Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-11-26
Postmaster Generals Report.

The annual report of Hon. A. w. Ran
dali, Postmaster General, has not yet
been finished. but all the statistics. and
the ordinary information, which is to
be communicated to Congress, in Decem-
ber, has been furnished by the heads of
the appointment, finance, contract and
auditing bureaus. and the material points
in the report have already been decided
on. The estimates of the Postmaster
General for the ordinary expenses of the
Department, including the service of the
mails for 1870. is placed at S24, $40, ,4I3.-
This does not include the expenses for
the special service to China, Japan, Bra
zil and the Sandwich Islands, which
will require an additional sum of S725,-
600. The entire receipts of the Depart
ment for the fiscal year ending June,
1865, derived from the sale of stamps,
postage collected, g., are, SIT, ,202, ,6UO.-
This is the ordinary revenue OF the Je-
partment for the year, which last year
was but Sl5, ,237 ops. The report will
show that the expenses of the Depart
ment have been augmented in a greater
proportion than the receipts. 1t will
also show that the expenditures have
been so great that they have absorbed
not only all of the receipts but all appro-
priations and all the funds standing to
the credit of the Department, so that the
Department has nothing to fall back
upon except the current receipts of the
coming year. Mr.. Randall, in view of
this condition of affairs, will ask for q
deficiency appropriation for the current
year of four millions. The Overland
Mail service, very expensive enter
p'ise, has tended greatly to increase the
deficiency, owing to the fact that it has
cost largely in excess of the appropria-
tions of last year. New and expensive
mail routes established in July last by
act of Congress will also help to swell
the deficiency. The Postmaster General
does not expect the department to pay
its expenses out of The ordinary receipts,
and says that the latter will be made
quate in the future, as they have been
i'll the past to support the service. The
free delivery system cost for the year
1895 1884. The report will allude in de-
tail to the non-paying routes, and will
show that the maintenance of postal
service on expensive routes in remote
States and territories has cost So, ,S4S, $50.
Ofthis sum only 81 ,014, 700 has been re-
by postal receipts. The restor-
alton of the old and the opening of the
new routes in the South and South west,
which were suspended during the rebel
lion, have been the source of large
The excess of expendi-
lures over the receipts, in those States,
is 81 ,337, 600. The foreign mail service,
the railroad postal Car system, and other
matters of large expense, are alse, al
luded to by the Postmaster General as
helping to make up the deficiency. The
working of the Money Order system is
alluded to by the Postmaster General
with satisfaction. The system continues
to grow in general favor, and is self-sup-
porting. The number of orders has in
creased from 457, ,496 in 1857, to 831, 1886 in |
1868, having nearly doubled. The ag-
gregate amount transmitted in 1867, by |
this system, throughout the country, |
was So, ,229, ,327, and in 1868, is Sic, 197, 1858.
The amount of revenue to the Depart |
ment, realized by this system, is S54, 15S, |
which is more than sufficient to pay the |
various expenses. The number of post
office in operation in the United States |
and Territories, during the fiscal year,
was, 26, ,4S1. The number of changes of |
Postmasters during the year, 1881; |
stamps ard stamped envelopes sold dur |
ing the year, $i4,O66, ,l39; stamps and
envelopes issued to Postmasters |
during tie year, Sl3 1858, ,124; Eumber of |
mail letters delivered by carriers, 64,-
349, ,4s6; local letters delivered, Il, ,OS1 ,9O6;
newspapers delivered, 16,9l0,715.