For many years the government has had to meet a deficit in the postal service. Cheaper letter postage has been demanded, and refused because of the deficit. It has been said that one cause of the great expense of the postal service to the government is the carrying of so much second-class mail matter in the issue of pamphlets and serial libraries. On this ground bills have been presented to Congress from time to time asking for such change in the postal laws as to exclude this class of matter. But now it is openly charged that the true cause of the deficit is not the amount of matter transported through the mails, but that the railroads have systematically defrauded the government to the amount of from four million to six million dollars annually. This is done in various ways in the weighing of the mails, once in four years, when the estimates of remuneration to the railroads are made.