countants' Association. It is the new branch of this Association, of which I spoke in my opening address. They are young men; they are hustlers. They have come here for business, and they have attended to it, and they have set us an example that we will do well to follow, in their earnestness and intentness upon their work. I guarantee that they will carry away from here better and more lasting results than we have carried away from any convention we have ever held. [Applause.] Let us help them and encourage them to carry out their plans in every way we know how. I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. C. N. Duffy, of St. Louis, the first vice-president, Mr. Henry L. Wilson, of Boston, the president, having been unavoidably kept at home.

REMARKS OF MR. C. N. DUFFY, FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE STREET RAILWAY ACCOUNTANTS' ASSOCIATION

OF AMERICA.

MR. DUFFY, St. Louis-Mr. President and gentlemen, we want to thank you for the honor conferred upon us in inviting us to appear before this body, and we assure you of our appreciation of it. We want to thank Mr. McCulloch for his kind mention of our Association in his address, and above all, we want to thank the members of this Association for the strong resolutions of endorsement and hearty support that you have passed. That means to us a great deal, more than you probably realize; and in that connection we want to thank all the gentlemen who have come to our meetings, and those who have joined our Association, and more especially those who are managers and not strictly accountants. The Street Railway Accountants' Association was organized in Cleveland, March 23-24 of this year. The work of the accounting departments of street railways is very diversified.

It is largely the result of the ideas of the men in charge, or the conditions under which the road is operated, and we feel that it is wise for us to have a convention and better our work and learn from one another, just as you operating gentlemen have done in this convention, and

that is our purpose-to acquire information from one another and interchange ideas, and to bring out the good points of all systems of accounting, for the common good; also to attend these conventions and to profit by the exhibits and other advantages which you gentlemen enjoy. We desire, if possible, to promote a simple, concise and elastic system of accounting, which will be economical and uniform, so that as far as possible all street railway accounts shall be on the same basis. That does not mean that I am to know what the other man is doing, or the other man is to know what I am doing; but it does mean that, if our general managers want to know how they stand as compared with other companies, in the performance of the power plant, or operation of the road, or maintenance of track, or any other department of the work, they can at least compare things on a uniform basis. [Applause.] That is our idea. We feel that the accounting department of a street railway company is just as important as any other department, and all we hope to do is to improve our work and improve ourselves in the same way and by the same means that the American Street Railway Association is helping the operating department. Gentlemen, I thank you. [Applause.]

THE PRESIDENT-I hope that you will not think that we have been greedy in St. Louis, because it is more a matter of accident than anything else that the presiding officer of the Accountants' Association and the presiding officer of this Association come from the same city and company. [Applause.]

MR. DIMMOCK, Council Bluffs-St. Louis deserves it.

THE PRESIDENT-Gentlemen, have you anything you would like to say in connection with this matter? If not, we will proceed with the regular business of the meeting. My object in bringing these gentlemen before you is to let you see who they are and what they are, and let you know what they are doing, so that you will approve of it and encourage them in their efforts.

MR. DUFFY-In connection with what the President has said, I would like to say that to-day we have an all-day

session. We started business this morning at ten o'clock; I cannot say when we will get through. We expect an allday sesion, and possibly an all-night session. We are now discussing the report of the committee on recommendations for a uniform system of accounting; there are so many questions connected with that subject, that all you operating gentlemen are interested in, and in which you can help us, that we earnestly ask you to come to the meeting to-day and assist us in our deliberations. In that connection I will say that Mr. Sergeant, of the West End road, and first vicepresident of this Association, dropped in at the meeting this morning; I happened to see him as he was about to go out of the door. I asked him to address the meeting, and he gave the gentlemen present the benefit of a little talk, a few ideas of his own, with reference to accounting, and we would be glad to have as many more of you as will honor us do the same thing.

MR. JONES, Memphis-As I understand it the Accountants' Association is made up of the representatives of different street railroad companies or the railroad companies themselves, and if that is the case I suppose they want the membership as large as possible. They have certain expenses to meet, the same as our Association; and it seems to me it would be a good idea for our President to explain the objects of their organization and give some of the members of this Association an opportunity to join the Accountants' Association.

Our company is not represented at their meeting, but I will say that we would like to be enrolled as a member. If we cannot send some one to represent us, we will take the benefit of their work from reading the proceedings of their meetings.

THE PRESIDENT-I will say in response to Mr. Jones that I happen to know that a circular announcing their meeting and explaining the objects of the Association was sent to every street railway company in the United States and Canada.

MR. JONES-There are lots of waste-paper baskets, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT-Their doors are open, and they would be glad to welcome the membership of any street railway company in America.

MR. DUFFY-Permit me one word more, Mr. President. I will state, Mr. Jones, in answer to your question, that the railway company is the member, as in this Association, and the company is represented by delegates. The annual dues are ten dollars.

MR. JONES-You can put us down anyway.
MR. DUFFY-I thank you, Mr. Jones.

THE PRESIDENT--Mr. Dimmock wishes to address a few words to the Convention.

DISCUSSION AS TO RATES RECEIVED FOR CARRYING THE UNITED STATES MAIL ON STREET RAILWAY CARS.

MR. DIMMOCK, Omaha-The directors of the Omaha and Council Bluffs interurban line, which I represent, have asked me to endeavor to obtain discussion at this meeting of the Convention on the subject of United States mails, as to the amounts to be received from the Government for carrying the same, with the object in view of obtaining better rates, and a uniform price for the same, feeling that through the Convention channels is about the only way the street railways can obtain fair receipts from this class of service. We do not feel that we can get this subject before you so that you can do much at this meeting, but our experience is that the Government is reducing the rates in our vicinity, fifty per cent. of what we have received for the past five years; and upon making inquiries of a number of other roads, we find that they have also decreased their receipts from this source. It appears to me that there is no way in which we can do anything with the Government upon this subject except to get it before this Association; and I think within the next year, if all the members will take this question up, the street railway companies can obtain much larger revenue from this source than they have had heretofore. All I ask is that this subject be taken up and handled between now and the next Convention, so that we can find out what rates we can obtain.

I do not think that the street railway companies are under any obligation to the Government to carry these mails at a less rate than the steam railroads receive, and in a great many cases they are doing so.

MR. MACFAYDEN, Chester-Why would it not be a good idea to appoint a committee to investigate the subject of carrying United States mail on street railways, and have the committee report at the next Convention?

THE PRESIDENT-Would it not be well to have the incoming Executive Committee provide for a paper on that subject?

MR. MACFAYDEN-I move that a paper be prepared on this subject to be presented at the next Convention.

MR. HIELD, Minneapolis-The route of our interurban line, which runs between Minneapolis and St. Paul, passes the post-offices in each city, and this line has been for several years past the official mail route. To each car a box is attached, in which, in addition to the regular dispatches of mail between cities, letters may be deposited at any of the regular stops on the line.

At the time this service was inaugurated there had never been any legislation covering such service and in order to give the scheme a trial we accepted the lowest classification which was given to railroads and which, I believe, is limited to two hundred pounds. As we carry nothing but letters our weight is never anywhere near that amount. The package mail which goes direct from one post-office to another, is dispatched every thirty minutes.

Our original contract covered a period of some four or five years and has recently been renewed. We have never been quite satisfied with the remuneration we were getting for this service and in our last contract it was considerably increased.

In addition to the above we carry the mail to four substations in Minneapolis and from the Minneapolis post-office to another independent post-office, not a sub-station, located in the suburbs. The remuneration for this last service is on a basis of three cents a mile. This is pouch service, no