The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-12-15
Report Of Postm.ster.General Howe.

The report OF Postmaster-General Howe for
the fiscal year ended June 20, 1882. shows total
disbursements OF the postaiservice during
5S.5as: receipts from money orders, $3.50 81
excess of receipts, 81, 30, 3Ss. For the first
time in thirty-One years the postal service is
determine the real cost of the postalservice
for the past year there should be deducted
from the total disbursements SAC, 3S6. which,
though paid cut last year. was for service rem,
$50, $50. estimated due for service rendered
last year. There should also be added 81, u.s.
IA earned by railway companies for trans
portation of mails between the Missouri River
and the Pacific. The account thus stated
shows an excess OF earnings of but $3O,0j0.
me deficiency the previous fiscal year was
S2.4ii,3S. In 1880 the deficiency was more than
slO,OOo.0G. Some part of this great improve
inent Is cue to the wonderful growth and pros
perity of the country, but the larger part is
due to improved methods in the administrar
The heaviest item of expenditure Is for
transportation of the mails on railways. The
next heaviest is that for the pay of Post
masters. These two items must swell with the
Volume OF business, since the rate of cOmpen-
sation Is prOportioned to the amount of BUSH
ness done. The expenditure next in rank is
for what Is known as the star service. That
includes all mail transportation not on rail-
ways nor on steamboats,. The amount and the
cost of that service IL left almost wholly to the
year ended June 30. 1881, the star service COW
cred -, 30, 2s6 miles of transportation, at cost
Ut S6,5L,S15; for the year ended June 30, lsS2,
the same service covered 1924, S67 miles, and
cost S553,S4a The estimates for 1884 promise
financial results still more fiattering than those
realized the last fiscal year. Those estimates
are: Ordinary revenues. Sso.Ss3,@1; from
timated revenue, S50,6i0.+56; total expendi-
lures, estimated, $40, 74l, Ill; estimated excess
of revenue, $3Gs9, ;45.
The Postmaster-General culls some statis-
tics from the report of First Assistant Post
mastcr-General Hatton, and proceeds: Il
quite concur in the Recommendation of the
Urmatiou and augmentation Of the blank
agencies. Still more cordially do l recon-
mend the suggestions of that officer as TO the
general reoi ganization of his Office. The very
able report of the First Assistant Postmaster
General calls attention to the great difficulty
experienced in adjusting salaries to postmast-
ers of the first three classes, and in making
allowances for Office expenses to those of the
first two classes. He does not exaggerate
those difficulties. 1t may well be doubted if
he could exaggerate them. Necessity herself,
though admitted to be the mother of inven-
ton, could not invent more cumbrous
or complex method of adjusting salaries"
Speaking of clerk-hire, the report says:
,ri are eager for arge allowances;
The most importunate are apt to be the best
served. They ask the earliest and the often
est. They employ every kind of entreaty. and
offer every sort of influence, personal and po-
litical. The clerk must act upon such case as
the Postmaster presents. He has no means OF
rebutting 1t. 1t is not surprising, therefore,
that recent investigation by the First As
sistant PostmaSter-General resulted in a re-
duction at eight offices amounting in the ag-
gregate to S54.530. Congress is invoked to
make one more effort to engraft upon the
postal service a system of deposits for small
sums, and the recommendation is made that
postage on SecOnd-claSs matter be abolished
After the fullest consideration l have been
able to give to the subject of postal telegraph,
am forced to the conclusion that the time has
fully come when the telegraph and postal serv-
ice should be embraced under one manage
ment. After assigning reasons for this con-
cluSiOn, the POStmaSter-General continues:
when competition profits the public who
purchase the service, il becomes injurious to
the companies which sell. When it becomes
injurious to the companies, competition is ex-
tnguished by the purchase and absorption of
the competitor. The price paid for the fran
chises of rival concerns the purchaser but
little; i, concerns the public deeply. People
must pay fees which will yield dividends on
the new and old capital. So it has happened
that one corporation which has built
the most miles of telegraph has been
1t must continue TO be So No matter how
rich a company may be, 1t is powerleSs to pre-
vent the organization of new and competing
enterprises. Its sole protection Is to buy when
n new rival proves hurtful. No matter how
conservative or just may be the management
of the purchasing company, it Will demand
from the public dividends on the capital in
vested to eytinguish the rival. The only Sc
curity capital can have against these recurr-
ing raids is to surrender the business to the
Government. The only protection the public
can have against these multiplied exactions is
for the Government to assume exclusive con-
troll over the transmission of domestic mes
sages by electricity. The telegraph is too ter
rihle a power To be welded by other than rep
resentatiyeS of the whole people,
In the report OF First Assistant Postmaster
General Hatton il is shown that the estimate
FOR Postmasters is largely in excess of the sum
appropriated or asked for during the current
year. The reason assigned is that the sum
appropriated is wholly inadequate. The pay
of postmasters is limited, not by appropri-
alton bills but by fixed statutes, and to the
extent of their legal compensation the
gross revenues of the postal service are not
only appropriated but hypothetical to their
payment Postmasters collect the postal
revenues, and they are authorized by
law to deduct from the moneys in their hands
their legal compensation. They account to the
Treasury for the excess only. If not II dollar
is appropriated, the Postmasters will receive
their salaries all the same. 1t seems hardly
practicable, therefore. to effect much in the
interest of economy by appropriatlng Ss,0n-
600 to pay Postmasters, while we place Si0,-
000, 900 in their hands out of which they may
help themselves TO the full extent of their
legal dues.