Gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention, and the favor, which I acknowledge, of being permitted to address you as best I may upon a subject to which we are all devoted. In the absence of a distinct literature on the subject that your worthy President assigned to me, my efforts are perhaps a bit crudely devised, having no pattern. In another generation we may perhaps evolve a distinct species of railroad statesman and an encyclopedia from which we will be able to point back to the beginnings and the efforts at mutual advice, and to the growth and knowledge that have ensued, just as we have seen the day of small things in railroads to be the beginning of a constant growth to the wonders of today. I am sure that the American people can congratulate themselves upon an institution of the character of your Convention and of your several honorable bodies, and trust that this meeting will be such that you will feel that you have made definite progress in your concurrent aims. RAILWAY MAIL PAY BY JULIUS KRUTTSCHNITT, DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION OF THE UNION PACIFIC SYSTEM AND SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY. The question of compensation to the railroads of the United States for carrying the mails has been under review before Congress at different times during the past ten years. The subject was exhaustively investigated by a Joint Commission of the Senate and House of Representatives in 1898 and 1899, which reached the following conclusion after full consideration and taking of a mass of testimony on all sides of the question: "Upon a careful consideration of all the evidence and the statements and arguments submitted, and in view of all the services rendered by the railroads, we are of the opinion that the prices now paid to the railroad companies for the transportation of the mails are not excessive, and recommend that no reduction thereof be made at this time." (See Report 2284, House of Representatives, 56th Congress, 2d Session.) This Commission also concluded as to the pay for railway postoffice cars: "Taking in view all these facts as disclosed by the testimony filed herewith, we are of the opinion that the prices paid as compensation for the postal car service are not excessive, and recommend that no reduction be made therein so long as the methods, conditions and requirements of the postal service continue the same as at present."