"The existing law prescribing railway mail pay automatically lowers the rate on any given route as the volume of traffic increases. Mr. Adams shows that by the normal effect of this law the rate per ton mile is $1.17, when the average daily weight of mail is 200 pounds, and, decreasing with the increase of volume, it becomes 6.073 cents when the average daily weight is 300,000 pounds." NOTE.--Since 1907 the railroads have been paid at much reduced rates. On the heavy routes the pay is now 5.54 cents per ton per mile. Post Office Department officials have announced, as their conclusion from the results of the special weighing in 1907, that the average length of haul of all mail is 620 miles. The bulk of the mail is now carried on the heavy routes at 5.54 cents per ton per mile, or $34.34 per ton for the average haul, that is, for one and seven-tenths cents per pound. The railroads, therefore, receive less than one and three-fourths cents per pound for carrying the greater part of the mails. * * * * * But the rate reduction for wholesale quantities has not had the effect of reducing the actual remuneration of the railroads for carrying the mails to nearly so great an extent as the increasing requirements for excessive space for distributing mails en route. This feature was likewise discussed by Judge Moody in his report in the following language: "The rule of transportation invoked is based upon the assumption that the increase of traffic permits the introduction of increased economy, notably, the economy which results in so loading cars that the ratio of dead weight to paying freight is decreased. Yet this economy is precisely what our method of transporting mail denies to the railroads. Instead of permitting the mail cars, whether apartment or full postal cars, to be loaded to their full capacity, the Government demands that the cars shall be lightly loaded so that there may be ample space for the sorting and distribution of mail en route. In other words, instead of a freight car, a traveling post office." An illustration of the extent to which the reductions have been carried, as shown upon one railroad system, is set forth in the letter of January 21, 1909, addressed to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads of the House of Representatives by Mr. Ralph Peters, President of the Long Island Railroad, who states that the actual cost to his company of carrying the United States mail for the year was $122,169, while the total compensation for that service paid by the Government was $41,196. Mr. Peters says: "The Long Island Company received from the Government for mail service performed in expensive passenger trains one-half the rate received by it per car mile for average class freight in slow-moving freight trains."