The herald., 1898-12-09
GREAT YEAR, INDICATING GOOD
COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS
NOVEMBER BANK CLEARlNGS
War Tax Decisions--Trade of Canary
Islands--Financial Notes.
vidends
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
Los Angeles, Dec. I, 1898.

Sufficient indication was given in the pre-
limnary reports on the work Of the post
office department of the great increase in
the business OF that branch of the govern
ment during the last fiscal year. The sub
scquently published report of the postmas-
ter general, however, gives some additional
information illustrative of the same point to
which a reference here will not be without
interest, says Bradstreet's. The money or
der branch of the postoifice department
work is rightly regarded as affordlng val.
liable indication of commercial and financial
conditions. 1t is interesting to know that
since the foundation of the money order
system in 1865 there has never before been
SO large an advance in the amount OF bus-
ness transacted in one year over the year
Immediately preceding, the greatest annual
increase previously recorded being not much
more than half az large as that of last year.
A somewhat similar story is told by the
statistics of the mail transportation serv-
ice. AT the close of the fiscal year there
were 37D5 inland mail routes, having a
length of 4S0, 48l miles, and resulting in an
annual travel of 43i, ,69l miles, an in.
crease of 1904 in the number of routes and
l3,4S2,2 ,2l2 miles in the annual travel. The
increase in the annual expenditure was only
81, ,534, 700 Mails were carried at the end of
the fiscal year on l74,777 miles of railroad,
or which the annual travel was 2Sl ,5S5,6l2
miles, at an annual rate of expenditure of
$50, 7S6, 1850. One of the features Of the
work of the department for the year was
the reorganization of the service in southern
Alaska, rendered necessary by the rapid
increase of population there owing to the
gold discoveries As the result of the de-
partment's activity there line of post
Offices has been established down the Yu-
kon river from the Canadian line to Bering
sea.
A number of suggestions for amendments
to the laws relating to the postal service
are urged by Postmaster General Smith.
Inconvenience being found in the working
OF the eight-hour law, he urges change in
1t so as to authorize postmasters to appor-
tion the number Of hours for each day as the
requirements of the service demand, not to
exceed a total of forty eight hours for the
six working days of the week, with such ad-
ditional time on Sunday, not to exceed eight
hours, as the exigencies of the service may
require. So, Mr.. Smith urges the desirable
ity of repeating the provso attached to the
bill making appropriations for the postal
service of the United States, passed at the
close of the Fifty-fourth congress, which
enacts that no postoffce established at any
county seat shall be discontinued by reason
OF any consolidation of postoffices made by
the postmaster general In reference to this
proposal Mr. Smith says that instances are
..lau e.. II. IA l
tended over territory not heretofore favored
at great saving to the government and
great increase of efficiency to the service,
provided freedom of consolidation were al
lowed and the salaries of postmasters at of
fees consolidated were made available for
the employment of superintendents and
clerks at stations established in place of the
consolidated offices.
1t is further recommended by the post
master general that more stringent statutes
be enacted against the employment of the
mails by dealers in green goods" and other
improper matter, and that an amendment
be enacted making depredations Of railway
clerks continuous offenses so as to prevent
clerks arrested for violationl of the postal
laws from escaping punishment by reason
OF the fact that the railway lines on which
they are employed are embraced in two diff
ferent judicial districts. SO it is suggested
that legislation would be desirable which,
if not entirely doing away with the use of
stamps as currency, might at least curtail
their use in that manner. Finally, the sug-
gestion is made that the law establishing
the special delivery system be SO amended
as to remove the present restrictions, which
prohibits postmasters of the first and Sec
ond classes from paying for the special de-
livery of letters by salaried postal officials
This latter legislation is sample of kind
which is too common, and which unduly
hampers administrative officers without any
corresponding advantage