STEEL CARS IN THE RAILWAY POST-OFFICE SERVICE

MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1928

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICES AND POST ROADS,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met pursuant to call at 2 o'clock p. m. in the committee room, Capitol, Senator George H. Moses (presiding).

Present: Senators Moses (chairman), Phipps, Oddie, Dale, McMaster, Frazier, McKellar, Heflin, Blease, Steck, and Robinson of Arkansas.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. There are a sufficient number of Senators who have indicated their desire to be counted for a quorum to make the meeting valid, and the matter set down for hearing this afternoon is Senate bill 2107 which was referred to the department and under date of January 21 the department replied, reviewing the terms of the legislation and expressing its opinion that in view of the willingness of the railroad companies to cooperate with the department toward providing steel cars and the authority vested in the Postmaster General to require railroad companies to provide cars of such type of construction, etc., as he deems advisable, it is not believed that the proposed legislation is needed at this time.

(The bill referred to is as follows:)

A BILL To provide for steel cars in the railway post-office service

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That after January, 1930, all cars or parts of cars, except as hereinafter provided, used for railway post-office service shall be of steel construction and of such style, length, and character, and furnished in such manner as shall be required by the Postmaster General, and shall be constructed, fitted up, maintained, heated, lighted, and cleaned by and at the expense of the railroad companies. No railroad company shall be permitted to operate any railway post-office car which is not equipped with sanitary drinking-water containers and toilet facilities, nor unless such car is regularly and thoroughly cleaned. Railroad companies shall place railway post-office cars in stations for use in advance distribution before the departure of trains at such time as may be ordered by the Postmaster General: Provided, That after January, 1930, no apartment railway post-office car of other than steel or steel underframe construction may be operated by any independent short-line railroad in trains in which any other steel or steel underframe equipment is operated.

The CHAIRMAN. Who appears for the proponents of the bill? (No response.)

Then we will hear the opposition.

Mr. Thom, how many people do you want to put on and in what order?

Mг. THOм. Shall I give my name, first, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; give your name and whom you represent. Mr. THOм. Alfred P. Thom, jr., general solicitor of the Association of Railway Executives, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Chairman, we have about eight witnesses, each of whom will make a short statement, with the permission of the committee, and if agreeable I will suggest their order.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, Mr. Thom.

Mr. THOм. I will first ask Mr. H. E. Mack, manager mail and express traffic, Missouri Pacific lines, who is chairman of the operating committee and of the railway mail committee of the American Railway Association, to make his statement.

STATEMENT OF H. E. MACK, MANAGER MAIL AND EXPRESS TRAFFIC, MISSOURI PACIFIC LINES; CHAIRMAN OF THE OPERATING COMMITTEE AND OF THE RAILWAY MAIL COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION

Mr. MACK. Mr. Chairman and Senators, the railroads of the country, through its committee which considers subjects related to the transportation of the United States mail, appear here in pursuance of their request to be heard upon Senate bill 2107 introduced by Senator Dale and referred to your committee. This bill provides for replacing steel underframe, steel reinforced and wooden apartment mail cars now in service with steel cars by January 1, 1930, with the exception of short lines, about 60 in number, who employ in their service, I believe, about 100 cars.

We say apartment mail cars because it does not in reality apply to full railway post-office cars, although the bill is inclusive of them, for the reason that all such cars used in service where an entire car is authorized by the Post Office Department for distribution of the mail are already of steel or will be before this bill is made effective, and we desire to make this clear to your committee. Ninety-five per cent or more of these care are now of steel and the few remaining steel underframe cars of this class are being replaced at the present time, and probably all of them will be replaced during the current year.

It is the apartment mail cars, therefore, which are affected by the bill under consideration, and are those where the Post Office Department uses only one-half and generally only one-fourth of a car for mail distribution.

There are in the Railway Mail Service to-day 4,883 cars, of which 2,501 are steel, 739 are steel underframe, 1,466 are steel reinforced, and 177 are wood.

Senate bill 2107 would, therefore, require replacement of 2,382 mail apartment cars, assuming that now or eventually under its terms, it would be necessary to provide steel equipment throughout the service. This means that the railroads would have to buy that number of steel mail apartment cars which, at a low estimate of cost, would require an expenditure by them of approximately $60,000,000 for the new cars, and result in the enforced scrapping of an equal number of serviceable cars satisfactory in their present operation, the value of which is approximately $30,000,000, and cause a waste of property of that value, as this equipment is not needed for

other transportation service. A large number of cars have already been retired where steel cars have heretofore been purchased.

There are 854 cars less in the service as a whole in 1927 than there were in 1917, due to displacement of railway business service with what is commonly called the baggage car mail service; and then, in addition to that, wherever a steel car has been purchased it has retired other older cars of wooden type.

