The Worthington advance., 1900-04-13
POST OFFICE BUILDINGS
The Y Constantly Expanding Postal
business Leads to Serious
Item of. Expenditure. r

The American method of conducting
the post office business so as to give
''the greatest good to the = greatest
number and &c profit to the govern
ment" has one disadvantag ge. That is
the impossibility of providing from
time to time, as the requirements of
an expanding volume of business call
for them, new buildings for post Office
uses, or for the extension of those al
ready in use. The American theory of
post Office business is that as the rev.
enues of the department increase in
excess of the expenses, the surplus
should be applied to betterments in
the service and the recurrence of other
surpluses provided against by re-
duction in the postal rates. This sys-
TEN, which has worked remarkably
well in thS past, giving steady de-
crease in the postal charges with many
improvements as regards delivery
does not take into account the require
ments for new buildings, and these
must, therefore, be provided for by
separate appropriations, which are
gress.
At the time of the last report there
were 1000 post offices of the first and
second classes in the United States, ex-
elusive of minor or village post Offices,
and of these chief post offices 252 were
in buildings owned by the government
and the remainder were in leased prem
ises, the gross annual rental of which
was nearly $5O0.0CO, exclusive of nearly
as much more paid for the rent of post
al substations. The entire appropria-
tion paid for leased buildings and parts
of buildings (the usage of the govern
ment is to provide in leases of
buildings for post Offices use for heat,
light and safe or vault), is $1,000, 900
year, and the larger post Offices which
are, of course, those which yield the
most profit to the government, the
minor ones being operated at loss, en-
tail no expenditure for buildings,
money for which is separately appro-
priated from government funds by
congress. Estimates differ as to the
value of post cffice buildings owned by
the United States government. The
New York post Office cost $1,000, 900,
and all large American cities, Wash
ington now included, have post offices
Of modern design, the collective value
of which is certainly not less than
$1O0, 1000, 900, and maybe considerably in
excess OF that amount in view of the
fact that in many cases the sites for
post office buildings have been present.
ed by the states or municipalities, as
the case may he, without any cost to
the general government; and if the
value of land be: taken into account and
the expense of interior equipment
added, it is probable that the post Of
tice buildings represented by the gov
ernment and included, would repre-
sent capitalization of $20O, ,OOO, 1000, the
annual interest charge on which would
about equal the annual deficit from
post office operations, which is from
$9,00O,000 to 100000.
It is under these circumstances that
the demand for new post office build
ings or for the improvement of estab.
lished post Office buildings is usually
resisted by congress-. There is consid-
erable rivalry between cities in this re.
gard. The Kansas City post office
when completed, is to cost $3.50, 600; the
St. Paul post Office, $s00,O0O; the
Omaha post office, $750,000; the Savan.
nah post Office, $40o, 600; the Charles.
ton post office. 100000, and the New.
ark post office building a like sum. New
York exceeds all other cities of the
country not only in respect to the vol.
ume of post Office business, but also in
the profit arising from it.-N. Y. Sun.