The peculiar or suggestive harmony between the opinions of these railway representatives and the _controlling_ executive and legislative officials of the Federal Government, is especially conspicuous under point 2 as numbered above. The railway people plead that the ruling rates are too low, but are willing to stand for them. However, they _do not want the rates lowered_. The peculiar harmony of opinions just adverted to is ample evidence, or so it appears to The Man on the Ladder, of this one fact: The present rates of pay for railway mail _weight_ carriage are the rates fixed by the act of 1879. Freight, express and passenger rates or tariffs have been changed--_have been lowered_. The railways did not want the mail rates lowered and the governmental powers that be, and have been, were apparently at least, quite willing to take their view of the matter, even if they did not concur in the numerous half-baked, threadbare arguments advanced by the railroad people in support. _The rates of railway mail pay have remained the same for thirty-three years--until 1908._ Comment is unnecessary. As evidence in support of points 1 and 3 as above numbered, points on which railroad representatives so uniformly agree in support of, or, with equal uniformity, display concurring lapses of memory or lack of knowledge relating to, I shall here quote further from Mr. Kirkman’s testimony before the Wolcott Commission. In electing to quote from Mr. Kirkman rather than from another to evidence points 1 and 3, I am influenced only by the fact that I have the report of the Wolcott Commission before me at the moment, and to the further fact that Mr. Kirkman’s testimony appears to me cogently illustrative of the points to which I have called the reader’s attention. In closing his prepared or written testimony (page 208 of the report), Mr. Kirkman says: In conclusion, it may be stated that the compensation afforded this railroad for carrying the mail _is not now in excess of what it should be_. It is not improper, therefore, for us to beg, if rates can not be increased, _that no further reductions may be made_; also, that the practice of fixing the compensation paid for mail service on the basis of the weight carried at the commencement of the four-year periods (instead of on the weights carried in the middle of the periods), may be abandoned in favor of a more equitable system. From the above it will be seen that this witness states with confidence that the compensation his road (the Chicago and Northwestern) receives “is not now in excess of what it should be” and _begs_ that, “if the rates cannot be increased, that _no further reductions be made_.” I shall now reprint a few pages from the report of Mr. Kirkman’s oral testimony as illustrative of point 3: By Mr. CATCHINGS: Q. What did you state were the gross receipts from your whole system for carrying the mails?--A. About $800,000.