Candidly I am at a loss to know why young men of their physical robustness and their abnormal--yes, phenomenal--super-excellence in the matter of figuring things out, should be frittering away their time on a loafing job with the government. They ought to be holding down the chairs of Mathematics and of Expert Accounting at Onion Run University, or at some other advanced institution of learning. But, as previously intimated, I am going to quote--am going to let someone else into the maelstrom of official figures. I would not, however, have the reader think for a minute that I lacked the courage to take the plunge myself. Not at all. I know my limitations. Mr. Hitchcock is not only a graduate of Harvard, but he is a graduate of _two_ Republican party campaign committees. I’d be perfectly willing to take chances against Harvard in any game of figuring, but when it comes to sitting into the game with a graduate in two courses of party campaign figuring, one as Secretary and the other as Manager of the National Republican Committee,--well, when it comes to that, I believe the reader will excuse me if I push some more expert arithmeticians to the front. I will first quote from the 1907 Joint Commission which investigated costs of second-class mail haulage and handling, and then I will quote the publishers whose figures Senator Owen so pertinently presented in connection with his remarks when speaking in opposition to the rider, February 25, 1911. Being perfectly familiar with the proceedings of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, he must, necessarily, have learned something from the publishers who came with the open, frank--yes, certified--information as to their business. Likewise, he must have got fairly well acquainted with Mr. Hitchcock and also have learned something of his _promotive_ methods of figuring. I have, as yet, not had the pleasure--the honor--of meeting Senator Owen or his strong, clean minded, clean acting colleague, Senator Gore, but I like them. Why? _Because they stand on the floor of the Senate and fight--fight for what is right._ Now that I have a copy before me, I will proceed to quote from that report made by the 1907 commission--a commission which dug up more information regarding the haulage and handling of second-class mail matter than Mr. Hitchcock could possibly have gathered in two years as head of the Postoffice Department. The commission was composed of Senators Penrose, Carter and Clay and Congressmen Overstreet, Moon and Gardner, men far better informed as to federal postal affairs than is Postmaster General Hitchcock.