Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1891 — THE POSTAL SERVICE. [ARTICLE]

THE POSTAL SERVICE.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL. One Cent Postage Coming—Three Cent Telephone and Ten Cent Telegraph Messages —Pay of Fonrth-class Officers. Improvements Which Should Be Made. In his annual report Postmaster General Wanamaker says that, in spite of the fact that over $1,000,000 worth of lottery revenue has been lost during tho past year, the postal deficit of $6, OOP,OOO is surely disappearing, provided the same rate of revenue and expenses ebta ns on July I, 1593. It appears that all of the lottery mail has practically been driven from tho mails, and the fidelity of the department in trying to enforce this almost unanimous wish of Congress is evident from the court records of prosecutions, involving 203 cases in six months The Postmaster General renews his recommendation for the division of the country into postal districts, and adduces many reasons why the reform would be beneficial. He shows that the county seat visitations have resulted in the submission of 3.100 reports out of a possible 2,800, and that the condition of 45,600 offices is covered. The following are the leading items obtained by an actual compilation of over 38,000 of these reports: Poßtofflces conveniently located 35,9 *Q Poetoffices inconveniently 1 cated 607' Change of location suggested 162: Postofflces well-kept, clean, and orderly. .31,718 Postoffices not wolPkept. etc 3,126 Books, accounts, aud reports properly and promptly written up 31,107 Books, etc., not properly and promptly written up 6,281 Postofflee a lounging place 1,250’ Postoffioo not a lounging place 35,61)1 Offices having one or more mails arriving and departing every day (that is, supplied v»lth dally mail servloe) 23,009 Notice of the lottery law was found p08ted.32,677 Lottery law was not posted 4,962. Patrons of the postoffice satisfied with the service 30,267 Patrons of the postoffice not satisfied with the service 1,066 Postmaster was found to understand the postal laws and regulations 32,573 Postmaster did not understand the postal laws aud regulation* 4,814 Postmaster devotes all his time to the offloe 22,070 Postmastei does not devote all his time to the office 15,420Postmaster was found to be engaged in objectionable employment in connection with the postoffice 166Postmaster has made obvious improvements in the service of his office 9,801. Postmaster has not thus far made improvements in the service of his c ffice.. .23,997 Offices which oould be discontinueu and supplied from some other office 409' Number of offices rated A, or perfect 1,754, Number of offices rated 4, or excellent 8,495 Number of offices rated 3, or good 14 737 Number of offices rated 2, or fair B’soß Number of offices rated 1, or poor 1,912 The Postmaster General recommends the adaptation of the to ophono, as welt as the telegraph, to the postal systemHo says: “One cent letter postage,. 3cent telephone messages, and 10-cent telegraph messages are a 1 near possibilities under an enlightened and compact l ostal system, using' the newesttelegraphic inventions. The advantage of tying the rural postoffioo by a telephone wire requiring no operator tothe rai road station must be obvious. It is not chimerical to expect a 3-cent telephone rate; thepossibilities of (heapening the management of those new facilities are very great. All account keeping could be abolished by use of stamps or ‘nickel-in the-slot’ attachments, collection boxes everywhere in the cities and many places in the country towns would receive telephone and telegraph messages, written on stamped cards likepostal cards. Old so.diers and others could find employment as collectors, and frequent collections would abolish thepresent expensive messenger-boy system. For telegraphing only an operator is needed when business justifies it, otherwise a telegraph message would be forwarded by ‘phono to the nearest telegraph station. “I have heretofore stated that l-ce:it postage will be successfully demanded in. time. I believe that time is not lar off. It certainly ought not to be asked for so long as any deficit appears in the revenues of the postal sferviee, and hero I wish to reiterate the further statement that, in my judgment, it ought not to be asked for then until many improvements and extensions of the serv.ee are provided for. It would not be just and fair to a Service upon which every effort has been spent for two years to make it selfsustaining, and which now promises to become so in tho next fiscal year, to heap upon it, the instant the balance sheet becomes clear, a burden of millions, from which it could not recover for many years, and with the existence of which it would have to struggle year by year, and then often unsuccessfu ]y, to obtain the appropriations absolutely required for its maintenance. “Clerks in postoftiees ought to bo fairly paid; thoy ought not to be overworked; they ought to nave rooms in, better buildings; ietter-carriers ought not to be weighted down like packhorses; railway postal clerks should bepaid for the clangers they face daily; the great majority of postofflces ought to be better equipped; a fourth-class postmaster who rcce ves SIOO a year cannot afford to pay S2OO for fitting his office with boxes; rural free delivery, considered to be a successful experiment, and about which there cannot bo two opin- ■ ions as to the propriety of its further extension, should bo widely extended. Those and other things ought to be dene, but they can never be consummated so long as a deficiency in the po tal revenues stares an appropriation committee in the face. ” “At the c ose of the last fiscal year there were 64,329 postofflces. At 44,263 of these the receipts which accrued were absorbed, or more than absorbed, by the postmasters’ pay. In other words, the comp nsation to postmasters includes all the receipts from more than two thirds of all the postofflces. Another large percentage of offices should be added to this number, where tho compensation of the postmaster, the cost of mail messenger service, and the allowance for sefarating labor more than include the receipts Tho number of postofflces that are conducted at a profit i 9 therefore very small. ”