The railroads wish to submit to your committee that legislation requiring such a large expenditure and the resultant large waste is neither justified or necessary upon consideration of the entire situation.

Genuine progress has been continuously made with postal equipment and there has neither been discrimination against it nor has there been any indifference to the safety to railway postal clerks as might be implied, perhaps, in the suggestion of legislation embraced in the bill. The reverse is true.

In 1913, as may readily be observed by reference to the Postmaster General's report for that year, there were 3,444 wood cars in mail service, and to-day but 177. They have been replaced either with steel cars where the character of service required them, or with steel underframe cars, which are very high grade, strong, well constructed, and as to the underframes and end frames are substantially the same as steel cars, the chief difference being in the sheathing. Others have had structural reinforcements as required by the Post Office Department.

As already mentioned, practically all the full railway post-office cars are of steel, and, in addition to these, the railroads have voluntarily and in cooperation with the Post Office Department built 1,690 steel mail apartment cars, which are generally operated on the railroad main lines where trains are heavier and operated upon fast schedules, and where numerous trains are operated, that is to say, where they are more exposed to possibility of accidents.

The total number of railway postal clerks employed in train-mail service is not large, viz, 13,808, and approximately 11,000 of that number are now performing service in the steel cars which we have provided, as it is upon the main lines where there are several clerks performing service in the cars where the heavier volume of business. and mail distribution exists.

The steel underframes, steel reinforced, and the few wooden cars, which it is proposed in the bill should be replaced and would cost the railroads $60,000,000 with a resultant waste of present equipment valued at approximately $30,000,000, are operated mostly on secondary lines and chiefly on branch trains or short-line railroads where generally there are but few trains operated daily, and in great proportion only one train a day in each direction. The greater number of these trains have but few cars, and in many instances only two; they are run at low speed, average 18 to 25 miles per hour with but little danger of accident, and there are approximately only 2,800 railway postal clerks working in these cars. Distributed over the country it works down to an average of 60 in each State.

It appears to us that the proposal for steel cars on these trains is based abstractly on the theory that steel cars are safer without consideration of the facts or conditions of the operation of such cars as it is proposed shall be replaced. In our view, there is nothing in this

class of service to warrant a legislative requirement for steel mail apartment cars.

The Post Office Department does not use the entire car but only a small part of it. The mail authorization in most of the cars to be replaced is but 15 feet, i. e., one-fourth of a 60-foot car, and in most instances, there is but one railway postal clerk to the car. One thousand seven hundred and ninety-three clerks are employed in one-man service to the car.

The hazard where these cars are used is negligible, as may be readily noted by reference to the fatality experience of recent years in the Railway Mail Service.

Not a single railway postal clerk has been killed in a wooden or steel reinforced car since 1921. Of the fatalities which occurred in this period of six years, 10 in number, 8 were in steel cars and 2 in steel underframe cars.

In 1926 there was but one fatality, and in 1927 no railway postal clerks were killed in train accidents, which seems to be convincing evidence of the limitation of hazard, even on the fast and heavy trains where we have the steel cars now, and the elimination of hazard where the steel underframe, steel reinforced, and wooden cars are being operated.

In contrast to the absence of train-accident fatalities in 1927, five clerks were killed accidently from causes having no relation whatever to train accidents or the character of equipment employed: 1 clerk was killed from an injury in lifting mail within a car; 1 clerk was killed as a result of being struck by a truck on a platform; 1 clerk was killed when stepping from the rear of a moving train; 1 clerk was drowned; 1 clerk was killed when struck by a train in railroad yards. In a period of 15 years, more fatalities have occurred from similar causes than from train accidents. Fourteen clerks were killed by falling from mail cars. The safety of railway postal clerks is quite well illustrated when it is considered that in 1927 the miles traveled in the railway postal service of the country was 270,082,216 without a fatality.

Where particular circumstances of operation may exist and additional steel cars seem to be needed to replace existing cars, the Postmaster General is invoking existing law. He prohibited by an order 5438 directed to the railroads on May 13, 1927, the use of steel underframe and wooden cars under certain conditions of operation which indirectly required the replacement by steel cars as explained in his report for 1927 at page 43, reading as follows:

The Postal Laws and Regulations were amended so as to require that new apartment mail cars for service in fast or heavy trains shall be of all-steel construction, to require the operation of an all-steel apartment mail car in a train where a majority of the cars in the train are of steel construction, to forbid the operation of steel underframe mail cars between adjoining steel cars or between steel car adjoining and the engine, and to forbid the operation of wooden mail cars where the majority of the cars in the train are of steel or steel underframe construction, thus insuring better protection to the clerks and the mails.

The Postmaster General was of the opinion that a steel underframe or wooden car operated between steel cars or between the engine and a steel car was in an exposed position in the train. The railroads did not argue the question, but after conference by a committee with him, agreed to purchase steel cars to meet this situation. Some have