A  few  years  since,  Professor  Parsons  asserted,  (so  the  public  press
declared — I  have  not  the  document  by  me  and  am  writing  hurriedly —
the  Professor  will,  therefore,  excuse  me  if  I  mis-spell  or  misquote.
Corrections  will  be  made  in  later  editions)  that  the  railway  mail  pay
and  car  rental  raid  amounted  to  something  like  $24,000,000  a  year.
Speaking  again  from  press  reports,  Mr.  Hitchcock  seems  to  have
been  going  after  those  raiders.  At  any  rate  he  appears  to  have  stop-
ped that  graft  sluiceway  to  the  extent — reports  vary — of  from
nine  to  fourteen  millions  of  dollars  a  year.
Again,  Mr.  Hitchcock,  we  say,  may  your  tribe  increase — on
this  line  of  action.
Now  let  us  return  and  do  a  little  "red-school-house"  figuring  on
this  railroad  pay  raid.  Some  pages  back,  we  reprinted  Mr.  Kirkman's
tables  of  weight  and  car  rental  pay  to  the  railways.  You  can  glance
back  and  verify  the  figures  when  you  deem  necessary.  Here  "orders"
force  me  to  hurry.  But  in  spite  of  orders  a  few  generalizations  in
"cipherin,"  have  to  be  made.
Many  pages  back,  the  Postoffice  Department's  own  distribution
of  mail  weights  for  1907  (the  last  preceding  "weighing  period"),  was
printed.  For  ready  reference,  we  will  here  reprint  it.
Per  Cent.
First-class  matter 7 . 29

Second-class  matter  . .  36 . 38


282  POSTAL   RIDERS   AND   RAIDERS.
Per  Cent.
