Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-03-18
OUR POSTAL SERVICE.
What 1t Is and What II Ought TO Be.
Improvements which are Demanded to
place ~ on Par with that of other
Countries.

The one department of the government
touching the everyday life Of all citizens
is the post-oilce. The advent of the post
man into the city home, or of the mail
pouch into the village, is an event both so
expected and so welcome one rarely stops
to thank the department for efficiency, or
| complain because of its lack. Yet, despite
the efforts of "a long roll of postmasters-
general to better the service, no depart
ment is so behind corresponding bureaus
in other countries in the use Of late meth
ods. General Wanamakcr in
his last report, as in previous ones, makes
an urgent appeal for Improvements, but
| these may fall, as others have done, upon
a deaf Congress and needless people.
In London answers to city letters are re-
ceived in two hours; in New York the
same requires twenty-four hours. In Paris
business man may send his wife note
| two miles from his Office and expect a re-
| ply in % minutes; in Chicago the swiftcst
district messenger would not be expected
to do the same crrand in three times %
/ minutes.
In Great Britain and Ireland, where the
| government controls the telegraph, the
rate for any distance is siX-pence for twelve
words. In Germany the rate is the same.
In France half franc pays for ten words,
The telegraph in those countries is pay
Ing institution at those rates. In the
United States telegraph offices are placed
only at paying stations, denying a large
portion OF rural people their use. ayerag-
ing distance of seven miles from post
offices, which are the communities centres.
/ he present postmaster general would
JOIN the electric wire to the postal depart
ment, connecting telegraph and post-otlices,
and 10y reducing the rates To something
Ike parallel with other countries, depend
upon increased patronage to maintain the
service. \ recent estimate based upon
statistics given by the president Of the
Western Union. bears out this view. These
statistics show that the United States has
1000 miles of telegraph pole line. against
80, 600 miles owned by all other countries
The next figures give rise to "A calculation
certainly not contemplated by the Western
JniOn statistician. The number of tele
grams handled per annum in this country
is given at GO,mO.OOO while those handled
10y all other countries are lI3. ZOO, 900. The
plain deduction is that with a mileage equal
to half that OF the rest of the whole world,
tins country handles but a little over one
third as many kilograms, where she should
handle half as many as all other countries.
The Western UniOn's figures are conse-
quently not its own best friends
Another recent computation made by
newspaper editor, also an eN-telegraph OPP
orator, states that the people of this coun-
try are annually paying S6,Oo0,0OO to tee-
graph companies. This amount is the in
terest on a capital with which the govern
ment could build a telegraph system of its
own In England. whose population is
t,, II
egramS for one year were nearly two for
each person, while in our country they
were less than one to person. English
distances being so incomparably shorter
than American, the appreciation by Eng
lish people of the uses of the telegraph
proves itself vastly greater than our own.
America is prominently the country in
which postal and telegraph facilities should
90 hand in hand: as matter of fact, Of
tces of the former number over three To
one of the latter.
The link still wanted to complete the cir
cult transmitting intelligence as rapidly as
is done in other countries, is the telephone.
The expiration of the telephone patent,
which will occur in March, 1898 will,
without Interference, witness its renewal
Tor long years, or the probable cOnsOlida-
ton of all the plants under one giant mo-
nopoly, at whose dictates the public will
have 10 bow. The postmaster-general be-
lieVeS that every poSt-oilice should be tied
10y telephone to the nearest telegraph sta
ton, with which the remotest resident
may, for three cents, put himself in con
nection with the movements of stock or
produce market, and the citizen i'm touch
with the events of the day. The benefits
from cheap telephone and telegraph ser
vice united with the postal system would
undoubtedly be a gigantic stride towards
equalizing the disadvantages against which
country life has now to struggle The
dream is not Utopian, being in all other
advanced countries an accomplished fact.
Another measures emanating from the
postmaster general, having no department.
al or party bearing, is proposed as an eco
nomical eXpedient. This is the postal
savings bank idea, prejudice against which
probably arises from ignorance. 1t is be-
lieved by many to be inimca to other
savings banks The plan outlined a; pres
ent is TO make post-otiices a depositary
for sums not less than 81, interest on
which is to begin the first of the month
following the deposit, on sums not less
than $40, at rate one-half per cent less
than that current in savings banks Funds
thus accumulated are, to be sent to the
treasury department to be loaned, well Sc
cured to the national banks of the states
from which they are sent. Amounts when
reaching $500 or S500are to be withdrawn.
Thus the business of other savings banks,
which now refuse deposits so small as con
templated, would be fed instead of starved
out. Six hundred and thirty
such postal depOstaries are now open in
Canada, holding S22, 100000 of the peo-
pies capital. Ten thousand in England
carry Sl94,0O 600 of poor peoples savings.
With such an institution within walking
distance of the vast majority of the peo-
pie, savings banks now being located at an
actual average of almost % miles from
post-otfices, enormous impetus would be
given to frugality, virtue not at present
conspicuous among Americans. 1t is stat
ed that, owing to bank failure scares,
enough money is at present hidden away
to exceed the total gold export of last year.
The introduction of this amount into cir
culation, as a result of the absolute securi-
ty of the postal savings bank system,
would go far to relieve financial straits, of
which the public is becoming well weary.
The postmaster-general chershes one
more dream, which may not be all dream.
Once a country boy, he still has large
place in his heart for rural people, and
maintains that free delivery if extended to
the country would soon pay for itself,
through increased patronage of the mail.
Experiments in 46 stations, following the
passage of the bill appropriating $4,000
for this purpose, have been highly satisfac-
tory, the expense being more than bal