The average load carried in an ordinary freight car on the Burlington road is from 36,000 to 40,000 pounds. Railroads, as a rule, haul a ton of paying or productive freight for every ton of dead or unproductive load. In the Government mail business they carry nineteen tons of dead weight for each ton of paying weight. These cars are fitted up as post offices and are used for distribution en route in order to expedite and facilitate the prompt transmission and delivery of mails. They largely take the place of very expensive distribution offices in cities. The railroads provide cars for freight traffic, but refused to build, and maintain, and haul these moving post offices with their clerks and paraphernalia, without pay. That is the post office car pay of which so much is said. The truth regarding this feature of the subject is clearly stated in the following recent letter from the Postmaster-General: (_Congressional Record_, March 5, 1910, 61st Congress, Second Session, Vol. 45, No. 61, Page 2852.) LETTER OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL RELATIVE TO THE COST OF FURNISHING AND OPERATING RAILWAY POST OFFICE CARS. "OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL, WASHINGTON, D.C., March 2, 1910. "Hon. JOHN W. WEEKS, _Chairman Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, House of Representatives_. "MY DEAR SIR: In response to your inquiry made of the Second Assistant Postmaster-General in regard to the cost of maintaining and operating railway post office cars and its relation to the compensation received by railroad companies for the same and your reference to the speech delivered by Senator Vilas on the subject in the United States Senate, February 13, 1895, I have the honor to advise you as follows: "The Department has not at this time sufficient information upon this point to give from its own records a reliable estimate. As you are aware, we have recently asked railroad companies to submit answers to inquiries with reference to the cost of operating the mail service, and it is believed that when these shall have been received we will be in a position to furnish such information. Inasmuch, however, as it may be of importance to you to have estimates made from time to time by others and such incomplete information as we have at present, I submit the following: "The cost of operating a railway post office car has been variously estimated (but not officially by the Department) as from 15 to 30 cents a car mile. The average run per day of such a car is about 300 miles. Estimating the cost at 18 cents a car mile, the total cost of operating such car for one year would be $19,710.