Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-06
MIR. Villas coon SHOWING.
over S1S5,oo0 Already Saved Per An
mum in His Department.

From THE Washington Post.
Good business principles, and an honest
and pure administration OF public affairs
have already begun to work wonderful
changes in the Post Office Department.
The work of reform instituted by the
present government is spreading like
leaven through all the branches of the de-
partment, and the result will be a saving
of hundreds of thousands of dollars of the
public money without amy decrease in
its efficiency or the quality OF its SER
vices. Considerable attention has re-
Gently been paid to the improvement of
the mail service, and ii has been found
that on many routes large amounts of
money have been paid ratheras subsidies
to various companies than as proper re-
enumeration for the conveyance of the
mails. New contracts have been made,
better service has been secured, the useless
and unnecessary expenditures have been
cut of, and $45,596 have been saved in the
annual expenditures of this division
alone. All this has been accomplished
within the last two months. In other
divisions almost equal savings have been
made. Postmaster General Gresham, in
awarding the contract for envelopes-not
for departmental purposes. but merely
for the use of postmasters in sending in
their monthly returns-selected an enVe-
lope made from paper almost equal in
its fineness and thickness to Irish linen
paper. Postmaster General Villas insti-
tuted searching inquiries among the pa.
per mills and at last found an envelope
fully equal in strength and usefulness,
but with not so much gloss and shine
upon it, and made contract saving over
S42 900 year. The quality of the postal
cards has been much improved, and here
again, Notwithstanding this fact, another
saving of over 81, 600 has been effected.
When the contract for the supplying of
postage stamps was being considered. the
Postmaster General gave the matter his
personal and careful attention. He had a
number of specialists before him, and
went through all the pros and cons of
steam printing and hand printing. BY
the latter process all the fine work Of first
class engraving is performed. But, he
argued, the peculiar shading only to be
produced by the hand process, although
noticeable in larger engravings, is not
apparent in so small a thing as a postage
stamp, and this being the case, an
ordinary printer would be engaged to
do the work for which first-class price
is paid. He had 500 sheets of stamps
struck OFF by steam printing, under the
eye OF an inspector, and, LAYING them side
by side with some done by hand he in
Vited several gentlemen well able to Judge
to select which they thought were the
better stamps. They invariably chose
those printed by steam, and accordingly
the contract was made for that kind of
stamp. He is convinced that the people
will say it is better than the old one. BY
this means further saving of $39, 900 was
made yearly.
Already, then, in the first quarter of the
first year of the Democratic reform gov
eminent about $lS3, 900 has been saved to
the public in the yearly expenses of this
department. In four years this viii
amount to over half a million dollars.
But this will not be all. Further changes
will soon be made which will increase
this splendid total.
The postal inspecting service will be
improved by the introduction Of new and
better men and the wedding out of the
disreputable members of it. The COM
mission which was appointed some time
ago to examine into the affairs OF this di-
vision has been devoting itself energeti-
cally to its work, and within a short time
an examination of the inspectors will be
held.