That they have not and will not dig up and uncover facts and data relating to the haulage and handling of second-class mail matter, beyond that already known to and on file with government officials, is equally certain. No finer trinity of men could well have been selected by President Taft, but the fact is none of the three has had any opportunity to make a study of the federal mail service, second-class or other. Or if they have had such opportunity, the press of official and private business in other lines and directions preventing, in large extent, their study of postal service costs and affairs. No doubt, these three gentlemen will do the very best and fairest they can--or know how to do--with the evidence presented to them. Still, I am of the opinion that they will discover little which has not already been discovered--which, as Congressman Moon said on the floor of the House last March (1911), “has already been discovered and filed for departmental and official reference.” Each of them is a man of high academic training but neither of them, so far as The Man on the Ladder has been able to learn, had made, as previously stated, any qualifying study of federal postal affairs. So the best we have a right to expect from them is that they will tell the story, draped in new or different verbiage, told by predecessor commissions on second-class postal rates, costs of haulage and handling the same, etc. Incidentally it may be said with all due courtesy and respect that the Hughes Commission will probably succeed in spending the $50,000 appropriated for its expenses, subsistence, incidentals, etc. The present commission would not be loyal to precedent if it permitted any of that $50,000 to return to the general fund as an “unexpended balance.” Just here I desire to introduce a few items from the testimony of Mr. Wilmer Atkinson before the Hughes Commission, which, in August last began strenuous efforts to spend $50,000 and to discover and report upon facts anent the cost of hauling and handling second-class mail matter--which facts have already been collected, collated and filed with labored, likewise expensive, care somewheres in the government’s archives. I have quoted from Mr. Atkinson several times in forward pages. I desire to quote here from his testimony before this Hughes Commission, because the Hughes Commission is the latest and “best seller” on the second class mail shelf and because I recognize in Mr. Atkinson one of the first and most dependable authorities in the country on the cost of carriage, handling and distribution of mail--whether of the second or any other class. Especially do I desire to quote part of his testimony before the Hughes Commission because I am of the opinion that the reader, as well as the Commission, must necessarily gather forcefully pertinent facts from it: