The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-12-08
TIE POSTAL SERVICE
Psstmaster General smith Point. Ont
the Abuses and Needs Of His De-
paFtment In His Report.

sg4s@
Washington. Dec. 4-The annual report
Of Postmaster General Charles Emory
Smith Is made public It's chief feature is
abuse of second-class mail privileges,
which, he says, results in an annual waste
Of upwards of $20,000,000 The financial ex-
hibit for the fiscal year shows total ex-
penditures Of SOL, 632, 161 and total reseipts
OF 1921 1884, the deficiency being $2,422,747
less than last year.
The postmaster general says: 1.-THE most
urgent need of the postal service is the
rectif1catiOn of the enormous wrongs which
have grown up in the perversion and abuse
of the privilege accorded by law to second
class matter. There are many improve
ments and advances waiting development
and application; opportunities for speedier
transmission and delivery: fields for broad
ening the scope of the mail service and
bringing 1t closer home to the people; DOS
sib1lities of reduced postage: but above and
beneath and beyond all of these measures
OF progress, which experience and intelli-
gence are working out, is the redemption
OF the special concession which congress
granted for distinct and justifiable public
object from the fungus growths and the
fragrant evils that have fastened upon it.
This costly abuse, which drags on the de-
partment and weighs down the service,
trammels its power ard means of effective
a
sheer wanton waste of $40, O00, 600 or upward
a year. The postal deficit for the current
year Is $6,61O,T6. But for this wrongful ap-
plfcation of the second-class rate, instead
Of deficit there would be clear surplus
of many millions. 1t is not now proposed
locations or to modify the design Of the
law, but only to bring back its application
to its original and just scope.
1T Is believed that fully one-half Of all
the matter mailed as second-class and paid
for at the pound rate is not properly sec
ond-class within the intent of the law; and
ought justly to be paid for at the third
class rate. This gives the enormous guam
tity of 176,351,613 pounds, from which the
department derives only a fraction of the
revenue to which it is fairly entitled The
department actually derives revenue Of
14.75 cents a pound for the third-class mat
ter mailed last year, and on this basis
the department would have received for
this wrongly-classed secondrate matter
1853, instead of s., 763, SIG which it &C
tually received. and the postal revenues
would have been increased by the hand
some sum of $24,248,347." Mr.. Smith con-
cludes that over one-fourth of the entire
volume and weight Of the mails pay as Sec
ond.class matter when it should pay third
class, and that this furnishes only one
f1fty-fifth part of the postal revenue, and
its carrying, reckoning at eight cents a
pound, costs $14, los, 129, while revenue from
1t was 81, 765, SIG, thus causing a loss to the
government Of over s12,000.0Oo.
Regarding our new possessions the post
master general says: 1.-THE presence of
United States troops in the new island pos
sessions and Cuba, in constant commune
cation with home, constrained the estab-
lishment of mail facilities for their needs
and the practical obliteration Of the old
local postal system with the extinguish-
ment Of Spanish authority compelled a re-
construction Of the whole service for the
requirements of the native population"
"The free delivery of mails in the rural
districts has proved to be one Of the most
important among recent developments of
the postal service, and presents in its pos
sibilities a question of the largest proper
lions. The results already attained have
been of significant character, and the
practical evidences bearing upon the feasi-
b1lity of the system, upon the degree of its
self-support and upon the effect and the
sentiment in the communities where it has
been tried, deserve the most careful consid-
GRAFTON. How far the system shall be ex-
tended Is submitted for the determination
OF congress, with full presentation Of
facts upon which to base Conclusion. This
service has been called experimental in
each appropriation made by congress for
its continuance. 1t is the opinion Of the
officers having it in charge that the expert
mental stage mas been passed, and in their
view I coincide. The appropriation for
rural free delivery service for the present
fiscal year was increased from $4,000 to
$500, 900, and this amount will be practically
absorbed by the continuance to the end
of the fiscal year Of the service already es-
tablished. 1t is now in successful operation
from 300 distributing points, scattered
among 40 states and one territory (the only
states unrepresented in the list being Ida
no, Mississippi Montana and Wyoming),
giving service to ,131 people, at an aver
age annual cost of "a cents per capita.
The benefits accruing from the exten.
sion of postal facilities to the rural COM
munities may be summarized as follows
Increased postal receipts, making many
of the new deliveries almost Immediately
self-supporting; enhancement of the value
of farm lands reached by this service and
better prices obtained for farm products
through more direct communication with
the markets and prompter information Of
their state; improved means of travel,
some hundreds Of miles of country roads,
especially in the western states, having
been graded specifically in order to obtain
rural delivery; higher educational influ-
ences, broader circulation of the means of
public intelligence and closer daily con-
tact with the great world Of activity ex-
tended to the homes Of heretofore isolated