Postal Bills

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2 o'clock, p. m., in room 135, Senate Office Building, Senator Raymond E. Baldwin, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.

Present: Senator Baldwin (chairman of the subcommittee).

Also present: George D. Riley, Staff Director; Roy C. Frank, Assistant to the Solictor, Post Office Department.

Senator BALDWIN. The meeting will come to order.

The first bill we will take up is Senate Bill 203, to increase the equipment maintenance of rural carriers 2 cents per mmile per day traveled by each rural carrier for a period of 3 years, and for other purposes.

(The bill is as follows:)

[S. 203 80th Cong. 1st Sess.]

A BILL To increase the equipment maintenance of rural carriers 2 cents per mile per day traveled by each rural carrier for a period of three years, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That each carrier in the rural mail delivery service shall be paid for equipment maintenance a sum equal to 2 cents per mile per day for each mile or major fraction of a mile scheduled in addition to the 6 cents per mile per day for each mile or major fraction of a mile scheduled as now provided by law. Payments for the additional equipment maintenance as provided herein shall be at the same periods and in the same manner as payments for regular compensation to rural carriers.

SEC. 2. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, such amounts as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect on the first of the month following the date of its enactment and shall terminate thirty-six months from the beginning date or such earlier date as the Congress may by concurrent resolution prescribe. Senator BALDWIN. Does anyone want to appear in regard to that bill?

STATEMENTS OF WILLIAM C. DOHERTY, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, WASHINGTON, D. C.; THOMAS G. WALTERS, DIRECTOR, RURAL CARRIER DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. DOHERTY. Mr. Chairman, Staff Director Riley, my name is William C. Doherty. I am president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, an organization which was formed in 1889 and is represented in the 48 States, Hawaiian Islands, and Puerto Rico, with a membership in excess of 77,000 and growing rapidly.

We represent city, rural, and village letter carriers in the United States postal service. We are vitally interested in all of the bills that are before this committee today, totaling 9, I understand.

The thought occurs it might expedite matters if we considered these bills en bloc, Mr. Chairman. Would that meet with your approval? Senator BALDWIN. It would. There are several here which are very much alike in their purpose, apparently, and we can consider them en bloc if you want to.

What do the rural carriers get now?

Mr. DOHERTY. Mr. Walters will answer that question.

Mr. WALTERS. Six cents.

Senator BALDWIN. Six cents per mile now?

Mr. WALTERS. Yes, sir.

Senator BALDWIN. And this would increase it to eight?
Mr. WALTERS. That is right.

With your permission, I would like to elaborate on that just for a moment. I would like to give a little brief résumé of S. 203.

By way of introduction, my name is Thomas G. Walters, Director of the Rural Department of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Immediately after Senator William Langer was appointed as chairman of the Senate Civil Service Committee, I conferred with him at great length on the cost of serving a rural route. With his approval, I contracted Mr. Pinion of the Senate Legislative Department and S. 203 was prepared by Mr. Pinion at our suggestion. We then presented the contents of this bill to Senator Langer who in turn introduced it in the Senate.

This legislation provides for the payment of 2 cents per mile per day additional equipment maintenance for a period not to exceed 36 months or can be terminated at an earlier date by a concurrent resolution of Congress. On Tuesday, February 25, 1947, when this legislation was before the full committee, a report from the staff of the Senate Civil Service Committee was read and the following portion of the report appears on page 790 of the printed hearings of February 25:

S. 203 provides for the payment of 2 cents per mile per day additional equipment maintenance for a period not to exceed 36 months or can be terminated at an earlier date by a concurrent resolution of the Congress, which is to say that this is temporary legislation.

Automobiles and automotive equipment have in many instances during the past 5 years advanced as much as 100 percent. For a concrete example, a standard 16-by-6.00 tire and tube sells today for $21.50; in 1938 they were selling for $11.20. The National Association of letter carriers, sponsors of this legislation, assured the chairman of this committee that they were asking for temporary relief for rural carriers, believing that within 2 or 3 years the prices would level off; therefore, they requested that this legislation be of a temporary nature.

