The Brookhaven leader., 1891-12-10
THE POST OFFICE.
Report OF Postmaster General Wauamaker
Review of the Postal Service.

disappearing, Notwithstanding enor-
nous losses by a reduction of postage
receipts due to discontinuance of the
lottery business. and that the service
will probably be self-sustaining on
July /, 1898.
OF the civil service rules, the post
master says:
As lntimated in my last report, have en-
deavorel to improve the civil service with.
in the departmental service by system OF
promotions and the equalization OF salaries
to labor performed This ian went into
operation July /, 1891. It~has succeeded so
well that have concluded, after consulta-
tion with a number of the postmasters OF
leading cities, to extend a similar scheme to
all post Offices with fifty or more employees,
and to engraft 1t upon the railway mail.
adjusting it to the present sys EN- of
adyanccnents by case examinations. From
the smallest of the classified post offices the
workers will now begin to climb first
through the various gr tdes of the post Of
fee to the railway mail and finally to the
post Office department. Even the announce
ment of this plan has caused a new zeal
Since the administration of President Grant
there had been no competitive system of
promotions in the post Office department
Advancement in most cases was made on
the personal solicitation of friends and not
always by the merit of the applicant; so
that not infrequently worthy clerks who de-
served promotion were passed over in or
der to tavor others less deserving great
| majority discovered tn t there was no
recognition of merit and gave up the strug
gle for advancement. ! felt certain there
was but one way to bring about the greatest
state of efficiency in the clerical force, and
that was TO give 10 all the positive assurance
that advancement or reduction, retention or
dismissal, would depend solely upon them
selves, and that all should have a fair
chance. recommended in my last report
that physical ex ami n at ions OF applicants
should be made for the heavy work of the
railway mail and for porters in the large
post Offices Because the present system
sometimes gives us cripples, or men with
imperfect sight or weakIings wholly unfit
ted for the work, l have so far as practicable
picked men from other paris of the ciassi-
fed service.
Considerable space is next devoted TO
the steamship subsidy matter and the
figures of foreign nations in support of
the idea are quoted. He outlines at
considerable length the plans of the
department in this respect An ocean
steam tug is asked for New York to as
sist in making the foreign mail service
as rapid as possible.
The postmaster-general recommends
this year the adaptation of the tele-
phone as we'll as the telegraph to the
postal system. He says upon this point:
The one potent az 'ncy and the eyenly one
that remains beyond our reat II is electricity.
Its practical value has been known for half
| "A centurj. but the department stands in re-
lation to it where it stool fifty years ago.
The business OF the entire world is to-day
so dependent upon electricity that Its with
drawal would seriously affe almost every
interest that exists, yet the chief servant of
all the people, the post office, which by its
equipment is able to make the largest AMI
most beneticent use of It, is 50 limited in it's
authority that IL can only adopt the 81 over
methods, and a man ont OF money in San
Francisco must stop six days ana pay $40
board while he waits on the mail TO bring
HIM Il S20 money OF der from New York. The
reason is known to all men. / want to see
the two great servants of the peope-the
post Off and the telegraph-reunited and
the telephone brought in to enhance
the value of the combination. Public
interests. private needs and the popular Will
CAL for these ag .nctes to perft ct the
great postal system of the country. The
onger their employment is delayed the
greater the Rggravation and injustice to the
people an / the costlier it will be to secure
them Sixty four millions of people are
taxing themselves to- day to the amount Cf
700OO,G0I annually to maintain the post
Ill q pl INK, uu'l dFS uclIcu the TISHl 10
yitaliZ this III gniticent machinery with
he mightiest force which science has given
20 render that machinery most eff ctive. So
soon as the post Office can blend it with its
own forces already undec pay. teegraphic
rats will be reduced. Most adroit oppo-
ncnts of postal tie eyraph couple with it ii like
regulatiOl of tha railroads, Tut the govern
ment already employs the railro Ids as post
roads, and tAe form in VIII CHI it is proposed
to contract with telegraph companies is
precisely the same as that by which We have
mpioyed railroads ever since they were
built.
OF the rura free delivery the report
says:
l have found encouragement beyond all
pxaression for this effort in the almost
unanimous support OF the press of the
country. OF the editorial opinions which
have come to the notice of the department
I5S favor til J.. extension and nine oppose it
noticeable thing a out them Is that many
xpress the suresr conf .euce in ultimate
univerS al free delivery. and while they state
the fact that this rural free delivery has
been found to be s lf-sustaining, they insist,
in very many instances, that it ought to be
cxteAded whether it is self-supporting or
not 1t is, OF course, evident that, while
the free delivery an be extended to immense
areas OF the country without expense, Il
is not to be exp -cted that there Will not be
other areas which will not contribute any
profit and would cause losses Preference
wou d be given to the districts where loss
tould not arise. Tue combination of free
delivery with star contract service is cap
able OF great development through an en-
Iargement of the custom taGt already pre-
walls to sCme extent, especially in the far
west where the distanc betweel settle
ments are great Icordially recommend the
passag of II bill to entitle all towns of a
popuiation between 5000 and not exceeding
100 o to the privilege of :rec del very. This
recommendation is in conformity with the
generous custom of congress to extend the
system into towns smaller and smaller; and
though tho step from populations of TO- o.
down to populations of s., o. is long. think
the remarkable success of the free delivery
experiments justifies the exp citation that
nothing but beneficial results would follow.
The postmaster-generala argues siren
uously for places of deposit for the
peoples savings. He reiterates his
plans of last year.
In closing, the postmaster-general
says that only ten states and Oklahoma
produce moro revenue than is spent
within their borders He gives the
postal revenue for the last fiscal year
as SOS, 90S, 909. SO. He estimates the def
cheney for 1892 at s.. 9Ts. 392 So BY 1898
he expects the system to become self
supporting.
Boy Murderer Hanged.
MOUNT VERNON, Mo-, Dec. >. Charles
Melvin Seaton was hanged here at 1925
o'clock this morning for the murder of
Lewis Channel, mining engineer at