The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-05
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PoSTMAs.
TER GENERAL.

TER GENERAL.
| The expenditures of the Department in the
fiscal year ending June 3Oth, 1859, were
$ll ASS, OS3.62 the total revenue 81, 96S 48407,
being an increase of per cent. over the revenue
of the preceding year. To the expense ac-
count, however, must be added the aseertained
liabilities of the Department from the failure of
the appropriation, amounting to 81, 296, 009. &c,
making q total of expenditures and liabilities OF
| 1854, 692S9.
| The estimate of expenditures for 1860 is a
total of l5,O3s,627.62 The estimated means
Sl0,222, 534.9l. Deficiency $4,sl6, os27l.
TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS.
| On the 30th of June last there were in opera.
ton 1928 mail routes. The number of con.
| tractors was 1883.
| The length of these routes is estimated at
260,o52 miles, divided as follows, viz: Railroad,
26,0l0 miles steamboat ls.209 miles coach,
63,04l miles; inferior modes, l5l,792 miles.
The total annual transportation of mails was
s2,3os, 4o2 miles, costing ss.46s,7 ISL, and divi-
ded as follows Railroad, 27,2e6,3e4 miles, ct
SO, 243,s 74, about ll.9 cents per mile steam.
boat, 4,569962 miles, at 81, ISL 43, about 26t
cents mile; coach, 23,44S,398 miles, at
81, l34,094, about 1886 cents mile; inferior
modes, 27,02l,65a miles, at 81, s32, $40, about
7.l5 cents mile.
Compared with the service reported June 30,
1858, there is a decrease of 55l miles in the
length of the mail routes an addition Of
3,542,9ll miles to the annual transportation,
being about A per cent, and of Sl,673,339 to
the cost, or about alag per cent.
NUMBER OF POST OFFICES.
Whole number of post offices in the Uni.
ted States on the Both June, 1853 .27,9f7
Number that were established during
the year ending June 80, 1859 .l,455
Number that were discontinued 893
Net increase of Offices in the year 562
Whole number Of post offices on the 3Oth
of June, 1859 1850
DEAD LETTERS.
The whole humber of dead letters. contain.
ing money, registered and sent out during the
year ending June 80, 1859, was 9,726, of which
9,574 were delivered, leaving l,l52 unclaimed.
The whole amount of money received was
s45, 7lS.l4; restored to owners, Sal, 1874.
The number of letters registered and sent
out, containing valuable enclosures, other than
money, such as bills of exchange, drafts, bonds,
Treasury warrants &C., was S,647; of which
1913 have been restored to the owners. leaving
unclaimed 909
The amount Of enclosures was S2,502 ,2e8.Il,
the amount of the enclosures in sterling was
t6,983 49, 3D. ; the amount of the enclosures
in francs was le4,42l.
The number of dead letters returned fun
opened) to foreign countries during the last
fiscal year was 1892 divided as follows, viz:
England, 6O,3l0; France, 1851; Prussia,
l9,4O9; Bremen, S,sl9; Hamburg, l,4Ol;
Canada, 1880; New Brunswick, 1880; Nova
Scotia, 1868.
PENNY POST.
The report reco,, hends modification of the
- - ragnlating the delivery of "drop letters"
n Gnu "u' COW done chiefly by private ex-
presses. a reason :-.,,-c,enant IN +b;s
matter is urged upon the fact that the pUn
tenn is rapidly outgrown by the population of
large cines, no memory being equal to the task
of distribution, without frequent blunders and
constant confusion.
NEWSPAPER ExcHAYoEs
The report proceeds 10 discuss the privmeges
guaranteed to publishers of newspapers to re-
ceive exchange papers free of postage, and de-
clares decided hostility to it. 1t is asserted that
such exchanges are part Of the stock in trade
of the Journalist, and the Government should
not be required to transport such papers free
OF postage, any more than it should transport
anything for the farmer, the merchant, or me-
chanic, free of postage. 1t then proceeds to the
weak and fallacious argument that the journal
list might as well claim that his stationery and
his type should be furnished at the public ex.
pense. The report also urges the repeal of the
statute of 1852, requiring that weekly newspa-
pers be delivered free of postage to all subscri-
bers residing within the limits of the county in
which they are published. The report argues
strenuously in favor Of both these propositions.
The report says that the Department suffers
from the policy of making the mails subsidiary
to the maintenance of travelling lines, and that
enormous sums are thus paid to companies for
mails which are so light as scarcely to yield
sufficient revenue to pay for carrying them on
horseback. Fourhorse coaches are thus run
on border and unfrequented routes, and steam.
boat lines are subsidized at an outlay which
would afford postal accommodations to entire
States, merely that the owners of these lines
may be enriched, and that the public may have
easy, certain, and economical modes of convey.
ance for passengers and goods. To obviate
this In some measure, the Department will in
future enforce the laws of l845, requiring all
mail contracts to be let TO the lowest response.
BILE bidder.
The express mail agents from New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore, westward, have
been discontinued, and the baggage masters
substituted for them at reduced compensation,
thus saving $l9, 100 per annum.
The report complains of the exorbitant
charges for railroad mails, which are from $50
10 1915 per mile here, while in Canada they
are $50 for day and $40 for night service. It
IS also stated that, on one hundred and thirty
seven railroad routes the mails are transported
without contract, the companies refusing to
make contracts. They carry the mails when
and as they please, and the Department is
obliged to submit. But the report says that
his is to be stood no longer; that proposals
will be invited from all the companies for car.
wing the mails, and that no mails will be de.
ivered except to contracting parties.
The amount of compensation demanded for
he great through mail between Portland and
New Orleans was SO large, that, in view Of the
of the Department, the service
vas not begun. -Four routes were proposed for
he contract: one through Boston, Albany and
he lake cities, to Cincinnati, or through Phila-
lelphia and Pittsburg; and the other three by
he seaboard line, differing only in the route
below Baltimore.
The Mississippi-river mail is denounced by
he report as q mere waste of money, more than
thirteen hundred thousand dollars having been
expended on it since the passage of the act,
With return so slight as scarcely to Justify the
designation of the expenditure as postal in its
haracter. The service could be performed for
ne-fourth the sum it now costs, were it con.
racted for by the trip.
For the six different California mail routes,
he gross annual disbursements were 81, lS4677,
md the receipts from them $685., TAT, showing
loss of 81 ,844, 949.66 per annum. There was
loss on all the lines. On that through Pana-
ma, $738,250 was spent and but 1926, 972.69
eceived on that by Tehuantepec, s25O,O00
vas spent, and $5,276.68 received; on the
overland mail from San Antonio to San Diego,
,ls6,448 was spent, and $60l received; on
hat by st. Louis and Ell Paso to San Francis
o, 100000 was spent, and 81, 229.94 receiv-
d on the monthly mail from Kansas, Mis-
ouri, to Stockton, California, s79,99s was