Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1894 — NINE MILLION SHORT. [ARTICLE]

NINE MILLION SHORT.

LARGE DEFICIENCY IN THE POSTAL REVENUES. Report of Mr. Bissell-How He Would Decrease Expense and Increase Receipts—Readjustment of Regulations and Other Reforms Urged. Shows a Big Shortage. Postmaster General Bissell has submitted to the President his annual report for the year ended June 3, 1894. He briefly outlines the policy of the department. In general I would recommend that the first and most important thing to be done is to revise the law as to the sec-ond-class matter so as to place the Postoffice Department immediately upon a self-sustaining basis. 2. Avoid expensive experiments like the postal telegraph, rural free delivery, etc. 3. Develop the postal service on existing lines of administration, viz.: Extend free delivery in cities that now enjoy it. Accord it to towns already entitled to it under the law. Quicken railroad transportation. 4 Revise and reclassify organization of the railway mail service, and reclassify clerks in postoflices. 5. Provide for district supervision of all postal affairs by appointment of expert postal officials from classified service, as recommended in my last annual report. The revenue for the year was $75,080,479; expenditures, $84,324,414, leaving a deficiency of $9,243,935. The estimates for the current year ending June 30.1895, are: Revenue, $84,427,748; expenditures, $90,399,485; deficiency, $5,971,737. The estimates submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury for the next fiscal year are: Revenue, $86.907,407; expenditures, $91,059,283; deficiency, $4,151,876. This annual deficiency, the Postmaster General says, could be overcome by the increase in postal rates, but he does not believe this is advisable. Economy has been practiced, but nevertheless great care has been taken that it should not affect the efficiency of the service. Mr. Bissell recommends that the experimental free-delivery projects should be discontinued. nnd thinks that free delivery in rural districts is not needed or desired by the people. Too Much Second-Class Matter. One of the most important and interesting features of Mr. Bissell’s report is its discussion of class matter. In his last report he referred to the great disproportion of growth of second-class mail matter. He gives figures for the last six years, showing that in 1888 the weight of second-class mail matter carried was 143,000,000 pounds, and in 1893 it was 256,000,000. During the year 1894 there was carried 451,000,000 pounds of all mail matter, of which 299,000,000 pounds was second-class matter, the total cost being $36,207,572, an average of 8 cents a pound. Returns from postmasters show that the amount upon which postage at the rate of 1 cent per pound was paid was 25-1,000,000 pounds, the remaining 45,000,1X10 pounds being matter carried free in the county of publication. The cost of carrying the second-class matter was $20,320,000, while, at the rate of 1 cent a pound, the collections were $2,54 1 ,000, and SBOO,OOO special local rates in carrier cities, leaving a net loss to the Government of $16,973,000. The Postmaster General continues: I do not advocate a change of rates now upon legitimate newspapers and periodical magazines. My purpose is to urge the withdrawal of low postage rates from the large cities and the pretended periodicals that are now improperly enjoying them. Books and Bogus Trade Papers. The most conspicuous class of these pretended periodicals is what is now generally known as serial paper-covered books. They are in no sense serial, however, except in name, being usually given some general designation, as the “Fireside Series,” “The Detective Library,” or some other title of like character. Another class is what has got to be known as the “house organ.” being simply a pamphlet devoted mainly to the advertising of some mercantile establishment, but purporting to be devoted to trade. The bogus trade devoted mainly to the advertising of some any particular house, is another illustration. After commenting on the great increase in the mailing of fraternal insurance publications as second-class matter, Mr. Bissell suggests the remedy in the following: If it be the policy of Congress to continue the privileges of second-class rates to benevolent or fraternal societies, then the remedy I would suggest would be an amendment of the law limiting this rate to them and to legitimate newspapers and legitimate periodical magazines. The Postmaster General does not favor the postal telegraph, a system advocated by his predecessor. The conditions in this country, he says, are such as would enormously increase the large deficit. He takes as example the system in Great Britain, which is a comparatively small territory, and shows that the postal telegraph entails a total annual loss of about $2,000,000. He points out that in a country where the territory is so large the cost of a postal telegraph would far exceed any possible receipts or benefits. Mr. Bissell gives the following daily average busines of the department, which shows the vastness of the postal service: Number of miles of post route run. 1,100,000 Number of stamps manufactured.. 8,300 000 Number of envelopes manufactured I.SOttOOO Number of postal cards manufactured 1,500,000 Number of pieces mailedls,7oo 000 Number of letters ma lied Number of pieces of mall matter distributed and redistributed by railway postal c1erk5.27,500,000 Number of pieces handled in dead letter office 24,000 Daily transactions In money order business $1,100,000 Daily expenses $231,100 The Postmaster General believes in civil service in the Postoffice Department. He says: If the system lias produced such good resuits in the- clerical force of the department it Is reasonable to Inquire whether something like could not be applied with advantage to the lower grades of postmasters. For more than one generation the American people have been trained to regard the postoffice as inseparable from the varying fortunes of the two great political parties, and in some instances, even, as legitimately following the vicissitudes of mere factions within a party. This fallacy Is to be deplored. The intelligence of our people has long outgrown the notion that any one political party enjoys a monopoly of administrative talent. The local postoffice is closely connected with the every-day life of the people who patronize it, and nothing Is further from the principles of home rule and majority rule than to force any change whatever. Yet this is what happens and Is bound to happen as long as the postoffices remain In the public mind, and hence In the practice of the government associated with politics. The postal service must either be taken out of the political field altogether and surrounded with,the same conditions which conduce to the health of a private business or be divided. for administrative purposes, into two sections—the one political and the other nonpolitlcal, each under a separate head, so that the executive authority of the non-po-lltical side shall not be required to give any of his thought to the Improvement of the postal system.

Where Tin Is Mined. More than half the world's sup Iv of tin is mined in the Strait- Settlement at the tip of the Malay Feninsula. The output in 1891 was 33,031 tons out of a total of 57,551 tons; 12,106 tons camo from the Dutch East Indies, chiefly from the islani of Banka, leaving only V. 384 tons for the rert of the world.