The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-31 00:00:00

684,186 35

Leaving a net balance; after settlement and
'-' payment of all liabilities, of 5815,813 65
Fiscal year Fiscal year
ending June ending June
Description. 30, 1868. 30, 1869.
Postage stamps 511,736,261 00 $12,706,220 00
Newspaper and periodical

stamps 14,750 00 16,348 00
Plain stamped envelopes 1,285,218 00 1,332,862 50
Request stamped envelopes 759,520 00 950,726 00
Newspaper wrappers .. _. 67,373 00 71,905 00

Aggregate 513,863,124 00 $15,073,061 50
Increase
Description. Increase. per cent.
Postage stamps 5469,956 00 8 26-100
Newspaper and periodical
___stamps

Plain stamped envelopes 47.,644 50 3 70-100
Request stamped envelopes 191,206 00 25 17-100
Newspaper wrappers

Aggregate

8 76-100

CONTRACTS.

There were in the service ;Ithe Department on the
-30th of June, 1869, 7,056 contractors rot the transportation
of the mails.
Of mail routes in operation there were 8,449, aggregating
in length 223,731 miles, in annual transportation, 90,723,403
miles, and tu annual cost, $10,406,501. If the compensa-
tion of railway post-office clerks, route agents, local agents,
mail messengers, mail route messengers, and baggage-
masters in charge of mails, amounting to $1,275,227, be
added, the aggregate annual cost will be $11,681,728. This
service was divided as follows :
Railroad routes : Length, 39,537 miles ; annual trans-
portation, 41,399,281 miles; annual cost, $4,723,680—about
11.41 cents per mile.
Steamboat routes: Length, 20,779 miles; annual trans-
portation, 41,331,011 miles; annual cost $774,536—ab0ut
17.88 cents. per mile.
"Celerity, certainty, and security :" Length, 163,415
miles ; annual transportation, 44,993,108 miles ; annual
cost, $4,908,285 - about 10.9 cents per mile.
There was an increase over the preceding year in length
of routes of 6;803 miles; in annual transportation,
6,499,078 miles; and in cost, $140,445. To the last add
increased cost for railway post-office clerks, route, local,
and other agents, $160,594, and the total increase of cost
will be shown to be $301,039.
The foregoing statements of distances and costs do not
include service for "special" offices. There were, at the
close of the year, 1,962 of these offices, each with a mail
carrier, a hose pay from the department is not allowed to
exceed the not postal yiuld of the office. " Special" routes
and their-carriers aro included in the number of contrac-
tors nod route.; as given above.
. ._

All the contracts with Welk Fargo, and Co. for the
conveyance of the Overland rdaPs have expired. except
on the note from Cheyenne, City to Denver, 102 milos and
back daily, for a hick payment is made at the ram of
per annum. This is all that remains of the old
overland mail service, and this will doubtless be super-
seded in a few nioutlw, a railroad between Cheyenne City
and Prover being now in rapid courso of construction.

READJUSTMENT OF PAY ON RAILROAD ROUTES.
In anticipation of the close of the contract term in the
Net England States and the State of New York, and
with a view to obtain data upon which to base the re-ad-
justment of the rates of pay for the transportation of mails
on railroad routes in those States for the Pew tt rut com-
mencing July 1, 1869, cii &ars were sent out in Fehi nary
lat 4 to the prupr-etors of all such routes, requesting them
to weigh the mails they conveyed for thirty days from the
Ist a March, and report. the result to the Department,
and to furia,b, also, descriptions' of the accomno.dstions
provided for mails aid agents, together with statements
showing the number of times par week the mails were con-
veyed in each direction. The information obtained in
answer to this call is comprised in table E of the report of

the Second Assistant Postmaster-General, hereto appended,
in which there are also embraced returns from a number of
routes in other States, made at various times since the
publication of a similar table in'the annual reF ort for ltst;7,
It is the purpose of the Department in the future to make
a similar call upon the proprietors of railroad routes near
the close of the contract-term in each of the four sections
into which the country is divided, so that the readjust
meta, of pay in every case may be made upon new and
oorrected returns.

The rates heretofore paid for railroad mail service in
New England and New York have been carefully com-
pared with the returns just received from those .Mates ;
and in every instance in which the amount and charac-
ter of.the service have been found to bo clearly insuffi-
cient to jestify the rate allowed, a commensurate de,hic-
tion has teen made. On the other baud, whenever a de-
maud for increased pay has been made which the retains
appeared to warrant, such increase has been allowed. On.
all of these mutes together, 78 in numl er, the former an-
nual pay amounted to 8742,852 63. The annual pay, as
readjusted, now amounts to $803,706 1:8, showieg an
excess of the.present over the loaner amount of annual
pay of $60,853 95.
• Great complaints have been made by some of the prin-
cipal milt oad companies in relation to the alleged inade-
gnaey of their compen•ation fin carrying the mails. They
asset t that the rates of their pay were fixed try tho act of
3tl" March, 1845, and have remained unchanged for nearly
25 years; and that, although the phy thus established
,was, at the time of the passage of the act, just and ample,
it now falls short of what tl.ey are fairly entitled to. It
cannot be denied that since the passage of the act of 1845
important chaeges Lave tlken place, the most conspi-
cuous of which are the following : a large increase in the
quantity and weight of mail matter; au additional number
of tripe per day to meet the necessities of the service ; and
the introduction of railway post offices, requiring much
heavier a- d more expensive mail cars. These changes
have imposed additional duties upon the railroads consti-
tuting the great trunk lines, and have largely increased
their expenses. Li justice to this class of roads, I respect-
fully recommend a careful revision and readjustment by
Congress of railroad compersation, and the establishment
of such rates as will be just and equitable to all con-
cerned.