Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-11-25

Washington, d. c., November "a
Postmaster General Wilson has made
his first annual report to the President.
The receipts of the Postoffice Depart
ment for the year ending June 80, 1895,
were $76, III ,09O, and the expenditures
$50, ,790,172. It is gratifying, says the
report, that a large portion of the de-
/ ficiency occurred in the first quarter of
the year and that revenues are increas-
ing with returning prosperity. Mr..
Wilson estimates the revenue for the
year ending June 80, 1897 at $S9, 1885,
12O, and the expenditures at $94S17, 800,
the difference to be made up by Con-
gressional appropriation. Speaking Of
the deficiency, MI Wilson says:
"The regular annual deficiency in the
revenues Of the postal service may call
forth comment from those who believe
that the Postoffice Department should
be self-sustaining. But it should be
! remembered that
THE FREE BUSINESS
done by this department for other
branches and departments of the gov
| ernment, if paid for at regular or cost
rates would more than wipe out its
! deficiencies."
The Postmaster General refers to the
growth Of the free delivery service, and
says:
'T believe it is good policy for Con-
gress and for this department to foster
| the extension of this service by judi
cious appropriations and judicious ad-
minisration.
THE vigorous and effective efforts
| of my immediate predecessor seem to
have produced at last an honest ad-
ministratiOn of the eight hour law and
made letter carriers trip and official
time reports actual and truthful rec
ords OF service. To bring about this
SUBSTANTIAL REFORM.
| just alike to the department and the
carriers, as we'll as to lay the f0unda-
ton for other necessary improvements
in this service. a special investigation
of the carrier system was begun under
his administration, involving a thor
ough examination into the needs and
i details Of the system"
He concurs in the recommendations
of the First Assistant Postmaster Gen
eral for promoting the efficiency of the
work.
Mr.. Wilson reiterates the necessity
for legislation to punish train wreck
ing and obstruction to mails urged by
his predecessor, and recommends leg
islation authorizing the use Of private
postal cards.
Concerning the abuses Of second
class mail matter, Mr.. Wilson says:
81 can add little to the reasons given
bv Postmaster Generals Bissell and
Wanamaker for amendments to the
law as to second-class matter, impera-
tivelv needed to save the postal ser
vice from
ENORMOUS ABUSES
and consequent enormous loss of rev.
enue. which no regulation Of the depart
ment or watchfulness on the part OF It's
officials can guard against. l respect
fully and earnestly recommend to Con-
gress a careful scrutiny into this abuse
and such remedial legislation as shall
be deemed necessary and effective for
its correction
Upon another feature of the second
class matter, the Postmaster General
says:
"The volume Of second-class matter
passing through the mails increases
rapidly, and has reached such proper
tions as to seriously retard the distribu-
ton of mails in the larger p0stofices
and railway postOfIices.
"The department, through its local
representatives, has repeatedly urged
publishers to separate their publica-
tions by States and routes where the
quantity for any one State or Territory
| is sufficient to justify it, before sending
them to the mailing Offices, and has
| endeavored to shown them that their
own interests would be subserved there
by"
| Postmaster General Wilson says that
the civil service rules
SHOULD BE EXTENDED
wherever practicable. He says:
THE MAGNITUDE and multiplicity of
its business operations, the perfection
of service which the people are learning
! to demand and to expect Of it, and the
palpable truth that such business opera
! tions can be car ID on and such per-
feet service rendered only by men train
ed and expert; all these, and many 9TH
er reasons. call for such stability of ten
ure as alone can command or beget the
requisite training, skill and enthusiasm.
The continuity OF the department should
be preserved in changes of administra-
ton, not only along the line of its sub
ordinate and separate service, but in
that larger grasp Of its history, its daily
work and its healthful progress, which
is found alone with those who direct
and control it's chief bureau. I con-
cur. therefore, in the judgment of one
of my predecessors, that at least three
of the Assistant Postmaster Generals
should
HOLD THEIR OFFICES
bv a. civil service or merit tenure and
not by political tenure. l refrain from
Offering a Ike opinion as to the Fourth
Assistant Postmaster General, because
! fourth-class postmasters, whose appoint
ment is primarily allotted to him, are
yet outside Of that tenure.
The question Of extending civil SER
vice methods to the selection of fourth
class postmasters has naturally received
my attention since l have been at the
head Of this department But 1 do not
find myself able to make, as yet, any
specific recommendations on this i'm
portant subject in the line Of the legis-
lation which has been proposed.
The order which you have recently
approved, providing that when the Post
master General shall consolidate with
a free delivery Office any other postofice,