  Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads September 11, 1912. My dear Sir: I hand you herewith a copy of Senate Bill No. 7371, introduced by me by direction of the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, embodying a plan recommended by the Post Office Department for determining the compensation to be paid to railroad companies for transportation of the mails. This general subject has been referred to a joint Committee of Congress. The Committee has not yet organized and probably will not do so for several weeks, but as a member of that Committee and as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads and under authority of Senate Resolution No. 56, I desire to secure immediately such information as may be available for submission to the Committee at its first meeting. I will ask you, therefore, to answer the following questions: (1) Do you deem the present plan of compensation an equitable one as between the Government and the railroads? If not, in what respects and as to what classes of railroads is it inequitable? (2) Is the underlying principle of the plan embodied in the inclosed bill a proper basis for compensation? If not, wherein is it improper, and why? (3) What, in your opinion, is a desirable plan for compensating railroad companies for transporting the mails? I desire an early reply to these inquiries relating to the general plan, and, if you are not ready to do so now, shall be glad to have you submit later a detailed discussion of this bill and of House Document No. 105, 62d Congress, 1st Session, with which, I assume, you are familiar. Yours very truly, |
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