Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1889 — WANAMAKERS REPORT. [ARTICLE]

WANAMAKERS REPORT.

THE HEAD OF THE TOSTOFFICE DEj I'ARTMKNT. He Notes the Growth of the Servloe In a Hundred Year* Business Principles Should Be Everywhere Employed to Increase Efficiency and Lessen Expense. The Postmaster General’s report haa been given out for publication. It opens as foilbws: | “To thk President: The first Postmaster General submitted his report to President Washington 100 years ago. Its exact date was Dec. 9, 1789. I mention this as of interest in this centennial age. 1 have the houor to state that to the* Postmaster General of the United States is committed the managemont of the largest business concern in the world, consisting of a central establishment, with almost 6Q,U00 branches and employing over 150,000 people. Its agents embrace one-half of the civil list. It maintains communication between the near and the remote places of the country with frequency, celerity and security. The number and value of its messages are such that the imaginatjon can scarcely farm a concention of them. The capital in use in carrying ou this vast business was last year $1 to each man, woman and child in the United States; nevertheless, the postal service is not a money making enterprise. It is not intended to be. It’s a mistake to expect it to be self-sustaining until it is fully perfected. The postofflee is the visible form of the federal government to evory community and to every citizen. Its hand is the only one that touohes the local life, the social interests and business concerns of every neighborhood. It brings tha government to every door in the land and makes it the ready and faithful servitor of overy interest of commerce and society. Tha peop a, from whom atone this allpervading agency springs into aotion, and by whose encouragement alone it can supply their jealous needs, simply want the system administered with such elllcienay and economy that it shall offer them mora and more accommodations and tax them less and less. Tho only method I can suggest by which all their desires may be gratified is not merely to talk about the application ot business principles to tha department. It is really to apply them. It is not to work in poor quarters, it is not to transport mails afoot when they should go in railroad trains; it is not to tolerate disloyal or listloss employes if better ones can be had; it is not finally to keep unwillingly abreast of the times; it is always to lead the times. “Ancient regulations and time-honored customs require the Postmaster General to make numberless signatures each day to vouchers, journals and papers that could as well fll luto other hands. He must receive delegations of the people who have claims of all sorts to present, must makq appointments to office and removals, must establish offices and hear suggestions. The Senators and membors of the House must represent their constituents at the Postoffice department and have the Postmaster General’s bast attention considering the 2,600 presidential cases. Complaints of irregularity at tho various postoffices and demands for enlarged service come to the ear of the Postmaster General. The various department heads must refer many subjects and be in frequent consultation on the dally work of the office. There is but little time to originate plana, to study the means of developing the system, or to improve the service. The Postmaster General is continually in the deep drudgery of each day’s recurring duties, and with but little opportunity to attend to anything beyond the routine work.” Mr. 4 anamaker says his chief recommendation is the creation of the office of fourth assistant postmaster-general. He says what is needed first is a fourth assistant postmaster-general to be in direct charge of the great divisions of the railway mail, the foreign mail, the money order office, the registry and supplies divisions, and the dead letter office. Congress should create this new place and the best educated postal man in the service at the Postoffice Department, or in aay of tt)e 59,000 postoffices should be found and made general manager. The report favors pensions or retirement allowances for old employes of the department On the question of Sunday mails it says: “This subject shall continue to receive my thoughtful consideration, and I shall make use of all proper means tending toward the minimizing of postoffice work upon Sunday, because I believe that the government should, as far as possible, make no requirements which will prohibit its employes from enjoying a day of rest.” One cent postage, the report says, is an eaby possibility of tho near future and must come as a matter of course. The Postmaster General states that the increase in the number of postoffices since 1880 is 15,999, and that during the same period the length of the routes has increased 72,159 miles, the gross revenue $22,85,611 and that the number of stamps issued for the last year was 1,085.980,840. The total expenditure to foreign steamships during the last fiscal year was $396,582.57, the amount paid to American steamships $109,824.14. The aggregate amount of the money orders issued in the United States for payment in Europe largely exceed the aggregate amount of money orders issued in those countries for payment here. The amount issued for payment in the United Kingdom was $5,117,159, and the amount issued there for payment here was only $860,065. .If letters and arguments ana articles in the newspapers presented at the department are evidence of interest there is a growing sentiment in favor of the government offering through the postoffice a depository for savings. The deficiency in the revenne for the fiscal year is $16,350,183; gross receipts, $56,191,090. Commodore Walker, chief of the bureau of navigation, in his annual report recommends that tha term of enlistment be increased to four years; that apprentices Ms enlisted until twenty-four years ot age and be entitled to discharge at the age of twenty upon payment of a certain sum; that the number of apprentices be increased from 750 to 1,5()J, making the enlisted force of the navy 9,000: that petty officers be given more stability of rank und favors the passage of the Whitthorne bill authorizing the enrollment of a naval mali'ia and the fOraation of a naval reserve. .1 Secretary Blaine is still confined to his room with lumbago. ,