Company to the amount of $10,274, but the Express Company paid to the same persons $14,538 in commissions.

The Express Company also shared in the salaries paid to certain baggage men and other joint train employees in November to the amount of $7,480, in addition to the payment of commissions, as aforesaid.

All the items of expense to the railroad company on account of the express in the way of s.p.a.ce furnished and free transportation to employees, and services of station agents, amount to $11,840, while the cash payments by the Express Company to the railroad Company indirectly, through payments in commissions to station agents and the salaries of baggage men amounts to $22,018, a pecuniary gain or income from express of $10,178 per month, or at the rate of $124,136 annually, compared with a large outgo annually on account of the mails as shown in the foregoing items.

_Exhibit C._

[Form 2603.]

_Revenues and Expenses and Train and Car Mileage._

_Revenues._

Receipts in November from all pa.s.senger traffic (not including Mail and Express) $1,859,839 Receipts from Express 187,825 Receipts from Mails 194,435 ---------- Total $2,242,099

_Expenses._

Total Operating Expenses of the road for November $5,452,830 Pa.s.senger Operating Expenses, and one-twelfth of the taxes and one-twelfth of the interest on the funded debt $2,365,521

The pa.s.senger operating expenses are distributed as follows:

_a.s.signable Expenses._

Transportation Expense $454,208 Fuel pa.s.senger engines $132,709 Salaries pa.s.senger engineers 100,511 Salaries pa.s.senger trainmen 87,557 Train supplies, etc. 55,664 Injuries to persons 19,904 Station employees 17,160 Joint yards and terminals 15,610 Miscellaneous 25,093 -------- Maintenance of Equipment $107,626 Repairs, pa.s.senger cars $67,650 Depreciation, pa.s.senger cars 39,639 Miscellaneous 337 -------- Traffic Expense $48,971 Advertising $17,249 Outside agencies 16,673 Superintendence 10,272 Miscellaneous 4,777 -------- Maintenance of Way, etc. $12,970 Buildings and grounds $7,053 Joint tracks, etc. 4,440 Miscellaneous 1,477 -------- General Expense $13,580 Salaries, clerks, etc $8,994 Insurance 2,478 Legal expense 1,153 Miscellaneous 955 -------- -------- Total $637,355

_Proportion of Non-a.s.signable Expenses._

Operating Expenses $1,278,016 Taxes and Interest 450,150 ---------- $1,728,166 ------------- Total $2,365,521

Exhibit A shows that the entire s.p.a.ce in all cars run on pa.s.senger trains on the Burlington in November was divided as follows:

Pa.s.sengers occupied 80.8 % of the s.p.a.ce.

Mail 11.75% of the s.p.a.ce.

Express 7.45% of the s.p.a.ce.

If each of these three cla.s.ses of traffic had contributed earnings and paid expenses in proportion to the s.p.a.ce occupied by it, the result in comparative profit or loss to the company would have been as follows:

_Comparative Profit and Loss._

_Earnings._ _Expenses._ _Profit._ _Loss._ Pa.s.sengers $1,859,839 $1,911,341 $51,502 Mail 194,435 277,949 83,514 Express 187,825 176,231 $11,594 ---------- ---------- $2,242,099 $2,365,521

If the Government had paid to the Burlington Company for carrying the mails 11.75% of the actual cost of doing the work, and a proportion of the taxes and interest on the funded debt, it would, for November, have paid $83,514 more than was paid, indicating that for the year the Government is paying $1,002,168 less than the actual fair cost of the service it is receiving.

_Exhibit D._

[Form 2605.]

_Statement of Mail Cars and Apartment Cars._

_Postal Cars._

_Original _Present _Number Average Average _Kind of Car_ Owned_ Cost_ Value_ 60 feet or more in length 49 $5,176.00 $4,669.84 50 to 59 feet in length 10 4,116.00 2,595.70 Less than 50 feet in length 17 2,555.00 2,094.41 -- --------- --------- Total 76 $4,451.00 $3,820.84

_Apartment Cars._

_Original _Present _Number Average Average _Kind of Car_ Owned_ Cost_ Value_ Cars with mail apartments 30 feet or more in length 27 $3,888.00 $2,112.78 Cars with mail apartments 25 to 29 feet in length 21 3,660.00 2,004.95 Cars with mail apartments 20 to 24 feet in length 22 3,292.00 1,810.50 Cars with mail apartments less than 20 feet in length 31 3,106.00 1,729.35 --- --------- --------- Total 104 $3,460.00 $1,901.71