The Chipley banner. (Chipley, Washington County, Fla.) 1893-1943, 1897-11-27
GARY ISSUES HIS REPORT
WORK OF POST OFFICE DEPART.
MENT FOR PAST YEAR.
SOME INTERESTING DEDUCTIONS
Which the Postmaster General Presents
In Detail and Suggests Some
Important Changes.

Inc annual report OF POSTMASTER
General Gary, covering the operations
Of the department for the fical year
ending June 80, 1897, contains much
that is of interest to the public at
large.
The special feature of the report is
the postmaster generals discussion Of
the subject of postal savings deposito.
ries. General Gary is an earnest ad.
vocate of such repositories. and he
Celebrates his ideas at length.
There are several other matters OF
public interest in the postmaster gen.
erals report. He begins by giving
statistics showing the work done by
the department. This shows receipts
from all sources $50, 1855, 462.73 and
expenditures of 1914, OFT, 242.3S.
This shows q deficit of 81, ALL
1905. In explaining the deficit,
General Gary says:
"The increase of the postal deficit
for 1897 is largely reflex of the de-
pressed business conditions which pre-
vailed all over the United States dur
ing the first three quarters Of that Pc
Rod. There has been no extrsvagance
of expenditures except that rendered
obligatory by law.
The abuses that have grown up I'M
der the second-class matter provisions
of the law are treated at some length.
"The injustice inflicted both upon
the postal revenues and the people by
existing laws regulating the carrying
of second.class mail matter has been
represented to congress in reports
from this department for ten years
past with cumulative force, but with
out effect in remedial legislation"
The statistics of the department
show that there has been an increase
in the weight of this character Of
matter of from l43, 600, 900 rounds in
1888 to 100000 pounds in 1897.
This means loss on transportation
alone Of 100000.
The postmaster general adds:
cit is impossible to continue the
present system Of second-class mail
transportation without eventually
swapping the revenues of the postal
service"
On this subject, the postmaster gen.
eral says:
"Of the 914 postoffces and stations
in the United States 240 were in gov.
eminent buildings ct the end Of the
fiscal year, and about twenty addi-
tional public buildings were nearing
completion, which. when occupied by
postoffices, will result in an annual
saving of $4,000. Eight hundred
and thirty-two postofices and stations
and sub-stations are in leased build
ings, the rental amounting to nearly
$500, 900 a year.
There were $4,000 letters mailed last
year without any address whatsoever.
The daily record Of dead letters has
averaged 10000 for every business day
ia the year. More than $4,000 was
taken from misdirected letters, but
1913, 900 of this finally reached its des-
tination through the efforts OF the
department. These figures do not in.
clude drafts, checks, notes, deeds, and
so forth, which represented . total
value exceeding $s96, 900.
Rural Mail Delivery,
On the subject of free rural delivery,
General Gary says:
"In the experimental extension Of
free delivery to the rural districts some
interesting resulty have been obtained.
This service commenced in October,
1896, has been carried on for year
over selected routes in twenty.nine
states under such conditions as to
give the experiment the fairest and
fullest test. Congress placed $40, 1000
at the disposal Of the department for
this purpose in the fiscal year 1s96-97,
and provided $50, for q continue
ton of the experiment during the
present fiscal year. 1t would difficult
to point to any like expenditure of
public money which mas been more
generously appreciated by the people,
or which has conferred greater bene-
fits in proportion TO the amount ex-