These two classes of passenger expense (assignable and non-assignable) aggregate $1,915,371 monthly, or at the rate of $22,984,452 per year, and 11.75 per cent of this sum, or $2,700,675, is the annual operating cost to the Burlington Company of transporting the Government mails. Cost of carrying the mails $2,700,675 Earnings from carrying the mails 2,333,220 ---------- Loss $367,455 These figures show that, in proportion to the service rendered, the Government paid to that company $367,455 less than the actual cost of doing the work, not including anything for taxes, nor for interest paid by the company upon its funded debt, which was necessary to be paid, in order to preserve the property, to say nothing of a return upon the capital represented by the capital stock. The correct mail's proportion of taxes and interest for the year is $634,713, which added to the $367,455 loss above operating expenses, shows a loss of $1,002,168: Loss, operating expenses over revenue $367,455 11.75% of taxes and interest 634,713 ---------- Annual loss on mails $1,002,168 This takes no account of the annual value at two cents per mile of the transportation of inspectors and postal employees, other than clerks in charge of the mails ($74,352), nor of clerks in charge of the mails ($746,340). These two items of service rendered to the Government by the C. B. & Q. road are of the admitted value of $820,692 annually. The railroad company has the same duty and legal responsibility towards these clerks as towards passengers. * * * * * Is there another fair way of testing this question? In a letter dated March 2, 1910, from Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Postmaster-General, to Hon. John W. Weeks, Chairman of the Post Office Committee of the House, printed in full herewith, he states it is estimated that the average annual cost to the railroads of operating a post office car for the Government is $19,710, including $2,049 for lighting, heating, repairs, etc., and that the total average pay received for the car and its contents including post office car pay, is $16,638 per annum, showing a loss in this branch of the service of $3,073 per car. There are 1,111 full postal cars in actual service in the country, and the loss thereon, therefore, aggregates $3,414,103, to say nothing of the 231 postal cars in reserve. But that is the smaller part of the loss. There were 3,116 apartment cars in actual use in 1909, averaging twenty feet in length, and the cost of operating each of these, according to Mr. Hitchcock's figures, would be one-third of $19,710, or $6,570.