The report from the Postmaster General stated:

I know that many rural carriers cannot adequately maintain their equipment on the basis of 6 cents per mile, because of their inability to obtain new cars or to have the old ones repaired at a reasonable cost.

Mr. Bruce, speaking as a representative of the Post Office Department stated:

It is probable, and virtually a certainty, that the 6 cents a mile they are now getting necessitates expenditures to come to some extent out of their personal funds to keep their car operating. And to that extent we know it is true that in many instances they will have to provide for the gap between 6 cents a mile and the actual cost out of personal funds. We know that is a fact.

I have here with me hundreds of letters from rural carriers giving us a break-down of their automotive equipment costs during the past year and, in some instances, a period of 2 years. From these cost ascertainments coming from all sections of the United States, the average cost per mile for serving a rural route is now in excess of 11 cents per mile. The cost of new cars and repair bills has increased in most instances more than 100 percent during the past few years. The following paragraph is quoted from a letter received from a rural carrier, Racine, Wisc:

As an illustration, tires that formerly sold for $8 now retail at $18; tire chains before the war sold for $3.75 now $6.50; cross links that we bought for 8 cents apiece now cost 21 cents apiece-13 links to each chain and in this part of the country we really tear them up with monotonous regularity.

From the rural carriers, Elmhurst, Ill., their expense account reveals that their cost of equipment for 1946 was $223 more than they received from the Post Office Department.

From the rural carrier, Fred Brewer, Indianapolis, Ind., he shows that his equipment costs were in excess of 12 cents per mile for 1946. Edwin R. Johnson, a rural carrier, Everett, Wash., shows that his expenses exceeded his equipment maintenance received by $200.

Rural Carrier Altus L. Parker from Bridgeport, Ind., shows that his expense was $1,212 and that he received from the Post Office Department $644.80, leaving him a deficit of $567.34.

William K. Irvin, rural carrier, Houston, Tex., has supplied figures proving that it cost $866.52 more during the year of 1946 to operate his automobile than he received, from the Post Office Department as equipment maintenance; the rural carriers on routes Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Boise, Idaho, supply information that proves that on route No. 1 the rural carrier spent $353.80 more during 1946 on automotive upkeep than he received from the Post Office Department; on route No. 2, $401.31 more; on route No. 3, $309.57 more; and on route No. 4, $479.14 more.

Raymond T. Nadroski, Plymouth, Pa., informs us that his automobile and upkeep cost him $334.43 more than he received from the Department; L. E. Furrow, Holbrook, Nebr., $404.76 more; Frank E. Metz, Cincinnati, Ohio, $830.79; Willard B. Groover, Indianapolis Ind., $321.87; rural carrier No. 1, Salisbury, Md., $287.95; rural carries No. 2, Salisbury, Md., $303.26; rural carrier No. 4, Salisbury, Md., $255.66; William H. McNeal, The Dalles, Oreg., $499.74; Edward A. Le Blank, Tucson, Ariz., $678.31; J. H. Welch, Gardena, Calif., $208. We take the position that the rural carriers should not be called upon nor should they be expected to assume the financial obligation and responsibility of serving their rural routes. We do not believe that the patrons of rural routes and the taxpayers of the United States expect the individual rural carrier to take a goodly portion of his base pay to pay the cost of equipment in serving a rural route.

We strongly recommend, Mr. Chairman, that you approve the enactment of this legislation and recommend to the full committee its adoption.

S. 204, a similar piece of legislation which affects only a small group of rural carriers provides that those carriers serving routes commonly known as Burch heavy routes be paid $1 per hour as equipment maintenance in lieu of the mileage. We are strongly supporting this legislation, because those carriers who serve the Burch routes must of

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Postal Bills: Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Civil ...