St. Landry democrat., 1882-12-16
The Postmaster-Generaps Report.


The report of PostmasterGe Howe for
the fiscal year ended June So 1882, shows total
disbursements of the postalservice during
the year of $40, 49,, OIL: ordinary receipts. SAL
b15, 642; receipts from money orders, S360767:
time in thirty-one years the postal service is
not IL burden upon the Treasury. In order to
determine the real cost of the postnEservice
for the past year there should be deducted
from the total disbursements sac, 1856, which,
though paid out last year. was for service rem
dered previous years. There should be added
S3s28, $50. estimated due for service rendered
last year. There should also be added Sits
TIA 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 $4,000
The deficiency the previous fiscal year was
s.. ,35S. In 1860 the deficiency was more than
$l0000,0o0 Some part of this great improve
ment is due to the wonderful growth and pros
perity of the country, but the larger part is
due to improved methods in the administra-
ton of the service.
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 is left almost wholly to the
arbitrary control of the department For the
year ended June 30, 1881, the star service COW
cred q, 557 ,296 miles of transportation at cost
of Sb,541,:So5; for the year ended June 30. lss2,
the same service covered T6.92f, s67 miles, and
cost $3.50, $40. The estimates for 1884 promise
financial results still more flattering than those
realized the last fiscal year. Those estimates
are: Ordinary revenues, S50,253,927: from
money orders met reyenuel, ,52s; total es-
lures, estimated, $40, ILL., estimated excess
of revenue, $3,a29,345.
The Postmaster-G General says: 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, nd in making
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:
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 it. 1t is not surprising, therefore,
that recent investigation by the First AS
sistant Postmaster-General resulted in re-
duciion at eight offices amounting in the ag-
gregate to $54.530. Congress is invoked to
make one more effort to engraft upon the
Z
sums, and the recommendation is made that
postage on second-class matter be abolished
After the fullest consideration | have been
athletic 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-
cuson, the Postmaster-General continues:
When competition profits the public who
purchase the service, 1t becomes injurious to
the companies which sell. When it becomes
mi RI q X
tinguished by the purchase and absorption of
the competitor. I he price paid for the fran
chises of a 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 largest purchaser of telegraph property.
1t must continue to be SO. No matter how
rich company may be, it is powerless to pre-
vent the organizat, on of new and competing
enterprises. Its sole protection is to buy when
a new rival proves hurtful. No matter how
conservative or just may be the management
from the public dividends on the capital in-
vested to extnguish 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
rible power to be welded by other than rep
resentatiyes of the whole people,"
In the report of Fir. Assistant Postmaster
General Hatton it 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
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
is appropriated. the Postmasters will receive
their salaries all the same. 1t seems hardly
practicable, therefore. TO effect much in the
600 to pay Postmasters, while we place $40
OOO. coo in their hands out of which they may
help themselves to the full extent OF their
legal dues.