The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-12-06
WANAMAKER'S REPORT
improvements Made i'm the Ma.
tiOn's Tail Service.
Postal Notes Should Pass Current, and
There Should Be Free Delivery
of Letters Everywhere.
Special TO TIE MORNING CALL.

WASHINGTON. Dec. 5-The Postmaster
General in his annual report mentions.
among the chief developments Of the year,
that $1,000. 600 have been added to the gross
revenue of the department; that the deficit
has been reduced nearly 81 COO 600; the
mOney-order offices have been increased
from 1000 10 1869; eighty-two cities have
been supplied with the free delivery system;
2790 new offices have been established: 263
have been advanced to the Presidential
grade; there have been established 16, 750. 600
miles OF additional service; 1890 new mail
routes have been established, embracing
$500 miles of new service; the ocean mail
service has been extended; the pneumatic
tube service was introduced. saving
81, 000, 600 ON mail contracts and $50 COO ON
stamped paper; the 30 per cent expended up
to July last for foreign mail service per-
formed and expedited under the new policy
was sI20, $40, and the cost of the service
during the present fiscal year will be
greater
On outside delivery, the Postmaster
General says the experiments were con-
fined 10 villages but it has been daily SER
vice, and has cleared profit It is easy
enough, therefore, to say that free delivery
can be extended further aud further, and 1t
~
the department or not. He believes fully
that great advances could be made in the
direction of country free delivery by the
evolution of the star route service, and we
would see free delivery to persaRs living
along highways traversed by the star route
contractors with little, il any, increased cost
in the department, in very few years.
Postal telegraphS and telephones are
strenuously advocated. as in former years.
or the one-cent postage system Wana-
maker says that this is near possibility.
He urges the reduction OF money -order fees,
the simplfcation of the postal note so that
IL better answer the need of fractional
currency, and the abolition of box rents.
In closing he says that his ideal for the
American postal service is a system modelled
upon the district plan. with fewer Offices.
and those grouped around central offices and
under thorough supervision. BY this means
at least 10000 Offices could be abandoned
that produce nothing to the department..
In place of every one abolished might be
pat an automatic stamp-selling machine
and letter box to receive mail. With the
money thus saved should be instituted a
system of collection and delivery by
mounted carriers, bicycles and star route
messengers and contractors, and generally
".
The classes of postage should be reduced to
three, and the rate of postage the world
over to l cent for each half ounce. The or
ganization of the department should be per-
manent. except In the case of the Post
master-General and the Fourth Assistant.
and Mr.. Wanamaker would add three new
ofliees-a Deputy aster-General at
New York and another at San Francisco,
and a Controller at Washington
All postmasters. Presidential and fourth
class, and all persons employed in all the
branches OF the department should have q
specific term of four years, on good be-
haviOr, and should be entitled to reappoint-
ment, subject to the Controller. He would
unity work, build it up by a strong con-
trolling hand, reduce the hours of labor at
almost all points, equahZe ana advance the
pay, make promotions in every branch for
merit alone, aud retire all old or disabled
clerks, perhaps on a pension fund to be
provided by the annual payment of one
half OF per cent of each months salary.
The postal telegraph and telephone SER
vice, postal savings repositories, pneumatic
tubes or some electrical device between city
sub-statlous, main offices and ferries, rail-
road stations aud central Offices in all the
large cities should be employed without de-
lay.
The erection of immense and costly build
Ing for postoffiees ought to be stopped, and
the department should be allowed to spend
fixed sum of from Sl.00o.00O to 81. .000, 600
each year in the erection Of buildings upon
a fixed plan, such as General
Villas recommended.
He would modify the system Of fines and
deductions upon the railroads and establish
a system of compensation, based upon
speed-on a twenty, thirty. forty, fifty or
sixty mile an hour rate.