New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-04
EXPANDING TIE POSTAL SERVICE.


Postmaster General Wanamaker will have
some interesting facts and valuable Suggestions
10 present to Congress at lbs next session. The
postal service during the last three years has
had the inestimable benefit Of the undivided at
tention of a man who possesses IN the highest
degree the genius of organization. Mr.. Wanna
msker>has mastered the details Of the service to
the minutest particular, and the result Is o mar
yelous extension of postal facilities In all di-
rections. This Is especially noticeable In those
parts of the country which have until now been
largely neglected. Much has always been done
to promote the interests OF cities, on the theory
that as the city offices supply the revenues which
enable a letter to be transmitted across the con-
tinent for cents they ought to have the larg-
est possible opportunity for rapid and safe de-
liveries. There is force unquesdonably, in this
contention, but it does not justify the overlook
ing of the country districts
Mr.. Wanamaker is much TO be commended,
therefore, for the attention he has given to the
interests of small communities, He is now con-
Quoting an inquiry that ought to produce results
of much advantage TO the country generally.
The postmaster at each county seat has been
requested to visit all the offices in bis county
and to furnish report to the Washington au-
thorities as to the condition Of such Offices and
the possibilities for an improvement of their
service. The justification of this inquiry is to
be found in the results that have already been
attained by Mr.. Wanamakers experiments in
the extension OF postal facilities in small viii
lagos. The appropriation Of $4,000 which
Congress placed at his disposal last year for the
purpose of trying the free-delivery experiment
in country towns has been spent In sums Of
about 5000 in some forty or fifty different
places The most conspicuous result Of this
experiment is the immediate and remarkable
increase of revenues in each town where it has
been tried 1t is demonstrable In figures that
nearly if not quite as much increased revenue
has been obtained as the amount of the original
appropriation. The significance of this fact is
obvious it will warrant Mr.. Wanamaker in ad-
yisng q vast extension of the free delivery sys-
tenn.
Taking the service altogether it has been
distinguished by surprising development in
all directions since Mr.. Wanamaker brought to
it his energetic and conscientious direction. He
will be able to show an increase Of 81 per cent
in the number of Presidential postOffices as COM
pared with 13 per cent under the Cleveland
Administration The first-cIaSs Offices have
been increased from % 10 1913; the second
class from 492 TO Coz; the third-class from
1853 to 2,254, and the fourth-class from
1920 to 61,353. making an unprecedented
expansion of tho service, and bringing the total
number of postofflces in the country at this time
to 1887. The money order offices have also
increased enormously numbering 1918 to-day
as against 5,S57 on March 4, 1889. The free
delivery offices have increased from 1874 TO $40,
and the carrier force from $3.50 TO 1923
This has not been done, Of course, without large
public expenditures, but it is seen that the re-
suit has more than justified the representations
that induced Congress to increase the appropra-
ton placed at Mr.. Wanamakers service. At
least three-fourths of the increased expense has
been returned by increased revenue in the frst
year of the experiment, and there can be no
doubt that the service can be placed upon a
sustaining basis in an instant If it were
the policy OF Congress to withdraw some of the
special facilities that are extended for the trans
mission of books and papers. Congress is not
likely to alter its liberal laws in this respect
nor is it in the public interest that they should
10 altered.
The postal service, notwithstanding its I'M
prccedented expansion, has been so econom-
ically administered so much money has been
saved in the letting Of contracts and in the
arrangement of railway facilities, that the net re-
suit, with greatly increased gross expenditure
will be largely decreased net deficit These
facts carry with them their own comment upon
tho excellence of Mr.. Wanamaker's manage
ment. The people have never been so much
interested in the general question of mail ia
cilities as they are to-day, nor so anxious to
cooperate with the Department in rendering