Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1880 — ANNUAL REPORT OP THE POSTMASTER GENERAL. [ARTICLE]

ANNUAL REPORT OP THE POSTMASTER GENERAL.

The annual report of tbe Postmaster General begins with the remark by Mr. Maynard that a* he took charge of the department only on the 25th of August last he speaks of it historically and as he finds it, with little reference to his own administration, which did not commence until after the expiration of the fiscal year with the transactions of which the present report is chiefly concerned. The report presents a large amount of statistical information concerning the operations of the department Attention is called to the statement of Assistant Postmaster General Brady respecting tbe star service transportation and last year’s deficiency, as “worthy careful consideration. To have restricted the postal service to the meager appropriation for 1879 would have rendered it entirely inadequate to the wants of the people.” He further says he has carefully reviewed the estimates submitted by Gen. Brady for the next fiscal year’s mail transportation m all its branches, and approves all of them as being in accordance with the probable requirements of the service. An appropriation is recommended for continuance of special mail facilities on railroads, such as extra trains with mails only, and acceleration of regular trains carrying mails, etc., which the people have enjoyed for several years past. The report further says : “It is not doubted that regular and frequent means of mail steamship communication with Mexican, Central American, South American, and trans-Pacific ports would prove important auxiliaries to American commerce, and I think it would be a wise measure of public policy to encourage, by appropriate legislation, the establishment by onr own citizens of American lines of steamers to such of said- ports as will, in the judgment of Congress, promote our commercial interests. I think it would be a wise measure to so amend the general law on the subject as to authorize the payment by the Postmaster General of jnstand reasonable compensation, within a prescribed maximum limit, and commensurate with the importance of the services performed, to such lines of American steamers as may be employed under contract with this department in transporting mails of the United States to Mexican, Central American, South American, and trans-Pacific ports. “The money-order system continues to grow in popular favor. The Superintendent of the money-order system suggests a plan for reduction of fees which seems to me entirely feasible, and which is commended to the attention of Congress. Briefly stated, his plan is to reduce the fee for money-orders not exceeding $5 to 5 cents, and to extend the maximum limit of an order from SSO to SIOO, so that increased commissions received from large orders may offset the loss resulting from the reduced fee for small orders.”

The foreign money-order business and operations of letter-carrier system are reported in a highlv-satisfactory condition. Mr. Maynard renews the recommendations of his predecessor for legislative authority to accept and to carry into effect the provisions of an article of the Universal Postal Union Convention concluded at Paris on the Ist of June, 1878, respecting payment of limited indemnity for registered articles of the Postal Union, the origin and address of which may be lost or stolen during transmission through the mails ; and also for such nullification of the provisions of the act of March 3, 1879, as will authorize the adoption by the Secretary of the Treasury and Postmaster General of regulations providing for the delivery by mail to addresses at offices of destination in the United States, subject to payment of customs duties thereon, on any packet of dutiable mail matter received in mails from foreign countries. He is of opinion, also, that authority to transmit and deliver dutiable articles of mail matter to addresses through the mails, subject to payment of customs duties thereon, should not be restricted to such mail matter as is now exchangeable in the universal Postal Union mails, but should embrace all articles of dutiable matter received in mails from other countries.

The Postmaster General suggests the establishment of a “postal-savings’’ system, and also of postal telegraphs in this country, in the following terms: “One of my predecessors some years since recommended incorporation into the department of a system of postal savings. The subject has from time to time occupied the attention of Congress. For several years the system has been in operation in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Canada. When in London, recently, her Majesty’s Postmaster General kindly gave me facilities for observing the management of nis department. I learned that the postal-sav-ings system had been remarkably successful, and had substantially grown in popular favor. As managed in that country it 'is a source of some profit to the Government. In this country I incline to the belief that the system would have advantages even greater than in a compact population like that of Groat Britain, In by far the larger portion of the United States there are no savings depositories, and are not likely to be. To people of these parts the use of the po.stofiice for this purpose would be a great boon. It would be an additional advantage that deposits would be available at any depository office in the United States—an important consideration with a people so migratory as ours. It is believed the system would interfere little with the business of savings banks,but would absorb funds now not deposited in them. Nor would the patronage of the Government be sensibly increased, since the system would be operated by persons already in public service, with no- considerable addition to the number. Your attention and the attention of Congress is respectfully invited to it.

“ During mv visit to the British postoffice I examined with much interest the system of telegraphy for several years past connected with the postal service. This method of correspondence is thought to have made great adrance since it was changed from the management of private corporations, responsible to nobody, hardly to public opinion, and placed under control of the Government. The business has increased many fold, the oost of sending messages has been largely reduced, and the service is performed in localities it would never have reached under the pecuniary stimulus of private enterprise. At the same time it yields a margin of profit to the royal treasury. Is it not time for us to renow the inquiry whether it is wise to leave this important instrument of correspondence in charge of corporations whose primary object is gain to the managers and stockholders, and the convenience of the public secondary only ? ” Mr. Maynard renews for consideration- of Congress the suggestion made by his predecessor, that the word “fraudulent,” as it occurs in sections 3,929 and 4,041 of the revised statutes, preceding the word “ lottery,” should bo stricken out. He says : “ That Congress, while expressly forbidding the use of the ordinary mail to all lottery cofnpauies, whether fraudulent or not, should intend to afford a special security of registry system and convenience and safety of the money-order system to persons engaged in employments 'declared by the Supreme Court of the United States to be ‘ demoralizing in their effects, no matter how carefully regulated,’ unless express proof of fraud can be made against such companies, is not to bo assumed. Congress will not intentionally aid in demoralizing the public by affording extraordinary postal facilities to persons or companies tjhose business accomplishes this result” Ho further says that the legal positions taken bv liis predecessor concerning the power of the Postofiice Department to exclude lotteries from the uso of the mails meet his approval, and under tho recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Stone vs. The State of Mississippi, he has felt it to be his official duty also to give full effect to the actions of any State Legislature iu its effort to relieve the public from the evil consequences of pernicious legislation in the past. Before leaving the subject Mr. Maynard renews the recommendation of Postmaster Gen. Key that newspapers containing lottery advertisements be deprived of the privileges of the mails.