Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-19


OF MATTER HANDLED EVERY MONTH FOR THE
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES OF RECENT TEST By
WEIGHT MADE AT THE CITY POST OFFICE.
The officials at the Washington post Office
have recently completed statistical report OF
work done at the Office within the last wear
which is startling 10 those who are accustomed
to think of this an Office of much less i'm
portance than those of larger cities The force
OF men furnished to tend the mails here and
the Office accommodations surprisingly
small when one knows the vast amount of mat
ter handled in the course of twelve months. To
4 certain extent it Is customary to gauge the
importance OF an Office and consequently, the
appropriations due it, by the gross earnings of
the Office. This is fair with many, in fact with
almost all post offices, but with the Washington
Office II is q manIfestly unjust way of treating
the question. The amount of mail sent out
from this city on which no postage is paid
and OF which no adequate record can usually
be made iS far III excess of that
which pays its share of postage 1t requires AS
much care as paid matter. but no credit Is ever
given for IT. AS result. III the list OF post Of
hces IN the country Washington comes far
lower down than the place which properly be-
longs to it and the treatment it receives at the
hands OF the government Is by means that
to which it Is justly entitled We're there no
free mail matter to be taken into consideration
, Washington would not be 80 badly off: but
there Is a tremendous amount of such matter
and It Is "A question of considerable interest as
10 what position Washington would hold ii all
this matter were paid for or credit gwen for it.
AN ACTUAL TEST By WEIGHT.
1t has always been known to the officials that
free matter composed the bulk of all the mail
handled here, but it has only been within the
last few days that 1t WAS ascertained lust how
large a proportion il made. The mails have
all been accurately weighed for month past
and the results which have been made known
to Postmaster General Wanamaker are of the
greatest interest to people in this city. BY the
order of Postmaster Ross all mails handled by
the mailing division were weighed from the
LIST day of February to the I'd day of March.
inclusive. 1t happened that there were in that
period hive Sundays and a legal holiday. so that
1t was thought best to weigh for the Sd of
March and substitute the result for the 22d of
February IN order to make il an average month
Free mail and that carried in official penalty
envelopes of the frst-class aggregated So 1879
pounds. The same character Of mail that was
paid for aggregated 32,S23 pounds, making a
total OF U,0l2 pounds of letter mail handled of
which only 36 per cent was paid matter. There
was 665,3i5 pounds of printed matter that was
claSsed as franked or ''Official penalty matter
while the whole amount of second, third and
fourth class matter on which postage was paid
amounted to 229. SO pounds.
THOUSANDS or TONS OF PRINTED MATTER.
Thus the total of printed matter paid for
amounts to only Is 40 per cent of the whole
amount. Including 3O.419 pounds of transient
printed matter handled a grand total of
l,Ol6.G46 pounds OF mail matter went through
the mailing department in month.
Considering that as an average month the
letter mali handled free IN year would amount
TO 6ys. 26S pounds which if paid for at the letter
rate OF ~ cents pound would bring to the
Office here a revenue of S223 AS 16 In the
length of inns the a
aggregate ,ys4liO pounds. which If paid for
at the rate of 5 cents pound would return the
handsome sum of s635, 73l.20
THE REGISTRY DIVISION
This estimate OF mail matter does not include
the business done by the registry division.
which is handled separately and has not been
so accurately measured. 1t Is known. however
that II postage had been collected upon matter
passing through the registry division from the
internal revenue bureau and Interior depart
ment alone for 1889 il would have amounted to
Sl34,2 The gross earnings of the last calen-
Oar year were S463.'15.l9. Adding to this the
sum OF what would have accrued to the
Office from postage which might have
been collected on registered mail from
the internal revenue bureau and the
Interior department. the express charges saved
tne government by making use of this office,
SiZo9l90, registry fees on government par
GELS, S2l. 9S9. and the postage ON matter that
now passes free, would bring the figures up to
Sl.55i, s72.70. This sum might be regarded as
the real earnings Of the Office per annum.
MORE FIGURES TO CONSIDER.
1t will be apparent, however. that the total
weight OF all free matter handled is not an ac-
curate means of judging what the real earnings
of the Office would be if all free matter were
paid for as other matter is
In the course of a wear MANY hundreds of
thousands of letters are received ON which two
cents postage Is paid, but which do not weigh
anything near an ounce each, so that to arrive
at what would be earned by this office if each
piece were paid for separately it is necessary
To estimate what the postage would be if the
matter were not weighed i'll bulk The most
experienced post office officials believe that if
the postage were rated up on each piece as it is
mailed the postage would amount to at least
25 per cent more than that which IS shown by
the gross weight as above. Adding this amount
namely % per cent OF SS62, lie. 50, to the above
total. the estimated earnings of the Office in a
year would be S1,77O, 416 "a, instead of S463.-
1i5.l9, as it now appears to be.
HOW THE OFFICE SHOULD RANK.
On this estimate Of the real earnings of the
Office Washington would rank fifth in import
ance among the post Offices of the country.
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston
are the only cities which outrank il in the mat
ter OF gross earnings. The difference between
this city and Boston is small that the two
cities might be considered as equal The re-
pm VI tlAc OstHldsteF IeDeral Tor the last
year shows the gross earnings of the Boston
once to be sl,sj7 ,50llI The business done
here IN year Is equal to that of St Louis and
Cincinnati together and three times that of
baltimore; yet the accommodations of the
Washington office are not to be compared to
those OF any Of the other cities The yross re-
eeIpts OF this Office have grown from s22S
OH 40 in 1880 to Si63 u.s. 10 ia 1879
III Washington ranks firth in the amount Of
mail matter forwarded il Is without A rival in
the point OF the value OF the mail matter
During the fiscal year ending June 30 1889
there were forwarded for the Post Office aud
treasury departments alone 707. 953 registered
letters and parcels. aggregHtlng il value SyiO.-
ol9 5i42i.
BILLIONS IN VALUE.
The amount Of registered matter transmitted
by mail Is simply enormous. During the ten
years from lss0 TO 1889, inclusive the val
ues which have passed through this ofiic,
aggregate S5.6ll, 3Sl. I96 Al. and il is cal
enE'ted that had this been sent by
express some one would have had tn
pay about sy9S, i0S.3i. The growth OF the
business done by the registry department is as
remarkable as the amount. In 1851 SIS go
pieces OF registered matter were handled In
1889 the number had grown 10 = Dsyl 7as In
the last eight years the business done M ,h,a
once has increased 2j7 per cent in the same
length Of time New York has gained So mr.
cent, Philadelphia 81 per cent, Chicago 20 Der
cent anu ST. Louis 81 per cent. In the SANE
length Of time Washington has stepped from
NTH IN order with respect to the number oF
pieces handled annually up 10 third. This l.,
according 10 the number OF pieces handled
New York and Philadelphia alone surpass In
this.